Todd

The St. Louis Public Library is having their first mini-comic convention using local artists and it’s FREE TO ATTEND! It is also kid friendly! If you always wanted to stop by my table to check out my work but didn’t want to pay the entrance fee, now’s your chance! Did I say the event is FREE?!

It’s from 10am to 4pm next Saturday (JULY 25th) and is located at the downtown “Central” branch on Olive St. in downtown St. Louis. Visit my APPEARANCES page for a map to the event! I will be selling all of my comics (minus Frik Vol 4 as that is not in print yet), Frik’in Cosplay drawings, Demotivational posters and more!

I hope to see you all there. You have no excuse to miss this! (unless you live out of town, then I’ll let it slide…this time.)

I’ve been in a really bad place inside my head as of late due to not finding a job that I’m qualified for (been applying for over a year now) and not being happy with life in general. I’m in a dark place right now. This is the first digital abstract I’ve created in about four years since all of my time was devoted to my two comics during that time span.

Someone posted a meme that said “God didn’t bring you this far to abandon you” and I’m clinging to that right now, because I truly feel like I’m being ignored and forgotten right now.

While you’re at it, look at the other digital abstract mixed media pieces I’ve made over the years HERE.

(7/13/15 EDIT)
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has given me support over the last couple of days. Some people even came out of the woodwork to send messages of encouragement and it means a lot to me.

Over 9 years ago it was easy to make the transition to a stay at home dad while working part time freelance from home. The problem is “stay at home dad” no longer applies as my son is in school full time and I’m having a hard time being relevant again in the job market. I’ve been searching for a job for three years now, but only really hardcore for the past 6-12 months. My freelance work has for the most part dried up, so I’m having a very hard time transitioning into the next phase of my life, whatever that is. (What is a mid life crisis for $400 Alex?)

Although I’ve been an artist since the age of eight, around the time my son was born I had big dreams of making it as an artist. Things started out promising and I even managed to show my work in a couple of galleries, but as the years went on the more I realized that this dream will never come true. I had hoped selling my art and comics would be enough to turn it into a living but it hasn’t so I have to let that one go. In the end I focused too much on trying to make money from it instead of just creating art for arts sake.

I realized that I made a lot of poor decisions from 18-25 years old that are now biting me in the butt some years later. I am in this position because of those poor choices, and I can’t be angry at anyone other than myself. Your continued prayers are still greatly appreciated as I muddle through this. Thanks for reading this. Hopefully something goes my way soon.

For a few days now I’ve been preparing my Frik comic for ebooks. Because people will be able to zoom in on their phone or tablet and get really tight on the details, I noticed that since I was still learning the ropes with my volume one, that most of it is incredibly sloppy work. In print you don’t notice this so much, but if you zoom in you absolutely will see the flaws.

One of the wonderful things about creating a digital comic is that I can go back and fix these flaws now that I’m better at the craft, but on the other hand, because I CAN go back and fix them I HAVE to fix them because I’m OCD enough about my work where it’s just something that has to be done without question.

This means, at least to start, this is going to be a very slow process converting this over. Oy.

Five years and 100 episodes later marks the end of FRIK, and today is the last episode. It’s hard to believe I’ve been working on this for five years. It feels like yesterday when the idea solidified in my noggin and just a few months later it was online. I can’t say it was a whirlwind, but more like a steady race to the finish line throughout its run.

I am proud of this comic for multiple reasons. For one, FRIK is the first comic I created since I was a teenager. It’s also something that I could truly call my own. Anything I made as a teen was a crappy knockoff of some 1980s cartoon. FRIK is also better than anything I could come up with artistically back then.
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