A Farewell to Arms Update

Mose Goes Walkies, Skyhorse Publishing

Been a while since I’ve updated. I’m currently in the final two weeks of work on the illustrated version of “A Farewell to Arms”. I’ve been posting most of the samples from this collection of 30 illustrations at my Patreon site (this year I’ve started posting fewer samples here on this site, and giving my Patrons access to behind the scenes peeks at my work in progress – you can sign up for as little as $1 a month – simply follow the links to the ‘Mose Goes Walkies’ site for information).

And speaking of ‘Mose Goes Walkies’ (this is a daily web comic that I’ve been doing over the past year, also see link above, and here’s a sample of the latest comic), I’m happy to report that the ‘mini travelogue’ “How Not to Hike the John Muir Trail” that we published in March of 2023 on our Instagram site has won a few awards at the Grand Rapids Festival the Arts, and a sampling of pages will be up on display in Grand Rapids through the end of June.

Mose Goes Walkies Book?

Mose Goes Walkies

As I am getting closer to reaching the one year anniversary of doing a daily web comic (see the link above in the menubar), I’ve been starting to think about collecting the strips into a book and shopping it around to a few publishers. In the meantime, we have been talking here about self-publishing a smaller collection (maybe a ‘best of’ selection, plus the longer John Muir Trail storyline) and making them available to friends and family (and as a sales tool for when I send it out to potential publishers). I’ve been playing around with a few cover ideas, recycling some of my favorite panels from the strip.

Krampus Card

Mose Goes Walkies, personal

I decided to do something a little different this year for my annual Krampus card. I’ve been thinking of retiring this character, and, since I’ve started a new comic strip venture this year, I used the comic to work as both a sunday strip and to do double duty as our holiday card, both giving our dear Krampus a fine send-off, and transitioning to a new era of “Mose Goes Walkies” greeting cards. Once I did this Sunday strip (pictured above), I felt I wasn’t quite through with this guy (and his waggly tongue), so I continued the story throughout the week (below are the next few chapters, with the plan to continue it throughout the following week). The strip can be read on a daily basis at the link above in the menubar, or if you wish to check out more you can subscribe to our Instagram feed (where most of the action happens), support us on Patreon (entire archive, plus extras) or sporadically on TikTok.

Mose Goes Walkies Website

comics, Mose Goes Walkies

Finally managed to get the ‘Mose Goes Walkies’ website up and running. I’m not sure where this new venture is going, but I felt it was different enough from my usual work that it needed its own web presence. For those that are just joining us, I’ve been drawing a daily comic strip since May 31st of this year, with the goal of perhaps someday publishing these cartoons in some form in the future. At this point (I’m nearing 100 strips very soon) I consider it ‘on the job training’, learning to be a better cartoonist, expressing myself, fulfilling a lifelong ambition, call it what you will. There are links on the website to our Instagram account, our Patreon page, and several sample strips to peruse. The link in the menubar above will take you to the official website.

Mose Goes Walkies Patreon Site

comics, Mose Goes Walkies

The strip above is one I’ve done early for next Sunday, as I’ll be away at a music festival this weekend.

I’ve created a Patreon Page for “Mose Goes Walkies” as a way of supporting my cartooning habit. Ever since I was 10 years old, I’ve wanted to be a cartoonist. I’ve compromised over the years, working as a graphic artist, then as an illustrator for more than 3 decades, but as I’ve only got five more working years (give or take) left in me, I’ve decided to pour a lot more energy into achieving this goal. I am still very new to this, and hope to improve with repetition.

I’d like to reassure my illustration clients, that I am still accepting commissions and will be giving 100% of my energy and creativity to whatever future projects come my way, however you will be seeing a lot more of Mose around here.