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Everything I’ve been up to!

Finished Drawing BvB!

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The other night I finished coloring Baron von Bear and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue. Looking at the hourly production breakdown I’m very pleased to see that I hit my estimated pace. Around 5 hours per page, including thumbnails, pencils, lettering, inks, and coloring! For me that’s speedy.

But while it took fewer hours to make this book than any I’ve ever done, I had to spread that time over a wider frame than I had intended. I had originally intended to finish the book by early October 2022, but here I am wrapping things up at the top of 2023. All told I worked on the book over a span of twenty-four months instead of the eighteen I had hoped for (and bless my editor for her understanding!). Cite the usual reasons for the delay–I had to take on other work to keep the lights on while I made the book. Production hiccups happen along the way.

This can be even more frustrating when you look at the numbers on their own. The breakdown says I spent just under seven work months (40 hours/week, 4 weeks/month) to make this book. In other words, if I were able to commit to my comics full-time, I could crank out a graphic novel in just over half a year.
But my experience has taught me it’s not that simple. I’m sure that authors who do make 100% of their income from comics have other demands on them as well, whether it’s traveling for speaking events, signings, or other promotion around their work. I’m not above envying other author’s careers, but after a cursory look, I’ve found some of them put a substantial amount of work into keeping a social presence, whether it’s YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or whatever.
We all have to hustle, and making comics full-time would be no escape from that. When I’m not making comics, I’m helping kids make their comics. As hustles go, mine is pretty meaningful.

In other words, I’m going to focus on celebrating my wins and avoid going down the dark path of what C.S. Lewis called the “alongside world” of what could have happened.

What’s next?

  • While I wait for notes from my editor I’m going to start developing assets for the book’s design. Endpapers, little cute creatures to surround copyright info, that sort of thing.
  • I’m going to work on some BvB in-world products to sell on my website when the book launches.
  • And I’m going to revisit some marketing homework I started when BvB production began.
  • But before I do any of that, I’m going to send out my holiday cards and take a nap!

Thanks, as always, for believing in this book! I’m so happy with the way it turned out, and I can’t wait for you to read it.

Finished Drawing BvB! Read More »

FMYL 98.4 – THE GRAND FINALE

Blog, Four Million Years Later, Podcasts /


Click to open in a new window
We’ve arrived at the LAST episode (for awhile)! Here we just talk about how it slowly came together and how it almost didn’t happen, and what Jerzy and I were doing in relation to TFs from Rebirth to essentially today . It’s THE SECRET ORIGIN OF FOUR MILLION YEARS LATER!

And it comes with pictures from College Hoover’s TF strips and fanfics from the late 1990s!!

Transformers Generation 3, Page 1:

https://jdrozd.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Hoov-Generation-3-scaled.jpg

The Wonderful Cybertronian Adventures of Shockwave:

https://jdrozd.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Hoov-Shockwave-1.jpg

A New Plan, Page 1:

https://jdrozd.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Hoov-Girl-Power-scaled.jpg

The Perils of Being Thundercracker (2 page BLOCKBUSTER!):

https://jdrozd.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Hoov-TC1-scaled.jpg

https://jdrozd.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Hoov-TC2-scaled.jpg

Fanfic plot (as read on the episode):

https://jdrozd.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Hoov-Fanfic1-1-scaled.jpg

https://jdrozd.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Hoov-Fanfic2-1.jpg

https://jdrozd.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Hoov-Fanfic3-scaled.jpg

Goodbye for now; thanks to all you listeners, email and message senders, anyone who reviewed us or told people about us, or bought merch, guested on the show, and extra special thanks to Shawn Robare and Michael Mercy for publicizing our show in the beginning!! KEEP US IN YOUR FEEDS; WE’LL BE BACK WITH SMALLER CONTENT! (NO NOT MICROMASTERS!)

https://www.teepublic.com/user/fourmillionyearslater SHIRTS! STICKERS! MUGS! CELL PHONE CASES! BABY ONESIES!

Befriend the FOUR MILLION YEARS LATER page on Facebook!

Jerzy’s comics for sale at INDYPLANET

Jerzy’s Patreon

Jerzy’s RSS Feed of all his goings on!

Closing theme by Nick Mehalick : https://soundcloud.com/nicholas-mehalick/tranformative

You can still email us! FourMillionYearsLater@gmail.com   And you can still review us at your favorite podcatcher! Please?

—

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/4myl/message
Subscribe to my Transformers podcast!

FMYL 98.4 – THE GRAND FINALE Read More »

FMYL 98.3 – THE MAILBAG

Blog, Four Million Years Later, Podcasts /


Click to open in a new window
It’s the PENULTIMATE episode… kinda! For awhile at least. In its current form. This time we read feedback from loyal listeners, like yourself perhaps! And next time we wrap things up!

