Pillow Billy and Mother's Goofs

For the past couple weeks I've been working diligently at scanning in my old Mother's Goofs strips, adding tints, cleaning up blemishes and typos and fixing glaring errors that had slipped past me the first time around. All this work has a purpose: an all-encompassing collection of my Mother's Goofs comic strip, featuring every cartoon from 2001-2004, with the exception of two or three which back then were done so hastily as to satisfy my deadline that they weren't of good enough quality to include in the book.
There's still no official release date for this graphic novel, but I'm closer than ever to having the book ready for print. I already have a guest artist pin-up drawn by Mark Bode (son of Cheech Wizard cartoonist Vaughn Bode) of Snow White which I'm including in the book, and I'm currently soliciting other cartoonists for their own renditions of my characters. Pleasant Hymns cartoonist and pal Adam Talley has offered his services in helping me package the book, and I may have a printer lined up. So for the few Goofs fans out there, this may be something you'll want to keep your eyes open for. More news as it comes.

My children's book, Pillow Billy, is coming along very nicely, and is shaping up to be some of my best work in any genre to date. My imagination's been dry-docked for the past couple weeks in my attempts to come up with original designs for Cinderella and Prince Charming, two famous names who figure largely into the story's plot.
But last week, while at a dinner theatre with Laura and her family, I drew a quick sketch of this freckle-faced waitress with the most amazing curly red hair. Though I didn't realize it at the time, I had found the perfect model for my Cinderella. A few costume changes and her character was complete, and she looks great. As for the prince, I drew inspiration from my old character Stoutheart, made some design changes, and voila, I had my Prince Charming.
With these last two crucial designs completed, I look forward to finishing the illustrations and diving into the coloring. For the first time in a long while, I'll be setting aside Photoshop and returning to my artistic roots, using colored pencils to add vibrance to Pillow Billy's world. It's all set to be something special to see, and I'm anxious to show it to the public when it's complete.

So that's all the news for now. Keep checking back here for future updates and breaking news to spare!

And Finishing Dead Last, The Saginaw News...

Finally, weeks after the interview took place, the powers-that-be at the Saginaw News had a slow enough news day to fit in the story about me and my contribution to the Yenny comic book. Here's a link to the online story:

http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1140348208311450.xml&coll=9

I would like to give my utmost appreciation to my friend Jessica Soule who wrote the story and who bears absolutely no responsibility for how long it actually took to print. I think it's a great article and I truly appreciate the coverage. Better late than never, as the saying goes.

CMLife Beats The Saginaw News To The Big Scoop!!

Fellow Delta College alum and recent CMU student reporter Rachel Lodewyk wrote one of the best stories about me ever, and it appears in today's edition of CMLife. If you want to see it, either go to www.cm-life.com or click the following link:

http://www.cm-life.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/13/43f002c937591

She hit every point about me and the Yenny comic book without misquoting me once. I'm very thrilled about how it turned out and want to express my appreciation to her for writing the piece, Dave Alvarez for giving her a really nice quote, Terry Rock (Delta College PR Director) for being interviewed for it, CMLife for agreeing to carry the story, and my friend, old Collegiate editor and journalism wunderkind Justin Engel for giving what was possibly the best quote about me EVER in ANY news story, which I'm reprinting here for your enjoyment:

"I saw Jay's work as very daring, in-your-face and bordering on getting me fired for letting it publish. But his humor grows on you and his drawing abilities are undeniable...He does things most cartoonists don't dare to do. He's not afraid to voice his opinion through his comics, no matter who it might offend."

Given the current situation with Muslim opposition to the Dutch cartoonists' editorial depiction of their beliefs, I take Justin's comment as the highest praise, and I'm truly honored.

I would also like to remind people about the radio interview to be featured on 91.5 FM tonight between 6-6:30. If you want to listen to it on your computer, here's another link to do so:

http://www.bca.cmich.edu/wmhw/

And possibly, not definitely but possibly, my OTHER article will run in the pages of The Saginaw News sometime this week, maybe even today, so keep an eye open for that, too!

Okay, I'm Done...

The Saginaw News still hasn't run the article.

Because this is more a news blog than a personal diary rant, I'm going to strain to be diplomatic in my expression of feelings here.

Suffice to say, I'm through dropping fistfulls of change on a newspaper from a town that I don't even live in anymore in order to find a story about me that's not even there.

If anyone out there stumbles across this "alleged" story about me (which could run anywhere from tomorrow 'til a year from, depending on how many more harrowing tales the news is obliged to print about aerobic workouts for old people and their pets, effectively pushing any story about me back indefinitely), please let me know.

Better yet, give me a free copy if you have extras. I think the news has bilked me out of enough cash for one lifetime.

Why Must I Be Made A Liar?!

It seems every time I post about something that's coming up on a certain day that it somehow gets set back either to a different date or indefinitely. Well guess what? Happened again!

The article about me in CMlife didn't run today. Instead, I'm led to believe it will be in Monday's edition. Why they didn't run it today is beyond me, though in a way I'm kinda glad. Historically, Friday's edition of CMlife rarely gets a lot of readers, since so many of them sleep in from boozing it up the night before or head home for the weekend without seeing the newspaper. So if the article does indeed appear in Monday's edition, you can check it out at www.cm-life.com.

Having said all that, I have it on good authority that the radio inteview I'm a part of will indeed still air on Monday on 91.5 FM between 6-6:30 PM. Check my last blog for a link to the website where you can stream it to your computer.

As for my work in the Yenny comic book, Dave Alvarez tells me that Alias Comics has been pretty bad with their shipping schedules, so he's not sure when the issue will be sent out to stores. He tells me that the entire comic book has been sent to them, though, and should be packaged and ready to go. So let's just keep our fingers crossed that it achieves the February launch date that I'd hoped for.

And my interview for the Saginaw News is still slated for Sunday, so keep an eye out for that, too.

Hopefully I'll have some more definite and less schedule-challenged news to share with you in the near future.