Over the past weekend I had the privilege of vending at Anime Ohio. It was a blast meeting new people and sharing my work with a whole new crowd of manga readers!

Thank you to everyone who made it out and got to meet me :)

behold, the quality of a $30 digital camera

Beyond that, however, I was also able to get a bit of work towards Volume 2 of Ollie Max whenever I went back to my airbnb.

Something about the ending had been bugging me for a while, but I finally pushed through that wall and figured it out. I can now say happily that Volume 2 is 100% thumbnailed! In terms of finished pages I’m about 1/3 of the way done and hoping now to be able to get through the whole book within the next couple of months.

the entire book, all at once. A bit daunting tbh…

This was pretty tough to get done for some reason. I had a script written, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized certain things had to change or be added in order for this book (and the final installment afterwards) to make sense and resonate powerfully with readers. I find thumbnailing to be the most important (and therefore most difficult) part of the process. So it’s a huge relief that I can now “read” the whole book and see that it finally works.

It took some time for sure! Lots of hours staring at the screen and sketching, erasing, writing, deleting… etc. I’d go to the library with the script and a notebook and try hammering out a few pages. It was tough! I’d say that’s really the only way to get through writer’s block though. Just stick with it. Give yourself time to solve the problems and go through the difficult phases where your brain gives you nothing. Those periods of time are part of the process. You can’t dig up gold without first digging, right? Even if you hit rocks and roots which slow down the process, you have to keep digging to get to the treasure. Trust.

Well… time to start chipping away at it. Page by page. Here’s to hoping the process goes quick and smooth 🤞

Onwards!