The more things change, the more they stay insane.

(Left) Andrew Sloan with one of his last collaborative works with artist Heather Gottfried. (Right) The "Dre" character based on him in Pagan Zoetrope.

The last three weeks have been a blur and a hell of a lot of stress, peppered with a significant amount of sadness, change, and abrupt things happening.

I was struggling through trying to find my feet with work and creating stuff for an upcoming show when just a few days back, I found out that one of my best friends, Andrew suddenly had passed away.

I sat out in my backyard watching the birds at the feeders hanging from my tree, and felt a loneliness and sadness creep over me that was just haunting, and I thought and later wrote down...

Death has escorted my dear friend and fellow artist, Andrew Sloan, to the lands where I cannot venture.

I know not what lays beyond this world, except for an old stone bridge I once glimpsed as a youth before being brought back from a serious drowning incident in New Mexico.

Wherever you are my dear friend, I will miss your humor, your view on the world, and the meet ups we had talking about the corporate bullshit of companies, and your love of your children the many times we sat at Crown Center.

Rest in peace, and may all the colors of your desire be at your fingertips so that you paint the sunset tonight in a defiant Angry Irish way that only you could.

I first met Andrew in illustration class at CMSU (UCM now) in Warrensburg Missouri, and we had a mutual love of Warhammer, video games, history, pirates, art, brunettes, and heavy metal music. Always a fellow of serious seeming outset, he had a seriously bizarre humor to life and was one of the toughest and most hardcore dudes I have ever known, with a heart of gold that came to full fruition with the birth of his two children some years later.

Our paths touched over the years as we did gallery shows together on occasion, played games, and eventually both ended up working at Hallmark at various times. But he ever stayed a friend, tried and true.

I thought long and hard about actually retiring his character of Dre from the stories of Pagan Zoetrope, but I have decided otherwise. Andrew had a lot more to say and do in life than he was given time to do in the 40 years he had here on earth.

There is an old saying that so long as names are spoken, then people are never really dead or forgotten. Rest in peace wherever you are buddy, I will keep telling your stories.

Mandy and Melanie. Mandy with headphones.

Thanks to those of you that reached out to me and asked how I'm doing. I'm breathing. I'm still fighting, learning, and working on art. Nothing really stops that. In some weird ways, my creative push for working on news issues of Pagan Zoetrope has reignited in a series of ways that I had not anticipated, but will be sharing over the coming months.

Of course, when I feel down, I sink into side hobbies on occassion, and Pokemon Go! (which I did a recent podcast about), has been a good mental sidebar for me to cling to.

I know it shows level 9, but I just today hit level 17,

I know the game has been getting a lot of heat recently from a good portion of it's players, because of the radar aspect, and some other glitches in the game, but for me, it's also been a wild social experiment to observe from not only a marketing standpoint, but how overwhelming the demand for a vastly popular app can be on server strain, demographic grab, and handling a legacy IP like Pokemon for new and old fans alike.

It's something that as I began working on my own game designs and concept artwork for some of my own ideas, I've allowed to swim in my head. Hey, if you can, learn from the movers and shakers when it comes to not only triumphs, but tribulations as well.

Concept game art, featuring a cameo of the Tourbillion ship from my wip novel, Gauge and the Emerald Children.

I got to working on the game I have in development, using this insane game engine platform program called BuildBox, and the trial was just amazing. It's one of the next goals I hope to save for and use my Patreon income towards.

Last version of the side scrolling game I was working on.

And of course, I am getting ready for KCCC, and will be there, once AGAIN, on a corner booth (I don't know how this keeps happening to me at shows, but I like that. I like it a lot.), with some of the newest art I have featured in my illustration portfolio area, as various sized reproductions, as well as a few new wood panel originals for sale as well.

For any of you looking, I will have a giant banner with Artisan Rogue and Mandy on it, and the table will have my logo on it, and the walls will be black carpeted panels, and I will have art you will want on your walls and if you've not read Pagan Zoetrope, there will be graphic novels and issues of it available for you to purchase (and each one comes with some extras as well).

