For the past 3 nights, the creepiest fog I have ever seen has been surrounding my house and sometimes even freezing to the windows. Sunday morning the sun came up at 6:45 am and the fog didn’t burn off until 10:45 am. Amazing and creepy. And right now as I’m looking out my window . . . definitely spooky. I am just expecting to see something come out of the fog and slap up against the window. Or that the shadows start moving in the fog.
Also, I rewatched the movie Ghost, because it was on tv. And you know what? Now that Patrick Swayze is dead, it made it a little more eerie.
-A-

Sorry the word balloons look so janky. I had to do it all in Photoshop because our computer with Illustrator (a far superior program for lettering and other things) just . . . stopped . . . working. Don’t know what happened.
I would like to thank Barry Smith of the comic strip Ink Tank (www.inktank.com) for the quick lesson on making balloons in Photoshop. Thank you.
I will have this strip relettered in Illustrator and up later today.
-A-
—————
All has been fixed. Sorry for anyone who say my sad, sad attempt at lettering in Photoshop.
-A-

Sorry The Manor is late today. I have been dead dog sick. So here’s a song for you.

-A-

Here are links to the previous strips that are referred to here.
*And The Life Of The World To Come
**In A Rut
***Flashback Part 4
****Flashback Part 5
*****Let Me Out
******Enter Rob Part 5
Who says a comic strip can’t have a long running story?
-A-

I experienced something . . . odd last week.
I was in a store at midnight with the intent of buying new shoes for work. As I was walking to the shoe department, a very young father rode by on one of those handicap carts the store provides. He was talking on his cell phone and his son, who appeared to be about three years old, hissed at me as they went by. It wasn’t just any hiss, like air leaking from a tire. No, this was full on “cat after you have given it a good scrubbing bath” kind of hiss. I thought it a little strange, but whatever. It was almost midnight and the kid was probably very tired.
I found some shoes that were acceptable, so I thought I would see if there was anything good and cheap in the dvd section right beside the shoes. After picking up the complete run of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo with Vincent Price for super cheap, I was headed out, when I saw this same very young father, still on the cart, still talking on the cell, and his son once again hissed at me.
Now it was weird.
The next day I had to take our car to get a tire patched because at some point we ran over a screw. While the tire shop was repairing the tire, I took the kids over to McDon’t-ever-want-to-eat-here-agian. I thought they might have fun playing in the indoor playground and playing with some other kids.
The kids were, what I thought was play fighting, turned out to be real fighting over who was going to be the baddest bad guy. Now, when I was a kid, thirtyish years ago, we imagined the bad guys because we always wanted to be the good guys. That didn’t mean the bad guys didn’t get some hits in or tie us up or knock us out. But we didn’t fight over being the bad guy.
And it wasn’t just the boys. It was the girls too.
What in the world happened that the villain is the one that is glorified? The the cold blooded killer is the hero? That being defiant towards the law and generally destructive was considered a good thing?
When did all of this change?
I know I have monsters in this strip. As the universe of this strip expands you will find that some are good (though fight to control the monster within them) and some are evil (and some of the humans are evil too). But no one in the strip is fighting to become a monster, a zombie, or a slime creature. Because there are somethings that you just don’t want to become.

"Not dead yet. I'm not that kind of zombie!!!"

-A-

I have made some New Year’s resolutions for The Manor. I never make any for myself mind you, just for The Manor. Hopefully it will help me become a better cartoonist and business man. Maybe.
So here they are:
1) Every two weeks I must produce one extra strip. (Be it a Manor strip as a buffer, a Say What!?! cartoon for the hospital, a guest strip, a birthday strip for someone, etc.) Today’s strip was that buffer I was talking about.
2) Draw up some backgrounds that can easily be slapped into the strip when I am rushed for time. I know I lack in the background department.
3) Produce another book. Already working on it and I will have it available hopefully for the comic convention LEXPO.
4) Speaking of LEXPO. I want to double my con scheduled. I hit one the first year of The Manor (LEXPO). I hit two last year (LEXPO and Kokomo-Con). This year you would think I would want to hit three. Nope. We are going a full blown four conventions!!!
5) Get on a podcast. Mostly to promote The Manor, but sometimes you just need to be on someone’s show because you have some knowledge to share. (I may not know all about the new 52 from DC Comics, but I do know a decent amount)
There you have it! And I need you, my loyal readership, to help me out with this. It you are at a show, come up and say “Hi” even if you already have the book(s). Or share links with friends, family, or coworkers when there is an update on the book, con schedule, or podcast. Or maybe even suggest me to a podcast host. Or suggest one to me that I should try and get on.
Its that simple.
Its for you, so help me make it the best it can be.
-A-