I’m A Cartoonist, Ma’am

Well, the new site has been relaunched; right on schedule with the four-year anniversary of Kim & Jason. I’m happy with how it turned out, even though there are still a few bugs to iron out. It was not a piece of cake, however. After several months of continuous planning and designing, the moment of truth finally came last Sunday night. After a dinner out with some friends, Kim and I returned home and I sat down at my trusty iMac at about 9:00 p.m. to begin the arduous process of replacing the current site with a whole new one (over ten thousand files worth.) Nine hours later, at 6 a.m. I finally went to bed. I got the hint when it started to get light out and I heard birds start chirping. Surprisingly, most of it went off without a hitch, but the process of testing and tweaking was a long one. I was amazed at how much junk had accumulated on our web server over the course of four years. It’s nice to have things tidied up and streamlined a bit more. And I’m proud at how far I’ve come in the six years since I first taught myself web design by creating a portfolio site for Kim’s quest for a plumb teaching job. And now the focus shifts to the site once again, as I begin the task of creating even more content for the site. When I meet someone, it’s hard to tell them what I do. I usually stick with the tried-and-true-I’m-a-cartoonist routine, which usually gets a good reaction. Their eyes light up with excitement, but I can sense an image in their head of me with a jester’s hat on laughing and scribbling all day. (And when I say all day, I mean about four hours or so.) The truth is, I spend a lot of time on the strip, as I never feel it’s as good as it can be. But I spent last Friday afternoon plotting out my schedule for the remainder of the year. So much time has been spent on this new site that other things have been pushed back. Here’s a brief look at what’s on my plate (for the curious types who even care): I will be working double time on the book I’m writing (see the post What Are The Ingredients of A Bestseller?) I’m hoping to have a November release date. I’m just about to kick off a “Kim For President” episode, complete with a large media push and lots of limited edition election gear, like buttons and bumper stickers. We’ll probably be sending out over 1,000 press releases, and hopefully we’ll get some calls for interviews, inorder to get the word out about Kim & Jason. Meanwhile Kim has been hard at work scheduling me for various speaking engagements in schools, youth groups and social clubs. We’re just about booked through the rest of the year, averaging at least one presentation a week. I’m also cooking up some new product designs for the Christmas push (yes, Christmas), including some new prints and a build-your-own Jelly Bean Card set. Shortly, I’ll begin writing and creating the art for 24 more new greeting cards, due for a January release, and prep work for Annual #4 will begin in order to be ready for its March release. Finally, a new paid subscription version of Club K&J is in the works, with scores of cool features and benefits, all of which needs to be designed, coded, and implemented within the web site by December. Mind you, I’m equally excited and thrilled about each of those projects. I can’t imagine anything else I’d rather be doing. It sure beats any alternative I can think of, even those that include a more “normal” 40-hour work week. (I can’t imagine what I would do with all that extra time.) But I share the examples above to simply show how dishonest I feel when I tell people I’m a cartoonist. I’m not even sure if there IS a word to describe me – although for now, after last Sunday night (and Monday morning), I’m going to just settle on “tired.”