Suburban Tribe Business

OOPS! I forgot that I promised a certain nephew of mine that I would answer his "Ask a cast member" question today. The new story will start...
ON WEDNESDAY: Gas up the DeLorean and set the Wayback Machine, we're going back to 1996 to Alan, Dave and Skip's college days! You'll see how they met Tiffany and Carol and watch as Alan sets in motion the train wreck that is his present-day life! (HINT: Astute readers can comb through the archives for little clues about this story.) Be here on June 6 for "Paved With Good Intentions."

Site Redesign
By now, hopefully you've noticed that I've given the site a little facelift. It's taken more than three years to beat the ugly out of this thing, but I think this last thrashing has finally done it. The code was basically in knots from years of neglect, there were hundreds of lines of unneeded comments, and Blogger took forever to update to my external site.

Not anymore! This thing is mean, lean and clean as a whistle. Also, if your site was part of the comics links on the pervious site version, don't worry. I am going to put those back, I'm just working on a way to do it that doesn't drop 30 pounds of javascript into my head tags.

Suburban Tribe #1... & #2!
The first batch of ST#1 comics has shipped and should be trickling in to US readers' mailboxes over the weekend. If you live outside the US, give it a week or so.

Having learned my lesson, all of the strips are now being created for print resolution first, then being shrunk and posted to the web. This means that Suburban Tribe #2 will likely go on sale by the end of July.

Speaking of print comics, I am about to take the plunge and order up a copy of Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life. Anybody read one of these Scott Pilgrim books yet? Is it safe for me to order novels 1 and 2 unseen?

Suburban Tribe #1 ON SALE NOW!

36 pages of caustic, bitter, print resolution Suburban Tribe goodness! Click here to go to the store and buy a copy! Buy two or three, even! It's the only way I'll shut up about it!

"Conjugal Visits? Mmmm...

...not that I know of. Y'know, minimum-security prison is no picnic. I have a client in there right now. He says the trick is: kick someone's ass the first day, or become someone's bitch. Then everything will be alright. Why do you ask, anyway?"

IT'S HERE!

The first print edition of Suburban Tribe arrived on my doorstep today. I am pretty damn happy with how it turned out. It's thick, slick and looks like a real comic book. It's a bit of a surreal rush to see all of this work in print. (Who the hell had time to write and draw all of this?) The last time I made a print comic, I was in grade school, drew it with a ball-point pen on the back of a paper grocery bag and didn't get past page 3.

The comic will go on sale this Friday, May 26 at 12 am on this site. I'll also be selling them on the floor of Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC over the coming 4th of July weekend. And if you live here in Louisville, be sure to grab a copy at The Zone later this week. Also coming to the site store in the near future: A full-color poster featuring the entire cast and a brand-new Haley print. Not to mention Suburban Tribe #2!

Sorry for interrupting the story this week, but I have been wrestling with the third act of the current story, not to mention wrestling with ActionScript and rambunctious fourth-graders. Today's strip is a preview of the 6 all-new comics from The Permutation of Stupidity, which you'll also find in Suburban Tribe #1.

Look! Up in the Sky! It's a Bird!

One of my first freelance design jobs also got published this week; A billboard I designed as part of a campaign for an upcoming fund-raising event for The Louisville Zoo. This was also a bit of a rush. In the 10+ years I've been working in graphic design, I have never done a billboard before. The bus shelters should be coming out next (never done one of those, either!)

The billboard can be see off of I-71 near the Skate Park as you head into dowtown Louisville. If you live here in Louisville and would like to attend Zoofari! 2006 and help out our local zoo, click here for ticket information.

It's a Plane! No, it's...

Superman Returns' international trailer leaked out on to the web this week. I really liked the first trailer, but like everyone else, this one just absolutely blew me away. Why in the hell did they not release this here in the states?

Geek that I am, this is probably the summer movie I'm looking forward to the most this year. I consider Spider-Man 2 to be the gold standard for superhero movies, with Batman Begins a close second. I'm very curious to see how Superman does after being off the big screen for 20 years.

Too bad I'd need a gun to my head before I bought a current Superman comic, though.

Ramblings of a Self-Employed Madman

1. Today's strip would be a good time to point out that drugs are bad, bad, bad! Booze, however...

2. Kids, it's like this: Mr. Lee is not as dumb as he looks. His wife will back him up on this. I know your regular teacher doesn't let you go to the restroom 14 times an hour, so save it, okay? Pretty sure she doesn't let you tell her how mean she is when she makes you do your in-class assignments instead of screaming at your friends from across the room, too.

3. I actually thought this new poster for Superman Returns was classy and quite striking. Thank God there have been a ton of faceless internet forum posters to inform me that it is, in fact, horrible, terrible, ugly and homoerotic. What did I ever do before you, internet? Say we'll never part.

