That's the sound of me rising from the dead. Well, I haven't been dead, I've just been on DeviantArt. But I won't be around there much in the future, so I suspect I'll be doing a lot of submitting 'round here. I have some Maxine concepts that I think would be right at home in this gallery, so keep an eye out!

...I'm feeling better!

I haven't been around here much 'cause my DeviantArt gallery seems to be where I function best. But I thought I'd clear that old journal off my front page, since I don't think I'll be pursuing underwater photography as a career anymore (I'll probably just leave it as a hobby).

In other news, I recently collaborated with Peter "Martianinvader" Paltridge on a new webcomic called "Electric Wonderland", and I drew the artwork for the first story. Take a look at Peter's website to see the fruits of our labors (or the first half of them, anyway);

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Feedback would be appreciated, as it'll determine how Peter develops future stories in the series.

I'm beginning to seriously consider what I want to do to raise more money for myself. Cartooning is the obvious choice, but a lot of that depends on whether or not I can get people to hire me. So I have another idea in the works - running my own underwater fashion photography business.

Now, originally, my underwater photos were just a pastime with no real purpose. But I've recently been studying the work of semi-professional photographer William "Rusty" Pietrzak (that's pronounced "pet-zhock", in case you were wondering), who's run his own self-maintained underwater fashion photography business for 21 years (see his website here: # ). I figure that if he can do it, why not me too? It's definitely something I'd have fun doing, that's for sure.

So far, I've deduced the things I'll need and how much they'll cost me. For still photos, I'll need a waterproof digital camera. And for video, I'll need a digital camcorder and an underwater housing for it. Plus, there's also the matter of adequate lighting materials. All together, that'd run me about $1200, but luckily, I've already begun saving up for a while now (and the commissions I'm taking on DeviantArt are definitely helping - to speed up the process, I may begin taking them here, too).

Obviously, I also need a pool. I've been using the one at the Quality Inn near my house, but I don't know how much they'd like the idea of me bringing all my equipment in there every time - and plus, I have props and things that they probably wouldn't allow in the pool area. So to be safe, I'm also on the lookout for friends who have access to an indoor pool that I can use for the more extravagant sessions. And of course, I need models. My friend Kristen, who's modeled for me in the past, says she'd rather not do it anymore (she doesn't think she's good at it, even though I think otherwise), so I'm going to begin recruiting my other friends. I'll pay them, of course - I figure $30-$35 a session to start would be pretty good and within my means.

And then comes the means of distribution. Now, while Kristen isn't up for modeling anymore, she is willing to help me with the technical aspects - namely, burning and copying the DVDs of the footage I'd shoot and designing a web site for me to run everything from. I have access to a forum full of people with an affinity for underwater footage the likes of which I'd be shooting, so promotion shouldn't be a problem either.

It'll be quite an undertaking, and I probably won't be able to really get things going for a couple of months. But I have the initiative and I'm gathering the money I'll need, so I really think I can pull this off. Wish me luck, won't you?

Jesse J. Barboza, 20 year old white male, starting now...

While not really a fur lover, I've created plenty of anthropomorphic cartoon characters over the years that I think would fit right in around here. Although I'm really here to watch my good buddy King-Cheetah, I'll try to post some artwork at the same time, presuming that I can wrap my browser around the submission process. Wish me luck!