Attention webcomic-making friends! SpiderForest, the collective that currently hosts Cooties, is accepting applications for new members during the month of July! They offer free hosting, a forum, and a great community of talented artists and writers. I’ve been associated with them for a couple of years, and have been very happy to be part of such a great group. Apply here starting July 1, and good luck!

Hey, everyone! Don’t forget to become a fan of Cooties on Facebook!

I thought it would be a hoot to figure out who I would cast in a live-action Cooties movie. Our five lead actors would all have to be kids in their early teens, so a year from now this will be totally obsolete and I’ll have to do it again. Just the world we live in, I guess. Anyway, here we go. Our lead 5 kids:

Benjamin Smith (Bob the Butler) as Nate — Ben Smith has the ability to pull off a great weirded-out look, essential for the role of a kid who is pursued by aliens and superheroes alike.

Jansen Panettiere (The Perfect Game) as Jake — Jansen gets the part mainly because he would be contractually obligated to bring his sister Hayden on the set, but I think he could pull off the wimpy-kid turned schitzo-ninja just fine. Someone get some bleach for this kid!

Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan) as Carmen — Give Isabelle a couple weeks at the beach and she could easily portray our brave mind-controlling latinita.

Chloe Moretz (Kick-@$$) as Lori — Chloe’s involvement is non-negotiable. The perfect mix of wit and cuteness to play this common-sense-challenged blonde heroine.

Jaden Smith (The Karate Kid) as Sam — Jaden would be fabulous as our wheelchair-bound geek whiz kid. Plus his dad Will Smith will have to have a cameo somewhere…

Our kids are going to need some talented actors to round out the supporting cast as well. This part was a heck of a lot easier (do you know how hard it is to find latina child actresses? Geez!) Onward!

Tom Hanks (Angels & Demons) as Mr. Bell — The great Mr. Hanks has the chops to play anybody. The wry humor and grim determination of this former agent turned schoolteacher would be a snap for him.

James McAvoy (Wanted) as The Comet — Hey, we gotta get some females in the theater, right? James can play the dashing Jane Austen-esque gentlemen or the tough-as-nails superdude with equal ease.

Bruce Campbell (Burn Notice, Army of Darkness) as Agent Campbell — Yes, I had Bruce in mind when creating this character in the first place. I have to take any chance I can to channel his awesomeness.

John Cho (Star Trek) as Agent Chen — John demonstrated some awesome fighting skillz in Star Trek; perfect for the martial-arts wielding young agent who resides in Jake’s brain.

Amy Adams (Julie & Julia) as Agent Foster — Every secret agency needs a spunky redhead. And Amy needs to do a good geeky sci-fi movie. A match made in heaven!

John Voight (National Treasure, 24) as The Boss — I don’t think I’ve ever given the man in charge of the “Men in Gray” a name…but he’s right up Mr. Voight’s alley.

Hugo Weaving (Lord of the Rings trilogy) as The Blue-Cloaked Alien (voice) — My aliens would be CGI, of course, but they need some sweet voice work to really bring them to life. This right here is what I’m talking about.

Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings) as The Red-Cloaked Alien (voice) — Oh man this could be really creepy, you guys…

And that’s it! I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone important (Wedge and Mr. Sowell could have been cast, too, I guess), and I hope you liked it! Let me know if you can think of some better actors/actresses, or even come up with some more supporting characters I left out. That’s a wrap!

Hey, everyone! Cooties now has an official Facebook page! It’s an easy way for any of you Facebookers  to know when the site updates (like, today, finally…)

I have to apologize to my readers for not keeping you all informed. I was asked to participate in a project that should see publication this summer, so Cooties had to be put on the back burner. There will be a new update this Monday, though! Thanks for your patience!

Hello again! If I have any readers left after my 6-month hiatus, you have hopefully been looking forward to the return of Cooties, and the exciting conclusion of “Infestation”! I had originally planned to take a longer hiatus to completely finish writing, drawing and coloring each remaining strip in my first chapter, but I had too many requests to continue the story that I just couldn’t ignore them. Therefore, Cooties will be a weekly strip, updating every Monday, until I have a buffer large enough to go daily for the rest of “Infestation”. After 3½ years, all of you who have stuck with me deserve the big payoff, so I will do my best to deliver. Be here every Monday for the ninja-y, superhero-y, alien-y goodness of Cooties!

Cooties was begun as an experiment. I’d done four years of a regularly-running comic strip at my University paper, plus a few years of editorial cartoons for a small-town rag, and wanted to try my hand at a long-form story-based comic. About 3 years and 175 comics later, I thought I’d try another experiment and make Cooties a comic that updated every weekday. That experiment ended in spectacular failure. The strip as a whole, though, has grown very dear to my heart, and I can easily see myself working on it until I’m an old man.

That being said, I’ve been forced to take a hard look at what I’ve been doing and ask myself what has worked and what hasn’t. I think I’ve figured it out. As a result, Cooties is officially on hiatus. My little characters deserve better than a hastily-scrawled punchline that I stuck in at 2 in the morning because I needed to update on time. I am going to spend some time plotting, writing, scripting, and then penciling, inking, and coloring. This will be done without a deadline looming over me as if this were a job. I want to start putting my best work on display, and taking the time to do it right.

Once the rest of the comics for “Infestation” are completed (written, inked, and colored), I will start updating the site again, one update per day. I really wish I’d done this to start with, now that I’m a little more experienced with this webcomicking thing. Anyway, I don’t know how long this is going to take. Hopefully not longer than six months, but no promises. I’ve got a house to sell, finances to fix, kids to raise, and a marriage to nurture, and turning Cooties into another job wasn’t helping.

To my dedicated readers, even though I can count you on all my fingers, you are truly appreciated. Some of you have read this thing for a very long time waiting for me to finish the first story. I promise, though, that the wait will be worth it. And I won’t drop off the face of the internet, either. I owe several people some guest art and stuff that I want to finally get around to, and still want to be an active participant in my host’s community. I’ll try and keep you posted on the site and Twitter and such. Until then, be excellent to each other!

Hey, everyone, go check out the first of two guest pages I did for Lightbringer ! I did the art off of Lewis’ script. I get the honor of kicking off his return from a 5-month hiatus! I hope any of you out there who are his fans enjoy my depiction of his characters. Welcome back, Lightbringer!

So I’m noticing that if I don’t totally screw it up, my 200th strip and Cooties’ 3rd anniversary should fall on the same day! June 23rd. It’s coming…

Number one: SpiderForest is accepting submissions for your totally awesome webcomic to join the collective and be assimilated by us. Try it, you’ll like it!

Number two: Mark Mariano of the fabulously smack-you-up-da-head-with-the-awesomeness-stick webcomic Flabbergast gave Cooties a review and he was seriously nice about it. Go check it out and see why I’m getting a big head!