Steam Crow

So, after a great deal of turmoil and thinking, I’ve taken a new dayjob.

Yes, in this “crazy economy”, I’m making a big change.

I usually don’t talk about work here, or really anywhere online, as such things are often dangerous. I will say this: I liked my old job much, and I feel like I had a pretty good run of 4 years there.

Next up: telecommuting.

So, you may be sensing a central theme to the Monster Commute by now; I HATE commuting. Well, this change should nip a lot of that frustration in the bud.

What’s so awesome about this, is that I can maintain my full-time employment for my family, AND be able to put a lot more time and energy here at Steam Crow. In fact, I’m thrilled about it, as a daily comic takes a good deal of effort to keep going.

Looking at my own commuting, this should net me around 700 hours of found time per year. That’s 17 and a half WEEKS of time. Dear gawd, I could start ANOTHER BUSINESS! (ak!)

Future of the Monster Commute

Some of my friends have asked: “Are you going to continue your comic, now that you’re not commuting?”

Let me assure you, YES! I am going to continue this daily strip, and “NO” I’m not out of inspiration. I’ve been commuting for like 20 years now, and my passion/hatred for driving is pretty dang epic. I’ll still be driving, just not for hours each day.

I’ve made the Monster Commute a priority for us here at Steam Crow, and plan on building up these characters, stories, and world for some time to come.

If you’re at all worried about my inspiration level, you can share your driving stories of woe, over in our Steam Crew Forum. I think that it would be cool if folks checked on Beastio and Machine’s commute, and then vented about their own. (Turning a commute into something to laugh about.)

I don’t start the new job for another month, in case you were wondering.

- Daniel

You don’t want to watch those boring VP candidates go at it tonite, do you? Not really? They’re just going to embarrass themselves. It’s bound to happen, and it’ll all be on YouTube anyway.

Save 90 minutes of your life, and come see my book reading tonite, at the Phoenix Bookman’s:

“Join us for the Got Milk National touring campaign!

Bones, Books, and Brains! Join us for FREE chocolate milk, Got Milk Giveaways, and pictures with your “Milk Moustache” for all kids and parents who attend our book reading by local author, Daniel M. Davis!”

I’ll be there with my brown shirt on, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, reading from Caught Creatures, our Monster Haiku book.

Bookman’s Entertainment Exchange
8034 N. 19th Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85021
(602) 433-0255

We’ll be coming back to Bookman’s on October 25th, at 1:00 pm for a Monster Celebration, just before Halloween. Should be a blast.

Hope to see you there.

- Daniel

Here is a good reason why I don’t like driving:

People like this scare me.

If this isn’t a driver from the Monster World (Monstru), I don’t know what is.

- Daniel

Cost2Drive is a cool little site, where you plug-in the make, model, and year of your car, and then the distance you regularly travel. (Like your daily commute, see.)

And then, it tells you what it costs to make this trip, on average.

It took a couple of tries to get everything right (like it kinda hung when I told it I had a 2000 Saturn…), and my route is different than shown, but it is still pretty cool.

You could plan your own road-trip, and see if you still wanna make it, or if there’s another route that would make more sense.

Check it out here.

Update: can you get it to work, because I’m having trouble for some reason?

- Daniel

Here’s a brand-new downloadable flyer (pdf 492k) for you to download/print and post at your work, school, cafe, or Park-N-Ride bus shelter. Heck, post it wherever it makes sense that won’t get us into trouble.

Take a photo of your handiwork, and show us where you’ve posted it.

Helping us get the word out is one of the coolest things that you can do. Word-of-mouth is the most powerful methods of “advertising” that exist, so do your part.

We’re starting the Team Crow Street Team, for those who have the desire to do more, and get involved. We’ve already made a list of things that you can do to help, and we’re working on expanding the program into something more formal.

As always, let us know what you’ve done to spread the Steam!

Download it now!

- Daniel

I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’m a Mike Mignola nut.

He’s my absolute favorite comic artist, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him, (trying) to chat with him, talking to his wife, and selling buttons to his daughter. The Mignolas bought all of our books at a past Phoenix Comicon, which pretty much made my decade.

My trouble is that I don’t know what to say to the guy. I’m just uber fanboyed out, and can’t seem to strike up a conversation with him at all. His wife, no problem. We hit it off, and I can make her laugh and all of that. I’ve read every Mignola interview I can get a hold of, so he’s already answered most of my questions.

Now, this is my personal problem; the Mignola’s have always been a class act, so I don’t want to leave you with the wrong impression. I’m the freakshow, in this case.

Anyway, since I’m letting this all hang out, I was directed to this eBAY auction that is pretty cool:

Hellboy for Obama art

It’s for the Comics Industry for Obama, and is currently at $1000. Ouch. I remember when I could have bought “Seed of Destruction” pages for like $300. (I was damn poor.)

Vote how you want of course; I just wanted to share some tasty Mignola with you.

- Daniel

Toy Break, an online show about the vinyl toy movement, recently interviewed Jason Kiningham of Red Hot Robot. Jason was kind enough to mention us there, which was pretty cool.

The Red Hot begins at 19:15, so move ahead if you want.

Thanks to Jason o’ Red Hot Robot, and thanks to Toy Break too!

- Daniel