What a splendid time to be in comics! I’ve been waiting for the Apple Tablet for YEARS. Ever since I played with a Toshiba tablet PC and realized it could be better, and then when the iphone came out. It seemed the perfect prepping ground for a truly functional full-sized tablet. It’s the one product that would make me Go Apple.

Apple makes expensive products far outside of my budget,  and my mind clicks better with the Windows OS (can it be helped having grown up using it since it’s birth, and a father who betatested and used its predecessor, (and the guys Microsoft ripped their visual style from), OS/2?), but Apple makes solid products (let’s not talk about the Macbook Air, please.), and a tablet? Well, it just seems like something they’d do right.

And for comics? Well, the iphone isn’t enough. It’s too small. I like to see my pages at 5.5×7 and larger. The business-card size screen of any oversized phone isn’t enough.

I’m looking forward to this. You can bet I’ll be releasing versions of my future comics in digital format now. I’m working in color now, and it makes it that much less expensive. And some day I’d like to buy one, but like with all Apple products, wait a few years and the price will go down and the functionality up.

Of course, I will still always prefer paper. Paper takes reading books beyond the mental experience and into the tactile. I’ve thought a lot about how I plan on printing “Jeannie Carnini” because the touch and feel and smell and look and opening and closing of the book are as important to me as the pictures. Now that I have a job lined up (YEAY!), I’m going to save so I can take a few classes at SVA (School of Visual Arts here in NYC, btw), mainly: lithography and bookmaking.

Since moving here, I feel like I’ve been bursting with energy and ideas and motivation. It’s amazing how much of a change something as little as moving into the right city for me has made. I click with the people here. The way everything functions makes sense. And I don’t roll my eyes at all the idiots I perceive on the streets anymore. Austin’s a fun city. A great city really. There are so many things that I miss (other than my family, of course). Central Market is first. Good coffee and cafe’s that stay open 24 hrs is another (oh my gosh, NYC has such cr*p coffee!!!!! Which is why my mother has mailed me my favorite blend of Lola Savannah coffee from Austin). I also miss the green. Austin is a lush city, especially for being in Texas. And people put a LOT of pride into their gardens.

But those are all small trades to be made to feel like I’m back on track again. I’ve felt so lost the last three years. Pursuing thread after thread after thread that leads nowhere but back to where I started. I really, truly, love New York. I love the people here. And I love the kind of person I’ve become here.

I’m looking forward to the next few years! Because who knows what will happen or I’ll become? I expect to change, to grow, and hopefully become a better person in the process.