BE HAPPY ITS CHRISTMAS OR ELSE

Hi!

I thought it would be a good idea, in light of the season, to wish the mostly-anonymous internet a very Merry Christmas!
I'm holed up at my parents' new place in MA, trying to fend off the barrage of cookies my Mother and Sister insist upon leaving lying around the house :p

It's the first time I've spent the actual Holiday in the USA for...well, over 8 years at least. And it's the first time I've lacked a proper "Christmas Break" beforehand (got off WORK yesterday). I definitely feel a little twinge at the thought of missing an Austrian Christmas, but I'll get to experience for the first time in memory what it's like when spent with the extended family here!

I do regret being pretty absent from the Internet recently. I've been trying to keep myself busy outside of work with side-projects, but that has proven to be a *little* overwhelming, so I'm trying to keep things sailing smoothly. I wish I had more art content for you guys , but in my defense: it's been a MAD few weeks here...I just got a car(my first ever), my friends brought it up (from Virginia...they got lost twice and were woken up by the police) with an uncooked turkey thawing in the trunk (which fit snugly in the oven-I've-never-turned-on and set off every fire alarm in the apartment and beyond), we got a (bed)couch (because we helped my parents move into their new house), drove it an hour (strapped to the roof of my friend's truck because it didn't fit inside it), it didn't fit into any door of my apartment (it waited in the rain in my backyard under a tarp for 24 hours to get returned), my mother hit a deer, I've experienced Holiday traffic in large American suburban malls firsthand for the first time (>40 mins for a parking spot), been snowed in for an unexpected long weekend in a blizzard, and my aforementioned new car failed to pass the state inspection. Also I am driving to Michigan in two days. Hooray!

Honestly: most of that's all been kind of a blast. But only because it's been such an absurd comedy of errors that my friends and I keep looking at each other and saying: "I can't believe this is happening!" "I know!"

There will be new art soon! (I did a really neat, more-elaborate-than-anything I've-done-before collaborative Christmas piece for work...BUT YOU CAN'T SEE IT! :( :( :( ) I look forward to when this game launches! :D

In the meantime, you can now order the Trade Paperback from Dark Horse that contains Piper's Pet! BUY IT FOR THE KIDS.

Tell me if you do! :D
In the meantime: DRINK YOUR EGGNOG. DRINK IT.

May God bless you through the Winter's cold!

Much love,

-Nick

Published! (In The Future!)

Hi everyone! I'm alive!
As promised, due to having a job I have recently been kind of absent on the Internets. I doubt that's such a big deal to most people, but if you actually missed me, then: thank you :D
I missed you too.
I have, of course, been resisting the temptation to blog without art content to accompany my silly ramblings. But no longer! Today there is content!

To those interested: the job has been amazing, and I'm really enjoying myself. I basically get to draw monsters all day and design armor and swords and stuff, so there's precious little to complain about.
The verdict: life in the "real" world = not so bad.
The pace of non-school life has been very agreeable, though I am generally either busy or asleep at the moment (still getting used to the waking up "in the morning" thing). But despite a new and confusing schedule, I decided to take on some freelance work on the side.

SO: I got contacted by some people at Disney Publishing to do a cover for them! YEAH!
(I got a letter in the mail this week with The Mouse on it. I peed a little.)
It was a very quick job due to deadlines, but this is what I did: It's a cover for an upcoming children's book (They're bringing back the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure format!) based on the soon-to-be-released Prince of Persia movie (the one with Jake Gyllenhaal). it's called Guardian's Path. They liked my Moby Dick piece and wanted me to do a riff on that with Henna and her hand and the dagger. So this is what came of that! I hope you enjoy. They were very generous in giving me permission to post this in advance of it's publication (like actually this time, instead of before when I posted it and didn't really have full approval).

(Also: it's being published on April 13th. But is Available for pre-order HERE :D)

I'm mostly just excited because this will really be my first officially published work!

Other news? I'm confirmed to be going to San Diego Comic Con this year for the first time ever! Let me know if you're going to be there. More news on that as the date approaches.

I have a few more freelance projects I'm working on, so those should pop up over the next few weeks...slow, though. I'm sorry.

And also, that's the first time I've ever chibi-ized myself for a blog post. Guilty pleasure? Perhaps.

Beyond all that, keep warm and thanks for reading!

Cheers!

-Nick