Today would have been the 69th birthday of my Aunt Linda.

Hit with both Down’s Syndrome and, later, Alzheimers, it would be easy to conclude that life just isn’t bloody fair, sometimes. Yet Linda Williams was one of the most wonderful human beings I have ever had the privilege to be around – kind, compasionate, and pure of heart, she was the very essence of what we all should strive to become.

My grandmother – my mother’s mom – died before I was born, so someone was needed to look after my mother’s youngest sister, Linda. Instead of sending her to an institution (which, in the late 1950s would not have seemed an unreasonable option), my mom and dad, then a young married couple, took Linda in. She lived with them for most of the rest of her life, until the Alzheimers was too severe, at the very end.

I can’t even imagine the sort of commitment and sacrifice that entailed on the part of a young couple – and it leaves me in awe of my parents – but it was also one that reaped enormous blessings. The main blessing for me being the privilege of knowing Linda, and having so much time with her. She was like a big sister to me, growing up. Then at some point I became like a big brother to her. Life is full of role reversals: I never expected this one to occur so quickly. Yet looking back, I found both roles joyous.

So much is said about the childlike nature of people with Down’s Syndrome, it’s probably best to send folks to the “Myths and Truths” page of the National Down’s Syndrome Society. I’m no spokesperson: I only know that knowing Linda, and having her in my life, left an indelible impression on me. I like to think I’m a better person because of her. She is possibly the best person I have ever known.

I miss you so much, Aunt Linda. The whole family does. If there is a heaven, it is truly graced by your presence. Thank you for teaching me more than you could ever have known.

How one who was given so little could give so very much to those around her amazes and humbles me to this day.

I love you.

posted by John

If much of the following makes little sense, blame it on the jetlag.

“Jetlag?” you ask, bemusedly. Why yes: If you happen to be in the south of Ireland this weekend, I’ll be at WARPCON for some more of their special brand of madness!

I’m very, very lucky indeed that they keep asking me back. It’s a brilliant convention, covering all forms of gaming. It raises huge amounts of money for local childrens’ charities each year, during both boom AND bust economic times. Plus, it’s located in Cork, a gem of a city and a foodie’s dream.

If you’re a gamer, you must – MUST – try to make it to an Irish convention at least once in your lifetime. Unless you’re an Irish gamer, in which case, you should get to about a dozen. A year. MINIMUM.

It’s a bit of a shame there’s no “Sister City”-like relationships between cons around the world. At least, there are none that I’m aware of. Imagine if WARPCON and CONVERGENCE (two of my all-time favorite cons) had some kind of exchange program, whereby a couple of Irish gamers could get to Minneapolis, and a couple of Minnesotans could make it to Cork.

This isn’t a big deal for the mega-Cons like Gencon or Spiel of Lucca: shows that already boast impressive international followings. I’m thinking about the mid-size-to-small regional cons, which have all got their splendid ideas to be shared.

I’m not sure what kinds of logistics would be required, but to start, each con could offer to pay for food and lodging of the Exchange Gamers from their Sister Con. I mean, that would be a beginning, wouldn’t it? If, at some point, a way could be figured out to include transport costs as well, that would rise to the level of Amazing.

Now, I’m not just talking about WARPCON and CONVERGENCE, here (although HINT HINT HINT HINT, folks). I’m talking about every convention under the sun. You. Yes, YOU, you Swell Regional Con: Adopt a show from another country. Send folks over there. Invite others back.

Fandom’s pretty darned universal – as the DORK TOWER translated volumes can attest. But European cons tend to be very different affairs from North American cons. Heck, as far as I can tell, almost every con just about anywhere is unique. Seeing how others celebrate the games we love is an invigorating, exciting experience. And who knows what ideas you might get for your own shows?

I’m lucky: I get to travel as much as I wish to, and meet gamers and comics fans from around the world. It would be nice if others got a shot at that, as well.

So what say you? Does the idea of cons from across the globe linking up as “Sister Shows” (there’s GOT to be a better way of putting that): “Companion Shows”? “Bigby’s Grasping Cons”? make any sense?

