In hindsight, it does feel like the end of time.

5 years. Yeesh. There is a lot to say about what has happened personally, professionally, and socially. I’ll get into it more in these posts and pages as I go, but this story is kind of “the beginning” of the current era.

When I left Chicago for LA in 2010, I fucking cried at our going away party. I knew things were going to change drastically (in a good, albeit different, way). It was the end of something special. Also, I was incredibly drunk. But I carried forth with optimism, expecting to pick up in LA where I left off in Chicago.

After having spent the previous decade devoted to work, I wanted to rebuild the social life I had prior. I missed nightlife, friends, food, atmosphere, all of it. The World Famous Beat Junkies opened a DJ academy in Glendale, Ca. I was working at DreamWorks at the time, about a mile from the school. I signed up, completed the intro course, then signed up for their Foundation class. I don’t have the words to describe the comradery, the fun, the insane scratch exercises. Meeting my classmates was worth the price alone. I’ll go into it more in a future post. Anyway, I graduated from the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound on March 8th, 2020 (I practiced my mix 20 times, and still failed to nail a perfect set. I also forgot to record my actual performance. Here is the best take ). We had an after party at the home of one of my classmates that evening. We were excited about the skills we worked up in class, the bond The Blacksheeps (our crew name), and our ideas contributing to SoCal nightlife. It felt like my old Chicago days. Sadly, world events, unemployment, and depression put that optimism to bed.

Coronavirus/Covid-19 cases had just started appearing in the states. I’ll admit, I didn’t take it as seriously in the moment. Decades of pandemic warnings over Ebola, Swine Flu, etc without any major catastrophe gave me (and others) a false sense of security. Days after graduation, major events were being cancelled. Days after that was the nationwide lock-down, followed by curfew.

I’ll have more to say in future posts & stories.

The pages here have been in the works since Summer 2022. Decades of coping with untreated burnout, anxiety, and depression have left me in a state of fatigue and malaise. Everything takes me much longer to complete than it used to. Is this a symptom brought on by long hours of stress & work? If I were to sleep for a month, would I spring out of bed recharged, clicking my fucking heels and ready to take on the world? I doubt it. I was hoping to have these two pages up a week ago.

Regardless, they’re done. It’s a relief to be done & post. On to the next set!

I don’t know how I’m going to keep up creating these pages. Right now the strategy is “slow & low”, taking my time on the story, art and posting. The goal is to eventually produce pages consistently. That’s the goal. I’m still making my way back to zero.

Thanks for indulging me.
Jose G.

Oh! And the last panel of page 5 is supposed to be in CG, but I’m slow to learn. I’m still going to use that image as an excuse to teach myself modelling. I’ll update the image when I get there. 😊😊