Keeping Myself Busy, Even While Taking a Break
I'm currently on hiatus from my day job, but my "second job" of publishing my own comic rolls on...
Hi there!
For a few years now, my wife and I have jokingly described my hobby of making my Steamroller Man comic as my “unpaid second job”. Now that I’ve brought the story to print, set up an LLC to publish it, and started doing comic conventions to sell and promote it, it’s certainly feeling less like a joke and very much like a real second job! Even when I’m not writing and drawing the comic, there’s plenty of peripheral stuff to take care of!
I’m on hiatus from my day job and away from home at the moment, but I brought drawing tools, my iPad and my laptop with me so I could still get a bit of work done on various Steamroller Man things (one of which is sending out this update)!
Original Sketch Covers for Conventions!
One thing I’ve learned so far in my limited experience exhibiting at conventions is that I don’t really enjoy the pressure of drawing a commission while someone waits and watches me draw. I still want to give people the opportunity to buy some original art from me, though, since I don’t produce physical artwork for pages of the comic. The solution was to do some original sketch covers in advance! I can take as long as I need to finish them and I won’t feel like I’m selling anything I’m unhappy with. You can see a time lapse of my drawing process on my first cover, above. My goal is to get at least three more covers finished before my next convention, which is going to be Comic-Con Revolution in Ontario, California on May 17th and 18th! I’ll be at table G-11 in Artist’s Alley, so come and find me if you’re at the show! I will probably be incredibly jetlagged… gifts of CAFFEINE appreciated!
Two Bonus Pages For Issue #2 Print Edition!
Since my entire comic is available online to read for free , for my first issue I added two extra pages to the print edition that were never published online. I’m going to do the same thing again with issue two. It was more difficult to find a good spot add two pages to the existing story in this one, though, so this time I’m just adding some fun bonus pages that will give readers a little jolt of comic-book nostalgia while introducing some never-before-seen characters from the world of Steamroller Man! This issue had a couple of pages that were cutaways to scenes teasing upcoming storylines, so the new bonus pages should blend in nicely. I’m hoping to start penciling these in the coming week.
The STEAMROLLERMAN.COM Shop is Coming Soon!
I’ve spent a LOT of time of late trying to set up a Shop page on my website. I am not a coder and don’t really know anything about setting up websites, so I’m muddling my way sloooowly through this process. With the help of some awesome Tech Support people, I think it’s almost ready to go! Visitors will be able to buy print issues of the comic, t-shirts, caps and other print-on-demand merch, AND order commissions all in one place! Here’s a sneak peek - I fully admit this may not be exciting to anyone else but me!
Thanks for reading, and KEEP ROLLING!!
Matt