"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.