2017 was a hell of a year, and we all know it. On the personal side I spent much of it dealing with family health issues, which was hard too. I was always an idealist, but never an optimist. I don't know what this new year will bring, but let's hope somehow it's better than the last one.
Comics-wise, it was busy for me. In the spring I published King-Cat 77 and Jenny Zervakis' Complete Strange Growths book in quick succession. Then in the fall I put out a new edition of Pascal Girard's sweet and funny Apartment Number Three. Additionally, the fine folks at Uncivilized Books published my South Beloit Journal. These can all be purchased online at the Spit and a Half distro site.
Speaking of the distro, it continues to grow not only in size, but in the time it requires of me. I'll turn 50 this year and at some point I will need to refocus my attention on my own comics. But the distro is also such a big part of who I am, and how I want to function in this world. It's tough to balance.
Balance may be my key word of 2018. Things are out of hand -- in the world, in my head -- and I'm looking to restore some steadiness. On my Patreon page I wrote recently about the three things that have never let me down in this life: Zines, Nature, and Zen. As the world outside rumbles off its axis, I'm finding myself in retreat towards these grounding forces in my life. I also have the feeling that I'm running out of time. Fifty is young in most terms, but not for Porcellinos. I'm hoping I have fifteen more years. Anything beyond that will be gravy. If I'm looking at the limits of life in the suddenly foreseeable future, I need to make some serious decisions about what that life is going to entail. I feel like I'm on the cusp of change again.
One of the changes I plan to make is to limit my time spent on social media. In many ways social media was made for me as an artist. I love to share, to communicate, and especially in the form of small tidbits and little asides. But the rise of anti-rationality, argumentativeness, and snark on social media is depressing to me. I'll still be online on Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram, etc etc, but in a less interactive way. If I can swing it. Addictions are hard to kick.
Meanwhile, this blog has languished somewhat. I hope to come back to it again this year and begin posting more things here rather than on other more corporate platforms. Look for my "Fave Comics of 2016" (!) list shortly, and then my 2017 List soon after.
I have King-Cat 78 in its wrapping-up phase, and hope to publish it in February. After that, the next two issues are already conceived and I should be able to get a lot of work done on them quickly, with at least one of them also being published in 2018. And my next D+Q book, From Lone Mountain, will be published in March, collecting King-Cats no. 62-68, plus bonus material.
So, we'll see. Thanks for all your support this last year, and all these years. It means the world to me.
Talk soon,
John P.
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