Be sure to check Twitter (@theartisanrogue) and follow me on there to see where the hell I am in the show, because like the elusive Nessie, no one but people with blurry cameras, can ever seem to find me.

Expect photos and updates galore after the dust from KCCC has settled, but while you wait, check out all the rest of the great streamlining I've been doing to the site here. Including the new page for ICWXP!

Until next time, support your local artists, call up that friend or family member you've been meaning to, be kind to your fellow beings, and always take the path less traveled!

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue
Illustrator, Podcaster, Writer, Toy Collector, and Animal Rights Activist

www.theartisanrogue.com

Radio waves in the midnight oil.

(Left) Front of the KKFI building. (Right - Photo by Maria Vasquez Boyd) I thought my Soundwave shirt was appropriate for today. 

I have to start off by saying I was way more comfortable this second time on the radio, and I was really happy to be invited back onto ArtSpeak Radio, a great show covering a lot of creative happenings in the KC area, hosted by Maria Vasquez Boyd.

(Left) The Green Room. (Right from Top to Bottom: Jason, Anthony, and Maria.) 

Andie Paloutzian, Anthony "AO" Oropeza, myself, and Jason Sierra, were the four guests on today's program. I already knew who Anthony was from his work with his AmigoMan series, and had gotten to talk with him at the Chicano Art Exhibit that happened at Hallmark last week. Andie had some great things going on with the library and programs she was involved with, and Jason (who also has some work still up in the Chicano Art Exhibit over at Mattie Rhodes), performed some songs on the air. Really wonderful stuff!

Hopefully the full podcast will be up for those of you that were not in the listening area, and you can then download it and listen to it from the KKFI site. I'll post a link up when it becomes available.

I'm taking a moment to reflect on something. If anyone had told me that I could ever have been on the radio, that anyone would even care what I had to say on any subject matter, never mind things that I create, write about, illustrate,... I'd have thought they were nuts.

When I was still working at Hallmark, there was an edict, a phrase that was being thrown around, to "be scrappy", to fight for all you had because your ideas mattered, your input mattered.

My idea of "scrappy" is very, VERY different than what 90% of the people that still work there, think it means. I believe that, as my father says, one of the greatest gifts we have, are our hands. We can do so much, build our home, carve ideas, write down memories, hold onto the ground we will fight for. 

A corporate environment, by it's definition, is not someplace that allows a great degree of "scrappiness" to exist, without understanding that if one is to be so, there will be cuts, scrapes, falls, bruises, time to heal, mistakes, and winners and losers.

Don't get it twisted. I am very happy for all I learned, and much of what I accomplished at that company, and in no way am I denigrating the people that I still know and befriended there at Hallmark. But, I think many would agree, that to be heard, is to be judged, to be isolated, to be ridiculed, and sometimes... feared. It's always far easier to be part of the pack, to let those who can, reaffirm the status quo (I'm looking at all you Hallmark Gold Crown store owners), and that's a shame really.

The truth is, that a great deal of my creativity, my self esteem, and my common sense had left me, and every time I tried to apply a facade of positive communication, I knew I was just kidding myself.

Unless, that is, I was up on floor nine in a recording booth, or having some real talk with the few that I really grew to know and cherish there. To all of you, you know who you are, you are more valuable than you realize, and your potential is astronomical. 

Over the last year, I was really inspired by various people that I know in the art field or even in comics in general, that embraced a do it yourself attitude, and I more and more am drifting back to the ideologies that the good Mr. Bill Watterson often professed about his art, any art.

“They say the secret of success is being at the right place at the right time, but since you never know when the right time is going to be, I figure the trick is to find the right place and just hang around.” ― Bill Watterson

I missed having no safety net in my art. I resent that I allowed myself to let self doubt creep in. I also realized that I seriously was in the wrong place at the right time. Truth is, if I had still been at work, none, if very little of what I have been able to do in the last few weeks would have come to pass.

