Deadlines, concerts, and tattoo #3

I realize I’ve been slow with the diary, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. I’ve spent most of my time in front of the computers either writing new comic books or editing manuscripts that I previously wrote that needed to be updated before being sent to the artist. I don’t mind doing last minute editing before a comic script goes to the artist. Some might find that a pain in the ass, but I take it as a chance to correct dialogue and make it a little sharper as well as a chance to plug plot holes and make sure everything is consistent moving ahead to the next several issues which is already written. There’s one comic book where my scripts are 20 issues ahead of the artist, so since I’m so far ahead, when I do last minute edits, I’m now dropping easter eggs in there, aware of where the plot is going 20 issues later. So this week I’ve been mostly working on comics and I likely will be doing that next week as I have to finish four new scripts by the end of February. I don’t mind the neck breaking pace, since I am being paid for my services.

I have another trip to Florida in five weeks to pay for, and I wouldn’t mind having a little more spending money this time out. I also have plans for the summer I want to start putting money away for as well. Every summer I like to hit at least one big concert, and this year is going to be no different. Last year I saw Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, which I almost passed on. It’s a good thing I didn’t, because that was Tom’s last tour. The year before I saw Paul McCartney, and that show was also off the charts. This summer there are a few shows that I’m considering that should be a lot of fun.One show I’m considering for the summer is going to be at the Roger’s Centre (formerly referred to as SkyDome) to see the Zach Brown Band. This stadium holds over 75,000 for concerts, so this is going to be a huge show.

Another show that I’m determined to get tickets for is Maroon 5. The reason why I’m eyeing this show is because my son Ethan told me that he really likes their music. I discovered this small detail while playing music in the kitchen while doing the dishes one day. Ethan was playing on his laptop at the kitchen table, and one of Maroon 5’s songs came on and Ethan starting singing a long with it. I talked to him to realize that he knew and liked a lot of this band’s songs, which is cool because I’m a fan too. I recently found out that Maroon 5 is going to play the Air Canada Center in Toronto on September 27th, which is two weeks after Ethan’s 15th birthday. So I’m going to buy the tickets for his birthday, and I’m gonna let him skip school that day so that day so we can spend the whole day in Toronto. We’ll hit the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), go to an art gallery, and then go somewhere nice for supper before going to the concert. So rather than rush to barely make it into the concert in time (which isn’t fun), I think we’ll just take our time and spend the whole day in the city. I think Ethan will find that a lot of fun… and who doesn’t like play hookie?

Earlier this week, I got one of my tattoos touched up. I got the tiger tattoo taken care of this week, since two weeks ago I got the other one (the skull) touched up so they both look cleaner and sharper with the new ink. While I was getting my Tiger touch up, my artist inquired about our next project which she wants to start very soon. She asked me to look through her phone to see what she was considering, so I flipped through the picture folder. Now when I first met this artist, a friend of mine told me that she didn’t do any portraits, so I never asked. As I was flipping through the phone folder, I saw a few portraits, which I found confusing. Turns out this artist does do portraits, and quite well. I took a mental note to pimp slap my friend the next time I saw him for lying to me about this.

As I was looking through the photos, one of them jumped out at me. She had a picture from the television show Spartacus, which was one of my favorite shows of the last ten years. She had a black and white picture of Andy Whitfield, who was the actor that played Spartacus for one year before he had leave the show because he was diagnosed with cancer. Whitfield passed away after treatment had failed in 2011. I love the pic she had there, and asked if I could have that one on my left leg. We talked about it, and I showed her more photos online of the actor from Season 1 of Spartacus, and we came to a quick consensus on what to do. We’re going to do a portrait of Whitfield in the snake armor from his season, with the grand arena in the background.  Here’s a picture of the armor in question if you don’t remember.

The Spartacus portrait isn’t going to go any lower than his shoulders, but we’ll get the top of the snakes in the picture. My artist likes this armor a lot more than the leather armor, and is excited to make this tattoo. This thing is going to cover the front of my left upper leg, starting just above my knee and going up to my hip. Based on that assessment, it’s going to take up to 18 hours, three 6 hour sessions, to put this tattoo on my leg. While the original picture we had was black and white, the artist asked if I’d be willing to go full colour with this portrait, like the picture above on the right. While going colour is a little more painful, I think in the end it will look a lot better than doing black and grey again. The tattoos on my arms are mostly black and grey too, so I think it would be nice to have something in full color, so I agreed to do the Spartacus tattoo in full colour.

I was never one to back away from a challenge, and my artist is impressed that I have this ‘go big or go home’ attitude with my tattoos. After getting two with next to no whimpering, she’s confident we can do this one with no issues either. She’s willing to do the bigger tattoo now that I’ve proven I can handle the pain, and she said that part of the leg is less painful so this one will be a breeze to do. She had no idea that the actor in the picture had passed away, and I’m a big fan of this actor… so I’m excited to get this inked. Since I’ve got a Florida trip coming up very soon, we decided to start the Spartacus tattoo in April, because I don’t want to visit dad with an unfinished tattoo. I’m not going to tell anyone here about the Spartacus tattoo until it’s finished. It will be a summer surprise, and I can’t wait to see the shocked faces when this 18 hour piece is finished.

Combine all this with some book/novels I’m also working on, as well as a few baseball games in between, I’ve got big plans for 2018. This is going be a bitchin year for yours truly, and I’m just happy that I have Open Diary back to write about those experiences and share them with others. So in order to pay for all that I have planned, I’m going to get back to work. Everyone have a killer weekend and I’ll be back later!

Peter