DAN SHURTLEFF - where are you??

I should read the replies to my posts more often, Dan. I just saw that you wrote me a while back.
It edited out your email address, so just let me know your username and I'll write you. I'm tlyle49 and I use the same email company that you do.

Good to hear from you. I've tried to find you in the phone book and that stuff many times.

Hope all is well.

Tom

I'M BACK AND I'M ... BAD/MAD/SAD/GLAD/SCAD?

Hey all!

The quarter is finally done and I feel that I can breathe again. So, I thought I'd start off by posting something fun before I got to the news and other stuff.
Here's a photo from Halloween 2006 where four of my students dressed as "Tom Lyle" for Halloween. I am pretty scary.
The bottles of Diet Mountain Dew were a great touch as, until near the end of this current quarter, I always had one in class.
I'm now caffeine free.

News and Updates:
I've contacted both DC and Marvel in the past 10 weeks and been reminded how odd this business is. If I expect to get any real buzz in my possibly resurrected superhero career, I probably really need to go to New York and see these people in person. Face to face contact has always gotten me more respect than phone calls or emails.

Marvel set a page rate back in the summer, but has not come through with any work yet. I blame no one for their lack of job offers. I'm just not the best at waiting.

DC editor Mike Carlin and Mike Marts have both chatted with me briefly, but nothing happened on those fronts yet, either. By the way, both of these men are professional and return calls and emails. I respect them both, though I've worked for neither.

I will finally start my personal graphic novel project by January if I have no concrete offers from the big two by then. I would still definitely be open to work even if I start my own project, but I have to be doing something (I've just barely drawn any published work this last year).

I lost a pet a week ago and that was hard, but a good deal of the pressure and toughness of the fall 2007 quarter at SCAD came from personal stuff. My mother has been in and out of the hospital and it looks bad (she's not young, so don't get all worried - it's just tough to see your parent near the end of their life, early or late.)

My dad is getting older and more feeble all the time. Again, he's no youngster (he's 93!!!), but he played golf up until he was 90 and the decline of his health in the three years since he quit playing is dramatic. He's using a walker now.

So, life has it's pressures. WHAT A WUSS, LYLE!

;-)

I think I've mostly missed working on something that made me feel good. Teaching makes me feel great, but I'm not working on Projects for me. I need that creative flow.

I'll let you guys know about my personal project in late December after I've started writing it more concretely. I've started making notes and "seeing" the chapters in my head. I write visually. I pace it in my head and try to visualize the whole thing so that it makes sense and feels right as a story. I will tell you that the project I want to do is based on autobiographical tales, but I will definitely change details and names to protect the innocent!!

Hope everyone is fine. Feel free to leave a message. Thanks to Matthew and Joe for letting me know they dropped by this blog recently. Happy Holiday everyone!

Later-
Tom