Welcome Back... Or, Who Was I Again..?

Hi, my name is Rich Faber, and I'm an illustrator. This used to be where I regularly (or semi-regularly, anyway) posted my work (like some of the images sprinkled throughout this page), my thoughts, and other miscellanea, such as appearances (which I will soon talk more about), promotions of my work, and a few personal observations here and there.

 As I said, used to be.

When I first began blogging, I was in my thirties, I was married, and had not yet tasted the joy of fatherhood. I was fairly prolific, had a great career, and was relatively happy with my life. That was back in 2006. Since that time, I have become a father, a widower, a member of the over 40 crowd, have sprouted many gray hairs, and have generally had a somewhat chaotic existence.

 I am not the same person I was six short years ago.

And who is, really?

I typically stay away from my personal life here on my blog, and try to focus on my career here. That has become a very difficult venture over the past three years though. I have had to put my career on hold, and focus on my family. Most people who have frequented this blog probably know that my family has been through a lot. My wife Traci, died on September 10, 2009, of metastatic melanoma, a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer. She was diagnosed in August of 2008, so obviously, those thirteen months were traumatic. And the three years that have followed have had their fair share of tumult too. Our little boy was a very young toddler when Traci died, and as you can imagine, I've focused nearly all of my attention on raising him in the years since.

So, if you've been wondering why I haven't been around lately, that's why. Which brings me to now. My life is in a series of transitions at the moment, most of them good, and my thoughts are turning more and more to who I was, who I am now, and who I will become in the very near future. I never thought that two decades into my career, I would be in a transition phase, but here I am. I am at a crossroads, and again, this is a good thing. I am at a point where I can again begin to focus on my career as an artist. I will spend the next few months updating and upgrading both this blog, and my main website, www.richfaber.com, which is where you can find the majority of my work. I plan to begin posting regularly again this fall or winter, and hopefully, by next spring, my career will be back in full swing, And I will have tons of work to show here!

That's the plan anyway.

In the meantime, I'd like to begin what will eventually be the relaunch of my career (and probably my life, in many ways), with the announcement of my appearance at the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend, September 8-9. I will be at the Kids Love Comics Pavilion, which is presented by the Comic Book Diner, the podcast about comics and graphic novels I do with my friends and colleagues, Jamar Nicholas and John Gallagher (you can find us at www.comicbookdiner.com). At the Pavilion, we will have an incredible lineup of artists and writers who are well known for the comics and graphic novels they do, with the younger crowd in mind. Baltimore Comic-Con is one of my all-time favorite shows to do, and it's a terrific family event, so if you're in the area, or nearby, I hope you'll come out to join us at the show. It's one of the best, and I guarantee you will have a spectacular time! I hope to see you there!

As for me, please check back frequently. I do plan to update much more over the coming weeks and months, so if all goes well, there should be plenty to see and read in the near future. I hope you'll join me on my new journey!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Best,
Rich