It strikes me as a Not Bad idea, jetlag or no.

Gamers of the world, UNITE! Or at least mingle.

Now we’ve just got to figure out how make it happen…

John

HEY! There are five days left for the big year-end PDF sale of my stuff! AND THIS INSLUDES A FREE COPY OF DORK TOWER #7: the Holiday Special! You don’t even need to buy anything to get this. It’s FREE! For YOU! Happy holidays!

But we’ve got to make room for new electrons in 2012, so from now until January 1, ALL PDFs of my stuff is 25% off, at Drive Thru Comics PDFs of:

Also: THIS -

I think secretly believe Paul and Storm should open for Ted Nugent and Alice Cooper, just so the billing could be Paul & Storm & Ted & Alice.

John

Muskrat Ramblings
“Free Holiday Comic Book,” you say?…
posted by John

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I wanted to give you all a Christmas present! So here’s a free copy of Dork Tower #7: the Holiday Special! It even contains a free game inside, as well, “Dealer’s Room”!

HOW MUCH FREE CAN YOU STAND?

Just go to Drive Thru Comics, and from now until January 1, you can get the PDF for free! (You may even test out some of the free iPad (etc) comic book readers out there.

BUT WAIT – THERE’S MORE!

We’ve got to make room for new electrons in 2012, so from now until January 1, we’re having a 25% off sale on all Drive Thru Comics PDFs of:

Dork Tower

SnapDragons

This included the foreign translations up there! Learn Spanish with Dork Tower!

Next week, I’ll try and run through some of the things I hope to accomplish in 2012 – Dork Tower’s 15th anniversary. But until then, THANK YOU all so much for reading my stuff these last few years. I deeply, truly appreciate it!

And have yourself a Dorky Little Christmas!

John

–
Dork Tower * Out of the Box * Munchkin
Dr. Blink: Superhero Shrink * My Little Cthulhu
Also: Much Stuff I’m Probably Forgetting

http://www.dorktower.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/johnkovalic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/muskrat_john

Dork Storm Press
Box 45063
Madison, WI 53711

First off, it looks like Dork Tower will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays, through January 1. Apologies for this. I’ll TRY and get three strips a week up, but the holidays are quite crazy.

Secondly, I’ve had quite a few people ask about buying some of the two-minute sketches I’ve been doing. I’m not sure about this. I generally feel a bit weird about selling original art, yes. But to be honest, I’m not sure what I’d charge for them. $40 seems like a lot, for a sketch. But I know that of I was charging $20, while I’d obviously sell more, it wouldn’t be a huge incentive to me. I’m weird that way, I’ll admit it. So anyway, I’m still thinking on this. You know – being my usual neurotic self about my work…

Anyway, someone on Twitter raised some interesting points:

TWEETER: $20 is very reasonable, especially if that includes US shipping. The question is, do you really want to be in that business?

JOHN: (a) It probably wouldn’t, and (b) I don’t want this to be a business. I have dfar too many things on my plate as it is.

TWEETER: A quick story:I ordered a sketch from a web comic, never got it. Asked her about it, she wouldn’t make it right. Still pissed

JOHN: Understandably so. Which is what I worry about, with a $20 price.

TWEETER: Point is, it was a business she was not prepared to run.So if you’re going to sell the sketches, commit to running a business

JOHN: Agreed. Which is why, selling an occasional sketch for $40 strikes me as something that’d fit into my schedule a lot better than selling many sketches for $20. But if someone REALLYREALLYREALLYREALLY wants one, perhaps this is the at to go, in the future. We’ll see.

Does that make any sense? Honestly not trying to be a jerk – I, personally, would not pay $40 for any idiot’s sketch – just trying to think what might fit in, scheduling-wise and John’s-Sense-Of-Responsibility-wise. If I were you, I would not pay $40 for a sketch.

(Possibly this post should have been titled “Why john needed a Business Manager”).

ANYWAY, here are the last few sketches that I’ve done. I forgot to get some up, last week.

