Between my computer failing, the website hack and now my eye being infected with something nasty - all within the past few weeks - I’m starting to wonder if the universe is conspiring against me putting out the JEFbot comic on time!

Here’s the story: I woke up on Saturday with a small irritation in my eye. Felt like an eyelash or some debris was stuck in it. Well, by Sunday that irritation had swollen up my eyelid to unnatural proportions (although it did look kinda cool) and I was starting to wonder if I had pink eye, as had happened a couple years back. By Monday I had WebMD’d the symptoms and diagnosed myself with a stye (or more specifically, an internal hordeolum which is more fun to say) which isn’t contagious, so I decided to just power through it and go to work, then come home and work on the strip. Bad idea. By the time I returned home from the office, the stye was pretty irritated and even more swollen, and after I had worked a few hours on the comic, it was downright pissed. Around 1:30am, when I began contemplating taking double shots of vodka to dull the pain, I decided it was time to give in and let my eye have some rest, which resulted in the non-comic you (don’t) see today.

So, big apologies. My eye looks a bit less swollen today, and I’m trying to keep it closed (the act of blinking seems to bother it further). If it gets worse, I suppose I’ll have to go to the doctor and have it checked out – something Mombot thinks I should have done 24-48 hours ago, no doubt. I’ll keep you guys posted but I don’t think it’s serious. Hoping I’ll be back to drawing by tonight or tomorrow, but a new strip might not be up until Thursday or Friday.

Sorry for the lack of a strip last Friday; I was giving myself Thursday off to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family, and had every intention of working on JEFbot the next day and posting the strip late. When I tried powering up my MacBook Pro Friday afternoon, however, I found that one of its internal fans had died during my turkey binge. I immediately called the closest Apple Store, and, after being on hold for quite some time (due, no doubt, to the Black Friday sales going on) I was told that I would need to make an appointment and drop my computer off, and might need to leave it with them for 2-3 weeks, possibly longer. Since I don’t have a back-up computer, I really needed a fix right away, so started calling computer shops around town to find the fan. I didn’t find a shop that had the correct part (and was open for business) until Saturday afternoon. So, after I procured the part, I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon taking apart my laptop and replacing the fan (with the help of an online video that I followed along with on my iPad.)

Anyway, this is all an extended way of saying that I wasn’t able to get to last Friday’s JEFbot, but, barring anything else unforeseen happening, this week’s strips (we’re back on a Tuesday/Friday schedule, remember) should be posted on time. Thanks for your patience.

If you’re in Los Angeles this weekend (November 5-6), come on down to the L.A. Convention Center for the first annual Comikaze Expo, where I’ll be selling JEFbot books, shirts and other merch at booth #3601! This is the first L.A. convention I’ve done, so I’m pretty excited to see friends that haven’t been able to make it to my other appearances, and local JEFbot readers I haven’t met face-to-face yet! As always, I’ll have a special, free BOTton (see image) for fans while supplies last.

Although this is the first Comikaze Expo, it looks like they already have a cool line-up of writers, artists and celebrities (including Stan Lee, Mark Hamill and Ernest Borgnine!) so let’s hope this is a great success and they’ll have another one next year. For the full list of guests, as well as the different events, contests, parties and directions, check the Comikaze website, here: ComikazeExpo.com

If this goes as well as some of the other conventions I’ve done this year, I know it’s going to be a blast, so come on down! Schuetze Family members will be there throughout the weekend, including Xinda, Mombot, Lor, Popbot and Coolhand. I’ll also be Tweeting and/or Facebooking during the con, so check those sites out for any news during the day. Hope to see you there!
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COMIKAZE EXPO
JEFBOT (MONSTER YOU) BOOTH #3601
November 5 (10am – 7pm) & 6 (11am – 6pm), 2011
Los Angeles Convention Center
1201 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, California 90015
Comikazeexpo.com

Okay, so now I’m convinced the Fates are conspiring against me putting out new JEFbot strips. At least the reason for the delay this time is a bit more fun: Longtime readers will remember I took a hiatus a while back to film a horror movie called Grey Skies. Well, after picking up numerous festival awards (including the Audience Choice Award at Shriekfest and the Best Feature Film Award at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival) and a limited theatrical run, Grey Skies is now available on DVD! (And as it so happened, the DVD release party was last night, and I got home too late to finish today’s strip.)

