I Just Blogged To Say I Love Me.

Hehe..
It hasn't rained praise just yet, though the people who commented on my 24 Hour Comic, through email and on a few forums, mostly count for a lot, personally. Even my oldest friend Tom was full of praise which was very nice. I'm not sure how much praise it's worth, really - I personally have to conclude from this experience that I think my work is better when I have the time to thing through what I want to do. A 24 Hour Comic is stressfull in this sense because every story choice you make will affect later pages, which are only a few hours away. You can just see yourself cursing at the 'yourself' from a few hours ago because of this shitty plotline or for having to draw this or that or fix stupid decision this or that. It's like you're trying to please your very-near-future self and, well, I'm hard to please. So glad no writers have to put up with me.

As exciting as the big 24th of April event promises to be, I am pretty damn sure I won't join. Then again, Jeroen Mirc (Dutch comics journalist from ComicBase.nl) and Gregory seem to bet I will, anyway. What kind of workaholic must I seem to the world ?

My thumb has gone numb (hehe.. "I'm a poet and I didn't even knoet" as I wrote in above mentioned comic) in the process. Experienced colleagues (not comic artists but the ones from my 'real' job) told me this is probably RSI. So perhaps I should tone down the comic work for a bit, because it feels really damn awkward. Like it's asleep or frozen. It's been like that for over 24 hours (heh) as I write this. Luckily, that, and being really exhausted still, seem to be the only souvenirs from all this.

Enough about that. Beavis & Butthead were on MTV (Netherlands) tonight which was nice to see again. I read it on the Stripnet Stripliefhebbers forum while at work and called my roommate, because it's probably about his most favourite show on the planet.
Have to admit that watching Beavis and Butthead trying to grow corn by talking to it ("What is your problem ! Grow ! Next time I'm going to get the belt !" "There isn't going to be a next time !" *stomping on the poor little corn plant*) was funny. I hadn't seen that episode before.

More boring personal stuff to report ? Only about my plans now that this comics event is over.
I've (this evening, in fact, against better judgement) resumed converting the Probeersel books. That's priority one, really, on my list. That, and of course the running comics: The Grim DotCom (backstash is slimming fast yet again), Worst Case Scenario and Penguism. Two of which aren't even in my name, really - I'm doing other people's work. Ok, perhaps I *am* a workaholic..
While preparing (mentally) for Sunday I dug up the old Mephisto's Story text that I wrote for the Non Biblia Sacra project. It's so damn fucking good I can't believe *I* wrote that. I have to give Goethe most of the credit though, I reread Faust (the full version) like five times WHILE writing that. Mephisto, he's all Goethe - with a touch of the mysterious guy in me (which you fans all know from the Probeersel books). But it's got great plot and character development and I really badly want to see it in finished shape. I'm not too thrilled about probably having to be the one to draw it (gritty, realistic style with a nearly Burtonesk-batman darkness to it is definately something I haven't ever even gotten close to doing before) but I just want to READ this. I want to see it. Not just read the text file in notepad, I want to really SEE Mephisto, and Anna, and Moses Stairwalker. I wish a much better artist than me would do me the honor to draw it, but I know that's not gonna happen. So lil' ol' René is probably gonna have to cram this onto paper and with any luck, it'll come out incredibly sucky.
I don't think I care anymore, though - I really just want this story to mature into comic form, then be sent out into the world. It's some of the best shit I've ever written. It may just be even better - not necessarily more meaningful though - than the Probeersel books.
So who knows.. I'll probably try to make time to do that as well.

Other than that I think I'm gonna start trying to be a little less productive. The numb thumb is just one symptom, I've had a lame hand before, intense fatigue, my resistance to illness is definately diminishing (though that might have something to do with atmospheric conditions at work as well) and much, much more is trying to tell me I work too hard.
Tone it down a bit, René. No need to work yourself to death just yet.
Ah, who am I kidding. Limits frustrate me - I'll probably never quit trying to test and raise them.

In any case, I'll try to relax a bit THIS WEEK. Could be a very good start.