June 12, 2004
Four Years!!entry,
Today Schlock Mercenary turns four years old. When I started down this road I planned to get at least this far. I committed myself to making this "comic strip thing" go farther and faster than anything else I'd worked on, and I imagined myself celebrating four, five, ten, and even twenty years of uninterrupted Schlocky goodness.
That aside, it's still amazing to me that I'm here. Just because I can plan to do something doesn't mean I can't still be astounded when I actually do it. If there's a lesson in here for others, maybe it's that cheesy, trite saw "you can do anything you put your mind to," or perhaps the Edisonian quip about relative amounts of perspiration and inspiration in a work of genius (note: I disagree with Edison. Perspiration is certainly important, but if there's genius to be found in my body of work, I credit my Maker, the Font of All Inspiration, at least as much as I credit myself. Call it a 60/40 split.)
Maybe the lesson is one about resting on laurels. While I certainly haven't gotten any actual wreaths or belaureled trophies for this work, the praise you readers periodically shower me with falls into that category, and now is NOT the time for me to be resting on it. As I write this entry on Saturday morning I've got scripts to write, strips to pencil and ink, and scans to color. I'm praying for inspiration, as well as the strength to put out the perspiration, because the buffer stands at 14, with nothing colored and uploaded for tomorrow. If we throw a fourth anniversary party, I shan't have time to both have and eat the cake.
If you want to join the party, I think it's being held here in the LiveJournal Schlocktroops community, where anonymous comments are allowed. Rather than emailing me, go ahead and say something for everyone to see, and have fun with it. Naturally, registered users at Forum Keen and Forum NightStar can throw virtual confetti in those communities, too, but the anonymity allowed in the LJ space affords a bit more spontaneity.
In other news, my vacation is over. I'll post pictures here sometime in the next couple of days.