In 1999 I finally got my first computer, the first iMac model (tangerine for those who care) and within a year I had created my Bob Almond Inkwell thanks to the vital assistance of Craig Rousseau and helpful guidance of Christopher Griffen.  Eventually I was able to ween off of the savvy tech guys and handle stuff solo.  But as time went on my program hot old and outdated and I never upgraded.  This led to my new operating system not being able to accomodate the program so I had to do all my updating on an old Mac G4 and use a flash drive to transfer the files to my Mac OS10 in order to fetch and upload the items online.  This is why many of my updates in 2008-9 were so tardy and sporadic, thus testing my efforts to acchive monthly updates as stated on the site.

Enter the generous Rich Lane who handles sites for a living.  He offered to use an efficient program that would not need FTP and help me rehaul my site which, left on it’s own, would have eventually collapsed in on itself.  So now we have, on the site’s anniversay natch, an upgraded website as well as the old site archived for those nostalgists: the best of both worlds!  For those sections that never need expanding, like the Sal & Bob Gallery and Altered Art Gallery, the pages are the original pages.  For those areas that get the occasional updates like Special Features, once there’s an update, which could be in a month or in 2 years, we’ll create a new page for the new material.

Everything else will be self-contained new pages (Bio, Contributors, etc.) or slowly expanding sections like Credits, Weblinks, Store, Photos, etc.  The lastest updated section, previously known as Gallery2, the commissions gallery, will now be simply the Commissions Gallery and you can check that out here on the 15th page (the previous 14 pages are accessible through a link on the page to the archived gallery section).  So no more galleries one, two, and three.  This site will always be a work in progress and things will still be getting tweaked in the coming weeks but for the most part it is now ready to roll and interactive as well.  So kick the tires and  give it a roll and let me know what you think!

The next updated section at this site is the Store page, previously known as the Art For Sale section on the archived site.

It now can inform interested parties about Original Art, Commissions, Color Prints, Discounted Collections, and Sketchbooks- all for sale and all available!  Looking for a comic by me that you cannot find?  Ask me…I might have it and at a lot cheaper than the local retailer, and signed!  You can also ship books/merchandise to me to autograph if you’d like.  Just click the ‘Store’ link on the top of this page’s navigational links and LMK what I can help you with!

Yeah, some of my site regulars know that I’ve always taken pride in having monthly updates, which I honored most of the time. But just as Rich Lane and I started to construct the new pages, my pal Sal (Velluto) came a callin’ asking me to help him out again on the Phantom (“The Phantom: Johnny Hotwire- The Outlaw Days”) for Sweden’s Egmont Publishing.

This took me out of the picture for 6 weeks and just as a finished that commercial artist contact Jeff Lavezoli (whom I met at Pittsburgh Comic Con a few years ago and for those familiar with my commission gallery knows I did some ‘Bryant Man’ work inking him) emailed me and hired me to ink a Christmas card assignment for a company (don’t worry, it’ll eventually show up in the same-mentioned gallery).  And I’ve been playing catch-up ever since around the house (holiday greeting cards, taxbook, shopping, appointments, etc.) and with The Inkwell Awards regarding the newly appointed ’10 Nomination Committee, new site additions, and boy, you won’t believe what’s been in the works for our 3rd year- no exaggeration!

And I’ll be tackling commissions in a few days. But this site will take up much of my time.  Now that the Bio, Credits, Contributors, and Web Links sections are done, Rich and I are now eagerly working on getting this Homepage and News/ solicitations format all laid out.  Following that we’ll tackle the remaining sections one at a time in no particular order: the Store, Photos, Special Features, and the prolific Galleries. So be patient and I’ll keep you posted and before long I’ll be back to monthly updates as we enter my site’s 10-year anniversary in 2010.  In the meantime, feel free to post comments and ask questions. Do you have any suggestions or requests? And happy holidays to all!!!