Imy the Comic

It’s been 2 weeks since I posted the latest “Imy,” but it feels like a year. Here’s a rundown on how my healing is going.

First of all, I’ve had 2 setbacks. One was last week when I thought, stupidly, that vacuuming the apartment would be a good idea. “I can do it all with my left hand!” Yeah, right. I find vacuuming to be so painfully dull that I always tune out while I do it, meaning I go on autopilot and switch to my right hand. So my healing arm and shoulder was once again strained. I made an emergency appointment for a massage the next morning, which left me sore but helped.

Then I spent 3 very cool days in Berlin, where I was really starting to feel MUCH better. I remember telling the friends I was visiting that I thought I was back in shape for drawing. Somewhere on the trip back home I strained myself again. Woke up yesterday feeling strained again, though not as bad as before. Went for a massage yesterday afternoon. It was GREAT. She was pretty brutal with me and I am so bruised up on my right arm that I am happy it was cold enough today to wear a hoodie. Otherwise those bruises on my arm that were clearly made by fingers would get odd looks.

So… what’s my status?

Not sure at the moment. As it is, I THINK that the strain feels MUCH better. It’s hard to tell under the soreness of all the bruising. But I’m typing without much issue, so that’s a good sign. I’ve also spent a lot of time and and a LOT of money getting myself ergonomically situated so that I can, from now on, work in the best way I can, including one of those rubber stretching bands to do minor exercises with 3 times a day to keep my arm in shape. I also plan on more massages to work out the crap the latest masseuse found in my right forearm because of ALL THE DRAWING.

Also, my ice pack and my microwavable wheat pillow have become my best friends.

So I’m working on both healing and prevention of further problems in the future.

In the mean time I still can’t be sure when the next “Imy” strip is coming. I am really HOPING BEYOND HOPE that I can get one done for this coming Monday. But I still have to take it easy and not push myself. So I will keep you posted.

Also, when I do come back with “Imy,” I may make the decision to do it once a week for a VERY short time. The reason for this being that I have a backlog of work (some of it “Imy” related, like the next “Imy” book that will premiere at NYCC 2011) building up while I heal (including the next “Imy” book) that has deadlines. Therefore there is the chance that I may have to sacrifice “Imy” once a week for ONLY a few weeks while I do that, so that I don’t push myself back into injury again. But, those are jut a couple of things that once they are done, nothing else will take away from comic time.

I appreciate all of your patience and tolerance with this. I want, more than anything, for things to be normal again. but the most important thing is that I heal up properly so I can do my best to avoid future problems.

And I’ll do that while I run in circles screaming I WANNA DRAW I WANNA DRAW I WANNA DRAW!!!!