So here's the thing I've noticed lately. While LJ has its benefits over Facebook, there are a number of things that are just simply easier to post to FB (links, photos, random short thoughts or one-liners). So I post them there and forget to say anything about it here, because I've already said it and it has therefore been checked off in my brain as "done." But FB is much more of a disposable format; a status update has a readership lifespan of maybe a couple of hours (half a day at most). Meanwhile, my LJ posts are indexed by The Great Gazoogle, so there are a number of posts that still get read months or years later.

Meanwhile, despite the truncated shelf-life of a Facebook post, I have a more active readership there. Part of it, of course, is that the posts are shorter and easier both to read and to comment upon; LJ is more conducive to long discussions, but not too many people in my demographic have a lot of time these days for involved discussions on the intertron. Myself included.

This is not an "I'm abandoning LJ for FB" post, just a comment on what I've noticed lately regarding my own usage patterns. So if you only read my LJ, you might not know that the feep mugs and shot glasses are live in my eBay store, for instance, and you still might not if you're just skimming this post and don't really bother to read down this far. Also you might not care, but that's another matter entirely. (And, for the record, I feel squeamish enough as it is about pimping my wares, since I hate just about everything about being a salesman, so reposting pimpery requires actual energy because I'm somewhat embarrassed by it.)

One last thing - at this point pretty much my whole family (including aunts, uncles, and cousins) is reading my Facebook, so there's a certain degree of self-censorship that goes on over there. Not because I really have anything to hide from them, but because I just feel awkward broadcasting to my extended family about spending the weekend in the bathroom on my hands and knees, shoving caulk into every available crevice.

Finally got around to making a feep fan page on Facebook, so if you're on there and wish to do so, befan the feeps!

I'm sure I've used that subject line before, probably also the day before a big show.

However! I now have in my clutches a batch of feep mugs, feep shot glasses, and feep t-shirts, and I did not have to sit there and crank each of these out individually. Definitely trying to find the balance here between interesting, non-mass-produced merch and things I can sell where I only have to do the work once.

For the record, all this stuff was printed by a couple of local-ish guys (they're in Lago Vista, about 40 mins. northwest of Austin), and they are both business and life partners. So the new merch supports local artists, local businesses, AND the gay agenda, all on multiple fronts.

I am a bit trepidatious about this weekend, though. It's supposed to be Austin-cold (i.e., 40s and 50s) and possibly rainy. Austinites are notoriously squeamish about any weather that is not warm and sunny. Add to that the unpleasantness of the economy in general, and we'll see what kind of turnout there is. Shrug.

AAAANNNDDD ... phone meeting with the editor this afternoon. I have no particular reason to panic about this, but for some reason it always makes me nervous talking to her. It's kind of like a performance review in a way. I expect and welcome constructive criticism, and yet a tiny part of my brain is screaming that she's going to tell me the whole thing sucks and I'm fired. I think this is the same part of my brain that expects guys I am interested in to find me attractive, and it's just as wrong about that*, so I mostly try to ignore it.

* C'mon, when was the last time I was relentlessly self-deprecating at you? It's been awhile, admit it.

Monster C! Who did not actually receive the most votes (came in second place), but whose backers provided the most compelling arguments. I spent yesterday playing around with different design ideas since I wasn't really thrilled with the background as-is. Observe the results:



These colors may not wind up being exact (I think the shirts have to be CMYK, and this is RGB), but I, at least, would totally wear this on a shirt. :) [NB: The © info will be smaller on the printed version; the size here is just for web-resolution readability.]

Many thanks to all of you for your input!

I'm changing the way I do my feep shirts (I've been doing iron-on transfers that I have to cut out by hand, switching to direct-to-garment printing that I have found to be at least as durable, if not moreso). This does require me to put in minimum orders, though, so I'm not rolling out every single design right away. Instead I'm picking four to start with, and going from there. I already have three chosen, but can't decide on #4. So please, if you would, tell me which of these you would most want to see on a shirt. Pliz to comment with your opinion, yes?

Option A:

Option B:

Option C:

Option D:

EDIT:

For reference, here are the other three:

( yet more images )

Doot doot doo. At long last, may I present you with the newly-redesigned Feeping Creatures website. My eyeballs are about to fall out of my head from staring at the screen for so long, so I'm only going to do a spot-check for uploading errors. If you find any bugs please do let me know about them so I can fix them.

There's a ton of new content, so please take some time to look around. Some sections (especially stuff in the Extras area) I hope to add to sooner rather than later, but I'm opting to focus on getting this thing live instead of perfect. I know! Unconscionable, but there it is. I hope you enjoy.

I woke up about 4:00 AM with a major bout of insomnia. Around 5:00 I started to get hungry, so I decided to get up and have a snack, and since I was wide awake I thought, why not work on sanding these feeps that are sitting here while I wait for my snack to digest?

