• On Gearing Up for Three Project Launches

    Soon, my on-line offerings are going to go through a change-up because THREE project launches are happening all around the same time!

    This was not planned.

    The three things:

    1) Launching Fredrikus

    2) Launching a new serial novel on Patreon

    3) Launching Year Six of The Canister X Transmission

    I suspect my work schedule is going to shift for a short season at that time so I can spend my days doing the necessary Web stuff to get this all going. That said, creating will drop to second tier as these roll out so I can properly get them out from the studio and into the world.

    Formal announcements to occur around the time of the launches.

    Regularly check back here on the blog to stay in the loop. My door is also open if you have any questions about these upcoming project launches.


  • Status Report – 042220

    status report 042220

    Status Report – 042220:

    Yesterday, I took the day off because I worked around two weeks straight and needed a break. It was also a day where I had some busy personal things that needed doing so those were done as well. Today, we are back at the drawing board.

    Fredrikus is coming along and so far 14 pages are penciled and inked. Computer phase is next. We are on track for my [hopeful] launch date (which I will reveal soon enough).

    The technical glitch on TinyLetter’s end seems to have been resolved so I just sent this past Saturday’s issue of The Canister X Transmission out to subscribers. Please check your inbox and junk folders (and don’t forget to white-list the email).

    That’s about it.

    Onward.

    This has been your Status Report for 042220.


  • Status Report – 042020

    top of Fredrikus page 14

    Status Report – 042020:

    Today we’re trying to do things with 20/20 vision given the date, which may or may not be obtained due to a nagging health slip that is being tended to but takes time to recover from. Regardless, we’re still working and still trucking along. As you can see from the photo, we’re about to start Page 14 of Fredrikus, or Episode 12.

    Not long from now, the penciled and inked pages will go into the computer for final design, color, and formatting. Then they’ll be ready for the Fredrikus website.

    Thus far, we are on track for my estimated launch date, which I will mention once I have enough penciled and inked pages for the computer. So soon.

    Today, we’re making comics and tending to some personal stuff (one of those double-booked days).

    We’re also hoping that the newsletter broadcaster is back up and running so I can send out the edition that was supposed to go out over the weekend.

    I think that will be the day. Yesterday was a trying one and I’m learning that two packed days in a row are bad for me.

    This has been your Status Report for 042020.


  • vLog – Socially-distanced Nature Walk

    vLog socially distanced nature walk thumb

    vLog – Socially-distanced Nature Walk.

    Come join me on a socially-distanced nature walk at a park near my house.

    I’ve always been a walker. Find them relaxing.

    I also tell you a couple quick stories from my childhood and how walking formed the core storyline of The Axiom-man Saga.

    Don’t mind the wind. It was fairly breezy.

    Hope this little video helps you virtually get out of the house.

    Location: Undisclosed park in Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

    Don’t forget to subscribe to stay up to date with all the latest videos. With the Fredrikus webcomic launching soon, well, there are plans.


  • Newsletter Delay; The Canister X Transmission Issue 252

    Just a note to inform you there is a newsletter delay this week due to TinyLetter’s site glitching. Until it’s resolved, I am unable to send out the most recent issue so I’ve blogged it here in the interim and will send it out proper once I am able to, which might mean this week you’ll be getting two editions of The Canister X Transmission close together. If the problem persists due to possible staffing shortages on their end, then we’ll just air the newsletter here until things get back to normal.

    There’s a first time for everything.

    Here is the latest edition. It is dated yesterday.

    Newsletter:

    Issue Two Hundred-fifty-two – April 18, 2020

    Hello and welcome to the 252nd issue of THE CANISTER X TRANSMISSION, a weekly newsletter from a schlub up north who offers you strange ramblings every week.

    How is everyone?

    It has been a busy week. Lots of tasks. Lots of work. Lots of prep. Lots of thinking. Lots of stress. Lots of accomplishment. Lots of, well, lots.

    And here we are.

    Oh, and I made bread.

    Work log:

    PROJECT JACKASS (title reveal below); uploaded a sneak peek to the Behind-the-Scenes tier on Patreon showcasing one of the opening pages of PROJECT JACKASS in full color (link below); shot and uploaded a new video to YouTube, which announces PROJECT JACKASS’s real title and quickly takes a glimpse at the artwork and offers a brief premise (link below); blogging; and administration.

