Sunday Mailbag

Q: Do you have a hard copy of your blog in its entirety? ( a printed out version) If not, why? Do you have it saved elsewhere other than its own server–dvd, flash drive, another hard drive, on a website specifically for backing up blogs? I know you have had some glitches with it in the past, how do you try to avoid or deal with that possibility? Have you ever used it in any form of marketing for your art? Has it followed the vision you had for it when you first started it or has it become more than you envisioned? Can you see growth in your writing since starting or were you always a good writer?

A: First off, thanks for the compliments about my writing. I enjoy writing, and consider it the flip side of the same creative coin that drawing is the other side of. Here are your answers in order of the asking:

• I do not have a hard copy of the blog printed out. I do not see the need to do so. It’s all there already.
• I regularly back up the entire blog weekly, stored locally on my hard drive. My web host also backs up their servers daily, so if a catastrophe happens it is long odds against losing more than a day or up to a week of posts.
• I am careful about updating the blog software (I let the bugs get worked out first) and do not install many widgets or plug-ins that might interfere with the blog’s functions. Other than that, regular back ups are the only way to combat unforeseen glitches
• I don’t use the blog for marketing per se, but I do promote MAD and other projects I might be involved with on it. Few of my clients even know I have a blog.
• The blog is a bit more involved than I envisioned it originally, but all in all it’s pretty much what I expected and wanted it to be.
• I don’t really see any growth for me as a writer since doing the blog… I’m not working that hard at the craft of writing. That involves study and a lot of work and effort. This is more of an exercise in an alternate creative outlet with no expectations as to results or evolution.

Thanks to Emily Anthony of East Fallowfield, PA for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!