Jerrell Conner, et al

Sometime today the latest edition of my column, Indy-Pendant will be posted. I won't know when since I still can't connect to the site, but I know it will be today.

This week I feature a writer/artist by the name of Jerrell Conner, as the title would infer. Jerrell is the definition of an independent creator in terms of the comics industry. I was made aware of him by Dale Wilson several weeks ago and I'm glad he pointed Jerrell out to me. After reading through the material I would use for the column I realized Jerrell and I had a lot in common in certain areas, so it made it a very enjoyable column for me to write.

I changed the pace of the column a bit this week shifting to an almost pseudo-interview style column. I intend on changing up the format of the column over the next several weeks and maybe indefinitely as I don't want it to be just another review column. I hope to offer something different every time it's read, but I still intend on doing some of the old style features as well.

I'm a last minute kind of guy, so usually I don't have a clue as to what I'm going to write about until a couple of days before the column is do, and I honestly don't write it up until hours before my deadline. It's worked so far, and in 25 weeks worth of columns I believe I've only missed two weeks, which would have put me at 27, but oh well. The numbers aren't important to me really, I just like to write what people like to read.

I hadn't really thought about the fact that this is my 25th column until just this moment, and I supposed I should have mentioned it in the column or done something for the anniversary, but I guess I'll have to wait until number 50. But it does feel good to know I've been able to go 25 weeks and keep readers entertained, so that's good enough for me.

As far as not being able to access comicavalanche.com, I am getting closer to the problem after pinging, trace routing and all kinds of other technical stuff. It appears my connection times out at the host server of the website for some odd reason, though I can still access other sites on that server. It's a very odd situation and I have talked to several tech support people trying to figure out the problem.

Anyway, once I can access it again, as I believe I mentioned before, there will be gradual changes made to the site in order to improve it. For one the home page will get an even cleaner, more organized and much less pixelized look including a sidebar with daily news! There will be some changes made to the forums that will (hopefully) encourage more reader and poster participation, and all kinds of other stuff in the works. We sincerely hope to eventually make the site the number one source for comic news entertainment. We've got a long way to go, but it's a goal that is totally and completely possible given a lot of factors in our favor.

And that's enough info on all that good stuff. I'm going to go chill and finish watching Elf for the tenth time then probably write a little, read a little then go back to bed.

Yep, my schedule is so far off. Lately I've been getting really tired around 10 or 11 at night, which I suppose by most people's standards is normal. The problem with me is any time I go to sleep that early I wind up waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning and can't get back to bed, as was the case tonight. I fell asleep around 11:30, woke up at 3, and now it's 5:30 and I'm wide awake. I won't get tired again probably until 9 or 10, or maybe not even until 1 or 2, but luckily it's Sunday and I can then go to sleep. Usually if I go to bed around 2 or 3 then I can sleep until around 9 or 10 just fine. That's my preferred period of rest actually.

I've always been a night owl. When I was 15-16 I would literally only get 1-2 hours of sleep a night if that, and that behavior continued until I was about 19 at which time I started sleeping a lot. Then I went to college and started getting between 4-6 hours a night, and that's pretty much been the norm for me ever since only with the occasional 8 hour night when I'm really beat or on a very rare dose of pain medication (I only take it when I'm absolutely in terrible pain that won't go away. I hate anything that takes me out of sorts, which is why I never did drugs or drank alcohol. I've seen too many bad things happen within my own family when people are under the influence and out of control).

Everyone I know doesn't understand my sleep behavior because they sleep "normal" hours, so I've always been the freak, the outcast. Not just because of sleep habits though, but because of my outlook on life, my walk with God, my demeanor, my interests and hobbies. If not for the internet I wouldn't speak to many people, if any at all, that shared interests with me or understood my passions. But they still care and they try, they just don't get me. :)

At any rate I am now babbling out of boredom, so I'll spare you the agony of any further exposition on my part.

Oh, before closing I received in the mail today a holiday card from Platinum Studios. This was an ingenius idea the way it was done. Allow me to briefly explain. See most companies that send out holiday cards have some crappy little photo made with a corny little saying on the front or inside and the entire thing doesn't really mean anything to you, nor is it interesting or entertaining. Platinum, however, personalized the card to an extent I hadn't seen and would like to see more of. First of all it's not a standard size card, but a folder sized card. The cover features a comic book style cover of Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, the owner of Platinum, in a humorous scene. The title reads "Platinum Studios Presents: A Holiday Card Adventure" with a blurb stating, "Starring The Rosenbergs" and another continuing, "In 'Multimedia Madness'" Inside is a two page comical comic story complete with credits and a closing panel wishing happy holidays with signatures from the staff. The back cover features an appropriate pinup of an upcoming title from Platinum, Secret Santa.

Now see, more companies, whether comic related or not, should be more creative like that. This was easily one of the top 5 cards I have ever received because it was fun and entertaining, and all at the same time they got a little bit advertising thrown in there for good measure, but it's not at all intrusive.

So I just wanted to share that little bit of holiday cheer with you all. And on that note...

B-Out