Just a reminder to y'all that I'll be at Karoshi Con on Saturday (tomorrow). It's a free convention, so if you're anywhere in Southern Wisconsin or Northern Illiniois, you should consider getting in your car and driving to DeKalb, IL.
The convention is being held at the Holmes Student Center at Northern Illinois University, and I'm excited.
My day job has been super busy these last few weeks, so I'm looking forward to blowing off steam, hanging out, and having fun. I'll be behind my artist table the whole time, so just look for the moron next to a "Trae Dorn Productions" banner.
Besides myself (and of course my lovely wife Crysta), Nick Izumi from Nerd & Tie will be there too, helping staff his fiancee Rena's table as well. So, it's a party.
A free party.
And you should come. And maybe get IHOP with me after the convention is over.
- Traegorn
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So I promised mid-last year that I was putting out a new album, but the calender changed to 2015 without anything materializing. It's not that I hadn't been working on tracks, but that I hadn't had time to finish most of them.
Well, it's been too long in my opinion, and rather than sit on half a finished LP while I wait to have time to work on it more, I thought I'd release the finished tracks as an EP instead.
So here we are.
Today I present to you the new Lt. Snorkel EP The Moment After. It's a collection of very different tracks (as all my albums are), meant to evoke love, nostalgia, humor and loss.
That sounds really high concept. Let's try that again: I wrote three songs (including the theme song to "Soldiers of the Sun") and covered Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off."
Much better.
Now go download the album
- Traegorn
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I originally posted a version of this to Nerd & Tie on February 27th, but I wanted to share it here too
Leonard Nimoy passed away last week in his home. His death was due to his battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which he had also been recently hospitalized for. He was 83 years old.
It's hard for me to describe how much a man I've never met has meant to me. It took me twenty minutes to write the first sentence of this article. I remember as a kid watching reruns of the original Star Trek and just being in awe of the man. When my brother, sister and I would play pretend, my older sister always wanted to be Captain Kirk (because she wanted to be in charge) and my younger brother pretended to be McCoy.
I always picked Spock.
I think my siblings must have thought it was because that's what was left, but no -- he was always my first choice. Growing up I, like many of the people who read this blog, was an outsider. I never really felt like I was a part of what was around me, and Spock, a half alien alone on a ship of humans, was who I related to. But Spock still found a place there, and that gave me the hope I needed. I knew that I would find my place.
And that, in many ways, saved my life.
Leonard Nimoy never knew me, but his performance on that show is part of why I'm still here typing these words. He touched so many people, and the world is a little less bright without him.
- Traegorn
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So this spring is going to be super busy for me convention-wise, so even though I've updated my convention schedule (which is on the mainpage of TRHOnline and sprinkled across my comics), I thought I'd take the time to break down exactly where you can find my traveling artist alley table over the next few months.
Because, y'know, Conventions are fun.
So here's where I'll be over the next few months:
Karoshi Con
Mar 28, 2015 / NIU / DeKalb, IL
So to kick off my Spring, I'll be at Karoshi Con in DeKalb, IL. It's being held at Northern Illinois University and admission is free... so you should totally come down.
And hang out with me.
Also, I have it on pretty good authority that my Nerd & Tie co-host Nick Izumi will be there too, so you can hang out with both of us.
For free.
Seriously, what part of this sounds bad? Usually we charge for that kind of awesomeness... y'know, except for when we don't.
 The INDYpendent Show
Apr 19, 2015 / Wyndham Indianapolis West / Indianapolis, IN
On April 19th I return to the INDYpendent Show in Indianapolis. I did the spring show last year, but had to skip out on their Fall event.
This spring, the INDYpendent show is actually folded into the Sunday of Who's Yer Con, Indianapolis's annual free gaming convention. So yeah, another chance to come to a con for free to hang out with me.
How could you possibly pass up an opportunity like that?
 No Brand Con
Apr 24-26, 2015 / Plaza Hotel / Eau Claire, WI
So hey, you know how I co-founded a convention? And even how I don't actively staff it anymore, I still go every year? That's this con. If you thought I wasn't going to No Brand Con, well... I feel sorry for you ability to deductively reason.
Anywho, I'll be there -- as will Nick and Pher. And with all three of us, that means Nerd & Tie LIVE is totally happening. You'll be able to join us for a live version of the podcast... which is neat, right?
Right.
 Anime Central
May 15-17, 2015 / Hyatt Regency O'Hare / Rosemont, IL
Every year people ask me "When are you going to do a bigger con again?" and every year I tell people "I don't do big cons."
Well... I changed my mind. This year you'll find me at Anime Central. You can't really get bigger than that in the midwest now, can you.
I don't have much else to say about it other than "holy crap, I haven't been to a con this big in over a decade," but I think it'll be a good time.
I have some summer announcements, but those aren't concrete enough to post. This is going to be a busy, busy year for me though.
And I hope a fun one.
- Traegorn
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So today I'm happy to announce that UnCONventional Book 5 is now available for purchase for $24.99! Are you excited? I'm excited. You should be excited. Why aren't you more excited?
