Independent authors suffer the same, but once an author gets a reader, the reader becomes a more active fan; compared to a comic creator.  I personally feel this is in part because a story with words create a stronger intimate connection than a story with pictures.

Over the past year, I’ve been working on coloring, re-lettering, and editing my 12 issue series about my time in the Peace Corps.

I finally was able to put it all together and publish a black and white version of the series into one graphic novel.

When my younger brother suddenly died early last year, I realized that we don’t know how many tomorrows any of us have left. For years, I have thought about publishing my comics or having a table at a local comic book convention; but I always said I could do it later.

To mark the six months since Jordy’s passing, I want to share with all of you the coloring book. I am in the process of getting it published, for those who want a physical copy in hand.
In the meantime, you are welcome to the pictures now.

When Jordy died, he had his phone with him. It is really difficult to salvage any information from a waterlogged phone; but I was tasked to do just that.
In the hours and days after we lost the youngest of Smith boys, we all had things to do. My duty was to save Jordy’s phone.

I want to talk about Jordy’s hats. Not his actual physical hats. That would take all day. He had a lot of hats. He had hats for every occasion. Sara grudgingly admitted that any hat looked good on Jordan.

Toilet Paper Head is a very busy person.               His new Thursday night show on CBS, "Say Hello to Your Friend' is slated to return in the fall, his autobiography will be out in bookstores after Thanksgiving, and his upcoming film ''Rolling Up to Heaven" opens this Friday.

I went rummaging through the dusty boxes I had stored away and stumbled upon the faded stacks of my older creations.  It has been decades since I had seen some of these writings and drawings and wanted to bring them back out for the world to see!

I got married a couple years ago.  So needless to say, I am still in the throws of newlywed life. I am quickly learning how to share my life and living space with someone. Compromises and concessions have become a daily part of living … and it is pretty hard being a native Vermonter.

I had a minor epiphany a few weeks ago.  I am in a position of leadership at my work. I have a few employees that are always very frank and upfront with me. (I have come to really appreciate this quality). 

Our baby is now 13 months old and it has been a beautiful ride of long nights, mini panic attacks at hearing silence, and a series of impulsive laughter and contentment.

Is it possible to be impulsively content?  Yes.

There were a few hallmark moments over the past year that I need to put in haiku form.

Last Monday, I took a walk with Elizabeth. It was our normal route around the neighborhood. We first stopped by the playground. She had fun on the swings and sliding down the slide. Then we continued on our afternoon journey through the neighborhood.

As part of the rich and vast cultural expectations of my wife’s heritage, her mother was expected to come and live with us for a period of time slightly before and at a minimum of three months after our baby was born.

Personality quizzes are  a fun way to help readers identify themselves with the characters.  Over the last couple weeks I had the chance to research some Myers-Briggs-type questions and created answers that would connect to specific heroes in The Stag Gem series and the Tadman comics.

A few weeks ago while I was recovering from gallbladder surgery, I was doing a lot of research into how other creative sites update their stories and comic books.

Personally I am very thankful for all of the support and feedback I have received from all of you over the years.  When I first started this website, it was just to share the work I’ve done.  It has now grown into hundreds of pages of writing and thousands of images and illustrations.