The Summer Of Hembock

So, for the three month anniversary of the first book, and coinciding with the release of the latest book, let's look back on this whole summer sized chunk of my life.

Well, overall, it's been a blast.
...the Hembook parts, anyway.

So, firstly, I've accomplished my long deferred teenhood dream.
All I wanted, or expected out of life then, was to get like, a minimum of one copy each of the Hembooks, put 'em on a comic shop shelf,  and have someone buy them, and love them.
I'd make pocket money, and that's it, I'd be done.
Wasn't too much to ask, I figured.

But, Kinkos-ing up those books, it turns out, is a bit pricey.
And, any time I was ever able to scrounge up the cash, I needed it for something else, usually computer repairs/upgrades/replacements.

Well, it took waiting for them to invent high speed internet, Amazon, e-paper, the Kindle, Amazon self publishing, Createspace, cheap photo quality scanners, etc, etc, etc, but my day finally came.

The teenhood dream is accomplished.
And, the teenhood dream was pretty much my childhood dream brought into tighter focus from a  general blur, of getting any comic out there, so, that's the childhood dream taken care of too.

The books are out there, and...my life goal is complete.

Those copies of the books are out there in the world now.
An asteroid could squash me right now, and this rotten stinko world can't take that from me.

That's it, that's all I wanted to do.

I'm finally who I want to be.

I took my shot, I've done what I was on this Earth for, so now...well...

So...I'm done, I can pretty much be phased out now.
Go ahead, and hit me, asteroid.
*Nothing*
Damn.

Well, guess I'd best keep going then.
I suppose I could retell the stories of how it all started, how each book got created, what led me up to self-publishing, etc, but...those are told fairly well in the introductions to the books themselves, and you can peek at those in the Amazon previews.

And, the finer details, and more recent tales, are told in the related posts, so...I'll just list those in proper order.

• Harry Hembook/Minisode crossover.
• Hembooks, a preview.
• Harry Hembock hair on....dudes??
• Harry Hembock Classics (The book!)
• My first satisfied customer!!
• A change a long time coming...
• My second customer!
• Another happy customer!
• Fiiiiinally! (My own copy)
• The Continued Adventures Of Harry Hembock (Book 2!)
• First happy customer for Book 2!
• Harry Hembock Classics (the Kindle book!)
• New Harry art from Paladin!
• Gots my copy of book 2!
• The Continued Adventures Of Harry Hembock (Kindle book 2!)
• My Amazon author page.
• Harry Hembock Regurgitations (Book 3!!)
• S'more little profile updates.
• First satisfied customer for Book 3!
• Harry's Finale (Book 4!!!)
• Another Harry book milestone!
• Meanwhile, in a Galaxy Next Door...
• Bookstore!
• Harry Hembock Regurgitations (Kindle book 3!!)
• First satisfied customer for book 4!
• 'Nother Harry art from Paladin!
• Second happy customer for books 2, 3, and 4!!
• Another change a long time coming...
• Hembook/minisodes- Linking the linking.
• Harry's Finale (Kindle book 4!!!)
• And finally, my own copies of books 3 and 4!!!
• Harry Hembock Classics (Omnibus Edition)

So, as for the books themselves, and the road ahead...
Well, to me, in the larger plan of things, they're like how Robert Crumb published all his old strips going all the way back to childhood.
These are the old archives, and then we progress forward.
What, you think that old art is as good as I ever got?
Sheesh, gimme a little credit.

This was also the trial run to work out all the little technical kinks for the next thing...

So, yeah, that's the Harry chunk of things...

Aaand, while all that went on, I lost my grandfather, and his funeral came the day after my birthday, so, kinda zombie-walked through that. :(
Miss you, old man. :(
I'd say more, but I don't wanna get bawling again.
Anyhoo, the week in between his death and funeral, went to see "The Dark Knight Rises".
(And of course, we had that whole lovely aurora shooting surrounding that...*eyeroll*)

Buried myself in "my work", to take my mind off things, which is why I didn't mention it 'til now.
Well, not here, anyway.

So....yeah, always gonna remember summer 2012, for better and for worse.

Came in with Avengers, Prometheus, and the 4th blog anniversary, and went out with...yeah.

Highs and lows for damned sure....
I try to focus on the Harry bits, and what it means for the future...
I'll get into that future at a later date.