So here's what's been happening, more or less:

In March, I started writing a 20 page black and white comic based on a few different cobbled together ideas, jolted into motion by a song by my friend's one man black metal band Twilight Fauna. This song, Crossing the Threshold:
 

The comic is about a guy hiking up a mountain to witness the end of the world. It's weird and dark and I don't want it to look much like anything else I've drawn before.

My girlfriend and I went on a hike on Easter Sunday. A mile or two in, I realized this trail we were taking up to the Channels Natural Area Reserve was kind of perfect for the comic, and started taking pictures.
 I continued writing and rewriting, then about halfway through the script, started thumbnailing page layouts as well. I looked up how to draw snakes, centipedes, camping backpacks, and other things. I designed the main character:
On April 8th, I started penciling the first page. I finished it on Monday the 11th, then proceeded to pencil FOUR MORE PAGES that day.

Mountains Crumble is a partial title. It'll probably have a photo cover. We'll see.

The goal I set for myself was to have it penciled by the end of the month, so I was off to a good start. I spent the next day revising those pages, redrawing big chunks of pages 3 and 4, then continued. By the end of the week, I had another nine pages, bringing the total to fourteen. So...13 pages drawn in a week. I felt like I was in beast mode, I was unstoppable!

The following Monday, I penciled the final six pages. Yeah. Six pages. In one day. Holy crap. After a conversation with Jennifer Culp of Make Your Face about how we take care of ourselves when we push ourselves hard, I followed her advice and picked up a lacrosse ball that evening to massage my arm a bit. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent revising the pages again, plus lettering the whole thing by hand.
Inking began after that, and I finished the first page on Thursday, scanned it, and toned it as well (with some sagely help from the great Gregory Dickens) that night. Here it is:

So...yeah. Penciled and lettered, with the first page fully inked and toned, all in less than two weeks.

I guess I really missed making comics, what can I say?

On Saturday morning, I woke up with a horrendous pain on my left side. My whole arm had this dull, sore feeling all through it, with the worst pain being in my armpit, wrapping around my shoulderblade and pectoral muscle. I've never felt something quite that bad before, and I used to ice my wrist from working too much on Other Sleep some years back.

I uh, had been neglecting those lacrosse ball massages, and I hadn't done any yoga all week either. After all that frantic work penciling and lettering, not taking any breaks before inking meticulously in an unfamiliar style, I was paying for it. Ow.

Saturday was devoted to laziness and watching violent anime from the 80's and 90's. Yesterday, Sunday, I was feeling much better, got some yoga in and did a sketch of the new Godzilla design:
My birthday is this Friday. I'm celebrating with some friends Tuesday after work. Saturday and Sunday is Shikacon, which I'm a guest at, and which I'm prepping for. On Monday I go to Knoxville, to see a doctor at UT who will examine my jaw because that nasty big cyst they removed a few years ago may be returning. Ugh. Then Saturday, May 7th is Free Comic Book Day, and I'll be set up at Mountain Empire Comics as always.

All things considered, I should be taking it easy this week. My deadline for the comic is June, so I can give out copies at HeroesCon. I'm already WAY ahead of schedule. I should just watch more anime, play more Dark Souls 3, and give my arm more time to recover. I should be taking better care of myself.

Fingers crossed. Don't be an idiot like me: take breaks, take care of yourself. If you come to Shikacon, feel free to mock me.