We are, barring catastrophe, finishing up the Hot Hot Heat video tonight, and once it's mailed and received and all that jazz, we should be able to post it. The single ("No, Not Now") is released in the UK, like, on Friday, so it shouldn't be long now. If you've ever wondered what I look like in a giant, Matsumoto-style bunny suit, this video will fill you in. Also: there's a special MK12 cameo to keep your eyes peeled for, as well as more gratuitous bird shots for no discernable reason.

Another project we've been wrapping up actually has a companion photo essay to go along with it (which will, I hope, be the first iteration of the new POPLIFE, ha ha), but until we get final approval on the pieces we can't do much with it. Part of the delay: we were told that we used a little too much Chuck Norris. Stay tuned.

A large, LARGE project for Fox Movie Channel gets signed off on tomorrow, hopefully-- I got to pillage the 20th Century Fox archives for films and cut together (along with new MK12 hire John Baker) a bigass montage over this great, overwrought Movie Trailer voiceover. It's a sales reel for cable affiliates, but they say they're so happy with it they might take it to broadcast. We'll see. Either way, I am proud to be the guy that will bring John Goodman screaming "LOOK UPON ME! I'LL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND!" to cable affiliates all over this great land.

I'm putting a spit and a polish on a batch of scripts for, uhh, Client X tonight while the guys are wrapping up the final After Effects passes over Hot Hot Heat. Client X will hate the the scripts, and will want numerous brutal rewrites. Still: know that I endeavor as always to bring Trepanda to TV screens near you.

Other client work, for folks like GMC and ARS and RES and a few others will be wrapping up here soon, too, god willin' and the crick don't rise. If and when it's up at MK12, I'll crosspost here.

We had a week, two, maybe three back, where everything caught on fire. Literally, all of the projects on the board -- and there were eight, if I recall correctly-- went Worst Case Scenario in the span of 24 hours. We've had, since April, I think, anywhere from 8 to 12 jobs on the board, in various stages of production...

...I actually had a doctor prescribe me vacation time the other day...

Which brings us nicely to LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS DAY, June 25th, at the Isotope Lounge. Which is the start of some time off for me. I'm gonna hang in SF with Peter and Grace for almost a week, and will try very hard to do absolutely nothing at all. So, hey, Left Coast people, sick out on the 25th and take the trip to 1653 Noriega. James has some shots of the final pages, properly toned and, err, whited posted up at the Isotope Lounge Forum. Go, look, and marvel at how I stumbled ass backwards into being the luckiest boy in comics. I've got a black and white printout of the book, and am just staggered at how it all came together. Kieron, Larry, Ryan, and Mimi have done SO right by me that I think I have to buy them drinks for the rest of my life. It's an honor and a privilege.

B. Clay Moore wrote up a piece on a local gallery event here called Sequence, which put comic art up on the walls of galleries. I wrote a little thing for the show that served as an introduction. You can read it here.

Production on Peter's KILLING DEMONS begins in earnest as soon as the video is done, and I'm excited to get the thing fired off to the printer. It's gonna be gorgeous, and anyone that reads it and knows Peter won't be able to think about him quite the same way after.

The only other stuff that's going on, comicwise, is coming along when I have the time. As is BIG HAT, the pure western. Hope to make an art announcement on HAT soon. And just a plain old announcement-announcement on the other, just as soon as I can.

I'll also be in San Diego this year. I'll be the guy in the SARS-mask with the nunchucks. Oh, and I'm in LA next week/end for BDA. I'll be speaking on a panel called MUSE: Trends In Design along with Mateus from LOBO out of Sao Paulo.

Oh, and I finally buckled and bought an iPod-- thanks, Mantooth!-- and have, in-between render times and writing, dumped the entirety of my CD collection onto it, as well as a ton of shit I'm never, ever gonna need to hear. There's something surreal about having the ability to listen to literally any song you own at any given time.

Anyway. The blog's been a mite-bit neglected as of late, but hopefully in the next few weeks there'll be a spate of new stuff explaining it away. And, you know, if I owe you email...

Oh, and soon comes mobile blogging from my fancyass spacephone, as soon as I find the time to figure the goddamn thing out. That's when the fun starts.