NEW
TO WANDERING ONES? For your sanity, go to the The first comic
The last comic is here Previous comic ItÕs not gettinÕ me!!
AUGH! Chisholm! DonÕt shoot! The illusions are fading! The colonel! is he...
Sorry, man. HeÕs done for. Damn it! Caught him right at the seam of his helmet!
Gentlemen, Those boys in the brush are about to press their advantage! .
© Clint Hollingsworth.
Redistribution is prohibited without written permission from the author/artist.
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07-02-10 I have a new book out! The Wandering Ones books were formerly published by Keenspot, but I didn't have a very good grasp on sales numbers, what royalties were owed and so on. I decided to do the third book through CreateSpace, a division of Amazon and take control of my own creative stuff. It's the first entire book in comic BOOK format (as opposed to strip format) and I have to admit, it's one of my favorite stories. I got a lesson in how my stories meander, after realizing that it took me 200 pages to tell the tale. The book is available through Amazon ( or CreateSpace) I make a LOT more through CreateSpace, but if you just happen to have a cart at Amazon and feel like throwing book 3 in, I still do alright. In other news, I have 20 pages of the Wolfrun's Scout Trial story drawn, and 12 more to go. Then I have to color the whole thing. I think this one will appear in printed book form and downloadable PDF. I will put a 10 page preview up when I get it done. All you folks who've donated will receive a PDF copy. I will be taking an 8 page break at the end of this story, (sometime in August I think) and my APA 5 buddy Daniela Moreschachi will be drawing a short tale of Wolfie and Blue Shadow in a ghost town. There's a VERY good possibility that I will be teaming up on a supernatural thriller webcomic with none other than Maritza Campos! More on this as the project progresses. I hope you're are all doing well.
Be totally excellent to each other! 04-12-10 and a few other shout outs... I'd really like to thank all the folks that have donated over the years (especially Stormwind13). Also I'd like to thank a fellow (who prefers anomynity) who sent a gift of a Prince Valiant book, the reproduction value of which was stunning. Also to Storm Crow, who sent me the awesome hand forged tomahawk head. (see some of his knife work in the forum). And thanks to all of you who volunteered to help me with moving the website. I had originally wanted to do it all myself, Mr. Independent. Then I realized how much I had been relying on Keenspot's automation, and how little I really knew about websites. Fortunately, Spencer M. made me an offer I couldn't refuse and is going to help me get your favorite adventure comic moved and working someplace besides Keenspot. (Thanks man!) All of you who have contributed, will be getting a link to a special PDF soon (and I hope a 50mb download won't freeze your computer) Watch for an email from me (but don't expect it tomorrow, I'm taking care of business as fast as i can) NEW FROM THE HOME FRONT: I hope the next time I write, it will be from a new hosting service with a whole new web design. Take good care of yourself folks, don't let life pass by without paying attention. It's finite. -Clint 01-05-10 So what will the new Wandering Ones site be like (assuming I can get it rehosted and working)? Not a lot different. I need to make a version without any Keenspot codes, but I don't have the ability to get complicated. The main thing is to get the comic displayed and the ad codes working so I don't get booted from my ad company. So, here is my to-do list: Find a good web host for
my three domain names By the way, I got a new used Mac over the holidays (with a credit card, sadly) and it's great, but the operating system is old OSX 10.3 so If you're contacting me on Facebook, I can't answer until I get an updated OS so that I can update my ancient version of Safari.
12-19-09 I've not been very good at any sort of extra activity lately. Poor at answering emails, not getting outside much either. We're shorthanded at work after the layoffs and maternity leaves. Next year I'll need to use my time much more efficiently. 8-7-09 Last year, I had an article published in the Backwoodsman magazine on layering survival gear. If you're interested, read here. I'm going to be having a fund raising drive in September, complete with downloadable premiums. My old Mac is getting cranky and I may need to replace it. We don't even have remotely enough to replace it at the moment. More on this later. Well, you probably already know that the 2nd Wandering Ones book is out. Wandering Ones: Hawk Talon also contains the Mad Scout story which is print only at this time. Includes The Hawk Talon saga, and Jack, Max and Wolfie's trip into the Western Alliance (which leads into the Mission storyline, the next to be converted to book form) Did you notice that I FINALLY made a SITE MAP page? Now pat my head and coo "good boy!" (If you see anything I've missed there, please let me know) I have a couple of new Fan Art pieces on the Fan Art page. Thanks to Jamais and Skynny for their kind consideration. 5-14-09 You might have noticed that Wandering Ones is now updating Tuesday and Friday. This fits my new schedule better. I'm having trouble getting Shin Kage updated more than once a week. Wandering Ones is now available
for the I-phone. #2: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSt ... 10875&mt=8 As for the second Wandering Ones book, I gave the files to Keenspot at the first of the year. Chris keeps telling me the bottleneck is at ComicsXpress. I wonder if I should just publish it myself, through Ka-Blam. For anyone wondering, I was not laid off, though some of my friends were. The ones lost, were not the ones last hired, but those with the most years with the company. IE: the more expensive (and loyal) employees. I probably shouldn't have worried, with what I make here, it would hardly have saved the company much to have let me go. There's a silver lining for us
though, Susie and I have learned to be a lot more frugal. Feels kinda
good, as long as the bills are being met. Not to say I'm cured of knife-a-holic
behavior.... I'm now making one of my
own! Prince Valiant Stuff: If you need a place to read the new Shultz written/Gianni drawn PV, my newpaper carries it on site. You can read it for free here. (along with others) Fantagraphics hasÊ 2 new Prince
Valiant editions coming out. One is a hardback version of the editions
they put out a few years ago, and the other isÊ an
imported black and white version from Portugal that caught my eye.