4. I cancelled my World of Warcraft account while I spend time getting my new freelance life off the ground. I'll be back eventually, but I seriously can not wait to get hold of the expansion later this year and roll one of those awesome-looking Draenei. (Paladin, of course.)

I read in an interview with one of the developers that the graphics engine for WOW is actually constructed to be replaceable. Meaning that instead of going back to the drawing board for a WOW 2.0, they can just distribute a patch and have a whole new graphics engine for the game. That totally blows my mind! Has any game company ever done that before? It's starting to look like this game will never be off my hard drive.

OFF TO THE PRESS!

It's off to the press! Here are the details of the new-to-print Suburban Tribe #1 (you can download a 5-page 1 MB Adobe PDF preview right here) :

* 36 pages containing 50 remastered Suburban Tribe stips, including the stories "Haley Returns" and "The Last Man on Earth."

* Also featuring 6 never-before seen comics from The Permutation of Stupidity, my "altie" newspaper submissions. Only availablie in this comic!

* Black & White interior on glossy paper stock, NO ADS!

Barring any printing issues, the comic should be available by the end of May. How will you be able to purchase this comic? You have several options:

1. The comic will be available from this site via Paypal. The cost will be $3.99 for the comic plus $1.00 shipping ($1.50 shipping outside the US.)

2. If you live here in Louisville, KY, local comic book shop The Zone will have copies for sale.

3. Lastly, I have tentative plans to attend Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina. I will not have a table, but will be walking the floor July 1 with plenty of copies as "fishing bait" for pro publishers. If you can track me down, I'll gladly sell you one!

So, there you have it. I know that there are a lot of people out there that think the web is the future of comics, but there is little denying the thrill I'm getting from seeing my work in print for the first time.

I Don't Believe it!

If you are one of the caring souls who commented or sent me an email to wish me well in my new career endeavors, thank you. I have not been ignoring everyone who has written or called me over the last week and a half. I have been dilligently working on the print edition of Suburban Tribe #1, and as of today, it is finished and ready for the press!

Little tip to those of you who want to author your own webcomic some day: Create them at print resolution first so you don't have to create them twice if you ever want to make a print comic out. Learn from me on this one, folks, I implore you. It will be a pain in your rump if you don't.

I will post a 3-4 page PDF preview of the comic later this week, along with details of how and when you will be able to purchase a copy--which will hopefully be available no later than the end of this month.

Lastly, forgive me for interrupting the story today. I just could not resist this editorial comic when I heard the news last week about Lucas releasing the orginal theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy on DVD. And before you ask, yes I will buy them. :)

Okay, I gotta go to bed. I'm teaching English to Middle-Schoolers most of this week.

"This above all: to thine ownself be true"

So here's what's been going on: Three weeks ago, I quit my day job. I gave no notice, I simply turned in my key and walked away. This is something I have never done before. It was by no means easy, but after much discussion, my wife and I felt that it was necessary.

I'm not going to go into any details, except to say that over the last several months my emotional and physical health started to be affected by long hours and adverse working conditions. At the age of 33, I had developed high blood pressure and an inability to sleep more than a 5 hours a night for weeks at a time because I couldn't "turn my brain off," as they say.

It should not be difficult for many of you to read through this site and tell what I think of the current state of the American workplace. Not every office environment is suited for every person, but after working full-time for 3 different companies since I graduated from college 10 years ago, I must face the truth that I have yet to find one that suits me.

So what have I been up to these last few weeks?
A lot of running back-and-forth between my home office and various institutions in an effort to put myself back into the substitute teaching system. I have been a sub on and off since I got out of school and I am about to be "on" again indefinitely. So watch out, kids: Mr. Lee is back, he's got a stack of detention slips as thick as your Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper, and he's not afraid to use them!

I've also been doing a bit of networking as a freelance designer. I landed my first commission a couple of weeks ago for the Louisville Zoo. As this rush job comes to an end this week, look for billboards, bus shelters, magazine ads and posters (all designed by yours truly) plastered all over Louisville, KY that will be promoting Zoofari! 2006, the Zoo's big fund-raising summer dinner party. Check out my freelance website here.

Uh huh, and what about the strip?
I'm glad you asked. Since quitting my job, I have also been working feverishly on the first print edition of the Suburban Tribe comic.

This comic is days away from being sent to press and I am very hopeful that it will be available by the end of May. The comic will feature the story arcs "Haley Returns" as well as "The Last Man On Earth" in addtion to 6 exclusive pages from my "altie" submission comic "The Permutation of Stupidity."

Suburban Tribe #1 will be used to promote this site in addition to being a supplement to other comic series proposals that I (along with other co-creators) will be submitting to many publishers. It's coming along quite well and I'm very excited to finally see it become a reality and be able to offer it to you.

So now you're up to date. Thanks for bearing with me on this crazy roller coaster, and please stick around to find out if I make it as a comic artist in this life! I'll try not make it too boring, I promise.