All Heart

On Tuesday, June 4, my older brother had a heart transplant. That was the first miracle. But the miraculous just keeps happening.

The surgery went as well as possible and, in less than 24 hours, the medical staff were expecting him to be able to stand on his own. And, two days later on Thursday, June 6, he was walking around.

His wonderful lady has been by his side through it all and she keeps me and my family updated on his progress. She's let us know that with each day he gets stronger and stronger. The docs have been removing tubes everyday because his progress is great. On Sunday, I found out that he's been making rounds at the hospital, meaning he's been walking more and more and, over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, he walked the equivalent of one mile.

This may not seem like a big deal, but once you realize that my brother has just received a heart transplant, I mean, god damn, that's nothing short of amazing. I doubt that I've walked a mile in the last month and my brother is just making me look bad. Of course, for the last three weeks, I've been doing all the lettering for the final GIRL book, so I've been confined to sitting in front of the computer. (That's it, Kev, make up some more excuses.)My brother is an athlete and has always been in remarkable shape, and the doctors say that's one reason for his great recovery.

I've thus been inspired to do something about my own health and will spend the summer getting back in shape. We all have our own reasons and inspirations for making life changes, and my brother is my inspiration. I've spent eight years sitting behind a drawing board trying to finish a book, and it's taken it's toll on my health. And I've just spent another three weeks doing the lettering for said book, and I am done. I've finished the lettering, I've finished the art and I'm taking credit for all of it. If I had the printing press, I would take credit for that, too. Now I need to take care of myself. Being cooped up in an art studio won't keep you in shape. So, now it's time to go out and play. After all, I've finished my homework.

Here's to my brother for the life lesson. He's all heart.

Girl Is Coming...

It may be a cold, wet spring at the moment, but this August, GIRL will arrive to end the summer with a wetter, albeit hotter, experience.

This book will not disappoint, and it's the best work I've ever done since Ive started in comics. But I'll leave that up to the discerning, and most patient, fans I've ever had the pleasure of working for.

I hope you're all still here in a few months to let me know what you think. I look forward to it.

Copy and paste the link to see the cover.
http://nbmpub.com/eurotica/comingup/comaugusteros.html

Happy New Year..?

Well, we're just three months in, so it's still a relatively New Year.

I was hoping once I'd finished the last GIRL book, my other projects would be done in quick succession, but the post GIRL world has brought with it a different set of problems, one of which was the difficulty in moving on. For the past eight years I'd been working on volume four of The Second Coming and, once it was done, it was like a relationship had ended. Couple that with some other issues that I won't go into, and you have the fixings of a very difficult hill to climb in terms of creativity, something I've never experienced before.

I'm sure most people view comic book artists as unfeeling automatons just cranking out pages at a time-and how I wish that were true-but the last few months have been rough. But, I'm getting over it. Last week, I finally finished painting the pages for EVERYTHING'S ANJEE and the next step is to letter it, my least favorite activity. Not to mention, my website is still undergoing problems. I'm trying to get some info from my webmaster, so, once again I ask you all to bare with me for a bit longer. I'm doing my best under some very strange circumstances and I'm trying not to let my work suffer for it.

Easier said than done, I know, but I'm working on it.

time for some new stuff

In the post GIRL world, I'll be posting my first short story on my newly reconstructed website. "Everything's Anjee" will be the first of a series of stories I'm doing especially for the site, some short, some a little longer. And as soon as the site is ready, I'll begin posting pages.

It's gonna be some good stuff.

www.kevinjtaylor.com

site

Once again, I have to apologize to members of my website which hasn't been updated in a while. My webmaster has been in the process of redesigning the site and I didn't know it would take so long. I'm not a computer person so I don'tknow what's involved, but once it's all done, the updates will begin in ernest.

Multiple Milestones

I'm back in New York today, where I wanted to be when I had my 50th birthday. Mind you, there's nothing wrong with having a birthday outside the country, but this is one of those "surprise" birthdays, as in "I'm surprised I made it this far". I just couldn't see accomplishing a milestone like this without being with my family, and being in New York City where I was born and raised. And, personally, I think the Internal Revenue Service should give some serious tax breaks to people who have made it this far, in life and in this country, with several marbles still intact.

Milestone number two was the official hand-off of the original art for the final volume of GIRL: The Second Coming to NBM Publishing. I told publisher Terry Nantier that for the last five years, I've dreamt of that moment. Most men dream of doing daring heroics or sleeping with supermodels. Me, I literally dreamt of the day I would finally be finished with the art for GIRL and be in the NBM offices (the new offices being quite spacious and swank) and placing it into the hands of Terry. I always knew I would never be able to mail it and sleep soundly with all the work I put into it. I've been working on the book since 2005 and, once I went to Spain in 2006, I always knew I would have to hand deliver it, no matter what. And, as my trip back to the states grew closer, I thought it would be fitting to deliver this monumental work on my birthday.

This last GIRL book has been such a big part of my life for for almost the last eight years, when I finally finished, it took me several days before I could do anything else. When I sat at my drawing board, I had no idea what I should be doing. I guess you could say I had gotten out of an eight year relationship and had a little trouble moving on.

The delivery worked out perfectly. Unfortunately, I also learned the state of adult comics here in the states lately. Apparently, I've been severely out of touch with the comics industry over the last few years because it seems that adult comics are suffering thanks to the internet. And I'm probably the last artist that has to deliver actual artwork on real art boards done with real paints. It looks like I'll finally have to get with the digital age.

The final milestone is, today also marks the second anniversary of my website. In case any members were wondering, the site has been undergoing some changes and the updates are kind of slow. The webmaster was planning to hand over the updating duties to me, but things have been moving rather slowly because he has an entire network to oversee. For those who have joined the site, I sincerely apologize for the tardiness of the updates, but when the work is done, the site should be a lot better, and with a few new features. (I'm hoping.)

All in all, it's been a full day, and the night is just starting, so I think I'll go and start on a few future milestones and I'll see you in another fifty years. Hopefully, the website will be updated by then and I'll have finished the next four GIRL books. That would REALLY be one of those "surprise" birthdays.

http://www.kevinjtaylor.com

...so let it be DONE

Yes, I can finally say the fourth volume to GIRL: The Second Coming is finally done. The only thing left to do is get it into the offices of NBM and let them get it out to the frothing public. (That is, if they're still interested.)

Now, I can work on other things,like having my website updated more frequently and working on new pieces, not to mention several stories i have planned especially for the site. It's good stuff.

The book may have gotten finished a few days after my due date of September, but at least it's done before the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar. Then I would really be pissed.

Soon, you can hang around the NBM site to find out when the book will be scheduled, along with all the other great books and artists they have. As for me, I'm going to take a well deserved nap. Then I'll wake up and get some sleep.


http:www.kevinjtaylor.com