"Post No. 626"

The above piece of artwork was something I ran across while cleaning out the garage. It's dated 1976 and I titled it, "The Breaking of Bell's Cord". Why I called it that beats the hell outta me. I was still a hippy then, doing odd pieces of artwork and more than likely still putting odd(er) substances into my system. So, darken the room and turn on the black light, man, 'cause it's done in "Day-Glo" paints!

While cleaning out VHS tapes for the yard sale I ran across a copy of the old 1980's "Zone Troopers" flick, which I watched again just because it's such a "fun" thing. "The Iron Sarge" incorporates a lot of the feeling of such characters as "Sgt. Rock" or "Sgt. Fury".

Just about finished up two different comic strips I'd been working on for the past year or so. Then I'll be returning to work on a three issue humor title I took a break from, which, when completed as well, will give me something like 6 complete comic book's worth of stuff to publish IF I ever get around to it. The total consists of one adventure-hero title, one team book special (of 40 pages in length), one humor special, and a 3-issue lmt. humor series. There's really only one of these strips that I deem worthy enough of making into a regular-type comic book, so the others will more than likely be some sort of small press effort, either digest-size or magazine-size in B&W. The adventure-hero bookis the only one of the lot that I think would hold my interest long enough to make it a continuing series of any sort. ALL of these titles tie in to one another "someway or another". As I've mentioned before, every character and comic strip I've ever done is in some matter connected to some "other" comic strip I've done, no matter how silly one is compared to the "seriousness" of the other. (A whole Puck Universe, so to speak.)

The total number of pages completed on these projects from the past 2-3 years is something like 140-150 pages.

Back on the 14th. of this month I completely forgot that it was my 9 year anniversary where I work! Geez, 9 years...that's a looonnngggg time to do the sort of work that I do, which is mostly manual, physical labor, and with the years passing I truely wonder just how many more I can endure? I have no actual retirement plan outside of savings, so I suppose when I finally get to the point that I'm not able to do my job and the employers put me out to pasture, then will be the time I'll have to break down and sell out my collections as a suppliment income to whatever social security I'll draw. But I've always been a resourceful type and even when i was unemployed found ways to bring extra income into the household, and as long as my wife and my health holds out, we'll be okay (pending some unexpected financial situations).

Right now, where I work, days are constantly steady with sales, and at times outdo the wholeside side of the business. Still nothing like it was back in the 1990's or pre-9/11 days, however.

Currently stuck at 999 on my eBay feedback and with no money in my Paypal account to get that one feedback to hit the 1,000 mark. My eBay sales last time were the pits with no buyers on any of the 6 items I listed. (Those items are now part of the stuff for the yard sale.)

And I'm trying to "recuperate" a bit after all the yard work I did yesterday. Started around 11 AM mowing both my mom's yard and my own back yard with the riding mower, then came back home and finished up the front and side yards here with the push mower, then back to mom's to finish the trim work with a weed-eater, then cut out a huge bundle of dead limbs from a large bush in her back yard, then trimmed all of her hedges for her and baged/cleaned up that mess! My arms are sore from wresting with the steering wheel on the riding mower, my sholders are sore from using the psuh mower, and my hards wouldn't hardly grip from the vibrations from the weed-eater and electric hedge trimmers! Like to never got comfortable enough to fall asleep last night and still feeling it today (it's a bitch to grow old).