Yesterday was a Fremont Market day. We’re not getting rich but we are continuing to learn. The lesson from yesterday was, people buy comics. We’ve got zines, posters, cards and original art. We’ve sold a little of each. Yesterday we debuted our first Mighty Nizz comic and sold more copies of it in one day than we’ve sold of anything else. Chances are we would have sold more if more folks had known it was a comic.

This will be my last post from this version of my website. If all goes well I should be able to continue to send you email newsletters but you may have to approve a new subscription. Thank you for reading!

I’m changing webhosts in the next couple of weeks. It’s financial issue, not a service one. Bluehost has been fine but the price went up and the new price doesn’t work for our budget. I had a couple of chat sessions with a Bluehost rep. I’m posting the second one because I think it’s funny. I think the rep did her job well within the constraints she had to in. In the end the rep does sort of offer me what I’m asking for but then I’d looked at other services and decided to move on.

Busy, busy. Skookworks.com will be getting a redesign soon. This is likely to be my last newsletter until after that happens. We’re still working out what will be available. Sarah’s website and this one should be getting combined. Both Sarah and I still plan to send out newsletters but we’re not sure on the schedule. I think we’ll be able to migrate all y’all to the new service but you might need to approve a new subscription.

In the meantime, here’s a Frankenstein Monster and his cats.

In black and white.

And color.

Thank you for reading!

See you on the other side!

The most frustrating part about delivering mail is that, while delivering mail, I can’t do anything else. Not safely anyway. I’m either driving or walking. Neither of those activities can be paired with writing or sketching. At my previous jobs I had some time when I could make notes or do a quick drawing for a project that I would work on when I got home. Not this job. My brain still insists on giving me ideas. I try to appease it by texting myself very simple notes and that helps a little but then I’ve got all these ideas stacked up and no “extra” time to work on them.

I’ve started listening to youtubes on my phone. Some of them are podcasts, some of them are youtubes that have minimal images and so can be listened to without losing much. (I’m not sure what the definition of a podcast is – I think of it as an audio stream, no pictures.) I don’t use any earphones or earbuds. Number one, we’re not supposed to. Number two, I’m exactly the sort of person who shouldn’t block out too much of the world while driving. I’m not dangerous but I am likely to miss a delivery if I’m too caught up in something. So I turn my speaker up loud when I’m at a cluster box unit or when I’m delivering to a line of mailboxes. I pause the feed when I have to drive any distance (mail trucks are noisy) or I need to deliver a parcel to someone’s porch.

At home I will watch youtubes on comics, movies, sociology, horror fiction and some politics. Since most of those are better when I can watch them I’ve had to look for other channels at work. Right now I’ve got a mix of true crime, historical tragedies, weird disappearances and creepypastas getting served to me. Most episodes are between 20 and 40 minutes. Sometimes I get creeped out. Sometimes I get surprised. A lot of time I am reminded that humans are fragile beings who aren’t as smart as they think they are.

The main channels I’ve been listening to are:
Whispered Diaries (short creepypastas)
Mr. Creeps Encounters (longer creepypastas)
Kyle Hates Hiking (true stories of bad things happening in the wilderness)
Heart Starts Pounding (true crime, disappearances, urban myths)
Scary Interesting (wide variety of true stories of mostly awful events)

Having other people’s stories to listen to has meant that my brain is serving me less random ideas. It’s also meant that I get off work feeling a bit like I’ve slept through my shift, sort of like I’ve been dreaming.

As far as art projects go – I’ve been working on Daughter of Spiders and formatting zines. I don’t have anything I can show for Daughter but here are some zine covers –

If you’re in Seattle next Sunday, come see us at the Fremont Sunday Market. Otherwise, I will see you next Monday morning.

Cheers!

Our third venture at the Fremont Sunday Market went well. It rained while we were setting up. That sucked. Fortunately it was only us and the tent that got uncomfortably wet. We managed to keep all the art dry. By the time the Market was open for the public the rain had stopped and the clouds were wandering off. The rest of the day gave us sunshine and warmth. And visitors and customers. We made more sales than last time, more than breaking even.