In the process of sanding a mini feep, said monster slipped from my fingers and down onto the rubber guard over the disposal. (Yes, I sand them in the kitchen. Makes cleanup easier.) Naturally, when I gingerly (but groggily) tried to pick it up, it instead popped down into the the disposal itself.

For obvious reasons I couldn't leave it in there, so there I am, 5:30 in the morning, insomnia buzz starting to wear off, trying to dig a tiny feep out from amongst the goo inside the disposal. We will now see what the long-term effects are of soaking a feep in 91% isopropyl alcohol.

My point is, yuck.

Also, I'm really tired today for some reason.

There's an interview with me up on DoorQ.com.

I don't think anyone will be shocked by any of the revelations therein, probably least of all by the Cillian Murphy bit.

But I mean, really, Captain America? Bleah.

You've been really wanting to go to an indie comic show. You didn't have to say anything; I can just tell. And how lucky you are that STAPLE! is this very Saturday!

It's at the Monarch Event Center in Lincoln Village (roughly at I-35 and 290, I think), and will be going on from 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM. I will, of course, be there with a host of monsters and minicomics. Alas, I did not get the Feep Mini Coloring Book #2 done in time for this show (I blame others), but I'm really, honestly hoping to have it done in time for CAPE in May.

At any rate, come to STAPLE! and load up on all kinds of independent artist goodness. Do it! Do it, I say!

I made the very first feeps of 2008 yesterday, which has caused me to reflect on how much has changed since the first feep in 2004. My style and technique have improved dramatically, obviously (it would be worrying if they hadn't), but also my resolve for keeping it all going. There are times when it's been easy, riding a wave of positive feedback; times when it's been more like work, having to squish out monsters when I don't feel like it; and times when it's been really hard, trying to puzzle out what comes next and how to get there in an absence of information (there is no How to Be a Feepmaster manual, unfortunately).

A few lessons have been reinforced:

• If you want to be a professional artist, you have to be able to turn on the art even when you aren't feeling inspired. It is certainly easier to work with the glow of inspiration, but if you have to wait for inspiration to hit you're going to blow your deadlines and then people will stop wanting to give you money.
  
• Stubbornness is a virtue. There is, as I said, no manual, so the learning experiences are going to be particularly tough. You must be alike unto the bulldog, teeth sunk in and holding fast to the flailing bull. In other words, tenacious and possibly a little bit insane.
  
• Patience is also a virtue. Some shows will suck. Sometimes sales will suck. Giving up at the first sign of trouble, though, will guarantee failure. This is the point at which you will have to decide how bad you want it, and how hard you're willing to work for it. Me, all I have to do is envision a life spent in an office in order to get my car back on the rails. (This is not a knock on office jobs overall, it's just that the stuff I'm qualified to do I would not be happy doing for the rest of my days.)
  

2007 was the best year ever for the feeps. Here's to topping that in 2008.

First, the Good:

The Kismet Gallery sent me a letter, which confused me as the show is not over for another 5 or 6 weeks, and because the envelope contained the return postage I sent them. The note included reads, "Yo, Dude, I'm enclosing your postage, hoping you will SEND SOME MORE SHIT." Apparently they need more feeps, so more feeps I shall give them!

The Bad is actually Good for those who were inquiring about cat-sitting, but nevertheless:

When I got back from the dentist today I noticed an object sticking out of the sidewall of one of my tires. The tire is a little low but not obviously deflating rapidly, so I'm afraid to pull the object out lest it turn into that scene from Once Upon a Time in China Part Whatever where the guy pulls the straw out of his neck and his head falls off. Since it's a sidewall puncture I don't think the tire can be plugged, and while I have a spare it's in mediocre condition and not really more reliable than a punctured tire for a drive to and from Dallas. The upshot being I am probably not going to Dallas at all for Xmas. I will most likely have to get at least one new tire, and since I just left a large sack with a dollar sign printed on it at the dentist I can't afford any new tires right now.

As for the Funny, I was attacked by my shirt, whose carnivorous nature I was previously unaware of:

( Observe the offending garment )

Actually, it turns out I'm going to be leaving the feep shadow boxes at the Lowbrow Emporium for the time being. Although the show they were in is over, the owner said I was welcome to continue to display them there. Since that's way better than having them sit around my apartment, I shall leave them at Lowbrow. I'll have one of them at Wheatsville, just so I have at least one showoff piece around.

I realize this changes your plans completely, and I apologize for being so horribly inconsiderate.

And now, back to feeping.

