As 2011 comes to a close, I like to think it’s the year I finally woke up.

I’ve done a lot of soul searching this last year, especially the past few months. Things need to change and in order for that to happen, I need to change. Not with Family. Family is the one thing solid on my end. My wife, Terri, is as supportive as ever on what I’m about to do and how I plan on going about doing it. My friends who have an idea as to what’s going on also are very supportive. Now, I just need to stick to my guns and make everything come together.

For starters, my health isn’t exactly awesome. I’m not sick or anything, but I am overweight. More overweight then I care to say publicly. It’s gotten bad enough for me to be concerned about it. I’ve always joked about it. When I was younger, I was always a big guy, but when I got out of High School, I had lost a lot of weight and worked out a lot… especially when I moved out to California. But over the past 8 years, since I stopped working a day job where I ran around for 6-8 hours a day, I let myself go. I’ve become quite afraid I could drop dead of a heart attack by my 40^th Birthday if something doesn’t start to change… I turn 40 on April 5^th, 2012. So with that, I have recently joined a gym and along with working on eating better… I hope to be successful this coming year. I’d like to drop at least 60 lbs. by SDCC (July) and by this time next year, be at/around my goal weight.

Now that I got that out of the way… onto the art stuff…

Until further notice, and I can tell you without hesitation it may be this entire year, I will NOT be taking on ANY commissions. The only way you’ll be able to get a sketch from me will be one of two ways:

1. At a Con

2. Snagging a Sketch of the Day

This is something I will be sticking to until I have accomplished everything I am setting out to do, at least the first phase of it anyway. There will not be any Art Cast Specials in the foreseeable future as well. If I do an art cast, I’ll be working on pages.

NOTE: IF you’re currently awaiting a commission, You will receive your commission within the next 4-6 weeks. Likely sooner as many things just need to be packed up and shipped. If you’re patient and read this far, and you’re waiting for something PLEASE shoot us an email at info@tomhodges.com. In the Subject “Commission Pending”, then let us know what you’re waiting on, when you ordered it and your mailing address. It will go out ASAP. The 4-6 week timeframe is being EXTREMELY cautious on the off chance something pops up, but the plan is to get you taken care of in the next week or so!

Conventions:

I will be cutting my Con schedule down DRAMACTICALLY this year. The past few years I have found myself doing anywhere from 15-18 shows per year. I can’t do it anymore. It’s too much. I can’t allow myself to be out there that much anymore. It’s tiring. This year will be the start of a limited amount of appearances. Right now, I can confirm the Following appearances:

WonderCon, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA March 26-28, 2012

C2E2, North Building at McCormick Place, Chicago, IL April 13-15, 2012

Phoenix Comicon, Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, AZ May 24-27, 2012

San Diego Comic Con, San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA July 11-15, 2012

There are three other shows I am tentative on… but hoping to confirm those soon. But that will be it. There may be a local show thrown in, but right now, it’s going to stay the way it is. I’ll also be doing things differently when it comes to sketches at Cons too, but we’ll get into that in February when we’re getting things ready for WonderCon!

 “Sketch of the Day” Sketches:

One of my Resolutions for 2012 will be doing a Daily sketch, Monday thru Friday. No Ifs, ands or buts… a sketch gets posted five days a week and every sketch will vary in price and type. It’ll boil down to what I’m feeling that morning. That will start Monday, January 2^nd.

Career:

For those of you paying attention, it’s quite apparent that the Star Wars: The Clone Wars Web Comic on starwars.com is done. We had a great run and I am beyond thankful to Pablo and everyone involved at Lucasfilm for letting us do that Comic. Also to Katie, Grant, Jeff and Daniel with all their hard work.

Is it the end of my work in the Star Wars Universe? No, not at all. In fact, there’s things I cannot discuss at the moment. I can confirm my participation in Topps’ Star Wars Galaxy 7 set. Two Base cards as well as a limited amount of Sketch Cards. And who knows… maybe I’ll get an invite to Celebration 6 this year! But honestly, I think it was good it ended. It is allowing me to move forward with things I have been putting off for a long time.

The first thing is bringing “Midknight” back. Still, with Red 5 Comics, “Midknight” will return late spring with a new storyline and new look. I’ve been playing with it off and on during the past few years and tweaking ideas. This past summer, due to some heartfelt negotiation’s, all rights to the property were returned back to Terri and I. It’s reinvigorated my passion for the characters. I feel like it’s my time to go balls out on it. Sink or Swim, It’ll be 100% ours and at least I’ll be able to stand by it. I’m not reinventing the wheel… but I’m going to attempt to put some sweet rims on it!

Another project I’m going to dive into is a web comic. My good friend and one of my favorite people on the planet, Katie Cook, and she’s offered me a lot of advice on web comics. Her Web Comic “Gronk” is not only the best comic online (it’s an opinion, but a damn good opinion) but it’s always consistent. It’s delivered every week and it gets better and better with each Comic.

Starting this week, I’ll be putting one day aside each week to work on a page for the web comic. My goal is to be a full 4-6 months ahead on the story before I even post page one. It would allow me to be ahead of the game and be consistent. So it’ll be something that debuts around SDCC.

And I’m hoping to pursue other “Dream” jobs. I accomplished my want to work in the Star Wars Universe… now I need to put effort into the other things I want to be a part of.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy 2012… best of luck to you all and all you hope to do!

 

 

 

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