It is
not available through Amazon.com. (We expect copies will turn up on
eBay and Amazon's second-hand store at hugely inflated prices before
the year is out, though.) This is it! And there are, as we said, fewer
than 300 copies. We expect to be sold out within no more than a month
or two. It's a gorgeous, big 11" x 14" hardcover, and it's a thrill
to see Foster's sumptuous linework for these first two years reproduced
so crisply. Every Foster fan will need one! (It also includes a good,
heavily illustrated five-page introduction chock full of rare Foster
art.)" 2-25-09 Susie and I are finally getting a vacation! We got a good tax refund last year, and applied it wisely. Admittedly, we'll be going econo class all the way, but it's our first "get out of the area" vacation since 2003. I actually worked furiously to make sure that there would be Wandering Ones uploaded for this week, and the next, but I may actually be able to not miss an update! (Yes, I am taking my drawing stuff with me) Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep up the new format for Shin Kage up as well. Shin will be taking a little hiatus until March 10. Then things should get back to normal. Hey! Keenspot has been accepted by the Iphone App store as a vendor! Soon you will be able to read certain comics from your favorite Keen creators on your Iphone. I'm currently working on getting my Mountainworld comic formated for the new... um.. format. I'm also prepping it in book form. Lastly, I have fallen behind on my email. Gomen Nasai. If you haven't heard back from me, it's not because I'm purposely being a jerk,... I'm just a jerk who can't seem
to keep up. 01-23-2009 Shin Kage is getting kind of far along (more of an illustrated story that a true comic), though I admit it is a bit of a slow moving story as I just got Shin, Felice and Shoto aboard the Sea Wolf. Oh well, since that site was kicked off ADS DaQ, I'm not making anything from it. It's pretty much only done for fun at this point. I took the right too publish Mountainworld back from Brainscan Studios. Since last May, they've done exactly nothing with it. I hope to shop it around next summer, and while I have quite a few pages done, I still have more to do. Unfortunately, this will probably never see the inside of a comic shop as I had hoped. (If you're not that interested in comics, you should probably give this a skip...) The monopolistic Direct to Comic Shop distributor, Diamond International has instituted new policies that will arguably squeeze all the little guys out of the shops. Diamond VP Bill Schanes is interviewed here. Stephen Grant offers his opinion here. You know I'm a Star Wars geek,
right? Just finished reading Karen Miller's Clone
Wars: Wild Space. Forum regular Storm Crow has been making knives again! Check out this thread on the forum. And more here! On the home front, things are going pretty slow. This is usually a slack time of year here in North Central WA, but man! No one is doing much of anything. Hopefully I will stay employed. I hope things are going well with you and yours, folks. We've got a new president who's made some fairly large promises. Let's hope he can deliver. I'm hopeful. Courtesy of the IRS, Susie and I will be taking a little vacation at the end of February. I'll see if I can get ahead on the comics... Man. I'm just NOT
the most interesting blogger you'll ever find, that's for sure. 01-04-2009 Keenspot had a bit of a problem
with our ad system and a malware hacker. If you're on a windows PC,
and found anything funny on your visits during December, PLEASE run
some up-to-date anti-virus software on your machine. KEZ of Xylia
and War of Winds fame had this
to say... Kisai, Keenspot's tech person says... "the software I want people to check against currently is at http://www.malwarebytes.org/ Stay safe everyone! 11-10-2008 Also, the new Shin Kage story is starting to get to an interesting point. Thanks to those who have been reading it. The extra income from that comic helps at the end of the month. Sorry to all my readers out there
for not getting at least one page up last week. It was a heck of a week
though, wasn't it? A new President Elect, and half my friends are thrilled
at Mr. Obama's success, seeing a bright future, full of hope of a better
economy, help for the environment, better education. The other half
of my friends are terrified that the new president will turn the U.S.