We brought new zines and new prints – including our first set of stickers (the many colors of Cthulhu).

When we didn’t have customers we had a great time people watching.

This morning I’m tired and sore and I’ve got my long week (six days in a row) ahead of me at the post office. Yay!

I hope your week is fun – productive if you need it to be but relaxing if not. See you in seven!

We’ve got a rhythm. Up at 3 am, get Sarah settled with whatever she needs to manage pain, then I have coffee and update my socials. Breakfast. Art. A chore or three. I’m off to the post office at 7:08 so I can clock in at 7:30. Eight and a half hours later I head home. Dinner while watching some show. Conversation. Maybe some art. Maybe a chore. Bed. I read a few pages aloud of a book. Sleep.

It varies of course. On my days off we like taking a morning nap on the couch. Sarah has a bunch of different projects and obsessions that she wrangles daily (hourly) depending on her energy and pain levels. Which project I work on depends on what my brain is willing to focus on and what I have a deadline for. This week, for instance, I made progress on Daughter of Spiders illustrations, did one illustration for fun (another version of the Milpitas Monster – that’s the one that opens this newsletter), printed out some illustrations for our next day at the market and updated an illustration for my Redbubble store.

We’ve participated in two Fremont Sunday Markets now. Our first time was, to me, mostly a learning experience – figuring out what we were doing wrong more than what we were doing right. We had a few interested folks but they were just a tiny portion of the crowd and our conversations were pretty short. Our second time was much more engaging. Longer conversations. People who stopped and looked at the art and gave positive opinions even when they weren’t making purchases. We got clues as to what people might want more of. It’s both gratifying and weird when someone thinks highly of my work. I don’t suffer from imposter syndrome. Maybe I will if we become rich and famous but currently I just do what I do and appreciate it when someone else appreciates it. I was surprised by the variety of folks who were attracted by the art. It’s not that I had a picture of who our audience might be. It’s more that I didn’t expect a range maybe? It wasn’t the entire range of the Seattle population but it was more than just moms with kids (for Nizz) or male nerds (for other stuff).

Below is my original Werewolf vs Bigfoot illustration. I did it in 2024 while learning Clip Studio. I did 365 pieces and it’s one of my favorites.

Below is the color version that I worked up this week. The color one is available on schtuff in Redbubble.

I’d originally imagined doing the Milpitas Monster illustration in color but, for now at least, I really like the black and white version.

That’s it for this week. Be good. Be kind. See you in seven!

(Photo taken right after we finished setting up. The Market didn’t open for another couple hours.)

On June 14th Sarah and I ran a booth featuring my art at the Fremont Sunday Market. We had made prints, buttons, key chains, stickers, zines and posters. It was the first time we had done a market and the first time we’d sold merch in person since we’d been to comic conventions decades ago. It was fun. It was hot. It was educational. There’s nothing like doing something to discover what you hadn’t realized you needed to do.

Now we’re working on better ways to present our schtuff, not just so passers by can see it more easily but also to keep it from getting blown over by the wind. The breeze that day was minor but it was enough to keep knocking over our displays. We’re also figuring out what other schtuff to offer. Most of what we had featured our girl, the Mighty Nizz. She looked good and she got attention but we realized that, by only having Nizz images to see, it looked like we were just selling kid stuff.

The folks attending the Market are looking for all kinds of different things – tasty food, cool clothes, snazzy jewelry, this, that, the other thing and stuff they didn’t know they wanted. As such, it was to be expected that most people walked on by. Those who stopped, those who Sarah talked to when she was out and about, those who asked me what I was drawing – they liked what they saw and all of them went away with info on how to find more of our schtuff online. For that, the day was a success.

Last week and next we’re working at rearranging our presentation and getting new schtuff together for the next Market. I’m having fun laying out and printing zines. We having a bunch of postcards printed using images from my archive of illustrations. Sometimes that means I have to add new art to the illustration so it fits the 5×7 aspect ratio of the postcards.

For instance, this illustration was originally done to wrap around a mug.

We wanted to make it available as a miniprint so I added some forest above the bridge.

Then there’s my tribute to the cover of Abby Road – Yellow Brick Road – also originally designed to wrap around a mug.

