Year: MMIX Purpose: Review

Inspired from a friend who wrote something similar, I am here by reviewing my year of 2009. The things that defined me as "The Strongest One There Is" yet again.

"YOU'RE FIRED!" It happens to the best of us from time to time, and it happened to me for the first time since before my senior year in high school. During my very short time at Intermountain, I was dealing with a lot of intensely personal stuff floating around in my head. I had just broken things off with someone I thought I would be with for the rest of my life. And I had just learned somethings I really didn't want to know from this person who felt they had to rub it in for good measure. The mind went on hiatus for a bit and I sort of conked out emotionally. It happens. And for someone who likes to pretend that nothing ever bothers him, it really stuck in my mind. It took getting fired for truancy to wake me up and make me realize it didn't truly matter.

Phoenix Cactus ComiCon 2009! For the second straight year I went to Phoenix Con. And unlike the first year I didn't really have a partner to help promote my work. I went with a friend, and found out how much of a tough time that can be. He wasn't really prepared and he didn't really do much in terms of work behind the counter. But it was a life lesson. Plus I got to be booth neighbors with Phour Nyne Guy, Erik Arreaga who decided he liked Agnew so much he was going to do a pinup for me.

Youth in Asia LIVES! After the breakup things got very tough for me to create. I became listless and I didn't care about doing anything new. I scrapped a project that I started at the tail end of the almost two year relationship. I decided to go back to the drawing board, LITERALLY, and begin work on Youth in Asia issue 5. It was mostly a wrestling theme, but it ended up having issue bookends of Agnew getting a dog and the debut of the Step Monsters in YiA. People have said they liked the debut of the local punk rock band. And people have shined that the story is improving and the artwork is getting better with each issue.

APE Con or DIE! In addition to making my second straight Phoenix Con, I also hit up San Francisco for APE Con again. Which almost didn't happen, cause I fucking procrastinate like a mother fucking sloth. With the major financial help of a friend and a lot of JuJu for good omens, I got a table at the convention and set out to do this one my myself. Financially APE was not very successful. But I learned somethings from a friend who showed up at the con from the other side of the Bay. Jimmie Robinson, who people may know from his comic, Bomb Queen, showed his support of Youth in Asia and APE Con as a whole. He told me that he never looks or even thinks of making his money back from the shows he attends. He goes to spread the word about his work. And he goes to see friends and have fun. Well, I think I did spread the word about the book. In addition to APE I sold 3 sets of YiA to Isotope The Comic Book Lounge in San Francisco. I aim to go back when Fuzzyface is done and sell them on that as well as perfect bound versions of the tpb for Youth in Asia.

BAY LIFE! I got to spend a week in San Francisco with my dad, his wife and my good friend Audrey. I went out every single day I was there. I got to see some cool nightlife. As well as Alcatraz. It was wild. The cells, the history. I had so much fun, and I sold copies of my book to a shop in SF that everyone should check out, Isotope The Comic Book Lounge which is owned and operated by the very eclectic and amazingly dressed James Sime. He runs a very cool shop, and is an enthusiast for cool suits, original comic art on toilet seats and small press comics. So much so that he has an award he gives out when APE comes around for "Best Mini Comic." As James proudly says, "we don't have eight different categories, we have one award. And it's the most dangerous award in the business." I met some new people in San Francisco and I would love to live their some day. It's beautiful. The city is awesome and the culture there is second to none. To the dislike of one friend I got my own Chun Li action figure while in Japan Town too. And I rode a bus while intoxicated with The Reverend Al Sharpton. He didn't know I was a break out comic book creator. And I had no idea he was also a pimp when he's not championing civil rights for people.

FUZZYFACE OR DIE! It had to happen. I got back into the idea of doing this project I set out to do almost a year ago with my then girlfriend. I began at a feverish pace and I have not slowed up yet. Since begining the layouts and edits on the fantastic original script in early October, I have completed some 34 pages, one pinup and the cover artwork for the graphic novel, as well as coming up with some nice ideas for dvd-like extras to throw in the mix. Progress has been manic and people who have had the pleasure of seeing the work in progress have said it is my best work to date. This is gonna be a little different. Starring Agnew as the title character who seeks to create life. It's a horroromedy, in the vein of the Muppets meet Leatherface with a twist of Frankenstein. It's set to drop at Phoenix Cactus ComiCon 2010 in May.

P!NK I got to see one of my favorite singers on tour this year. P!NK came to Phoenix on the Funhouse Tour and she absolutely rocked the house. The show, it wasn't a concert, it was a show, had everything. Giant inflatable evil clowns, burlesque, trapeze artists, and the most amazing vocalist of my time. I was temporarily dead from the experience, but I enjoyed it. And sang along with almost every song. Her voice and lyrics brought tears to my eyes more than once. The Ting Tings opened and they rocked too. Closing with, "That's Not My Name." P!NK opened with an amazing video of her setting fire to her house after channel surfing for nothing good. The concert was the first in over a year since I saw The Misfits on labor Day 2008. It was the best I have been to. And she rocked!

Loss... I learned just a week after I returned from APE Con that a girl I dated almost a decade ago had been killed by her boyfriend in 2008. I don't watch the news, and I didn't know that she was online so I could have helped her. I worried for years that this would be her fate. But her sister told me she used to say she was never going to see her 30th birthday. To have that kind of fatalism about your life is really tough to move past. A lot of what I have done since learning this news has been centered around it. And trying to help stop domestic violence. It was actually the day after the third annual Wonder Woman Day that I found out Lisa Marie Berrie had been killed more than year earlier. I will miss you my friend. And I promise, I won't stop. Ever! And I am going to bring Wonder Woman Day to Tucson. To help end the silence and destroy the violence. Till it's safe for everyone...

Personally.... I have been up and down throughout the year when it comes to my life. But that's how I roll. It's been that way for 31 years now. After coming to accept certain things about life and myself in particular I get hit with something else. And I'm getting sick of it to tell you the truth. I'm tired of the disappointments. I'm tired of what I see as others moving forward and me seeming to stand still. But then again, my car doesn't break down fully during the race. It just overheats from time to time. I made a promise to myself to work on my personal life. An I have. I made a promise to get better physically too. And to see my reflection in the mirror, I seem to be getting bigger and bigger. It makes me happier about who I am. Make the outside strong to help shield the inside. But in all, I don't change who I am. I never will. Cause for another year, another decade, and the rest of my life, I am, "THE STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!"