So.. where have I been?
It’s been a while since I’ve updated the newsletter and the comics THE MIGHTY YOOBAI and THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ. For that, I apologize.
Sometimes life gets in the way of things. And in this case, that includes some health issues, both mental and physical.
The mental part involves a severe bout of Imposter Syndrome that has plagued me and my work for a few months. I won’t bore you with the details, but I’ve been feeling not-so-good about my work and it’s been a little paralyzing. Imposter Syndrome can do that to you. I’m doing my best to work through it, but man… it’s rough when you can’t seem to do the thing that you’re supposed to know how to do.
And the physical part? Well…
As some of my readers may know, I was diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma in early 2020 and had brain surgery to remove the benign tumor in June of that year. The tumor was discovered because it was pressing on my optic nerve and I was losing my vision. The surgery was a success and my vision was completely restored. I feel so grateful for the amazing surgeons who healed me and beat the odds of me ever recovering my normal sight.
(The photo above shows me during my recovery. I was actually hospitalized for two more things in June of 2020 unrelated to my brain tumor. I spent 12 days of that month in hospital. I call it my “Health Tsunami” and it left me very weakened, hence the cane that I had to use for a couple of months.)
I’ve had regular MRIs ever since then to monitor my noggin, and my most recent trip in the noisy tube of stress revealed that there has been some new growth of that pesky tumor. So sometime later this year I’ll be going in for another round of surgery. I call it “The Big Pick” because my doctors go through my nose and sinuses to remove the offending brain bits. I feel fine, and this time around I’m not losing my vision, but going in for more surgery is obviously not ideal. At least this time around I’ll be able to have visitors (no visitors were allowed in June of 2020 due to lockdowns)!
And… a couple of weeks ago my wife and I headed out to Chicago for C2E2, my favorite convention and one I hadn’t been to in a few years. While I was sitting at my Artist Alley table on day one of the show I started to feel a bit unwell. The next morning I was sick as a dog and I missed tabling at the show that day.
My wife, who felt fine, ably manned my table for me on day two of the convention—she’s a trooper. But the next day I was still too sick to do anything but lay in bed, so we decided to pack up and head home early. I was sad that I only got to be at the show on one day, but I didn’t want to get anyone else sick. And that was a good decision, because it turned out that I had Covid for the very first time. And my wife started showing symptoms the day after we got back home. We had both managed to avoid the zombie-plague for three years, but somewhere during our trip to Chicago the bug finally caught up with us. We’re well now, fully recovered, but it was a long slog for over a week while we both endured a vicious bout of Covid-19 together.
We’re both back at work now and I’m trying to get back into the creative swing of things. I hope to have new comic pages for you next Wednesday with regular updates resuming thereafter.
Thanks for your patience and understanding. In lieu of more comic pages, here are some new designs for Oz characters that I’ve been playing around with:
Have a great weekend and I’ll talk to you soon!
Your pal,
Otis
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I am glad you are feeling better and hope the difficult times are behind you forever.