Hey, @rubido.
Well, thank you for the well-wishing. It's been a long road so far. I keep expecting to get to the end of it, but it hasn't happened yet.
I've been spending most of my spare time on HIVE. Even at $0.30, what I make here has been by far the most lucrative of my creative endeavors. Unfortunately, it's not designed to be a living wage, at least not in America, and there is that pesky thing called retirement that I would eventually like to enjoy. :)
re: a system
That sounds about right. I used to refer to us as a lean, mean machine, because we had just enough people to comfortably get the work done, because the people in those positions were good at what they did. Takes a while to find that kind of personnel.
re: chin up
There isn't much else that can be done of any great effect, is there? I've managed to complain and rant against it, but really, that's more self-therapy than anything else. :) Sometimes it leads to a spark of an idea, but mostly, it's the doing and trudging and keep keeping on that gets you where you ultimately need to be. Not necessarily want, but need.
re: live long and prosper
You, too. May we all. (that and avoid the yellow snow. Fortunately, we don't get a lot of snow of any color here, so it's totally avoidable. :)
That's the spirit! Well if you ever decide to do something illustrated I'd happily contribute for free. Could do a compilation, a few panels in a theme with different artists, It worked for a buddy of mine in the 90s, he even got picked up by one of the indie comic book publishers, Think it was Antarctic press But I cant be sure.
See I can DOODLE!
Seriously though With a community project I'm sure a lot of the talented artists here would contribute, Could be fun.
Keep up the good fight!