Jackie Kashian, Ranger of the Dork Forest -

A pal of mine, Jackie’s an awesome stand-up comic, and I love her podcast, The Dork Forest. I think she’s in Austin this week. Catch her if you can!

The Kitchen Goblin

No idea where this guy came from. The whole idea behind the two-minute sketches is to go into them with a clear mind. Which, for me, is easy…

Two-Minute Caricature: Kurt Vonnegut

Darker, sort of “inspired” by a Guardian article that implies that most people see Vonnegut as a jolly, avuncular sort of figure which, if you’ve even read a single book of his, you’d realize is not the case.

Two-Minute Caricature: Neil Gaiman

A young Neil Gaiman, apparently. And one in the wind. No, it’s not “Author Week” on “Two-Minute Warmup Sketches.” I don’t expect any of these two-minute sketches to be anything close to great. Just some fast fun (for me, anyway) that may or may not spark later ideas. But they get the day rolling. But I kind of like something mischievous in the eyes, on this one. Possibly one day, I’ll turn it into a proper piece.

I need to draw more blondes, by the way. The studio reeks of magic marker, at the moment.

If you click on the images, you SHOULD see larger versions of the drawings.

John

Matt Forbeck is a great friend of mine.

He’s also widely known as the nicest guy in the gaming industry.

What may be less well-known, outside of gaming circles, anyway, is that he’s possibly the most disciplined writer in the business. He’s been a full-time author and game designer since 1989 – an amazing feat in a notoriously fickle industry like ours. His bibliography is testament to his commitment to his craft – he has major credits (and awards) in pretty much every field linked to gaming.

Matt’s written acclaimed roleplaying games, comic books, novels, short stories, and non-fiction books. The list of companies he’s worked with reads like an industry directory: Atari, Avalanche Studios, Bioware, Del Rey, Penguin, Pocket, Ubisoft, Wizards of the Coast, Games Workshop, WizKids, Mattel, IDW, Image Comics and more.

If there’s one thing I admire Matt for above all else, though, it’s as his role as a father. Matt’s dedication to and love for his family is evident to all who know him. He and his wife, Ann, have raised five terrific kids – one teenager and four eight-year-olds, now – and whenever Matt speaks of them, the love and joy is palpable.

In November, 2011, during National Novel Writing Month, Matt announced a shockingly ambitious project for the year 2012: “12 for Twelve.” He would write a novel every month during the upcoming year. He set up a Kickstarter page to fund the project, and in Matt’s own words, from the pitch:

“I plan on breaking 12 for ‘12 up into four trilogies, and this Kickstarter project represents the first of them: the Brave New World Trilogy. If this one goes well, I’ll run other Kickstarters later in the year for the rest of the books.

I’d like to write a dozen novels in 2012, and I want you to dare me to do it.”

This is not the kind of undertaking an established writer – let alone the father of five – does on a whim. So, I had a few questions I wanted to ask Matt…

Are you mad?

No, REALLY, now. Are you mad?

Oh, you mean, am I crazy? Not clinically or certifiably, I don’t think. I do like taking bold yet calculated chances, and I can see how that might give people the impression that I’m nuts or even just charitably incautious. It’s not true at all though.

Okay, that “charitably incautious” part might be.

I write fast, and I write a lot, and I’ve been doing so for decades now. The novels I plan to write are shorter ones, about 50,000 words each. That’s bound to make it a bit more manageable. Most of my books have been in the 80,000-word range, but I’m going to self-publish these as ebooks once the Kickstarter backers get them, and the length of an ebook doesn’t seem to matter as much.

As far as writing 600,000 publishable words in a year, I don’t think this will be the first time I’ve done that, although I’d have to go back and add things up to be sure.

Of course, I’m still going to be writing the Magic: The Gathering comic for IDW and chipping away at a few other projects for other people, so…

Okay, call me mad if you like. But I can still do it. I don’t fear hard work.

In the last month, have you gotten tired of people asking if you mad?

