One of the great things about being a professional freelance comic book artist is that I get to use the comic books that I buy as tax write-offs every year. Comics are just one of the great many things that qualify as deductions for a freelance artist. Things like medical costs, computer equipment and supplies, art supplies, business phone calls, shipping costs…. the list is pretty long. And I appreciate every allowable deduction– because I really hate sending out those quarterly tax payments every three months. I always get a sinking feeling when I drop those checks to the Federal and State governments in the mail box each time. I think about how much faster I’d be able to pay off my house if I didn’t have to turn over so much of my income. I always have to keep in mind when those feelings arise how chaotic things would be WITHOUT the things that paying taxes brings– like good roads, law enforcement that keeps us relatively safe…. and other things that escape me at the moment (I think that at least for the past decade or so, I’ve paid in more taxes than I get benefits BACK from those taxes…. but I’m sure as I get older, that dynamic will shift). The end result is that the taxes we pay is what keeps our society running smoothly (most of the time).

The downside of having plenty of allowable deductions, however, is actually sitting down and tallying up those very write-offs. I’m always stunned at how much sheer paperwork accumulates during the course of a year. So many receipts, credit card statements, bank statements, phone records and copies of bills from all the various services and businesses I interact with in relation to my work. It’s almost overwhelming. And it always takes so much longer to sift through that mountain of paper each year in preparation for meeting with my accountant. I always seem to forget each year just how long it takes. And so I spent almost all of yesterday going through every possible deduction– every scrap of paper I saved during the year. It took much longer than I anticipated– I guess I tend to blank out each previous year’s experience, I dunno. I shouldn’t have been surprised. But at least that massive chore is done, and I meet this week with my accountant to turn everything over to her and wait to find out if I get any money back…. or if I owe even more to the government.

Unfortunately, more often than not, I end up owing more.

The only sure things…. death– and taxes.

This is Entry 206.

Mike

I’ve had several people suggest over the past couple of years that I do a sketch of the POWER PACK kids (Derrick Fish just suggested it in the comments section of Monday’s post….) and so, since I really enjoy drawing kids… I thought I’d use that as an excuse to do the PACK as today’s warm up. I’ve always had a big soft spot in my heart for the POWER PACK kids… I have the entire run of the original comic from back in the 80’s. The book was a wonderful mix of science fiction, superheroes and children’s fantasy. It was a book that featured children as the lead characters– but it was never ‘written down’ and made juvenile. So it was a comic that adults could enjoy– and could also serve as a wonderful ‘bridge book’ that could introduce kids to Marvel comics and transition them into the other titles as they grew older. Written by Louise Simonson and drawn by June Brigman, the book was a really wonderful title. I’d love to see Marvel do an ESSENTIALS collection of the book. I’d be all over that…!

Yesterday MARVEL released the solicitations and cover images for their June titles…. and so I thought I’d post the cover image to FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #9 for folks here who might not have seen it yet.

That’s it for today… got lots of work to do.

This is Entry 205.

Mike

I’ve been hearing/reading that the contact page on the web site isn’t working right now. I’ve sent an email to the folks who built the site to ask them to look into it for me. Hopefully, it will be working again soon. To be completely honest, I don’t answer much of the email I get from the site…. but rest assured I certainly read it all. I just don’t have the time to answer every email that comes my way. But I love hearing what’s on peoples’ minds, so I do want to get the contact page up and running again.

It’s also been brought to my attention that the link to the forum takes you to the BOOM! STUDIOS forum on CBR. I thought this had been fixed some time ago… but either it wasn’t, or something has gone wrong again. I’ll ask the web folks to look into that as well. OK… I’m going to have to keep it very short this time… I’m completely snowed under with trying to finish the issue I”m working on by the middle of this week. So hopefully I’ll have a longer post next time.

This is Entry 204.

Mike

Thankfully, I’m feeling much better. I felt discouraged at how low the cold (or flu…. or whatever it was) made me feel on BOTH occasions…. and at how long it’s taken me to shake them. I guess it makes me feel old. I used to be able to rebound from a bug much faster– even ones that completely knock me down hard. In the past, I’ve picked up some sort of cold or flu viruses that have hit me so hard that I could barely think straight and left me curled in a fetal position shaking and chattering…. but were pretty much gone by the next day or so. These have lingered. And this last one has left me with a nagging cough and aching lungs.

But the aching lungs don’t come from a bug. Tuesday while I was eating lunch, a piece of rice from my meal somehow made its way into my windpipe. I tried everything I could to hock/hack it out… but it wouldn’t come. I could feel it moving from my upper esophagus into the lower area of my sinus cavity– back and forth– for several hours. And I couldn’t worm it back into my throat to spit it out. Then, later that day, I could feel it in my right lung. That would induce wild spasms of coughing that would go on for full minutes…. and not only made me feel like my chest and back were collapsing, but that the top of my head was going to explode. The headaches that these coughing spasms brought on were truly brutal. Fortunately, either the grain of rice dissolved/absorbed by my body… or it worked itself back out when I didn’t notice (maybe when I was asleep– but that might be wishful thinking). I don’t feel it in there anymore. But I’m left with hurting lungs and a raw windpipe. I guess as bad luck goes, this is pretty minor. Things could always be worse, I realize. And I’ve had it pretty cushy for a long time now… so I’m looking on the bright side.

For my next post, I’ll have something that’s actually fun or interesting (at least I HOPE) to write about. I don’t want this to become the ‘how is Mike feeling today’ blog that includes a sketch. I’d rather it be about creativity/comics/events.

This is Entry 203.

Mike

Sorry for not posting yesterday. It seems that I picked up another bug while down in Florida for MEGACON. This whole past weekend I felt terrible…. but yesterday was the absolute worst. I didn’t feel so bad before lunch– but by early afternoon, I had to go back to bed, I felt so awful. It’s the body aches that are the worst. I can deal with the other symptoms… but the body aches just make it impossible to sit at the drawing table and work. And these two bugs that have hit me over the past month have held on far longer than I’m used to. I guess my immune system was already weakened from my last cold/flu (whichever it was) when I left for Florida. It’s getting annoying to be sick so much this late Winter.

Feeling a bit better today. So I’m hoping to get back to work this afternoon.

This is Entry 202.

Mike