Holy shit! September is here already, my beautiful degenerates. The tank tops and genital-revealing short shorts will fade as the pumpkin spice lattes and holiday decorations begin to invade store shelves everywhere. 2016 has been a whirlwind to be certain and for the first time in a long time I’m actually (cautiously) optimistic about some future developments. Don’t get me wrong, I still find myself constantly needing to douse the nagging goblins of self-doubt and insecurity with chemically-altering substances. One of the many lessons I have learned whilst travelling the unpaved road of a career in the creative arts is to avoid celebratory reveling until there is actually something to celebrate. While larger successes remain just out of reach for the time being, here are some recent little victories from the insanity of the past month.
August started off with a raw, emotional response to the mass shooting that occurred at the Orlando nightclub Pulse on June 12, 2016 as well as the senseless violence plaguing the world in these uncertain times. Drunk Monkeys‘ August issue featured poems, essays, and short stories highlighting the frustration, vexation, confusion, and sorrow which accompany such devastating incidents. My contribution was a one-page graphic narrative entitled Waiting For the Day.
The month was bookended with a couple other comic entries, the first of which was another installment of The Fucking Funnies for Five 2 One Magazine. This go-round was a satirical look at the technology my generation found innovative and mind-blowing, though has quickly become obsolete in this perpetually moving digital age of ours. Loosen those damn purse strings and help support an indie rag by purchasing the full issue here.
To cap off the month, the fantastic Literary Orphans published my short story Extinction on their featured blog Tavern Lantern. Below is the first of a three page story, and you can read the rest by visiting http://literaryorphans.org/ttl/extinction-by-alex-schumacher/.
Providing the meat for this graphic narrative/literary sandwich were thick slices of my writing column Bread Crumbs from the Void for Five 2 One Magazine and the continued weekly misadventures of Luke Carlin in Decades of (in)Experience published by Antix Press. It’s astounding to realize that next month Decades of (in)Experience will have been running for an entire year! On the one hand the weekly deadline has forced me to park my ass in the chair and be productive,while on the other there are plenty of those weeks I narrowly hit deadline by the skin of my chompers. There are several exciting prospects for the illustrated feature percolating as I type this and hopefully I will be able to share more of said news in the upcoming months. In the meantime if you need some good reading material to while away your time on the shitter, catch up on all past episodes on the archive of apathy at https://decadesofinexperience.com/.
More announcements to come soon including updates on my new graphic novel. Currently I am in the production stage of putting together a sub package for my agent to hock in an attempt to find the book a suitable home. Until then, let your freak flags fly this Labor Day weekend and as always, thank you for reading. Bottoms up, kiddos!
alexschumacherart.com 