A BOTS experience

Trinidad Gutierrez is one of the contributing artists to BOTS (page 7) as well as a US soldier. When Trin sent me his picture for the book he was serving our country in Iraq. Thankfully he is now home safe and sound with his family. Trin posted this account on the Repercussion Comics forum and I wanted to share it with everyone.

Just thought I'd write about what happened to me the other day. For those of you who don't know me, I work for the US Army. I draw comics on my free time (what little bit there is). When I first saw that Nic was puting together this anthology, I asked if I could do a pic. Well, my pic is on page 7 (Art Soldier). I purchased my comp copy and four more copies that I was planning on givng away to families that have autistic children. My wife works with preschool aged children with different disabilities including autism. So, I gave her some signed copies to hand out to those families. Well, last night my family was at my sons' school (where my wife also works) attending a family reading night when a lady dressed in her military uniform comes up and starts talking to my wife. She asks if I was her husband and my wife said yes. With tears welling up in her eyes she leans down and gives ma a big hug and thanks me. It was then i noticed that she had a gold oak leaf on her collar. After my wife told me that she was one of the families that received a book, I consoled her about the book. She kept thanking me and the others for puting this book together. The significance of this being that I am an enlisted soldier (worker bee) and she is a Major (Officer). Yet at that moment it didn't matter. At that moment she was a mother with an autistic child and I was an artist who contributed time to bring awareness to a disease that has afflicted too many. I'm so proud to have been a part of this project. Thank you Nic.

Trin

Thank you Trin. Not only for participating in BOTS but for the job you do and the sacrafices you've made for this country. That is something that can never be repaid.

Just added

I will be appearing next weekend March 18th and 19th at Momocon on the campus of Georgia Tech University. I'll have copies of BOTS plus some new prints from Portal Productions Studios.

http://www.onegaistudios.com/momo/

see you there!

BOTS reviewed at Paperback Reader

BOTS was recently reviewed by Dan Head in his Comics You Should Be Reading column at Paperback Reader.

Thanks Dan!!

http://www.paperbackreader.com/newcolumn.php?ColumnID=60

Internet sales

I wanted to let everyone know that BOTS continues to generate some nice internet sales. In the week following MegaCon, more than 20 books have been sold via the internet and we're getting hundreds of hits to the website.

Thanks!!!

BOTS artists making big moves!

I wanted to post some news about a few of the contributing artists from BOTS who are now making some moves on some upcoming projects.

Kevin Conrad (page 80) will be taking over the inks for Teen Titans with penciller Tony Daniel.
Vincent Ciguentes (page 16) is now pencilling 10th Muse for Alias.
Pedro Delgado (page 16) will be pencilling Abiding Perdition for Markosia.
Tim Seeley (page 61) and EJ Su (page 48) are working on GI Joe vs Transformers from Devil's Due.

Congrats to everyone on their new projects!

MegaCon pics

Unfortunately, our camera was ruined by a wave of water from the Shamu show at Sea World on Friday, so I was not able to get any pics from MegaCon. However, Chris Meade from The Comics Review has a nice collection of pics (including 1 of me!) on his website. Follow the link to his homepage and click the MegaCon Photo Gallery banner to see them.

http://www.thecomicsreview.com/

thanks Chris!

A touching message

I got a letter yesterday from a young man in North Carolina. He had read one of the interviews I had done about the project and wanted to order a copy of BOTS. I was very moved when I read his letter so I wanted to share it here. I'll leave out his name to protect his anonimity. His letter reads...

"To the makers of BOTS,

I am a 23 year old man with Asperger's Syndrome. I say this because I would like Mr. Carcieri to know how much I appreciate his message of "letting people live their lives and raise their families as they choose". When I was diagnosed in 1994-and even afterwards-I never thought too much about what adults (teachers and the like) thought about my "differences". But, as my mother has told me in recent times, she had it suggested to her more than once by many of these people that she should try to stamp out many of my behaviors with punishment, or try to force me into social situations I wanted no part of. But she never did. She never tried to stop me from pacing, thinking out loud, etc... She let my life at home be just that, and is one of the major factors (maybe even THE MAIN) that led to me accepting who I am as an adult. So with the money enclosed, I would like to purchase a copy of BOTS and thank you for spreading the message."

When I began this project, I hoped to raise some awareness about Autism and some funds for the Autism Society of America. It's letters like that one that have made this project one of my proudest accomplishments.

thank you