August 29, 2010 | Blog Archive

Any day now....

My wife has reached the any-day-now stage of the pregnancy, and will be giving birth to our first born child any time between this writing and mid-September. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up that if I miss an update it's likely because I am at the hospital with the missus bringing a new sports fan into the world. Updates might be a bit wonky for while after that while I adjust to this whole parenthood stuff.

Fortunately, a few supremely awesome web cartoonists have generously donated their talents to providing some guest comics to help give me a lesser comic-load during the first few weeks of my son's life. I've also prepared a 3-part "birth announcement" story-arc devised for the first full Monday-Friday block after the big day so I'm hoping the wonkiness will be minimized to a certain extent. If you'd like to try your hand at a Small Market Sports toon, just send me an email (bill at smallmarketsports dot com) and let me know. Deadline is whenever you can, format is whatever you want it to be (just fit in a width of 772 pixels), topic is anything about sports...!

Guest comics will be posted Wednesdays and Fridays until there are no more left to post. :)

 

 

 

August 6, 2010 | Blog Archive

Hockey + Beer = ME

First let me just say thank you to everyone for your kind words of encouragement. I am happy to report my wife is back to her normal self (well, normal pregnant self) and the baby is fine too. I probably should've updated the site with that information a little sooner, eh?

Anyway, let's get back to the fun stuff, shall we?

Fun stuff like the new t-shirt design available in the Small Market Sports shop, Hockey+Beer=ME!

It's the perfect gift for both the hockey fan AND Small Market Sports comic strip fan in your life (or beer fan even!). I intend to be wearing one to the Toronto Maple Leafs / Philadelphia Flyers pre-season game being held at the John Labatt Centre here in London, Ontario in September. Provided, of course, that my wife isn't in the middle of giving birth at the time. :)

All proceeds from the shirt sale will go directly into paying for anything my son might need the first few months of his life (you know, like food, clothing, shelter, booze, whores, an atomic arsenal, etc...)

Okay, enough with the sales pitch... get back to enjoying the comics.

 

 

 

July 12, 2010 | Blog Archive

Weekly this week

If you're following me on Twitter you might already know that for this week, I'll be dropping the comic strip to weekly (today's comic). My wife has been suffering from viral meningitis and has been in the hospital since Saturday. Being 30 weeks pregnant, they can't treat the pain with their normal array of pain killers (it might harm the baby), so they've admitted her and are monitoring both her health and the baby.

Understandably, I don't think I have it in me to find the funny this week. My apologies, faithful readers, and my thanks for your understanding.

 

April 12, 2010 | Blog Archive

Where the heck are all my sports channels?!!

It seems that the good folks at Bell Canada's technician's inability to find a signal with the location restrictions my landlord has placed on installing a satelite dish on the property has resulted in me not being able to enjoy the array of sports specialty channels I normally absorb. It's not so terrible for watching the Stanley Cup playoffs this year (or for getting sports news - they got this thing called the Internet now). The Canadiens squeaked into the playoffs and the Maple Leafs didn't so that means I should be able to catch the games over the air on CBC... but what of the upcoming CFL season? What of watching Alouettes games???

The CFL games are currently only broadcast on TSN and RDS, neither of which are available with rabbit ears (or people ears for that matter).

I could cave and get cable installed. But Rogers Communications?!! They screwed us huge time when my wife lost her Blackberry Curve last year ($600 to cancel her account!) So understandably becoming a Rogers client again is about as appealing as cutting off my nads with a spork. I guess when the Alouettes kick off their season in June, we'll find out if I like football more than I fear plastic cutlery.

As a footnote, a huge thanks to Bell Canada for waiving the cancelation fee on the remaining year on our satelite contract when they weren't able to hook up the dish.

UPDATE: I stand corrected. Looks like I won't be able to watch the Habs / Capitals series on CBC afterall.

 

 

February 5, 2010 | Blog Archive

A Little Leaguer is Brewing

It was confirmed this past Wednesday that my wife is expecting our first child. My very own all-star, little leaguer is on deck waiting to knock one out of the park. How awesome is that??! Yeah, I know. Pretty awesome. It's understandably got both my wife and I considerably giddy and distracted from our regular day-to-day lives. So much so, unfortunately, that I kind of dropped the ball in getting today's comic strip ready to go.

You guys will cut me some slack today, right? I mean, this week of all weeks you gotta let me be a little absent-minded, no?

Thanks, folks.

 

January 26, 2010 | Blog Archive

The Year in Sports (comics) in Review

It's been a long while since I posted anything in the blog. Just haven't felt like I've had anything important to say other that what I'm already saying in the comics. But it's the start of a new year, we're on the cusp of the Super Bowl, the Vancouver Olympics and halfway through another disappointing for the Montrel Canadiens, so it seems fitting to spew out a few words if only to let folks know I'm still here, and the latest sports comics aren't being created in a sweat shop in China.

I guess looking back at the past year would be a good place to start, huh?

In September 2009 I made the commitment to increasing the frequency of Small Market Sports comics from weekly to three times a week and I am happy to say that haven't missed an update. It's proving to be just that extra boost team Small Market Sports needed to steadily increase the ol' fan base and getting more asses in the seats.

Also this past year, to make things a little more visually interesting, I've taken some care into improving the look of the comic strip. Different "camera" angles, different backgrounds, varying panel sizes, the occasional prop, etc... Sometimes it worked better than others, I'll admit, but I think in the end the comic strip is really looking a little more dynamic than it had been.

Last year also saw our little sports comic strip get picked up by a few community newspapers. We're hardly getting the reach of Garfield, Peanuts or For Better or For Worse, but I'm happy with how things are going.

This year, with your continued support, I hope to keep making forward progress and keep this winning streak going as long as possible. That means more readers, more newspapers, more importantly.... more comics! My biggest goals are maintaining the Monday-Wednesday-Friday comic updates until September 2010, and if I can keep the thrice weekly pace, I will consider upping the frequency to 5 times a week. Nifty, eh?

Okay, okay... now that that's out of the way, it's time for something really important: Superbowl. The New Orleans Saints versus the Indianapolis Colts. Who do I think will win the big game, you ask? I don't really make predictions on sports, football or otherwise. I'm not very good at rationally deciding who will win based on the facts. I tend to go with my heart and who I want to win instead of studying the statistics (probably why I'm not a betting man either, eh?) I think Doug's Superbowl prediction from a few year's back pretty much sums up just how far out on a limb I'm willing to go with my predictions.

Thanks for reading, folks. Be sure to follow me on Twitter or subscribe to the RSS feed to be updated when the latest comics are posted.