You’re involved in so many different projects, all over the board. What kind of time will “12 for Twelve” allow you for other professional endeavors?

Not a lot, but as you say, I’m fairly disciplined about my work. Barring a disaster of some sort, I should be able to write the books and the Magic comic and take care of a few other projects. It’ll be a long year, but since I love to write, I expect it to fly right by.

Your first three novels for 2012 will form a Brave New World trilogy. You created this setting for a roleplaying game almost 15 years ago, now. I imagine you had many ideas for stories in the Brave New World universe bouncing around in your head.

Electronic publishing and Print On Demand have given the Brave New World game a second life at DriveThruRPG. Any chance of new Brave New World gaming material?

There’s always a chance, although that’s really up to my pals at AEG, who own the rights to the game. In the meantime, my friends at DriveThruRPG set up a deal for my Kickstarter backers. A PDF of the game’s core rules are usually $18, but those who pledge $25 or more to the project get a link that lets them buy the RPG PDF for only $5.

Wow, that was a lot of initials.

Your initial Kickstarter goal of $3,000 has been surpassed by over 200%, as of writing, and has “unlocked” the second book. If you don’t reach $15,000 “ultimate goal,” though, will there be a separate Kickstarter for the last book of the trilogy? And will other “12 for Twelve” books be on a book-by-book Kickstarter basis?

Obviously, Kickstarter’s been successful for you. Do you have any tips for other writers wanting to try it?

Do your research and have a plan before you set out. It also helps if you can give backers a good reason to trust you. I’m fortunate enough to have had a long career writing books and games, so when backers check out the Kickstarter, they know what they going to see from me and that I won’t let them down.

If you’re just starting out and don’t have that benefit, you need to find some other way to engender trust: endorsements, snazzy graphics, a real show of effort, and so on. Or you need to set lower goals to start with and work the level of trust your fans have in you up from there. There’s no magic bullet.

You Tweet, you blog, you use POD and electronic publishing outlets, and you know how to run a terrific Kickstarter campaign. If you’ll pardon the phrasing, it’s a brave new world indeed for writers, and you seem to have embraced all aspects of it. How hard is it, staying on top of new tools in a field traditionally tied to ink and paper?

You haven’t abandoned traditional publishing, either. Novels like Amortals, (Angry Robot Books) have received widespread acclaim. When you see online feuds between electronically self-published authors and traditional authors, do you ever feel more loyalty to one side or the other?

Nope. I can see why there are tensions between the two camps, particularly among those who have planted their flags squarely in one or the other. I don’t let myself get wound up in that though. I’m here to tell great stories and deliver those to readers in whatever form they like.

More to the point, I don’t see that the two formats are mutually exclusive. They’re going to co-exist for the foreseeable future, so we might as well all learn to get along.

With you, family always comes first. What have their thoughts been on “12 for Twelve”? Is Ann still speaking to you?

John

The idea for the morning warm-up sketches came from my pal, Stacy Curtis. He began posting his morning sketches on his Facebook page and I, frankly, had fallen out of the habit of sketching.

There’s little I emphasize more to kids who want to become cartoonists than “Sketch, sketch, SKETCH!” Well, that and learn to live on Ramen Noodles. Still, “Carry a sketchbook on you at all times” is what I’ll usually tell younglings. And yet, here I was, failing to follow my own very good, solid and sensible advice.

Warming up in the morning has also proven pretty important for the rest of the work I get done that day. It seems to shake the cobwebs out of the old noggin. Some sketches are more successful than others, and none of them are supposed to look GREAT (though I’m thankful when sometimes they look cool). I give myself three minutes to come up with anything: more sketching may follow, but that first one of the day needs to be done in less time than it takes to boil an egg. I doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, it just has to be DONE.

Anyway, here’s this morning’s Three-Minute Warm-Up Sketch (which actually took two minutes – leaving me a full minute to, say, boil an egg): CAP’THULHU AMERICA!

There’s probably a line somewhere about him being “the first IA-venger,” but I’m not touching it.

