The Best Laid Plan of Mice And Men Oft Go Offline
It seems that life is what happens when you aren’t cartooning.
I’ve been holding off on any substantial blog posts out of a sense of obligation that the cartoons need to come first. I feel bad sitting down to type when I should be cartooning. Unfourtnately though, my cartooning time has been coming in short bursts where I try to jam as many strips as I can create into little time windows (hense daily updates for a few days and then nothing for a while). I’ve passed on a few weighty and/or entertaining blog topics, relegating my thoughts to small Twitter snippits and Facebook updates.
With the layoff, making time to let my wife study and do homework, taking the family out to do things, a recent garage sale (emptied a 10X20 storage unit) and a “fussy” baby (she will only allow me or my wife to hold her and we need to be in her eyeline) the cartoon windows have been brief (but oh so satisfying when they do come). We were childless when I initially launched in 2000 and was on hiatus when my first was born. I thought I had a grasp of what a wee one would do to my schedule and how to work around it … HA!
So most everything else on the site has been put on hold until I can catch up with my cartoon backlog. Well, I’m going to fnish out the current vasectomy storyline and then start posting strips on days they are done (or at least try to build up a buffer again if I get one of those presious chunks of time).
Don’t worry, I won’t be giving up or going on hiatus. It seems I am happiest when I am cartooning. Even if it’s a little progress at a time. It seems I get very irritable and anxious when I go too long without putting pencil to paper (or mouse to paint program for that matter).
So please bear with me as I get my “C” legs under me again (“C” for “cartooning”) and get the gears of the site oiled and spinning again. There will be more blog posts coming, a site redesign, more tutorials and content and of couse … many much more cartoons.
Thanks for hanging in there. =)
June 28th, 2009 at 4:17 am
easy, take your time.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:04 am
Was hoping that you would continue cartooning. Seriously missed you during your hiatus as I had enjoyed both Angst and the paintball strips. Glad to hear you are dedicated to staying back here. Keep up the good work and thanks for letting us know what is going on as there is little worse than a period of no updates and no news.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Don’t worry. I can hold my breath for a very long time.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I’ve been reading for years. Weekly or even monthly is better than hiatus!
My children diapered themselves, so I have no idea what you mean.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Family > All else in life. (except maybe the lamentations of the women…)
July 6th, 2009 at 12:26 am
No worries, take your time. I enjoy your comics so I don’t mind waiting for them.
July 6th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I have a 4 year old, a 3 month old and a layed off hubbie… I feel your pain.
July 6th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
No troubles! I prefer the blog posts to no word at all. Its nice to know that things are ok.
July 12th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Don’t worry barry, we’re not going anywhere. Inky since 2003 and training the baby inkies every day.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Barry… as a father of three, I can tell you that the best laid plans hardly EVER work out the way you plan them. Glad to see you are back. I just stumbled upon the site again (I was checking every once in awhile) and have missed your humor and art. Congrats on the children. They will make all your hair turn grey and then make you pull it out, so enjoy them!!!! =)
Peace!
Ziggy
July 16th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Dr. Sears calls them High Needs babies. *yawn*
July 24th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Yay!
August 7th, 2009 at 4:37 am
As someone who worked with various cartoonists over the years the most important thing I can say about doing a comic is don’t try to do too much at once. If you try to crunch and force out a bunch of art at once it’s going to look like crap, you’ll get dejected because it looks like crap and ultimately you won’t manage to get anything out.
Just relax, take your time, enjoy doing the strip when you can and remember that although we really want to jump up and down on your spleen when you don’t update for weeks at a time, we like you well enough not to actually do it. =^_^=
Cheers!!
August 24th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Well you can get a job overseas where I am at and work if for a year. That way your finances are settled and we can get you back to your real job, cartooning for us addicts, lol.
September 5th, 2009 at 12:05 am
very well written,but even u were to go on a hiatus i woudnt mind….
October 17th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Delighted to see you using a quote from Robert Burns poems as it is his 250th anniversary this year! The whole quote is from ‘To a Mouse’ and the verse is
But , Mousie, thou art no thy lane ,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley ,
An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
October 20th, 2009 at 4:20 am
You have been in my bookmark list for years…. probably… 5 yrs (is that possible). Its not going away anytime soon.
October 26th, 2009 at 1:26 am
He’s BACK! BooYAH! And all it took was the wife taking his Blizzard Authenticator…