Thanks to Slusser, Johnathan Coulton's "Still Alive", the theme song to the video game "Portal" is stuck in my head. I don't even own the game.

The longer I spend working on my portfolio, the longer it seems to take. That may sound like circular logic. What I mean is, I've worked on research and scripts and layouts and character designs and this week I'm actually penciling the pages...for my first mini-comic. Since the San Diego Comic-Con, I've been stewing over which of my ideas to draw first. Ultimately I decided to go with the one that stood out most in my mind, but it's specialized enough (it takes place in the French Revolution) that I feel as though I'm going to need to draw at least one more after this before I send out my new and improved portfolio again. Every step I take seems to generate two more...

On a similar note, I wonder why I've been having a difficult time coming up with a fantasy story that engages my imagination like the fantasy comics that I've collected in the past. I have a lot of story ideas, mind you, but coming up with my own fantasy setting... Well, I can do it for roleplaying quite easily, but in roleplaying I don't have a lot of reservations about stealing liberally from other people's settings. Making my own unique setting is a bit different. And yes, I know, it's not really about making a setting so much as it is making an interesting story, but it is at least partially about making a setting. Most of my comics ideas in general take place in historical settings, and my fantasy story ideas are no exception. My strongest candidate (in my mind) takes place in the Thirteen Colonies just prior to the American Revolution... (I think I'd like to get to reading that first book in the Alvin Maker series that I have sitting on my shelf, just to make certain that my idea isn't too similar...) I've also got the embryonic ideas that my abortive NaNoWriMo novel began with... In any case, I'll probably just need to sit down and make it to see if it clicks.

If people have been trying to get a hold of me lately, I apologize. Between trying to stay away from the computer during weekday work hours and going to the mountains during the weekend (where I get no phone reception), it seems I've been missing a lot of calls and emails.

After this weekend, I think that Marilyn and I are concluding that a move back to the mountains - at least, into my parents' house - is not really a feasible option. I don't have any ideas about our future at this point, but it's really moot anyway - my sole focus right now is getting a job in comics...