    Quick note regarding this newsletter: Issue 260 is the final issue of The Long Year Five. We will do something special at that time. As always, the invite is there if you want to see something particular in that double issue. Just shoot me an email and I’ll see what I can do.

    In blog headline news—and once information known only to my patrons on Patreon—the title of PROJECT JACKASS was revealed! PROJECT JACKASS was a place-holder name for an upcoming webcomic from me called FREDRIKUS, which is about an anthropomorphic dog in a dystopic sc-fi world. Phew. Now I can finally refer to it as an actual thing and not some project document (which is actually a combination of multiple documents including a notebook for the stories).

    Blog headlines:

    Various Bits from the Net – 041220

    Status Report – 041420

    Project Jackass Title Revealed: Fredrikus

    Fredrikus Social Media

    New Fredrikus Behind-the-Scenes Post on Patreon!

    On Art and Never Arriving

    Fredrikus Webcomic Announcement

    Status Report – 041720

    As you can see from the above headline, you are invited to like and follow FREDRIKUS on social media so you can be notified when the strip airs. Please do so. More details about the webcomic to be revealed in due time. Watch the blog to stay current. I will admit, it’s high time new things started to roll out from me and warming up the machine for FREDRIKUS is part of that journey.

    I’m thinking that the next thing to roll out from me is the Inktober 2019 sketchbook I mentioned in a previous issue. PROJECT REBUILD is taking some time due to elements beyond my control and I don’t want to leave you hanging.

    Side note: As much as my blog has been retooled on the back end, sometimes the theme acts up and reverts to black text on white rather than white text on black. If you come across this, don’t worry. I’m still troubleshooting the issue with the hope of taking care of it once and for all in the near future. Just check the blog as per usual and you’ll be fine.

    We’re also gearing up for the new serial novel to air on Patreon because GIGANTIGATOR DEATH MACHINE is almost complete. Watch the blog for the announcement and be sure to get in on the ground floor by becoming a patron today for just a buck. The entirety of GIGANTIGATOR DEATH MACHINE will remain on the site so come time for the new serial novel, you’ll have two novels to read for the price of one. Awesome deal. Please take advantage (it also helps keep me fed). Link below to subscribe to what is essentially the Netflix of literary entertainment from a book and comic guy like me. Thank you in advance for your support.

    Also going on, but not worked on this week, is PROJECT COBALT. This is a big one and an important one, and a lot of thought, trial and error, and work has already been put into it. I’m suspecting a latter 2020 rollout, but keep that fluid for the moment. The world is in upheaval on multiple levels and things are in constant flux as we combat this invisible enemy (amongst other things). But yeah, PROJECT COBALT, man. Onward.

    For a good while I’ve had the marketing materials for a YouTube subscription drive, but we’re not quite there yet in terms of the channel’s relationship to other things. However, I’m a firm believer in groundwork and foundation and I’d like you to be a part of all that’s planned for the channel plus what’s already there. Please use the link below and subscribe. Your subscription will eventually lead to me monetizing the channel, which in turn will fund more comics and books and the stuff I put online for free. But it all takes time and time, in order to do this job full time, requires money. The subscription costs you nothing other than 5 seconds—which I recognize is your valuable time hence why I try and create interesting content in the vein of Heroes and Monsters—and will go a long way toward keeping the media machine running. Thank you in advance again for your support.

    With Year Six of this newsletter fast approaching, I’m getting eager to see how the new format will work, how it will flow, and, ultimately, what it will do for you as my reader. I hope you enjoy the new format in 8 issues.

    In other newsletter news, Year Four was obviously completed a long time ago but was never published. It is still the plan to release it along with The Long Year Five. Also soon, my how-to book, GETTING DOWN AND DIGITAL: HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH YOUR BOOK, will be going out of print. Please grab your copy now. The principles and methods apply to both books and comics. It is also ideal for creators on a budget who are unable to afford fancy formatting programs. It walks you through formatting in MSWord for both print and electronic editions in a tried-and-tested procedure that is quite simple to follow.

    We’re also noodling with the social media broadcaster for FREDRIKUS because I’ve never run a broadcaster for anyone but myself and since good ol’ Fred can’t work the thing himself due to his paws, I’m stuck with the job. Hopefully it all works out. Speaking of which, the broadcaster has run out of broadcasts from that time I loaded ’er up good so that will have to be addressed in the coming week or two as well, but I’m toying with some new ideas. Not that the old ones were bad, but as it is with this game, doesn’t hurt to try new things.

