Looking back at the last year, which has seen me pretty much confined to my flat since March, it's easy to think about the things that I miss, but instead I thought I'd look for the positives, the 'glass half full', and so here are some of the things that I have appreciated over the last 9 months.
Family video calls - I feel this year I have got closer to my sister and her daughter than ever. Families tend to drift apart and it's usually the distance between them that causes it. Having a weekly video call has been great. Yes, we still have the comedy of my mother versus technology. Yes, we still find ourselves all trying to speak at the same time. But that's all part of the fun.
Shorter working days - I have been one of the fortunate ones whose job has allowed them to work from home throughout. I actually work longer, and more effectively, than I did when going into the physical office, but if you take into account the 2 hour's travel time each day, I am in credit. I have more 'me' time every day. I feel less tired and less stressed and this is due to not having to get in a car every morning to drive up the M40 for a few junctions before spending as long navigating little roads as they wind through little towns. And then do the same in reverse every night. I've also saved a lot of money on petrol.
Re-assessing comics output - When there were Conventions I was forever 'rushing' things in order to meet the convention dates. I have kept myself as productive as ever during the pandemic, maybe even more so, but now consider what works best for me from a story telling and also financial perspective, before starting work on a new comic/issue. Stephenson's Robot issues 6 and 7 have been ready for a while and I would have produced these as individual issues. But, as there have been no Cons (after the wonderful little True Believers event), I've decided to move straight from issue 5 to a collected edition. I've spent the time improving the colouring in places. Adding some new pages to help the flow of the narrative and also re-lettering the entire book. It's looking great. I'm also moving to collected editions of my Blessed / Cursed books, and each will have new stories along with the old and out of print ones. I always prefer to buy books as collected editions myself. That is not to say that I will not be producing anymore comics though, with both Kia and the new V2A comic being exactly that, just that when it's appropriate I will go straight to collected editions.
AccentUK - We've used this time to work on the website and also a little AccentUK Magazine where we can let people know what's coming, what's just out and what's planned for Kickstarter. It will be annually produced, include an original story and also the planned events for the year (when they start happening again). My daughter Jemma has been driving both of these, using new tools along the way. We're very close to launching the website (first version) and the magazine will hopefully be available (as a free digital download) from the website in Q1-2021.
Dungeons&Dragons - I've been playing this for about 40 years now and it stopped a little as I moved down south. With the lockdown came Roll20 and me reconnecting with my old group for new adventures. For me it actually works as well as being in the same room. We use Zoom for the audio as we find it better but Roll20 is great.
AccentUK (part 2) - Covid hasn't changed the number of calls we have discussing projects and the direction we are looking to take. We are all very positive about what we are doing and our love for the comic book medium.
I try to keeps these things in mind when I have a low moment and think about those things we can no longer do.
It helps me get through it all.
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