If you’re interested in seeing the movie (which also stars Michael Cornacchia, the inspiration for The Cornfather in the strip), it’s now available on Amazon.com, just in time for Halloween! Here’s the link:
• Grey Skies DVD

And here are my previous posts about my time in Michigan filming the movie:
• Grey Matter_01.The Arrival
• Grey Matter_02.The First Week
• Grey Matter_03.Nights Into Dreams
• Grey Matter_04.Parting Grey Skies

Unless something unforeseen occurs (and I wouldn’t rule that out,) I’ve completely cleared my schedule the next two days so I can get to JEFbot as soon as I get home from work, which means I can practically guarantee that I’ll be back on schedule this Friday with a new strip as we start wrapping up The Angry Scarf storyline! Once again, I thank you for your patience and understanding as Life sometimes gets in the way of me working on JEFbot, which is still one of the biggest passions in my world right now, and which I excitedly look forward to returning to after the past couple weeks of distractions!

So last night (Sunday) the Schuetzes celebrated my sister Linda’s (inspiration for Xinda, knitter of the Angry Scarf) birthday at my parents’ house. The plan was to start the festivities around 6pm, have dinner, cake and presents, and be done by 8:30 or so. I figured that would leave me enough time to get back to the BOTcave a little after 9pm, and have the strip finished around 1 or 2am.

Well. That was the plan. Unfortunately, my sister’s car wouldn’t start, and after much time spent trying to figure out whether it was her key fob, battery or electrical system, we ended up calling AAA, the driver for which promptly got lost in North Hollywood, and didn’t make it to my parents’ until sometime after 9pm. After arriving and doing some tests, AAA thankfully got the car started and my sister was on her way (I believe she’s taking it to the dealership today.) The point being that after my sister left, and I was able to get all my stuff together (laundry and leftovers and such), I didn’t end up leaving Mom & Popbot’s until after 11pm. By the time I got home my ETA for the strip was somewhere around 4:30am, and I just couldn’t manage it as I had an important meeting at work this morning that I had to get into the office earlier than usual for.

Anyway, this is just a long way of saying that you should totally blame Linda for today’s missing strip while also wishing her a Happy Birthday!

If you’re in the San Francisco area this weekend, come by and see me at the JEFbot Table (#452), where I’ll be signing books, selling merch, doing sketches and handing out free postcards and bookmarks! I also have a limited amount of special APE/JEFBOT mini-BOTtons that I’ll be giving out to fans and readers only, so if you’re planning on stopping by, let me know and I’ll save you one.

This is my first APE, so I’m not sure what to expect, but I hear it’s a ton of fun, filled with talented writers and artists, workshops and panels for comic enthusiasts and a cool, indy vibe for creators and fans. And as I mentioned above, I’ll be selling my first collection of strips, JEFBOT VOL.1_All Dysfunctions Normal (which is still only available at my convention appearances), t-shirts and BOTtons!

Check out the official APE site if you have questions, and I hope to see you there!

Big apologies, JEFbot readers, but there won’t be a Friday strip this week – been hustling getting ready for a comic convention this weekend and just ran out of time. Although I’ll have to push pause on The Angry Scarf storyline at the moment, it’ll be back next week! (Monday’s posting might be a bit late since I get back that afternoon, though. Bear with me.) I’ll be posting about my trip on Twitter and Facebook, so check me out over on those sites if you’re curious. Wish me luck at the con, and see you next week!