Daniel J. Hogan's Blog

I was scanning my website referral data today and found that there is a link to magicofeyri.com on the Wikipedia page about one of my favorite comics, SnarfQuest.  And I'm the first reference too!



For the record, I didn't cite myself--someone must have come across my page while looking for citations and saw how I compared it to Bone. I guess it pays to look how people are getting to your websites.

Great news! I talked to Michael Church, my cover artist, and he agreed to do drawings for each of the chapters of the second edition of The Magic of Eyri that I'm planning. This means 50 drawings kids, which I know is quite the task. But I told him just black and white and no shading, so that'll make things a little bit easier for him.

I'm also decided that I am going to serialize the book with weekly chapters on magicofeyri.com, and use Michael's art for that--which was the main reason I asked him to do it. People like his art and it'll add an extra li'l somthin' to the whole affair. Yep, a free chapter a week, for 50 weeks. Although, I may considering doing two a week (maybe two chapters once a week). We'll see.

This isn't something I'm going to start tomorrow, that's for sure. I want to plan this all out and have an actual start date so I can advertise it, and I want to have the second edition ready for sale when I start serializing it (so if people don't want to wait, they can just buy the whole thing, which would be nice).

My reasons for doing this are:

1. the book has been out for over a year.
2. people do like it (and the idea of it based on the reactions I got last weekend at Motor City Comic Con).
3. giving it away for free will help get me more attention, and create more of an Internet Buzz.
4. the book keeps selling, which means I'm doing something right.
   
5. it is a good excuse to revise the book.
6. getting a good fan base for the first book will help me with the second book.
7. I don't have any other convention appearances planned until the fall.

Now, which I say revise, I don't mean I'm going to change the story. I'm gonna clean up the grammar a bit and cut out some of the wordiness. I may reword a few things here and there, perhaps even rewrite some things, but the overall story isn't going to change. Y'know what that means for those of you who already have a copy? You'll have a collector's item ;)

I did my first ever submission to icanhascheezburger.com today. It stars the girlfriend's new kitteh, Butters (yes, named after the South Park character) and a purse my aunt made. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. Ain't he cute? Make sure to vote for it here.


I was also considering "Purse Cat Questions How You Spent Your Economic Stimulus Check" but I didn't want it to look like I was making fun of the purse.

I finally joined the 21st century and bought a wireless router last night.  Why didn't I do this two years ago when I first got my iBook? Answer: Because I'm a dummy.  Until last night, my eMac was the only machine in my underground geek bunker that had internet access, but I used my iBook during my rare treks to surface world coffee shops.

I hiked up to Best Buy last night and picked up a Belkin router on the advice of a friend and fellow Mac user (who uses hers to run a MacBook and an eMac).  I considered getting the very pretty Apple AirPort Extreme for half a second, but there was no way I was going to pay $180 for a router, Apple or not.  I'm happy with what I got, it was very easy to set up--one reason I never got a router was that I was afraid I'd have a hard time setting it up (because of Mac compatibility issues).  The Belkin was pretty much Plug and Play. I liked how they packaged it too, they had everything clearly labeled and included very easy to follow directions, good show!

This could be the final nail in the coffin for my eMac.  My monitor is starting to act up (getting blurry) and I'm getting tired of jumping between machines...but now I guess I really don't have to do that as much.  I don't plan on getting rid of the eMac (soon anyway), but I have a feeling I'll be using it less now.  And yes, my wireless signal is password protected. That's how I roll.

I've started working out after work  lately,  hoping to tone up a bit  (swimsuit season is comin' up!) and just to get some kind of exercise.  I do 20 minutes on my exercise bike, push-ups and crunches, nothing too crazy.  I've been watching season two of Arrested Development while riding my bike, and I love that show.  The working out is certainly helping me feel better and I'm sleeping way better too.  If I come home and work out it helps to fight off my post-work fatigue that plagues me (I just wanna sleep when I get home) and energizes me.  I haven't had any problems falling asleep lately, which is a great change of pace.  I just hope that (this time) I stick with it longer than a couple of weeks.

I hit up my local comic shop today to pick up the first two issues of the latest Scud: The Disposable Assassin. Sadly, issue #22 was sold out but I was still able to get issue #21 (the first in this new mini series). Creator Rob Schrab has this great intro on the inside of the cover. He talks about how getting his heart broken drove him to create Scud in the first place. But it was this section that really spoke to me:

"Learn from the pain of an old nerd. And take this bit of wisdom: If there's something that you are procrastinating on, writing a book, making a movie or asking a girl out. Do it. Today. Be scared, be stupid but there is one thing you are not allowed to do: Give up.

Empty your head. Empty it of all the ideas, stories, jokes, philosophies and inventions.  Put it down on paper and share it.  We are on this planet for such a short time; don't hog the magic by dying with it all in your head.  Make your life extraordinary."

This is exactly how I feel about all of the writing, animation, drawing, movie making and other nonsense I spend my time doing. I don't care (too much) not everyone likes it--I'm at least trying and getting stuff out there. To paraphrase a quote by Joel Hodgson, creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000, "The right people will like this." I know I have fans, I hear from them--and that makes all of this worthwhile. But even if I didn't, I'd still do this stuff because I love it. And you never know what will happen unless you just put your stuff out there. I know people who are way more talented than I who should be doing what I'm doing, but they aren't.

The Internet makes it so easy to share your creations (good or bad) with the world, and I love that. I can draw a silly little comic in Flash and post it online minutes later. How cool is that? Sure, my art may not be amazing but I came up with a joke and I wanted to share it with everyone.

Scud is a comic I really wish I had gotten into during its heyday over ten years ago and I'm really glad I picked up this issue. I love Schrab's drawing style and quirky sense of humor. I'm happy to learn that after this series is done Schrab is going to release an oversized omibus edition of all the Scud comics.

I also picked up the first collection of Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Roberson. MAN. How did I not know about this until now? Great stuff. The guy at the comic shop asked me if I had read any of this before and after I said "No." he smiled and said "Don't worry, you'll be back for more."

He was right.

jimhines started the first Share a Blog Day, so I thought I'd chip in. Y'all should be reading beatonna's blog. It is all kinds of great - she does these great comics. Some are autobiographical and others are historical. All are amazing. I especially love her historical strips.

I have some other good news I'll post about later.