It’s a beautiful Monday morning, I’m sitting outdoors with a cold beer in my hand, and the dog is happily patrolling her backyard kingdom. Before you get too jealous, bear in mind that A) I’m poor as fuck and B) the rest of the day will be spent hunched over my desk churning out page after page of Delia Awesome #1.

It’s been an exciting month since I posted the cover art preview. The big news is that I found an editor. And after a couple of meetings and a couple of script revisions, the true heavy lifting can begin. Delia Awesome marks the first time I’ve ever collaborated with someone in this capacity – and I gotta say it’s been a great experience. Not only has Jane’s input been an invaluable resource in laying the foundation for Delia’s story, but being accountable to someone does wonders for keeping me (mostly) on track.

Now for the announcement: Delia Awesome’s official debut will be July 1st, 2013! The entire first issue will be available to read with weekly updates starting in August. Tell your friends.

The first draft of the script for Delia Awesome #1 is complete. I’m gonna let it percolate for a couple of days while I work on an unrelated show poster and then start right in on the revisions.

A lot has happened since last August.

I got back into my abusive, on-again-off-again relationship with educational publishing. I started a new graphic novel project with this guy. I resurrected a long-dormant comic project of my own. I picked up the odd bit of illustration work here and there.

And my wife and I separated.

Consequently, I spend a great deal of time these days drinking and not sleeping. Which – through the occasional gin and exhaustion induced hallucinatory episode – has aided in both the creative and self-reflective processes. Though it’s been mostly the latter. You could say I’m on a sort of alcoholic, mania-fueled vision quest. But it’s starting to pay dividends. After an exceptionally weird evening out several days ago – one in which I’m fairly certain half the events were imagined – I was finally able to leave behind all of the anger I felt towards my wife. More importantly, I saw straight through my own stupid bullshit. So now it’s just on to dealing with the fact that I have no love in my life. Which – if nothing else – has the advantage of not manifesting itself as explosive arguments at parties. It’s also just bonkers for inspiration.

In the midst of this, I heard Delia’s voice in my head.

“Hey, Mike…it’s time to let me out.”

And for the past few days I haven’t been able to jot the notes down fast enough. Delia’s story is really coming alive in my mind and filling out in ways I’d never planned it to. In time, the half-dozen pages currently featured will be scrapped and archived somewhere else on this site and a new, better comic will take its place. Until then, here’s a selection of recent sketches featuring Delia’s new look. Expect updates to follow somewhat sporadically – since I don’t want to spoil too much.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where I’m drawing inspiration for Delia’s revised appearance, it’s this gal:

Anyway, Delia’ll be seeing y’all real soon. In the meantime, take care everybody. I mean it…all three of you who follow this blog. Be happy and be well.

So by now all three of you that follow this comic may have noticed I haven’t updated in nearly a month.  I definitely should’ve mentioned this at the beginning of August, but I’ve gotten sidetracked by a short-term project that will likely take the remainder of this month and a small portion of next.

But Delia Awesome ain’t dead!

In fact, I’ve actually come up with some ideas for a fourth volume of the series (well, technically it will be volume 3, with what’s presently the third series becoming part 4).

So sit tight, and she’ll be back soon.

Two posts in as many days?  Craziness.

The bulk of this piece should probably appear in the About the Comic section — and it will sooner or later — but I wanted to go ahead and hang it out on a shingle…right here on the front page.

Delia Awesome isn’t a webcomic.  It’s a long form comic that happens to be featured online because A) I’m poor and B) it’s presently the best way to promote it (because I’m poor).

Now, you’re probably saying to yourself, “Mike, long form webcomics are a thing.”  And you’d be correct.  And on a very technical level that’s what Delia Awesome is.  Except, not forever.  Some magical day when I can afford to print this stuff or, ideally, find a publisher who will print it for me (again, because I’m poor) I’ll no longer place her exploits — page by page — on the intertubes for all to gawk at.

I’ve always loved every manner of self-published ephemera.  I have a small, but carefully curated collection of dogeared zines, self-published comics, and photocopied cookbooks/rants/etiquette guides/treasure maps that I’ve collected from middle school to the present.  I’ve even tried (with embarrassingly teenage results) producing my own publications…more for the thrill of holding a reproduction of my own work than of any genuine pride in the content.

Then I shelved all of those joys and aspirations to spend the next decade screwing around with band posters, album covers, textbook art, and the notion that I’d become a professional illustrator in the Robert A. Maguire sense of the term.  Comic ideas popped into my head all the time and were filed away – to wait for the day when I’d come to my senses and realize that watching a story grow panel by panel — until that moment arrives when I finally get to hold the printed (or Xeroxed…whatever) copy in my hands — is way more fun and rewarding than tele-arguing the merits of a piece I was never going to be paid for in the first place.

So how does Delia Awesome figure into all of this nostalgia?  On an aesthetic level, it’s my love letter to the scene I grew up with (and all of the underground comics, zines, split 7″ covers, and vanity press oddities that filled it) but lacked the talent or maturity to contribute to.  The heavy line art, the half-tone patterns, the black, white, and red color scheme, the 8.5 X 11″ format — these were all very deliberate decisions on my part.  As much as possible, I want Delia Awesome to ooze the eighties (and very early nineties)…or at least the image of them that Peter Bagge, Eastman and Laird, Los Bros Hernandez, Stan Sakai, Matt Wagner, and R. Crumb (he was getting his second wind back then, after all) cemented in my mind.

And if Delia Awesome can’t be Xericed or Kickstarted into existence, I’ll photocopy the fucker myself if I have to.  And if it comes down to that, I’ll be sure the faint outlines of scotch tape and staple holes remain intact.

Alright, so “about a week” turned into May.  Fuck it.  A lot of crazy shit happened over the past month – I closed down Playboy Chicago, my wife’s gone solo with her burlesque career, I had to finish a couple of other posters and album covers…

But hey, at least the site has something other than the default WordPress header images now – lovely as they may be.

So my revised schedule is: soon.  Soon I will have Delia’s debut ready for your scrutiny and (I hope) enjoyment.

Be good to her.

In the unlikely event somebody stumbles upon this site before I get it up and running: stay tuned!

I’ll have things ship shape in about a week.