The Great Website Outage of 2016

by on January 21, 2016 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]W[/dc]ell, it’s been a fun couple of days. Except different! On Tuesday afternoon, all of my websites experienced a melt-down. Technical, I know.

uh oh

Via my Instagram

Something happened which caused my websites to use too much computery-stuff, and my host shut down my websites because it was affecting the other sites on the server. Don’t blame ’em for that, I get it.

It took a bit longer to get this worked out than I would have liked (part of that was me, as I didn’t really get a chance to focus on it until the next evening). But, everything should be OK now. Should.

This meant some changes to clattertron.com, danieljhogan.com, and magicofeyri.com (my novel/podcast). Nothing major, mostly cosmetic and behind the scenes. Comments here are off, probably for good, because that seemed to be causing one of the issues.

Maybe.

I don’t know?

The important thing is, my websites are up and running again. It was a scary 24+ hours. I think what caused the main issue here, a WordPress specific problem, should be fixed. There were too many WP-Crons going on! Whatever that means. Tech support from my host did a bit of code magic to stop that from happening again.

The upside is, it forced me to finally update a few things which needed updating, and to cut some plugins I didn’t really need.

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Photos: My New Artist Alley Banner

by on January 19, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]I[/dc] made an important decision early 2016. No, not if I should see Star Wars: The Force Awakens for a third time or not.¹

I decided to invest in a vertical banner for my artist alley appearances. Such banners are very common with other artists at shows I’ve attended, and I thought it would be a good investment.

I did learn over the course of my first two years of attending shows how professional looking signage is always a good idea. We’re told you shouldn’t judge someone or something “by it’s cover,” but let’s face facts: people do this all the time.

Here’s my brand new retractable vertical artist alley banner. It’s over six and a half feet tall!

hogan banner

Cats for days.

I ordered mine through eSigns and the uploading and ordering process was super-easy (use their template file, it will save you a lot of headches). Thank you to artist buddies Jay Jacot and Jason Strutz for giving me tips with this project (Jay suggested eSigns, and Jason told me where to place important info, like my name²).

I decided to have the banner promote me, not Clattertron, although clattertron.com is listed under my name (as is danieljhogan.com). When I go to shows, I’m there as me, not necessarily as Clattertron. Plus, this makes the sign a bit more versatile.

The art is a page from my coloring book, and probably my favorite page. I wanted a simple look for the banner, just my name, URLs, and some eye-catching art. The cat page from my coloring book worked well, because it could fill the banner, and if the bottom is hidden by my table at shows (which it will be), there’s still enough interesting images visible. I decided on the cut-off look because it meant I could have a bigger image of the cats and fill as much as the “frame” as possible.

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Changes to the Clattertron Newsletter and MailChimp List

by on January 15, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News, Newsletter

[dc]I[/dc] started using MailChimp a few months ago to resurrect my weekly Clattertron Newsletter. It was fun, and I like using MailChimp, but I’m mothballing the Newsletter as it was, and going in a different direction.

mail chimp scheduled

MailChimp is fun.

Now, my MailChimp list sends an automatic email with new blog posts and comics, which was something I was pretty much doling by hand with the old Newsletter.

Subscribers only get one email a day, no matter how many posts there are, and only if I published something that day (which probably means, at most, two or three emails a week).

Unlike before, these new email updates will include the full blog post and comic, not just a tease and a link. I can, and likely will, write blog posts like my Newsletters, and this way it gets posted here and goes to a reader’s inbox.

I’m trying to simplify and going this route helps. Sign up for my Clattertron updates today.

 

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See My Comics at the Ludington Area Center For the Arts

by on January 14, 2016 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]B[/dc]ig news today: next month, several of my original comic pieces will be on display at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts, in Ludington, Michigan as part of the Drawing Conclusions art exhibit.

Drawing Conclusions will showcase, “Graphic Novel, comic book, video game, cartoon, and other illustrative style art.”

original comics

Some of my originals.

 That’s right, I’m part of an art gallery show.

I’m super excited. This is my first gallery showing not on a parent’s refrigerator, so I’m a bit nervous and learning as I go.

The exhibit officially kicks off on Thursday, February 4, 2016 and runs until March 26, 2016.

There is an Artist Reception on Friday, February 5 (5 PM to 7 PM, I think), and I plan on being there, unless the Snow Miser makes travel too dangerous. I am keeping my fingers crossed for mild weather that weekend.

I’m still deciding which pieces of original comic strip art will be on display, but I’m planning on including at least all of my Chocolate Quest originals. The rest of my offerings will be single comic strips which I think stand well on their own.

Now, these aren’t the finished, cleaned-up comics you see on clattertron.com.

These are the original pieces of Bristol board I hand cut (some better cut than others), with pencil marks, ink smudges, notes, and mistakes. If you like a warts and all look at making comics, than look no further. The plan is to hang my originals, as is, unframed.

Some of my originals will be for sale as well. I don’t know how many yet, but I plan on at least a few.

I don’t have as many originals these days since I switched to digital, but I’m glad I kept my old ones.

Looking over my older comics, with the pencil and ink everywhere makes me miss those non-digital days a bit. Not enough to stop making digital comics, but enough to make me glad I’m starting to do more layout work on paper.

I can’t wait! Thank you to the Ludington Area Center for the Arts for this amazing opportunity.

Drawing Conclusions runs 2/4/16 through 3/26/16. Please make the trip if you can.

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