The fanfic by Timothy, THE EXISTENTIAL DREAD OF SLUDGE can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38648865

Rodimus art by Zach : https://jdrozd.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/rodimus_z.jpg

https://www.teepublic.com/user/fourmillionyearslater SHIRTS! STICKERS! MUGS! CELL PHONE CASES! BABY ONESIES!

Befriend the FOUR MILLION YEARS LATER page on Facebook!

Jerzy’s comics for sale at INDYPLANET

Jerzy’s Patreon

Jerzy’s RSS Feed of all his goings on!

Closing theme by Nick Mehalick : https://soundcloud.com/nicholas-mehalick/tranformative

Please email us for our upcoming mailbag episode! FourMillionYearsLater@gmail.com   And review us at your favorite podcatcher! Please?

—

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/4myl/message
Subscribe to my Transformers podcast!

FMYL 98.3 – THE MAILBAG Read More »

From Mastodon:

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Hooray for Pickles!

#MastoArt #Pig #ClipStudioPaint

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ABOUT BARON VON BEAR

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Baron von Bear, occult expert, never wanted adventures. But when years of hard work are demolished along with the guardian that rendered harmless his collection of dangerous objects, he’ll enter the fray.

And learn that those objects were not what he believed.

A middle grade graphic novel coming in 2023. Join the preorder mailing list: http:// baronvonbear.com
Follow me on Mastodon
RSS

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6 Slavic Mythology Creatures — Slavic Folklore Series

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Audible ➤ http://amzn.to/2xlMBM8

If the first video in our Slavic folklore series was an exercise in map-making, consider this the travel guide. Join us as we wander the forest of Slavic myth and marvel at the many creatures who call it their home.

Join the community for discussion and daily posts!
Support us on Patreon! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/TaleFoundry
Tale Foundry ➤ https://thetalefoundry.wordpress.com/
Facebook ➤ http://www.facebook.com/TaleFoundry
Twitter ➤ http://www.twitter.com/TheTaleFoundry
Tumblr ➤ http://www.TaleFoundry.tumblr.com
Discord ➤ https://discord.gg/ZN3TYrr

▬▬▬▬ What is Tale Foundry? ▬▬▬▬
If fiction were a material, we would be its manufacturing plant. We take apart stories to see what makes them tick, then recycle what we find to create our own.

Because understanding how fiction works is complicated and making use of that knowledge is even harder, we like to stretch our topics across three-part series. We create an analytical starter episode, a list full of interesting facts and ideas, and end with a short story that makes use of everything we learned.

Episodes ➤ https://goo.gl/rdzcn5
Lists ➤ https://goo.gl/7Msq3v
Stories ➤ https://goo.gl/VjnLBR

▬▬▬▬ Support Us▬▬▬▬
https://www.patreon.com/TaleFoundry

Our videos will always be available on Youtube for free, but there’s extra content waiting on our Patreon for those who choose to support us! For instance:

• Daily Updates — Get updates every single day on what the team is doing while you wait for the next video!

• Voting — Join our other patrons to decide on which topic we’ll be covering series by series!

• Sneak Peeks — Get a preview of what we’re working on before anyone else!

• Think Tanks — Join the Tale Foundry team for an exclusive discussion about what we’re working on, and help us figure out how best to do it!

• Lifetime Rewards — The longer you support us on Patreon, the more rewards you get—everything from access to the first three videos we ever uploaded to your own custom Taleoid!

You can see more at http://TheTaleFoundry.com/Support

▬▬▬▬ Past Series ▬▬▬▬
• View all of our past series here: https://bit.ly/2Jhkd2W

▬▬▬▬ Tale Foundry Team ▬▬▬▬
• Talebot — the talent
• The Taleoids — the talent’s helpers
• Chloe Mansfield — writing/research/content manager
• Benjamin Cook — writing/art/channel owner

▬▬▬▬ Credit/Attributions ▬▬▬▬
For a complete list of all sources used in all videos, please visit our Comprehensive Content Sources document:

https://bit.ly/2xuMPB8

Something I’m watching on YouTube. Subscribe to my blog playlist here.

6 Slavic Mythology Creatures — Slavic Folklore Series Read More »

SAW We Believe in Comics Free Workshops Put Some O in your OC with Jerzy Drozd

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https://learn.sawcomics.org/

We had an amazing time with Jerzy Drozd who guided us into creating amazing, new authentic original characters from a bunch of prompts- the personal mixed with the absurd. So many interesting things happened. Come join us! It was a blast.

https://learn.sawcomics.org/

Something I’m watching on YouTube. Subscribe to my blog playlist here.

SAW We Believe in Comics Free Workshops Put Some O in your OC with Jerzy Drozd Read More »