Howefitz Blog

After much deliberation, it has been decided that Joanne Owens (@hangglided on twitter) is the winner of my Sweet As Sugar Milk contest. She’ll be receiving her copy of Sugar Milk in the mail soon, I’m shipping it today! Congrats, and thank you so much Joanne!

With that, I am pleased to announce that through the generosity of my blog readers, friends, family, and a few impromptu garage sales (not to mention most of my tax return), Kat’s trip to Australia with People to People is now reality! She flies out on the 16th for 17 days in the Land Down Under. I can’t believe that it’s that soon! Incidentally, on the graphic above, I found a font on Artweaver called ‘Australian Sunrise’. What else would I use? Here’s a glance at Kat’s itinerary while she’s down there:

In my quest to develop a webcomic based on my family, I have found myself exploring what it is about the webcomics that I read that keep me coming back. A lot of that has to do with what’s below the comic: many creators blog underneath their comic updates. These blogs, like any blog, contain everything from helpful insight to what the artist ate for dinner.

One creator that includes helpful content is Travis Hanson over at his webcomic The Bean. Recently, he posted a blog entry titled Your Adventure: Creating Your Story. The entire post is well worth the read, but this passage caught my eye:

Yesterday, I gave a little more details in to the motivations of my creating a webcomic. I honestly thought I’d hit on a new idea: chronicling, with sequential art, the life of a dad and his family. However, in my quest to find knowledge and inspiration, I Googled ‘Daddy Webcomic’, and the screen filled with hits from a site called sillydaddy.net.

I am not alone.

Silly Daddy was/is created by Joe Chiappetta of North Riverside, Ill. I found some interesting facts about Silly Daddy over at the Geek To Me blog at chicagonow.com:

Since I was a little boy, I’ve wanted to make cartoons. The dream has taken many forms, from animation to comic books. I look at my children today, and I don’t want them to see a man who didn’t accomplish his dreams.

I’ve already detailed here how I’m putting more effort into developing a webcomic based on the very family I hope to make proud, so I hope it will not come as a surprise that my blogging will become less frequent as I focus on my webcomic.

Yes, you read that right. Today is the day that you can walk in to nearly any comic book store and receive one, or many, (depending on the store owner) free comic(s)!

This day always excites me, but I’m excited even more this year because I have to drive to Denver early morning anyway for Kat’s ‘Appointment Ceremony’ into People to People. This is the ceremony that will make her an official Student Ambassador for the United States to represent the country this year to Australia! We’ll get to hear a real U.S. Ambassador speak and celebrate this great honor.

Today’s kids are spoiled. They can have cartoons 24-7, on demand, no questions asked. Here at Howefitz Blog, I’d like to start  a tradition of making Saturday morning an event again. Cartoons belong on Saturday morning!

Please excuse the crudeness of the above comic. When inspiration strikes, I have to get it down on paper. Since discovering the blogging lifestyle, I now feel like I should share everything online…

If you follow me on twitter, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’ve been geeking out on my favorite webcomic, Hijinks Ensue. In fact, I went back to the beginning earlier in the week, and got to the end late last night.

Today’s kids are spoiled. They can have cartoons 24-7, on demand, no questions asked. Here at Howefitz Blog, I’d like to start  a tradition of making Saturday morning an event again. Cartoons belong on Saturday morning!

While surfing the worldwide web last night, I came across a review of Muppet King Arthur published by BOOM! Kids Comics. The review was on School Library Journal and was written by Katherine Dacey. I have not read this comic yet, so for those of you that don’t like to read reviews, don’t worry. This is not a review, it is commentary on what was said in a review.

You awaken in your jammies and stumble over to the television. You heart pace quickens as you prepare for the colorful adventures that await you. It’s Saturday morning, and the cartoons are going to be great.

Of course, today’s kids are spoiled. They can have cartoons 24-7, on demand, no questions asked. Here at Howefitz Blog, I’d like to start  a tradition of making Saturday morning an event again. Cartoons belong on Saturday morning!

I have already reviewed Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but at that time, I had only seen one episode. That was over a year ago, and as I’ve continued to watch the show, I’ve become more enthralled with it’s family atmosphere. Not just in the ‘no one cusses or makes a lot of innuendos’ sort of family atmosphere, but a genuine sense of family among the characters.

I have been a fan of Kyle Baker‘s for a while now. Actually, it’s been a decade. I remember seeing a lot of Y2K-themed books in 1999, but ‘I Die at Midnight’ popped from the shelf. It was how I ‘found’ Kyle Baker. The artwork looked more like animation cels than a comic book. And the story of a man who wants to end it all after getting dumped must have struck a chord in my 21 year old heart. The subsequent return of the girlfriend with our hero attempting to vomit the pills he just overdosed on, well, pure comic genius! It is the only Y2K book that I will still pick up and read and enjoy. (You can read the entire graphic novel for free at kylebaker.com!)