Anywho, the book collects the entire fifth year of UnCONventional, ending with the "You Can't Go Home Again" storyline. Like some of the earlier chapters, it contains exclusive bonus material and commentary. Unlike the earlier chapters, this one has been published in 7"x 10" format. The earlier books were 6"x 9".
Now, you may ask "Why is the book a different size?" and the answer is simple: I felt like it. Truthfully, with how the comic has been flexible in size, it's been harder and harder to fit into the smaller format. I know for you bookcase-perfectionists this may be frustrating, but Books 1-4 are really one story, with Book 5 the beginning of the new one... sort of... so just go with it, okay?
You can buy the book right now in my personal store (and earlier books are here), and it should be available on Amazon.com in a day or so.
- Traegorn
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This weekend, for the third year in a row, I'm going to head up to Milwaukee for Nezumi Con. It's a small, one day convention held downtown at MIAD, but it is a heck of a lot of fun. They're currently merging into Anime Milwaukee's parent organization, which also means this will likely be the final year of "old" Nezumi Con before we get "new" Nezumi Con.
It's not a value judgment - it's just that odds are the event will be different once the show has a bit more funding.
I'm excited about it -- because I get excited before every convention -- and as always for most of the event you'll find me in the vendor area selling print collections of UnCONventional and The Chronicles of Crosarth.
But not the whole time.
This year I'm also doing a panel on Podcasting. Most of you know I act as the producer on Nerd & Tie, so I'm taking my year and a half experience and pouring it into a panel called "Podcasting on a Budget." Why? Because I've seen a lot of beginner podcasters spend a ton of money on stuff they don't need, as well as people who get too intimidated to start their own shows because they think they need to put a lot of cash they don't have into it.
Neither is the case. We launch Nerd & Tie with zero dollars originally.
So yeah, that will be in Panel Room A at 1pm. You should come. I have to update my con schedule pretty soon, as I've yet to add ACen to my official calendar - and I'm looking at a few other events in Illinois and Indiana that I might end up at this spring as well.
It's hectic, but fun.
- Traegorn
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Since Friday is going back into her full uniform (which we haven't seen her in for literally years and over 300 pages) in The Chronicles of Crosarth I had to update her in-uniform character model.
I pulled out the 2011 version and... Well... It hurt my brain. In 2011 I hadn't drawn anything but stick figures in years.
And it really, really shows.
Comparing Friday's current design to the way I used to draw her boggles my mind, honestly. Small details like how inconsistant I used to be with the bag on her hip jump out at me -- as well as big ones like "having room for organs."
That's kind of a big one.
- Traegorn
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So one of the issues with working on two ongoing projects (UnCONventional and The Chronicles of Crosarth) is that I don't have any time to work on the twenty million other ideas that pop into my head on a daily basis. Most ideas I just let pass into the night, but some of them keep popping back into my head. And I end up coming up with casts. And plots. And complete outlines.
None of which I have the time to do anything with.
So I thought I'd talk about a few of them in detail though, as these are the things I'd be working on if I wasn't already working on the things that I'm currently working on. Or something. That mostly made sense.
The Fifth Guardian/Legend of the Gauntlet
 For people who know me, this is probably the least surprising thing to find on this list. I did a detailed write up of the concept along with a comprehensive history last March. As a refresher though, The Fifth Guardian (as I'm now calling it) is a superhero story about a young woman who has to unexpectedly take over the super-identity of her late father.
The idea would be to do a realistic take on the realities of being a superhero without going grimdark. Because grimdark is boring and overdone.
Also it would be fun to draw superheroes jumping off of buildings.
Small Galaxy
 So some of you may remember that for a while (about a year) I was putting out a serialized novel online called Small Galaxy. Then, one day, it just sort of disappeared.
This is because I hated it.
The idea was to do a schlubby-take on a Flash Gordon-esque story, but I don't know if it ever came through. Mostly it ended up with a boring male lead, a female lead who ended up as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and the only character I cared about was the Zarkov-analogue George.
Because of this I want to rework the whole idea. I feel like I've let these characters down, and want to take another shot with it. Mostly I would completely rework the leads so that they are, frankly, interesting.
And not weird.
And no Manic Pixie Dream Girls.
Speaking of which...
M.P.D.G.
 One of the newer ideas which popped into my head recently started out as a dumb joke that many have thought of before: Maniac Pixie Dream Girl.
I even did a random image about it, because I needed a break. But then the idea kept sitting in my head. And the idea of a serial killer who modeled herself after the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype kept getting more interesting.
What if there was someone obsessed with teaching people to "live in the moment" who, upon success, would kill them so the "moment would last forever."
And then I started thinking about an article I wrote back in college. What if a college town had a series of disappearances, and a cop was convinced they were connected... but no one would believe him or her.
Then said cop encounters our killer - and starts to fall down the rabbit hole.
I think it would be a pretty fun, dark story.
Anywho, that's what's popping around my head at the moment. That's what I don't have time to work on.
- Traegorn
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So some of you may remember that for a while (about a year) I was putting out a serialized novel online called Small Galaxy. Then, one day, it just sort of disappeared.