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!

Hey, check out this beautiful piece of FANart I received from Shanna “Aelyrin” Andress! I love her interpretation of jefbot and the Angry Scarf – the colors, shading and expressions are all fantastic. It actually makes me feel peaceful and less rage-y when I look at it. And I think it’s great that she even worked bot’s prehensile toes into the mix! (She told me the whole Feets of Strength arc was the inspiration for this one.) Click on the image below to embiggen. And check out more of her work, here.

And if you get inspired to do any JEFbot FANart of your own, be sure and send it my way by clicking here.

Aloha! As I mentioned in the comic strip blogs recently, I’m kicking it in Hawaii with Mombot for the next several days, visiting with friends and family and soaking up some sun and surf. I couldn’t mention it earlier, but the main reason for taking this trip was to attend a surprise 60^th Wedding Anniversary for my aunt and uncle. Since the event took place today (Saturday, July 23), I can finally write without fear of family members visiting my website and getting the surprise ruined. I’ll write more about the party later as it deserves a blog of its own, but for now, here’s what I’ve been doing for the past few days in paradise.

My mom and I left from Burbank, CA last Wednesday morning (July 20^th) and arrived on Oahu – where Mombot was raised – later that day. Since then, it’s been a very casual, relaxing trip. I can’t remember the last time I was on a real vacation so it took some time to sink in; I think the first night after going out for food and drinks, I came back to the hotel and worked on Friday’s JEFbot for a few hours before crashing. The next day I took my mom to the Ala Moana shopping center so she could pick up gifts for the Anniversary party, and dessert for a dinner we had that night with my cousin, aunt and uncle.

It wasn’t until Friday I really started getting into “Vacation Mode” and spent the afternoon hiking and surfing with my sister, Linda/Xinda. Oh, did I not mention she’s here with us? That’s because we didn’t find out she’d be joining us until late Thursday night, when she came pounding on my hotel door. Earlier in the week she had threatened to A) Spend the entire time at my apartment while I was away, changing things around and possibly painting another wall, or B) Surprising us in Hawaii and getting a room at our hotel. I assumed she would choose option A as who buys an expensive, last minute plane ticket to Hawaii, just to terrorize one’s mother and brother? (Granted, also to hang out in one of the most beautiful places in the world.)

Anyway, it all turned out pretty great as she and I spent Friday afternoon on the beach – she hung out at Duke’s drinking iced teas, taking pictures and napping on the sand while I went surfing. It was the perfect day for it, too, as the ocean was fairly calm which meant the waves were just the right size for me to get back into the swing of things (I think it’s been at least four years since the last time I surfed off this very beach.) I plan to go back in the next day or two, but had to take a break since I got a bad sunburn on the back of my calves (the two places I didn’t put sunscreen on, wouldn’t you know) so gotta give those time to heal. In the meantime, I hiked up Diamond Head – kind of a tradition everytime I come to Oahu – and took my evil sis along. She made it to the top of the crater, but just barely, as it’s a pretty arduous climb and she hasn’t been able to exercise much lately, due to some health issues she’s been dealing with. After that, we drove back to the hotel and picked up Mombot for some local eats.

Like I said, it’s been a pretty chill vacation so far, and I think that’s exactly what I needed; it’s been years since I’ve had a proper getaway that wasn’t somewhat work-or-JEFbot-related, so it’s been strange not having to worry about much beyond when the next time I’m going to the beach, really. Yes, I did bring my computer and artstuffs along so I can post new comic strips while away, but I’m mixing in the JEFbot work without interrupting any Vacation Fun Time. And really, writing and drawing from my hotel window overlooking the beach while listening to the sound of the surf is still vacation time as far as I’m concerned. And hey, the McDonald’s fast food joints here on the islands all have Spam and/or Portuguese sausage and egg breakfasts, and that’s all I need to start each day with a smile on my face for now.

See you in a day or two with a new blog post, and next Tuesday with a new strip!

For some other photos and social networking while I’m away, check my:
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