into a socialist state where a person's gains are consfiscated (through
even more taxation) by the Government to share with the lazy, and that
he will take all our guns and gut the 2nd amendment. To some point,
I see their fears. The reason for the 2nd amendment is the same as the
slogan for "V for Vendetta". And I no longer trust my government. The future will tell us what happens,
but I would like to make two observations. The troubles with the economy have finally trickled down to Wenatchee. For the last few years, My job has been VERY busy, making ads for the businesses in the area to go into the our paper, The Wenatchee World. The owners were kind of thinking (as many local business people also thought) that our somewhat isolated area could weather the bad economics times with little impact. Well, Hell's come to Frogtown. The high gas prices impacted the very limited incomes here in the valley (and all of North Central Washington) and to put it mildly, business is down. EVERYWHERE. So people aren't advertsing as much (Sure times are tough, so STOP telling everyone where you are and what you have to sell). This means I, and my fellow designers are not as busy. Can you see where this is going? We had a company wide meeting this week, announcing some changes, and how the company was not projected to make all their budget goals in 2009. No Christmas bonus (No surprise, we expected to have a "frugal" Chrismas), no profit sharing for our 401Ks (again, no surprise, ya gotta have profit to share it) but the scary part? Lay-offs aren't ruled out. And the way I see it, the 2nd designers on each sales team would be very vulnerable in this situation. Susie and I have learned to live OK on very small paychecks, but if I get laid off, we're in BIG trouble. Part of the reason I fell behind last week, is just that I'm pretty stressed by it all. As are a great many people I'm sure. (Sorry for whining folks) Ah well, perhaps new opportunities are getting ready to present themselves. I need some woodstime.
09-29-08 8-18-2008 With Keenspot's new ad program, I'm just about making up for what I lose not working the other day. (unless you factor in the Sales bonus, that extra third of my salary needed to make a decent living, which my team hasn't hit since February!) I'm also working on two more books of Strip reprints similar to the Ghost Wind book. The first will chronicle Hawk Talon and intriques in the West, the second will chronicle the mission against the Reich's fuel depot. Of course all the side stories will be there, along with a few extras... I took a little overnighter to Ingalls Creek. Click the link if you'd like to read about it. Next weekend, I will be at the Earthwalk Northwest Gathering, so comics may be a little spotty. For any of you in
the Portland area, Jon Young will be conducting a lecture called 6-30-2008 Some very good news is on the horizon. I talked with my boss Russ, and it looks like I'll be able to work a 4 day schedule. I can't espress how much this can mean. An extra day a week could mean another strip, feelance illustration, or finishing the outdoor book I've been writing. It's not set in stone yet, so keep your fingers crossed for me! I'll need to generate around $300 a month, one way or another, but even if I have to Ebay stuff to make ends meet, I'll do it. The scribble that you clicked from is just a cover idea sketch that I'm working on for a second Wandering Ones book, that follows the events in Wandering Ones: Ghost Wind. I don't even have a working title yet, and I'm also trying to decide if I want to include the Walking Man story or just leave it web only with the book being solely Wandering Ones material. (and do I include the Mad Scout or not?) I was looking at Booksurge as a publisher, but Chris Crosby indicated that he would like to publish it POD style (Print on Demand). As publishing through Booksurge would cost me several hundred dollars and Keenpspot won't cost me a dime (and also published my first book) it took me about 2 seconds to make a decision. I could expect about the same amount of promotion from both. I eventually hope to have the whole series in print form. I thank those of you who gave your condolences about my family loss, it was my uncle Howard, my mom's brother. To be honest, I did not know him well, but I'm sad for my mom's sadness.
5-19-2008 I took a little trip out to the
Columbia
River last weekend. Things have been going pretty quietly lately. I still have not gotten around to talking to my boss about going to a 4-day work week. With as little as my team has been making it's sales goal (and thereby commission) I don't see how I could possibly make less using that extra day to work for myself, if I even half gave it an effort. (I was originally hired to work 4 days a week and the extra "marketing" day was added to entice me to move accross the mountains.) Just need to find a way to get my boss to agree. They actually don't have enough marketing stuff to keep me busy for 8 hours, anyway. I'm looking at a few other creative
outlets recently. I've made an aggreement with Brain
Scan studios to distribute Mountainworld
online. I'm busy prepping the pages for the first issue now. Others
will soon follow. Eventually, though, I will need to draw the remaining
56 pages. Another reason to go to 4 days a week at work. I may just stick with Ka-Blam. Susie still has not heard back from the publisher about her requested manuscript. She's starting to lose hope on this one. She's started her next manuscript. For some reason, I went a got myself a MySpace account. Still not sure why... if you have ideas on how to network with it, please email me and let me know! |