If you click on the image, you SHOULD see a larger version of the drawing.

John

So I’m working on some art for the 15th anniversary of Dork Tower next year. But right now, it’s athe 10th anniversary of Munchkin. So I thought I’d do up some promotional cards and postcards and the like.

Here’s the art: Dork Tower and Munchkin: two great tastes that taste great together.

Here’s what it will look like, as a postcard:

In both instances, click on the image to see a larger version of it.

I’m pleased with the piece. It’s far more dynamic than the original sketch I did for the anniversary.

Coincidentally, it shares some similarities with Today’s Three-Minute Warm-Up Sketch. These help me loosen up a little, before approaching more ’serious’ drawings. I’m only so-so about this one, but for a very quick piece, I suppose I shouldn’t expect too much. But I thought yesterday’s sketch was more successful. Anyhoo – Matt and Gilly, as Batman and the Huntress:

John

This is a busy, messy week for me. I’m between Munchkin projects, and between major holidays. As a friend of mine cleverly pointed out, Thanksgiving in the US is the point where we switch from complaining that Christmas is being celebrated too early to complaining that Christmas is coming too soon.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that this week, Dork Tower will run on Tuesday and Thursday, as I work on getting a backlog together. I’ll try and get a third strip up, but can’t promise anything in that regard. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, here’s this morning’s Warm-Up Sketch: “A Girl and her Dragon.” I don’t think I had a young Anne McCaffrey in mind when I quickly doodled it, but I don’t wonder whether her passing last week was why I had dragons on the mind.

Wouldn’t it be nice to think so?

If you click on the image, you SHOULD see a larger version of the drawing.

If I post more such things in the future, would you prefer to see them here, in the blog, or on the main website, where the comic strip appears? Just curious.

John

A message came in – late, because my website sucks. But here it is:

I read webcomics all the time, and I make it a habit to donate after a web crawl.

It’s your website and your work. Do as you wish, but know that THIS customer is taking his custom elsewhere.

I suppose I could take umbrage at the tone of the message, but, you know, I really can’t, since – as previously noted – my website sucks.

Anyway, my reply, essentially, ran something like this (edited a bit, but essentially the same):

Trust me…nobody hates that full page click-thru ad more than I do. To make matters worse, I get nothing from it. It’s a Gamespy thing. It even pops up when I try and load a new comic! (In fact, I had to click through it just now, to post this.

We are in the process of changing to a new site, one that will be totally full-page click-thru ad-free. We had hoped the change would have been before now. In any case, or should be very soon.

John Kovalic

I’m hoping the change will be in a matter of weeks. But I’ve been hoping that for the last couple of months. Still, it’s a top priority, and I’ve got the help of some really good people on this. It’s just taking longer than expected.

In the meantime, I struggle with even a simple post like this one, as even a slight revision will send me to the click-thru ad, and play silly buggers as the admin portion of the page leaps into a perpetual full-page loop. It is a despicable thing. I hate it like poison.

I won’t miss the click-thru ads in the slightest – I can almost hear readers being lost every time the accursed thing pops up. I’m truly sorry my host went to this format, but if you’re hanging in there with me, I can’t thank you enough. Really.

I may miss the irony of some of the ads being for Visene eye-drops, given the sheer ugliness of it all.

But not much.

I may even add a “Donation” button, just so folks who angrily declare they’ll never donate will actually be able to actively not donate, instead of just saying it as an abstract concept.

Because I care.

****

Seriously, my website sucks. Can I apologize enough?

****

I’ll also be blogging more, once the new page goes up. Given the difficulty the teeny text lends to reading the current blog, though, it seems a bit of a time-waste, at the moment. To say nothing of the teeth-gratingly loopy hijinks the full-page ad re-route ensures, both in updating and viewing. So most news of my professional life goes up either at my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/johnkovalic) or on my Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/muskrat_john).

****

Onto happier matters: my birthday is this Thursday. My only wish is it be celebrated with turkey feasts and football games in the USA. Possibly a parade or two. Sound do-able?

John