Good news, bad news

I'll start with the good news:

Completely unexpected, but Nat Gertler (gentle genius and founder of 24 Hour Comics Day) has finally worked through the submission pile of 24 Hour Comics and looks as if my story, Cubicles, has made the cut for this year's anthology.

Press release details here.

Surprising, really, as this is a much slimmer edition than previous years, including only 10 stories, versus the boffo-socko-mega-tomes of days past. The hope is that a less expensive book will sell better (and, seriously, $11.99 retail for a 256 pg. comics anthology is a friggin' ridiculously good deal).

Published in March, so be sure to get a copy. I've picked up all the anthologies thusfar and they're always a fascinating read: sometimes entertaining, sometimes loopy, sometimes touching, sometimes goof-ball. But always interesting, considering they were done in a day.

If you're the type of person that goes to comic shops, ask them to pre-order you one. It's called 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights 2006.

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And the bad news:

Unfortunately, work-wise, this season has been absolutely unrelenting and my energy has been extremely low, particularly when it comes to working on side-projects. There simply hasn't been time.

Wish I were kidding, but I'm afraid the Bears will be taking this Christmas off with the original animated Christmas cards.

I know and I'm sorry. I love making them, so no one's more disappointed than me. The sad fact is it usually takes up the majority of my free moments in December to produce them, though, so I rely on a slow month to get them done. The only way I could do it would be to turn down paying work and that's just not an option for me this time. I've already been told by several folks that they're anxious to see what we come up with this time and I wish I could have done it (this year was going to be an idea of Carey's and it would have been hilarious. Maybe next year).

For the bored and nostalgic, though, here are links to the cards of previous years. Relive the magic all over again:

2003	2004	2005