Let's just call it a bye week.

It was bound to happen. It always does, and it came to pass this past week as it does every other time before. My creative crash that comes after a high. After riding a Summerween fueled wave of creative inspo, which gave way to weeks worth of mojo, this week I’ve not been in the mood to make a single thing. Besides a new panel for The After Death Book Two, I’ve not produced much. But a week’s worth of no art does not a bored cartoonist make. Oh no, I’ve still got lots to do.

In fact, I’ve been sort of mentally sitting on a mini comic idea inspired early Summerween musings because I feel bad about not being able to finish up SHOPsquatch yet. I haven’t allowed myself to work on a new comic project before I finish up that one. Mainly because it is so close to being finished. I just need to spend an hour or so with it at my computer desk and it’ll be ready to print. Once it’s ready to print, I’ll be sharing it with you here. And then I’ll be free to move on. I may be a horrible boss, but at least I try to make sure I get things done *cough* Tourists *cough, cough*.

Notes: This is a latest panel for Book Two which functions mainly to fill some space and give the reader a brief breather after leaving the conversation with Madam Weary. I made sure to give Spencer a bit of worried look to hint at the reader that he’s not taking the news too lightly. But, also, I think in a small way feeds into the next scene when Spencer’s mood lightens in the company of the other ghosts and he realizes that the #ghostlife may not be as bad as it seems.

No new Autobio Comics this week though. It's not that I don't have ideas, I just didn't feel like drawing, y'know. I think a little break is good every now and then. And, often when I do take a break, find that the "absence makes the heart grow fonder" trope actually applies. After a time away from making art, I start to miss it and I appreciate the return so much more. I'll have more art next week, I'm sure of it. Just bear with me for this moment.

Although the official day of Summerween has passed, that doesn't mean I'm not still vibing. I do plan on continuing to post some art throughout the month of July, I got too many ideas not too! Though this week does mark the end of the Summerween Book Club as I finished reading The Sleepover last week. If you were reading along, you can read my thoughts on it here on Patreon or here on Substack. Other than that, I'll be retiring the Summerween "section" from the newsletter, but expect the art to keep on coming! Until next year!

What's Making Me Happy This Week

• What's been making me happy this past week and maybe the past few weeks is I'm slowly dipping my toes back into another big passion of mine: photography. For those that may not know, I worked as a professional photographer for 18 years and was a serious hobbyist before that. After I lost that job to the pandemic, it's been a while since I've picked up a camera again for fun. But...I finally did. I bough two new packs of Fuji Instax film and took some photos with my Fuji Instax SQ instant camera. And I dove back into the Hipstamatic app for phone photos. The latest Hipstamatic application is overly complicated, hard to figure out, not user friendly, and crashed several times as I was trying to build a new camera/lens library. So, I don't really endorse it. You got to be committed-which I was. The photos at the top of the newsletter, and last week's photo of our Jack-O-melons were taken using the app. I do love the results, but they could have built a better app. Regardless, I've started to enjoy making images again and that's been a lot of fun.

Welp, that's all she wrote for this week's newsletter gang! I'm hoping I get some of that mojo back over the weekend and will have some new art to share with you next week. Thanks for reading and spending some of your time with me here. I hope you all have a great week ahead and I'll see you back here next Sunday.

~b

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