So this that works as a miniprint I’ve added a glimpse of the Emerald City.

I’m not posting the progress spreadsheet this week. There’s been a lot of progress but it’s been on things that aren’t on the sheet. If you’re in the Seattle area this Sunday, please join us at the Market.

Otherwise, see you in seven days!

Our second day at the Fremont Sunday Market. More fun, more learning. Always with the learning.

One of the biggest things we learned from our first participation, based on observing how other artists displayed their wares, was to elevate the work. That is – put it where people can see it without having to get too close.

Variety. As much as some people love the Mighty Nizz, when she was the star of every illustration it looked like we were catering to children. We believe that people of all ages can use weird stories and illustrations.

Defense against the dark arts. Or the wind. Our first week there was a slight breeze. It kept knocking over our displays. This time we put up the sides to our canopy and, even with a stronger breeze, our displays stayed upright.

Original art sells. By that I mean the physical art I’ve been drawing and sticking in file cabinets over the years.

These friendly fellows now live in someone else’s home. Yay!

Our next Market day will be on July 12th. Much to do to get ready. Should be fun!

As we get used to this new normal I’ve made a little progress on the longer term projects –

Have a safe and happy 4th of July! We and the cats will be sleeping through the boombooms but if you or your dogs find this time stressful I hope that this year is calmer than most.

See you in seven!

Ooops.

I didn’t mean to let this much of a gap go between newsletters. The first week was an accident. We were busy and I forgot to write one. Then we were busy and I just didn’t write another one. Then … hell, I’m not sure what happened then but May went by fast.

As I said, we were busy. Sarah has been writing essays and fiction and she’s begun to record youtube videos. And cooking. And working with a time bank. And twisting her ankle. (Gravity loves her and calls her earthward far too often.) We’re both prepping for selling at the Fremont Craft Fair this coming Sunday, June 14th. We’ve got a canopy, weights to hold it down and a lot of prints and posters of the Mighty Nizz. We’ve got a way to take credit cards. This will be the first time we’ve tried selling directly to the public. We’re going to have fun. The plan is to sell at the Fair every other week on Sunday. I’ll still be delivering mail the rest of the week. Once we get used to it we intend to attend every week.

I’m continuing to post daily on my Tumblr, Blue Sky and Substack accounts. And, of course, I’m continuing to draw.

A good friend is in the process of setting up a tiny home. Last week she sent me photos of how she is decorating it.

Redbubble notifies me when someone orders one of my designs so I saw that someone had ordered large stickers. I never thought they’d be used this way! So fun!

I hope that the last few weeks have been good to you. I will post again next week. I might even manage to write a bit more. In the meantime, here a few more creature designs for The Surrilana Depths.

See you in seven!

There are three sorts of days each year when I feel like I’m actually doing something for America and my community as a mailman. One of those days is when I deliver mail-n ballots. The second of those days is when I pick up completed ballots.

The third day is the second Saturday in May. That is when we carriers pick up bags of non-perishable food left by our customers as part of Stamp Out Hunger: the National Mail Carriers Food Drive. That happened last Saturday. My customers left out enough donations to fill two parcel hampers. Not bad.

Sarah has been busy working on our websites and stores and a youtube channel. A glimpse of that can be found on her website. And cooking. And busily working to make community connections. Busy. Busy. Busy.

What did I get done? Here’s the spreadsheet –

I’ve continued to post older illustrations to my substack, bluesky and tumblr accounts every day. New projects are in the works. Because of course.

One of the projects I keep noodling away at is The Surrilana Depths. Given its length it will probably be a long time before I’m able to start posting pages but I do have concept sketches I can share. Surrilana is a Lost World. Lost Worlds mean prehistoric creatures, weird creatures and/or both. I’m playing around with the idea of animals that have evolved from stock that secretly survived the asteroid’s impact 65 million years ago.

There have been a lot of weird animals on this planet since fish decided that the ocean was too cramped. And similar animals have evolved to fit similar niches at different times. It’s hard to invent an animal that’s too weird to exist.

Time for me to get back to the drawing board.

Have a great week! See you in seven!