Hey, remember this?

Greetings contributors, participants, onlookers.

I bet you're wondering what happened to this place? Where's the verve, the happy-haps, the je ne said qoui that used to permeate the very cables you use to connect to the internets when you'd read this page?

Is the project done? Did you give it up?

To be honest, almost. It's been about 15 months since it started, that's a long time for anything. I think I'm a bit burned out, truth be told. But that doesn't mean I've given up on it. It's just going to take more energy than I current am willing to give to get it moving again. I just got an email from a long time online acquaintance who said he didn't even know the book was in print. I was a little saddened by that thinking that not only were normal people, art lovers, charity seekers not involved, but it sounds as though even the original contributors may no longer be involved.

The book has capped at 26 units sold, and that's $108 after printing costs, so $54 for each charity. When it went up for sale I updated every message board, friend list, bulletin, social network site I could think of. I emailed both charities, industry professionals, even a few comic-friendly Hollywood types, just trying to get the word out. If a hundred bucks is the best I can do, I'm not sure I want to waste another year doing even that.

So, that's why I haven't started the thing back up. The big sketchbook is in Jeremy Dale's capable hands and hopefully he'll be taking it to at least one convention. If he's got a copy of the print book, it might spark some interest. Maybe by then I'll have the single mailers opened back up and more people can participate. I think all I need to do is switch my thinking from a huge project that is bound to bring it tons of cash for these charities to another obscure illustration project that are nice for people to join and be a part.

I'm going to again ask for input as the project is spread very thin across many different interfaces, yet I still don't know what's best. I'm leaning toward having the main site redirect to the Ning page, but I don't know how that will impact people signing up.

If you've got ideas about the project, please let me know.

Carry on.