I realized that, although I’d mentioned it in my Twitter feed, I haven’t yet made notice here about one of the main reasons blog posts (and Tweets) have been sparse as of late. Allow me to rectify:

A little over two weeks ago, the Watkins family grew by 8lbs 12oz (this is not, by the way, a reference to the volume of Nutter Butters I’ve consumed in any recent period). We are now proud parents to two little Sprouts of our own, available in both toddler and newborn varieties.

Surprisingly, I have not found myself significantly more tired than before the birth (which either speaks well of our new baby boy, or poorly of my life in general). Life marches on around us (and comics will keep on coming, on schedule!), but these two guys, and their mama, are pretty much my whole world right now.

You’re not coming here for the blog posts, anyway, right?

It’s been a cho very busy week here in Odori Park-ville, and I haven’t been able to keep up with the blog and other press notifications enough to keep you all abreast of it. Here’s a rundown of the latest news:

CCA Donation Tally - Lora Innes posted the final tally for donations to the Comic Creator’s Alliance drive to fight human trafficking, and the remarkable number was over $10,000! All from webcomic readers. How cool! Thanks to everyone from this neck of the woods who linked over and donated.

Instances - The “Instances” gallery show at the Colacino Gallery at Nazareth College wraps up today with a closing reception tonight (Fri. 2/5) from 6-8pm. If you’re in the neighborhood, please come! Here’s a link to gallery info.

TWCL Awards - I’ve created an extra-long comic that serves as part of the “awards ceremony” for the 2009 Webcomic List Awards. My strip serves to present the award for Best Comic, and although I’m sorry to say OP wasn’t nominated for any awards itself, just getting to create the presentation comic for what I presume will be the most prominent part of the “show” is gratifying. Thanks to Wendy at TWCL for letting me pitch in. The awards ceremony goes live on Sun., 2/7, at (I suspect) this address: thewebcomiclist.com/awards and I’ll repost my own contribution here on Monday, so you can see it at full size.

Phew!

It’s been quiet on the blog front for the past few weeks, and although the reasons are several, here’s a pertinent one: I have a number of guest projects in the works–my run on SuperFogey’s Origins, for Brock Heasley, is currently nearing its conclusion, and I have other fun irons (some of them, unfortunately, overdue) in that fire, about which I hope to elaborate soon. You’ve seen the results of my overtaxed plate in the form of comics that post later in the day than is normal for me.

On top of the guest projects, I have also been talking for quite some time now about putting prints of the comic strips up for sale, and about getting an Odori Park book together. I hate how long those projects have languished on the back burner!

In the interest, then, of giving these projects a chance to see the light of day–and for you to enjoy them–and in the interest of sleeping more than three hours a night, I have a plan: Starting this week, and through the middle of April, I’ll be reducing Odori Park comic strip updates to twice a week. (I’ll still aim to make posts on Wednesdays, but rather than comics, they’ll be blog posts with sketches, photos, or sneak peeks at these special projects.) Then, starting in the week of April 18th, I’m going to give you a chance to read something different from me–a comic strip submitted to the newspaper syndicates back in 2008 that few people have ever seen. That strip–Surreality, Inc.–will run three days a week for about a month while I attempt to kick book production into overdrive.

Thanks for sticking around! I’m hoping you’ll enjoy seeing the extra comics and materials I’ll be able to share in the next couple months!

A quick note to those who expected a comic on Monday, and didn’t see one:
I’ll have some interesting news to share in the coming days, and events related to this kept me all tied up the last few evenings, leading to an incomplete comic for Monday. I’ve soundly lashed myself for the failing, and will get a new comic up tonight that I hope is worth the wait. I also promise to demystify these cryptic lines by the end of the week. For now, just imagine I’ve been participating in a secret society working to prevent the coming Mayan apocalypse. Or making cheese. You know, whatever secret societies do.

I promised early in the week I’d explain what I’ve been up to that caused me to gaffe and miss an update (which, I assure you, still genuinely pains me). Here’s the news: I have a new day job starting in late February, and I’m gearing up for a big move. A move from western New York state to Massachusetts. The Framingham area, near Boston, to be more specific.

What does that mean for Odori Park? In truth, really very little (which is part of the whole point of putting a comic up on the Web; it doesn’t matter where you and I are in the world, as long as we both have a net connection), but there are two likely impacts:

1. I’m probably going to miss another update or two, particularly in the climax of the move, before this is all over (but, by the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, I’ll aim to prevent it).
2. I will need to make some new comic-making friends! Are you a comicker or a reader out near Boston? Care to shoot me a line? I would honestly love to make your acquaintance.

One more thing to consider is that Boston and environs have a lot more comic shows and events going on throughout the year than Rochester, NY. I am, for example, pretty keen on the idea of finally checking out the New England Webcomics Weekend. So there’s that to look forward to.

And that’s the long and the short of it. Mostly a non-event for you on the other side of the screen, but things’ll be hoppin’ over here for the next few weeks! Hope to hear from some of you in the MetroWest and Boston areas!