If you’re already a subscriber to my weekly newsletter, THE CANISTER X TRANSMISSION, thank you. If you keep reading them, I’ll keep writing them.
If you’re not a subscriber, why not head over to TinyLetter via the subscribe link to the right (on PC) or to this link right here on mobile and get a free weekly newsletter in your inbox each Saturday? You’ll also get a free thriller e-novelette called THE DANCE OF MERVO AND FATHER CLOWN as a thank you for subscribing.
I have confirmation that author Melinda Marshall and I will be tabling at the following shows –
FanQuest – November 12 & 13, 2022 – Norwood Community Centre (Winnipeg)
Winnipeg Comiccon – October 28 to 30, 2022 – RBC Convention Centre (Winnipeg)
I do not charge for pictures or autographs.
As well, I’m firing my newsletter back up. It’s called THE CANISTER X TRANSMISSION and you can subscribe and get a free e-novelette by going here. New issue is written and will go out Saturday.
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.
Reader and writer Jonathan Ball wrote in and asked about the work log I run every week in my newsletter, The Canister X Transmission. Here is my video response.
Be sure to subscribe to my channel. More videos planned so as to keep each other entertained while in social distancing mode.
For those unfamiliar with this segment (here’s the last one), it’s basically a round-up of a few items from around the Internet that I found interesting and thought were worth sharing. Do with them as you please.
First up, my friend and cartoonist, Max West, has a new Kickstarter starting up soon. It’s for Dominic and Claire Circus. I have the minicomics from the previous Kickstarter and they are a hoot. Go here to learn more about Max West and watch the video below to see the comics from the previous Kickstarter.
I missed sharing this on social media at Christmas time–thanks Broadcast Mode–so I’m going to share it here. It’s a parody of “Let it Snow” called “Make it So.”
As you know, I love newsletters and prefer them as a solid form of communication from creator to reader. Piers Anthony–whom I had the privilege of publishing in the Bits of the Dead anthology–has a monthly column that acts as his newsletter. He’s always up to something interesting even if his views and mine don’t always line up. His newsletter can be found here.
Lastly, Wil Wheaton’s blog is quite good and, while he’s well-known in fandom, he’s also a really down-to-earth guy so I check in on his blog now and then to see what he has to say. Please visit Wil here.
In personal news, the week is coming along. Finishing up things so I can move on to new things. All this is logged in my weekly newsletter, so if you haven’t already subscribed, be sure to get on board and join me and my other subscribers on Saturdays to wind down from the week. Hope to see you there.
Here is the last installment of this recap series. It is called Recap Tunnel: Catch-up Time and it’s very simple: I’ve done a lot of blogging over the past few months here at Canister X, your Realm of Heroes and Monsters, so you’re invited to poke around the blog and check out the various pages as well as scroll through previous blog posts to ensure you’re all caught up before we head into 2020’s blogging year.
Some ways you can make sure you don’t miss a blog update are to use some of the subscription boxes to the right of the screen, which enable you to subscribe to the blog via email and/or to the RSS feed and/or to my weekly newsletter, The Canister X Transmission. My YouTube channel is also regularly updated.
Reminder: Today is the last day to book me for your project in 2020 and receive 2019’s rates. Please shoot me an email so we can lock something down because the fees go up effective tomorrow. Please go here to see what services I offer.
It’s been a hard slog this year with recovery from being ill and getting my career back in order, but it was time well spent despite how difficult some days were. And so we march onward down the Timeline of All Things into 2020.
Pps. Thank you for reading my recap series of posts, starting with this one here (or technically here, if you want to go back to the series’ first mention) and ending up here with Recap Tunnel: Catch-up Time.
Project Rebirth: Final Update and Announcement given this sixth day of the twelfth month in the year 2019 AD.
It’s been a long, busy journey, but Project Rebirth is complete up to the point where I can transfer out parts of the project into the “things I need to finish” category, in other words, what’s left to do is the “more” part that I’ve mentioned in previous updates.
So, as always, a recap of what’s complete and what that strange “more” is all about.
The following list is taken from the last update on Project Rebirth.
Resumption of my newsletter, The Canister X Transmission: Goes out every Saturday and has been for a while now. Please subscribe here and get yourself a free thriller e-novelette as a thank you for joining me.
A Patreon account with special content just for patrons: All systems have been in go mode for a while now, too. By becoming a patron, you get access to an ongoing serial novel, essays on the creative life, a look behind-the-scenes, and other fun stuff. Joining the journey supports what I do and keeps the projects alive. Please join my patrons and I on my Patreon journey here.
Order fulfillment of the Axiom-man/Auroraman: Frozen Storm Kickstarter: All the books are printed up. Special piece of exclusive art to the Frozen Storm lettered edition needs a final touch, printing, then into the books.
Publication of projects that were temporarily put on hold: See the “more” section below.
Bigtime expansion and growth of The Axiom-man Saga and associated products: Transferring this portion of the project into the “things I need to finish” category. Keep an eye on this blog for news and updates as we bring the Cobalt Crusader into 2020. I really want to get that long-awaited Battle of Power Trilogy storyline done and published.
Revving up public appearances and media again: Best place to keep up to date with these is via the Convention and Book Signing Schedule page on this site. Please go there to check out what’s booked so far. Regarding interviews and whatnot, those will be announced on the blog when they happen and will also be listed under the Interviews section of this site.
New YouTube channel: Been running for a short while now. New videos uploaded regularly. Please subscribe here so