(Warning: this could end up being a rather long post.)
Hi, everyone. I joined this site some time ago with the hope of having found a place where I could finally post my “comics” where they might be read and enjoyed but I quickly found myself rather overwhelmed by what seems to me the complexity of posting said comics here so, being daunted, I never did.
Okay, well, the time of my joining this site was so long ago that I don't remember exactly when I did that nor if I'd even posted a “hi, I'm here” kind of thing so I guess this is it.
But in recent days I've reconsidered all that and have decided to try to learn to understand and master what are, for me, the complexities of this place. (Perhaps, as is true with most things, it's really not as complicated as I *think* it is.)
About me:
For those of you who're interested in knowing this kind of thing, I'm a happily married middle aged man with a disabled (but wonderful) daughter and an absolutely awesome wife (and I never get tired of telling her that) and that's all part of my personae of normality then there's the *other* part of me…
That other part of me is possessed by a rather manic muse with a very strange sense of humor and a desire to be creative in just about everything in sight.
I play (or have played) guitar, piano, blues harp, congas and the triangle. That's my musical side.
Then there's the visual arts side of me: I've drawn and been an artist since before I can remember. I spent a very large chunk of my childhood and most of my teen/adult years scratching out something every chance I got.
This eventually led me into a professional career with Warner Brothers Animation Studios before they outsourced everything to Korea in the late 80s.
I started out doing action ruffs and ended up being an Inker and Finisher for that studio.
If you'd like to see some of my handiwork check out the old Paula Abdul video, “Opposites Attract” with the animated cat character. I was one of the people who inked the “stair” sequence in that video.
Years pass and life takes an ironic turn…
Although I've always had a great enjoyment for many forms of creativity my favorite has always been the visual arts but life is tragically funny, sometimes, like one of those old Greek tragi-comedies…
I started developing the eye disease, Glaucoma, back when I was in my forties. This is a disease that very slowly robs a person of their eyesight until total blindness is the end result.
At this point in my life much of my eyesight is gone but enough remains that I can still be functional but I can no longer see well enough to render art by hand on a sketchpad or canvas.
Woah! Hold up! Don't start crying anguised tears of pity for me just yet…
Hope and the desire to create burns eternal in those who have the resolve and determination to carry on in spite of obstacles and difficulties. Let's never forget that.
That being the case I've found other ways to continue in the things I love to do thanks to modern technology.
Having a decent computer, a good graphics card and an enormous 32" high definition monitor I'm still able to create artistically and do what I love which, these days, is creating and telling stories in a graphic novel style format.
Now comes the part where you'll probably laugh, scoff, and walk away in disgust…
What I use, these days, to create my graphic stories is Sims 2. Yeah, go ahead and laugh, you wouldn't be the first and, most likely, not the last.
Still, regardless of what anyone else thinks I do consider it a legitimate creative medium and, so, lacking other choices, I use it to do the other thing I love with a passion: tell a good story.
In the past I've posted my various stories on adult sites within the Sims 2 community with mixed results but having grown extremely tired of the high-school type of drama and conflict within that community I've pretty much put all that behind me.
At this point I'd like to make something very clear: I don't intend to post my stories with the hope of praise or fame, glory or applause or anything like that. (Yeah, I'm a bit arrogant but not *that* arrogant!) If my desire had been for fame and fortune I know I would have achieved that long ago but, no, that's not my intent.
What I desire, more than anything else, is to create and share fairly well crafted (to the best of my ability) stories that capture and hold the imagination and the readers interest and leaves them with a desire for more simply for the sake of the enjoyment and pleasure derived from each part of whatever story I'm working on as they're posted.
That's all. Nothing more, nothihng less because, even beyond art, I really do love to tell a good story.
So, once I've figured out the seeming complexity of posting here, I'll start sharing my stories done in my own odd and rather unique format and, if people like them and want more that's fine. If not then that's fine too because I'll still have the consolation of knowing that I'm doing what I truly love to do and I have an opportunity to share it with others.
Thanks for reading.
-Ed