Fitting it all in.

I haven't updated here since October. Not because I didn't want to, but because I just had a lot of other things happening. Patriot-1 was funded, fulfillment was intense and time consuming, a few conventions happened and I started to plan for the future of TJ Comics and Patriot-1. And my day job tends to be a little nuts and exhausting. Plus on top of that, I have 2 year old twins and a 10 month old, all of whom, along with my wife are the complete center of my multiverse. It's a little hectic.

With Patriot-1 done, and LIMITED Kickstarter editions available on Amazon and my online store, I started to refocus on projects on hold - Steel Creek - and new projects that I've wanted to start for a while - ExtraOrdinary. You can read the first issue of ExtraOrdinary HERE.

Not to mention, I started the plotting of the second book of Patriot-1.

I also wanted to turn Patriot-1 into a screenplay. That's still a work in progress, but I needed to take a break from it.

But during the convention endeavors - especially New York Comic Con, where I sat in Artist's Alley with The Artist's Choice for the 2 days - the response to Patriot-1 was really positive. Now, here I was, some indie creator a few hours one day sitting next to Phil Jimenez , the next day sitting next to Joe Rubenstein. Really, I was a peon amongst legends.

But honestly, for the first time I felt I belonged.

I did a panel at Baltimore Comic-Con about Kickstarter comics hosted by Visionary Studios. I was on the panel with my good friends Jamal Igle and Mike Kingston - but it wasn't really until being back at NYCC - which nearly made me shut down TJ Comics in 2011, that I felt I belonged.

I realized I was doing what I really wanted to do.

And I really believe that Patriot-1 is something special. I submitted it to the Independent Book Publisher Awards and started to look for more distribution channels besides my online store and Amazon.
Make no mistake, TJ Comics is a one-man operation and it's hard to juggle everything.

But one day I literally woke up and said to myself, "Screw it, I'm just going to submit it to Diamond."

You see, there was this fear I had that because I was just some indie creator looking to break in with the big publishers - a veritable nobody - my book would never be accepted by Diamond. So I thought about it, took a look at Tyler James' incredible write-ups on indie comics over at Comix Tribe, and just decided to pull the trigger. The worst that happens is they don't accept it and nothing changes.

Well, after a couple weeks of waiting, a nice chat with a Diamond rep, a new cover and a price drop later, Patriot-1 is now in April Previews for a June release. If you're interested, you can print out the form below, fill it out and give it to your retailer.