170 – Mr. Thoughtful

Annnnnnnnd we’re back!

Even though the new year has been upon us for over a week, this is the first chance I’ve had to talk to you all since I went on holiday hiatus. So, how’ve you been? Good, I hope. My holidays were good, had a ton of fun watching my girls open all their presents on Christmas and watching them stay up “all the way to midnight” (read: 9:00PM on the west coast) on New Year’s Eve.

There is good news on another front: My cousin, whom I’ve mentioned before, is recovering nicely from her aneurysm. They’ve downgraded her to stable condition and she continues to make progress, although she still has the tracheotomy tube in so she still can’t talk yet. So, thanks everyone for the kind comments, prayers, and positive thoughts  – they seem to be working. 🙂

Plans for the new year

Like a lot of folks do at the start of a new year, I and my wife sat back and tried to figure out where I want MeatShield to go in 2011. Not necessarily the storyline (although there is that), but where as a venture I want to take it. Here are my goals for MeatShield in 2011:

  1. Publish the first MeatShield book. I’ve had enough feedback from folks that tell me that this is not only worthwhile, but it needs to be done. Since I’ve never published anything on my own before, expect this goal to be achieved in fits and starts. With luck, I should publish The Quest for the Scepter Thingie: A MeatShield Collection by November of this year. Keep your fingers crossed.
  2. Create Online Store. Again, not something I’m too familiar with, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ll be making buttons, posters, prints, stickers and custom character sketches available, among others. More news as it happens.
  3. Redesign Website. I’ve been wanting this for quite some time now. Not just the visual presentation of the site (although that is a big part of it), but the actual structure of the site. I use WordPress to manage my site, along with the Webcomic plug-in, which is no longer supported by its designer and has always been kind of buggy. I would like to switch over to ComicPress, but I have yet to figure out how to preserve my blog posts, as the Webcomic plug-in ties them directly to the comic, or something like that. What I know about web design could fit inside a thimble and have room left over, so if anyone out there has any background in web design/site architecture, please contact me. Again, this is also something that will be slow in coming.

That’s about it. I figured those three things are enough for this year. Any suggestions? Drop me a comment and give me a piece of your mind. 🙂

Take care, and I’ll see you on Wednesday!

~Rob