Life can give you some ups and downs, but sometimes it gives you such a roller coaster in a single week, that you don’t know if you’ll ever be able to see straight again.
Last week started off AMAZINGLY, with the birth of my obnoxiously adorable son, William, on Sunday. Both he and his mom did an awesome job at the whole childbirth thing, and they’re both still doing great.
On Tuesday I was a guest on the live comic book talk show, Comic Book Club, alongside Fabian Nicieza and Jordan White, to talk about our new Deadpool & Cable project, and discuss how wild it is to see so many Super Bowl commercials littered with superheroes we’ve been working on for years, and reading about for years longer.
On Thursday I went to see the Deadpool movie with Fabian and Jordan, along with Heather Antos, Manny Smith and some friends, and was blown away by how great a job Ryan Reynolds and Co did, and how true it was to the spirit of the source material. I was also psyched to see Bob make an appearance, which puts me in the rare (but quickly growing!) group of comic authors who have seen characters they’ve created show up on the big screen.
Saturday also had a great start, with a signing at East Side Mags with my friend and frequent collaborator Fred Van Lente.
But then came Saturday night.
On Saturday night in Hoboken, a fire started a few buildings down the street from us, and quickly spread. My wife Shawna and I grabbed the baby and got out of the house, and watched from across the street as the fire moved from one building to the next, and came roaring out of the windows of the apartment directly next to ours. When smoke started coming from the roof of our building, we left for my grandmother’s house in Montclair.
Thankfully, all the inhabitants of the buildings effected by the fire are safe and accounted for.
As luck would have it, the flames themselves had little direct effect on our building, thanks to the hard work of the Hoboken Fire Department on the coldest night of the year, as well as my landlord’s foresight in installing a firewall between the buildings. However, yesterday we learned that because of the firefighters doing their thing, and the amount of smoke that got into our apartment, there will be months of renovation to fix everything and repair the smoke and water damage in the building, particularly our apartment, which was on the top floor where the fire was the strongest. Almost all of our belongings were saturated in smoke, and although some things can be cleaned, a lot of things can’t be, like most of our clothes, books, and anything that belongs to the baby. It’s not healthy to have a newborn in contact with that kind of third-hand smoke.
Honestly, when I saw the fire burning only feet away from our own apartment, I’d written the whole place off, so anything that we can recover I count as a blessing. Shawna and Will are safe, and that’s the most important thing.
Insurance will help us out a bit, but not enough to cover everything that needs to be cleaned, everything that needs to be replaced, as well as the moving expenses. I’m confident that we’ll figure something out one way or the other, but for the people who have asked how they can help, I’ll humbly direct you toward my art dealer’s site, www.AnthonysComicBookArt.com/artistgalleryroom.asp?artistid=1172 – a few extra sales there could go a long way. Also, I have a number of comic conventions and appearances coming up this year, and if you have a mind to get a commission from me, contact me through my website, www.ReillyBrownArt.com , with the name of the convention and the word “commission” in the subject line and I’ll put you on a reserved commission list. The money from those commissions will mean more to me now than they will at the time of the show.
Also, I started an online Gumroad store, where I’ll be selling my convention sketchbooks, SKETCHES: THE ART OF REILLY BROWN vol 1 and 2, as downloadable PDFs for whatever price you wish to pay. Even if it’s just a dollar, every little bit will help.
https://gumroad.com/reillybrown
Thanks everyone, I appreciate your support now, as I have over the years. One way or another, I’m sure everything will work out for the best.
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