A Damn Fine Day

Twin Peaks in a bar with a caveman

It’s 7:15 AM on a Monday. February 24th, 2025. The clouds are a cool grey and traffic is light. This morning I had a tall glass of cold water and a breakfast biscuit. Damn good food. There aren’t many trees here, but if there were, I’d pull over and watch the sunrise peak through them.

Happy Belated Twin Peaks Day.

Is it fitting that my birthday aligns with the same day that Agent Dale Cooper rolls into Twin Peaks, as announced on his recorded car ride in?

Maybe it’s a little fitting. Cooper’s report feels a lot like me opening a blank document for this newsletter on a Monday morning – debriefing the prior week’s events while I prepare for the wacky stuff that is bound to happen in the coming days. If anything, sharing my birthday with Twin Peaks Day is a good reminder to keep looking for the big fish.

So, what happens when the clock strikes 2:24 pm on February 24^th?

In one reality, I get up from my desk, flip a table or two, then walk out to my car in sheer bliss after quitting my day job. I’d dance into my home studio preparing for life as a full-time cartoonist, playing a jazz quintet in the background and taking up smoking. Ah, what a sight. I can smell the stale air, coffee, and cherry pie already.

In this current reality, it’s just another day. A good day.

I bought an 11” x 14” sketchbook last week. I feel like I draw small all the time, so this is a very nice change of pace. It’s going to take a while to fill this thing up.

I also just sent in the print approvals for Eclosion, so the new comic is well on its way at the print shop. It feels like an art magazine in your hands, which I think is pretty cool!

I’m happy to have these in time for STAPLE! in Austin this April. I’m hoping that a pretty unique comic like this one will connect with the audience there. It’s always tough predicting how the audience will receive your comics. There have been times at shows when people have come by, listened to my pitch, chuckled in a “really, bro?” sort of way, and walked away.

I remember one occasion very distinctly. It was like a dagger to the gut. It was one of my first shows. I was so excited to tell some guy about my book. He listened with a wry smile and when I was done, he scoffed in the air and left. The interaction was brutal for a beginner creator - a harsh lesson in what it means to put yourself out there.

At this point in my show-going career, I’ve learned to laugh off most of these customers. It takes time though. The saying “No one cares about your comic as much as you do” is one thousand percent true, for better or worse. There’s a point in your creative lifetime when you need to take a David Lynch stance and tell the comic book cosmos, “This is my art. It’s pure passion bounded by three staples. It is what it is.”

A Jar of Bees

Monday night, my fiancé and I went to a bar in downtown Houston for a Twin Peaks celebration night. Live jazz played while Twin Peaks projected in the background. The quintet was fantastic, but the crowd had its issues. I’d say about 15 percent of the busy bar paid attention to the music. The rest continued their noisy conversations, buzzing right over the live tunes and making it difficult to hear the lovely musicians. It made for a very annoying event. I wonder what the point is in someone going to such a specialized event just to yell at their friends about their weekly woes.

I mean, can you not do that at ANY other bar in in the massive city that Houston is? The band played for about an hour. How about hold your noisy conversations until after their set? Whatever. Guess I should have expected it. I know that I’m being a bit of a curmudgeon here, but it really soured the cool event. Judging by the many phones that were recording Instagram stories, my expert analysis says that most of the people at the bar were in love with the “idea” of an eccentric show like Twin Peaks rather than being actual fans of the media. But, they wore edgy outfits, cool shades, and puffed cigarettes, so they are Lynch-certified, apparently. Damn fine!

Spear: Awareness

This week, animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky started posting on social media again, and in seeing these posts, it got me thinking on how much I love his work. I enjoy the question, “Who is on your Mount Rushmore of creators?” For me, Genndy is in that elite group of four. Not only did he impact me as a kiddo with toons like Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, but he still puts out fresh and masterful work. One of those newer cartoons is PRIMAL, which I’ve certainly spoken about before in this newsletter. I think it’s the best animated series to come out in the last decade. In one of Genndy’s posts, he mentions that he is busy at work on season 3. I’m incredibly excited for it!

I felt like drawing the main character, Spear, from season 1 and 2, and a sketch turned into me doing a full comic page. If I was ever awarded the chance to do a PRIMAL comic, the pages would look something like this:

Quick thumbnail for the page on a sticky note

I like how this came out. The limited colors were exciting to work with and I just love working with shapes to express cartoony energy. Someone slide this to Genndy for me, will ya?

Hope you enjoyed this week’s content!

Thanks for your time,

Nico