Thoughts - Deep and Otherwise

Wow, man.

October is closer to over than just beginning, and JAMARATHON has been awesome. Today I had a commission to do, but they were supposed to send me a sketchbook and I haven't gotten it yet! So I'm taking the day to get some of these pieces ready for the mail. I'm still a little backlogged, so you'll be getting your pieces soon.

Now, I have a few new interestsin commissions (Get at me in email!), but there's still a few days left in October not spoken for. I wanna change that.

My initial goal for JAMARATHON was to fill October. I'm REAAAAL close, I can smell it. But being so close I'm now thinking about November. Why stop now? November is actually Diabetes Awareness Month, and it just makes sense for me to keep going for the month of November.

I'm gonna have to go back out and beat the pavement some more to drum up more support and interest in this. To all that have been looking out so far, thanks SO much! To all the bloggers, psst-hey-you's, and yo-checkitouts, I really, really appreciate it. I hope when you guys start recieving your pieces, you'll tell your friends. I haven't really talked about the diabetes-part of this little project, so I'll start down below. Read if you care to.

DIABETES
(Cue in soft piano)
I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 1993, and even though I've gone through a million stages with this disease, I haven't 'beaten' it. You can't, really - just keep it under control. I've lost weight in the past year, tho I was never a superheavy guy... they tell you that exercise, diet and yadda yadda helps alot. When I lost weight (Around 30 lbs) earlier last year, I actually felt worse than usual - I think my body was so used to being at a certain size, when the extra weight left it was like 'hold up yo - we don't like this' And my sugar levels actually got higher. I've been getting better lately, which is good, but just like everything in life - it ain't easy.

Stress plays a huge part on your blood sugar when you're diabetic, so laying off the candy bars doesn't make you automatically OK like some people think. My doctor has told me on more than one occassion that I'm REAL close to being put on insulin (the shots!) if my sugar doesn't come down. Sometimes the body just can't do any more than it can do, and I'm really trying to fight this, and every days a new fight. I'm now thinking about the next ten years of my life now and what I need to do (or not do) to make sure I get there in one piece. That's a snippet of why JAMARATHON is so important to me. If doing this gets a few people to learn something about this, then we all win.

Ah, that's enough of that for now. Here's some news you can use!

INFO
Here's some myths that these sites below dispel, and also just good info to know to shed more light on the disease - so maybe you can make better choices around your friends or family and educate yourselves and others. There's nothing worse than having people around you who don't understand what diabetes is when you have it, and make uninformed opinions or statements to your healthcare. Here's two of my favorite arguments:

(Gleaned from the sites below)
MYTH:
Eating too much sugar causes diabetes

No. Diabetes is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. However, being overweight does increase your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, so if you have a history of diabetes in your family, a healthy diet and regular exercise are recommended to control your weight.

MYTH:
People with diabetes can't eat sweets or chocolate

Sweets are no more out of bounds to people with diabetes than they are to the rest of us, if eaten as part of a healthy diet, or combined with exercise. And people who take certain tablets or insulin to treat their diabetes may sometimes need to eat high-sugar foods to prevent their blood glucose levels falling too low.

Some links on diabetes myths and other info:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/home.htm
http://diabetes.about.com/cs/aboutdiabetes/tp/aatpmyths.htm

Till tomorrow.

Jamar and Matt for Fabricari!

WHEW! A breather!

Sorry I haven't been more chatty on here - I've been running round for the last few weeks going insane (In a good way) Sometimes art is harder to produce when you're not in the right mindframe, and you really have to warm up or be properly motivated to get things moving. I had a good night last night, and I feel good, so here's some blahblah.

For all of you new Jamar types out there, When I first got into publishing comics, my first book was called THE JAMAR CHRONICLES, the story of myself, on a mission to save the world through dimensional world-saving escapdes. The dimensional 'key' was a talking doormat named, well, Matt. I swear to god Dora the Explorer ripped my stuff off, with the talking Map, and the backpack and all that, but you know how it is - it's 'coincidence'. JC started in 97 - there wasn't any Dora then.

Ahem. Well anyway, here's a lil rough of me and Matt - all cartooned out for my man Fabricari. Go check fab out at www.comicsindependent.com or www.fabricari.com - he's one of my good close personal friends. THANKS FAB!

new sketches!

So here's two roughs from the weekend. One was the Saturday Sailor Moon for Jeff, and there was a secret squirrel for Sunday that I'm not gonna show. Today was a monkey for my pal Steve.

Sailor Moon drove me crazy. I fixed the eyes (DAMN THOSE EYES!) in the final. Idunno how the anime types draw those wacky eyes all day, man.

She is the one named SAILOR MOON!

. . . .

This monkey is well-read. You can tell.

I have another secret squirrel for today (Tuesday) but I'll be back today to put SOMETHING up.

Oh yeah - 8 slots still open! Give me an email and let's close out October right with art!

YO

Hey all -

Be back in a few with scans from over the weekend.