Oh, yes, it's that time of year. This weekend is the Wheatsville Arts Festival (Dec. 1-2 at the Wheatsville Coop, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM), whereat I shall have a booth. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous, so I expect it will be an insanely busy weekend. It would be really, totally awesome if people could come by throughout the weekend and help out a little. Specifically, I'm going to need the occasional runner to go get food, and the occasional booth-sitter so I can go to the bathroom. I would also really appreciate assistance with set-up and tear-down (mostly I need someone to help me set up the tent and tables, which means being awake and semi-functional at 7:30 AM on a Saturday; anyone? anyone? hello?). Tear-down is less painful since it happens at a time when normal humans might actually be awake, and again I mostly crave assistance with tent and tables. Let me know if you're up for helping out.

My online store is nearly devoid of feeps since I just did another restock at Sparks. I'd say if you're in or near Austin and want any feeps, either come to Wheatsville this weekend or hit Sparks since I won't be able to do any major online store restocking until next week.

For those of you not in Texas, I'm going to be in an art show at the Kismet Gallery in Troy, NY. The Designer Toy Show runs from Nov. 30 - Jan. 25. They're located at 71 Fourth St.

The Monster Mash art show at the Lowbrow Emporium is nearly done. I'm going to pick up my stuff this Wednesday (tomorrow!), so this is pretty much your last chance to see the shadow boxes up close & in person for awhile. Lowbrow is at 2708 South Lamar in Austin.

Finally, if you were considering commissioning anything from me for holiday gifts, please get me those orders ASAP. I get really, really busy leading up to the holidays and if you wait too late to put in a request I may have to turn you down. Fair warning!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go cackle maniacally and mutter to myself about world domination. They thought I was mad! MAD!

Tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 3) I'm going to be vending the feeps and the comics at the OUTer Film Fest, Austin's own queer sci-fi/fantasy/horror extravaganza. If I am unmistaken it's free to attend, so really you have no excuse not to go. Unless you do not find the concept of gays in space to be amusing, in which case all I can say is fine, BE that way. It's at the Austin Film Studios - click the link for times and directions and all that.

I have a wee favor to ask of you. This is one of those entirely optional things, do it only if you genuinely want to, and don't do it if you don't.

If you are so inclined, I would really appreciate it if people who enjoy the feeps would post a link to http://www.feepingcreatures.com in their blogs, and have maybe a little note saying what you like about them. A lot of people have done this already, and I really greatly appreciate it when that happens. I feel weird asking people to do it, honestly, but my business is promoted almost entirely by word of mouth. With the holidays approaching, it would be really beneficial to me to get a little traffic boost in before people start in on their gift buying.

And, as ever, if you are thinking of putting in a commission order for gift feeps, it's always good to get that to me as soon as possible. Or if you're signed up with a gift list service like Kaboodle and you want some feeps for yourself, add my site to your wish list.

Finally, if you want some stickers to hand out to people I always give those away for free. Just shoot me your address in an email and I'll get some sent to you.

Thanks in advance!

I'm in two art shows this month, and for once I'm remembering to post about them here (if you want to guarantee you'll hear about stuff like this you should sign up for my email lists, since I never fail to keep the lists informed: Feep list is here, Studio NDR list is here).

Anyway, shows. They're both group shows, so you'll have lots of very different art to look at. Oct. 2 - 31 is the Halloween show at Amy's Ice Cream on 6th Street. Go in, have some ice cream, look at the art, and then wander over next door to Sparks and buy some feeps. Reception date TBD.

Next up is the Monster Mash art show at the Lowbrow Emporium, or which there is this nifty poster designed by manlyart:



To reiterate, it runs from Oct. 13 - Nov. 30, and there will be an opening reception on Oct. 13 from 7:00 - 11:00, with a live art show and a table full of prints, shirts, feeps, and whatever else the participating artists want to bring by to sell (in addition to the art hanging in the show, obviously).

I'm working on a brand-new shadow box for the Monster Mash show, which I entirely expect to have finished despite the fact that I mucked up the frame (oak is hard; let's go shopping). If any of my photogeek friends (mybloodyself? mr_skullhead? giantrobo?) would like to volunteer to take pictures of it let me know.

Apparently someone (not sure who) made an RSS feed of the Daily Monster blog, so now you can get your morning feep slotted into your flist:

Go forth, and friend the feeps!

I just got back from Sparks, a little boutique on 6th street (right next to Waterloo Records and Amy's Ice Cream) and the location of my latest retail feeps adventure. It's far enough from The Stash that I don't forsee competition issues, and since the feeps are all handmade each shop has its own unique selection anyway. The exact address is:

Sparks Cards & Gifts
1014 West Sixth Street
Austin, TX 78703
(512) 477-2757

We're starting out doing a consignment setup. If the feeps sell well there Sparks will start buying them wholesale, so I've instructed the feeps to bug out their eyes in an extra-cute, tentacled-kitten sort of way. We'll see how it goes.