Okay, I've got a few moments to update this, being on break halfway through my Digital Illustration class. As soon as class ends, I have to run home, grab my comics pages and ink brushes, and run back to the school to meet with my friend Caleb as we finish inking our Comics 1 finals. Five pages, plus some touch-up and finishing inking on two other pages from earlier in the semester. I'm thinking I may end up pulling another all-nighter tonight (I was up working on my Digital Illo final until 6 this morning). I'm feeling okay about it, though - I slept from 7 to about noon today, and I've been enjoying my Comics final. It also helps knowing that my last class is on Tuesday, and then my summer begins. I can do this!

So the interesting thing that I alluded to in my last post happened at the MicroCon on Sunday. Marilyn and I sat at the CCAS table with Carl Borg, our distributor friend. More correctly, Marilyn sat at the table while I walked around and schmoozed (which is really one of the best things about comics conventions, and why they're vital to getting into the industry, if you're so inclined). I spoke with Ryan Kelly, my Comics 1 teacher, finally got to meet Barbara Schultz, who may or may not be my advisor next semester, and caught up with Zander Cannon at his Big Time Attic table. Despite having been up for at least twenty-four hours (24 Hour Comic Day was on Saturday), he and his brother Kevin were still very animated. Ryan encouraged me to show my pencilled work around. Zander mentioned that Big Time Attic did have internships, so that's a possibility for the future. Sam Hiti sat next to us at the CCAS table, selling his work, and we had another conversation in which he gave me yet more advice (all of it good). I mentioned the situation at school with the Comics sub-department (they've decided to give a full-time position to one of the teachers, and there seems to be a question as to whether those who don't get the position will remain at MCAD - all of the comics classes for the next semester have the instructors listed in the schedule as "TBA"), and Sam said that he would be interested in teaching at MCAD, were he to be invited. So now I need to get in touch with the Design department people again (or whomever else I need to speak to) and recommend Sam to them. Sam also invited me to see his studio downtown, when I have the time.

As cool as all of these things were, the highlight of the weekend came when I went to talk to Pat Gleason, the DC artist on Aquaman who goes to my church. While I was showing him my pencilled Comics final pages, the guy sitting next to him, Bill Hauser, asked to look at them. He said he liked my work and went on to explain that the publishing company he worked for, Lerner Books, was planning on assembling some 40-page graphic novels over the summer on the topic of mythology, and they were currently looking for pencillers who were willing to do historical research for their work. He said he wasn't the hiring guy, but he encouraged me to send him some more samples of my work so he could forward it to his boss. They would like to have the finished work by the end of the summer, but he mentioned that the deadlines were fairly loose. The entire time, Pat was sitting there nodding, as if to say, "Take this opportunity."

I'm still a bit shocked that people have reacted to well to my work. I'm okay with them, but I see a LOT of room for improvement. Ryan has been very encouraging, and he's said several times that he thinks my work is professional quality. I don't see it, but I'm still really glad to hear him say it, and I'm ecstatic to hear that others think so as well. It makes me want to work even harder on my comics, to really improve and learn from the mistakes that glare at me from the pages I've already done.

Anyway, I e-mailed a number of samples to Bill early this morning, and he told me that he or his boss should be getting in touch with me before long. If they like my work, I could have a paying comics gig over the summer!

There have been those moments in the past two years where I imagine I could nearly see the hand of God descending from heaven and interceding in my life. The miraculous way that we got the perfect apartment at the very last minute (after Marilyn got a fairly miraculous job offer); the great community of Christian artists I've been able to connect with here; finding a spectacular church nearby that just happened to have a DC artist in attendance... And now this. Things have just been far too good to be random chance. Praise God!

So that's my current big news. I'll be certain to keep you updated on how this plays out. Back to work!