heartland

For years now, one of the highlights of every summer for me have been going to the movies with my family and seeing the latest Pixar movie. This year’s Pixar movie “Up” is no exception. If you haven’t seen this movie yet please try and do so. As many of you know by now the movie is about the adventure of an elderly man named Carl and a young scout named Russell. The character development in this film is amazing. I knew going into the movie that there was going to be a lot of back story on Carl’s part. However, I was surprised at Russell’s story and how the relationship between he and Carl developed. There is also great supporting characters mainly in the forms of animals. My favorite being the giant bird named Kevin. I don’t want to say much more because I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun for anyone who hasn’t seen it. All I can say is load up the family, friends and loved ones and get ready to laugh, cry (be sure to bring some tissues) and go on a great adventure.

There is no secret that I am a huge movie fan and the Summer blockbuster season is about to begin! Some movies I am looking forward to are:

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Star Trek
Up
Land of the Lost
Transformers
GI Joe
Funny People
Inglourious Basterds

I don’t know if I will get to see all of them and I am sure I am missing a bunch that I would like. Seems like a good start though. What movies are you looking forward to seeing? Leave a comment or drop me a line and let me know.

Plans were slightly different for Easter Sunday than expected but none the less fun. The kids got Wii games in their Easter baskets but our Wii was out of commision. We suspect a certain pet rabbit got behind the television and chewed the wire on the sensor bar.

My Mother-In-Law wasn’t feeling well so the wife, kids and myself spent the day at my Mother’s. My sister and her girl was there and I got my sister to sign up on Twitter. We made hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. My wife made some awesome chicken and steak shish kabobs. Lots of food all around. The kids did a couple of egg hunts. We ended the evening by sitting around a fire pit which my Mom has built into her yard and relaxing.

After we got home the kids were able to squeeze in some play time outside before it got dark and bath and bed time ensued. After a round of Celebrity Apprentice, I was able to watch the Paris-Roubaix bike race I recorded. The last 16 kilometers were amazing. Congrats to big Tom Boonen. He was my second favorite to win after George Hincapie (maybe next year).

I would say this was a pretty good Easter Sunday. Lots of family time, lots of food and a little bit of bike racing. A pretty good Easter Sunday indeed.

I just wanted to leave a message for readers and wish them a Happy Easter weekend. Whether you are celebrating the holiday or not, I hope you are able to spend some time with family and loved ones because to me that is what it is all about.

As for my plans? Today I plan to color easter eggs and make cookies with the wife and kids. Tomorrow, after a sugar induced morning, I will be going to my In-Laws for some guaranteed good eating and good times. I will probably bring a notebook as my In-Laws will probably provide weeks of material for my comic strip. Hopefully, I can get home in time to watch the Paris-Roubaix bicycle race on television (I’m a cycling fan, please overlook the added geekness). I may Tivo/DVR the race just in case. Then more sugary candy goodness.

So be careful this weekend and enjoy some time with loved ones.

As with traditional comic books, it seems the same practice of attending and promoting at conventions is also true for webcomics. I would like to attend a few conventions this year and thought I would try to get some reader feedback to see if I am on the right track as to which cons might be the best to attend. I probably won’t be setting up a booth or selling anything. At this time, I just want to meet some other creators and see how they are promoting themselves. Here is a list of some of the cons I feel may be possible for me to attend this year:

Baltimore Comic-Con
Pittsburgh Comiccon
Mid Ohio Con
SPX

If you have any experiences with these cons, good or bad, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think. If there is a con I haven’t mentioned and you feel I should look into (preferably on the east coast) let me know so I can check it out for myself.

Send me your feedback via this link.

Maybe after I do some research and get some feedback I can start to plan on which shows to attend and I will keep the plans updated here.

I was finally able to see the Watchmen movie last night. Before I say anything, let me make one thing clear: I have not read the book…yet. I say that because I feel I would have been better prepared. The story, of course, was great. The effects were wonderful. The acting was top notch. My only gripes were that the transitions back and forth between different time periods seemed confusing and it ran a little long. However, I was still able to put my mind around the story as a whole and enjoy it. Also, I think I missed something where Ozymandias exploded the bomb in New York and did it for mankind’s own long-term good. However, he had statues at his hangout that depicted himself as a king or ruler. So, did he do it for himself or was he really concerned about the human race? My wife found the blue guy’s package a bit distracting but the girl at the ticket booth warned us about that beforehand. I think I will definitely try reading the book and then watch it again. I would definitely recommend this movie to others if only to get their opinions about it as well. It would make for an interesting discussion.

My first advertising campaign with Project Wonderful is nearing an end and I just want to thank all the people who stopped by the site. I feel it was money well spent and I will probably run a new campaign soon. I may wait a week and see how many return visitors there will be before starting a new campaign. It seems there were more visitors on Monday and Tuesday for some reason. Anywho, thanks again and please be sure to tell your friends about Heartland. It really helps a lot.

Also, if there is any other people out there using Project Wonderful or another ad service please feel free to share you experiences or tips that may be helpful.

To increase traffic to the site I have started placing and hosting ads via Project Wonderful. Project Wonderful is an ad bidding service that a lot of webcomic creators seem to like so I thought I would give it a try. So if you have arrived to this site via a Project Wonderful ad I want to give you a big welcome and a big high five because I know that my money was worth it. If you have not arrived here via Project Wonderful, well, I guess I could give you a big high five too because the traffic will help the ads I am hosting on my site.

Have I confused you yet? Is your brain ready to explode? Just go and enjoy the comic. Be sure to leave feedback and tell your friends.

To decrease clutter I have placed a new “Network” button at the top of the site. This button will take you to a page that has all the info for the networking sites I am using to promote this site: MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. So, if you use any of those services please take a look and be sure to add me to your friends list!

Do you use a social networking site like MySpace or Facebook? If you do then please add Heartland to your friends list and be sure to tell all of your friends. It would really help me introduce the comic to a lot of new people. I have also put tabs at the top of this page so that you can link easily to the official Heartland MySpace and Facebook pages.

I am also considering starting a Twitter account, so if you use Twitter please stay tuned.

Thanks again for all of your help and support.