    Okay, I think the above about covers it for this week. Lots of commercials, I know, but we’re at that stage in the grand plan.

    Rollout soon.

    We’re finally getting there. Isn’t that a thing?

    Take care of yourselves and each other. In the end, it’s on us about how we treat people.

    Have a good weekend. Make bread. Send me some.

    – A.P. Fuchs

    All the New Things, MB

    As usual:

    Patreon – Where I post an ongoing serial novel, essays on the creative life, behind-the-scenes secrets, and general jackassery.

    Canister X – Where I’m blogging during the week.

    YouTube – My channel that needs your subscription and views to help it grow.

    Ko-fi – A Tip Jar designed to cover the costs of the free stuff I put on the Web (daily blogging, this newsletter, YouTube videos, and artwork).

    End transmission


  • Status Report – 041720

    Winnipeg weather 041720

    Status Report – 041720:

    It’s been a busy week on the blog. Didn’t mean to but things needed to be shared.

    Newsletter written and ready for tomorrow. Join us.

    Today’s plan is . . . well, I’m not sure on the specifics. We have Fredrikus drawing to do and a few other things. What the work ratios for those things are, I don’t know.

    Side note: For some reason the blog’s theme keeps resetting to its default presentation so if you come by and the site looks different, it means nothing is wrong but I haven’t reset the theme yet. Working on troubleshooting the issue.

    Okay, time to get to it. Enjoy your day.

    This has been your Status Report for 041720.


  • Fredrikus Webcomic Announcement

    Fredrikus webcomic announcement thumbnail

    Fredrikus Webcomic Announcement.

    The other day here on the blog I revealed the real name of one of my code-named projects, which is a webcomic about a cartoon dog I created some 20 years ago in animation school named Fredrikus. In this video, I give a very brief description of the premise. More to be revealed in time.

    To be notified of when Fredrikus debuts, please visit http://www.fredrikus.com and bookmark the site.

    Also be sure to subscribe to the channel to be notified of all the latest videos. Thanks.


  • On Art and Never Arriving

    Prompted by a chat with artist Sean Simmans last night, I got to thinking that it is impossible to ever fully arrive in the arts field.

    You may be doing poorly or extremely well on the scale of subjective success, but wherever you are is only temporary and never stable.

    Any art form is about finding one’s voice, which is different at 30 than it is at 50 than it is at 70. Your style will constantly change, sometimes–and ideally–for the better, but also sometimes not.

    Unfortunately, we have been sold this packaged idea of what success looks like in the art field, genres ripping apart the industry, and marketing madness brainwashing us into what we’re supposed to think art looks like . . . but it’s never accurate.

    Ultimately, art is living and fluid and is like water, always flowing, not a dam in sight.

    Your work might be polished, but even in a polished state, it’s incomplete because there is always that one thing you could have done better or a little bit smarter.

    Art isn’t prefect. It’s not supposed to be. Then it isn’t art. That’s Sean talking and I agree with him.

    Whatever your craft, where you are is where you are. If the art is made, you’re an artist. And, in that context, you have arrived . . . but our work never will.

    It’s all about the journey.


  • New Fredrikus Behind-the-Scenes Post on Patreon!

    Fredrikus head shot 3

    New Fredrikus Behind-the-Scenes Post on Patreon!

    Want to see some art from my upcoming webcomic, Fredrikus? Then look no further than the Behind the Scenes Tier on my Patreon page!

    This particular piece shows one of the opening pages in all its colored glory.

    By becoming a patron, you make projects like these possible because it allows me to have the time to create things for you.

    Behind the Scenes Tier perks:

    • Patron-only blog posts
    • Access to the serial novel, Gigantigator Death Machine
    • Essays on the creative life
    • More . . .

    Please go here to join my Patreon journey and be treated to literary entertainment from a guy up north. Thank you in advance for your support.


  • Fredrikus Social Media

    Fredrikus head shot 2

    Fredrikus Social Media:

    I started Fredrikus up on a couple of the social channels. It will be through these channels you’ll be notified of new strips, so if you’d like to get on board on the ground floor and not have to worry about getting notifications when the strips air, please like/follow at the following pages:

    Fredrikus on Twitter
    Fredrikus on Facebook

    I might add another network or two down the line, but these two are what I’m doing right now.

    More news as this webcomic develops . . .