So many times, I think not just creative people, but people of all walks of life wait for some perfect moment to dive into a project, a career path, or believe that things will work out just as we hope. There is no freaking way that is ever, EVER, going to happen exactly as anyone wants it to, just because no matter how carefully let's say, you plan, practice and orchestrate a performance of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto in D Major, SOME jackass in the group will have his cello out of tune.

But that's the idea behind corporate america in a lot of ways. For some, it's a great thing. For myself, it was killing me, and I didn't even realize it. You can't be scrappy if you're the only one. You just end up looking insane.

And if I am going to look insane, then I might as well have some fun while I do it. Which brings me around to the fact that I will be setting up for Planet tomorrow morning, because I am:

1. that paranoid that I won't have time to get everything set up.
2. always forgetting my business cards.
3. all too knowledgeable that parking is hell in this city.
4. a psycho combination of all of the above.

As if flooding Twitter with my face wasn't enough, I have been pushing this all over Miitomo via my digital self.

So this evening and part of this morning was spent branding and signing some last minute works to add to the haul to Bartle tomorrow..., wait, dammit. It's like, it is 3 am.

Probably my favorite stamp I use now.

Well, at least I managed to get one more update in before the weekend hits. I'll be taking pics and video if at all possible, but expect an update sometime later in the next week after this one.

As you can see below, on the left, I made a last run of the Pagan Zoetrope shirts that sold out on StoreEnvy. I don't have the screens for the Mandy ByrdGrrls one anymore, so if you managed to snag one of those, you were lucky. But I did have this last run of good black unisex shirts to use for this run. It's the same as the originals, the logo on the front, the PZ icon on the back. This is the last time for these for the forseeable future. I may have other shirt designs later in the year attached to other book releases.

The sizes all run large, and I think I may only have one medium left, all the rest are 2xl up to I think one or two 4xl shirts. I have them all marked at just $10 each, but if you buy any amount over $5 from me, then the shirt becomes $5. If you buy any amount $45 and over, the shirt is free.

(Left) Pagan Zoetrope shirts. (Right) Building custom art storage for travel.

Well, my eyes are bleary and I still have more to do, so if you do come out to Planet Comicon, have a blast, there are a LOT of great creators and people to meet and talk to, photos of cosplayers you can take, famous people to meet. Someone mentioned this Stan Lee guy is going to be there. I think he gets bit parts in those art house films about enhanced people in spandex or something. 

Until next time, support your local artists, be kind to your fellow beings, and never let them see you sweat. 

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Stormtroopers and I got a job at Hallmark!

Issue #1 of my comic book Pagan Zoetrope is available for sale at www.paganzoetrope.com with a few other new items to show your love and support for PZ!

What have I been up to you all may wonder since it's almost been a year between updates? Dredging my way through the quagmire that is the freelance world of art and occasionally hanging out with stormtroopers. "D

With members of the 501st.

I had most recently a phenomenally fun stint with Hallmark here in KC. I got a chance to work with the Digital Work Team, (a great bunch of people) and had the opportunity to learn some really cool things about the inner processes and procedures on card creation. The environment of Hallmark is one of the best I have ever worked in. Creative, dynamic and at the same time, so close knit and friendly.

And if you find yourself wondering "Gosh, I'd like to see some of Mario's illustration work first hand as a finished product..." Well, YOU CAN! The wonderful pet supply company UPCO has my artwork featured in it's latest catalog (cover AND inside illustrations), and you want to know the best part? The catalog is FREE!!! Just go to www.upco.com and request one! Hurry and do so before they run out! Hell, if you get the catalog in the mail and send me a photo of you holding it, I'll post it up on here! Now how's THAT for getting some internet fame?

So with this update, I'll bid you all adieu until I find something else positively stirring to talk about!