Howdy Melon Heads. Ol’ Uncle Barry here, with some meandering melancholia for your Monday morning.

Another work week ahead. 40 more hours between us and the real American dream: another weekend.

I want to change the world with Barry’s World. I really do. I want to write a comic that brings the whole world together. But first, I’d like to change my world.

I hate my job.

I hate getting out of my warm, comfy bed and dragging my sorry carcass into the same shithole every day, doing the same crappy work, talking to the same dopey coworkers, getting the same BS from the boss.

That life is for the birds.

I want more.

I want to be somebody. But actually, I think I already am somebody. I just want everybody else to think I’m somebody too.

I want people to hear the name Barry Melon and think about one of the greatest illustrators and storytellers of his generation. Is that so much to ask?

I know it’s a tall mountain to climb, so I’m taking it step by step…

New comic dropping in the next few days.

I’m just putting the finishing touches on it after I spent most of the weekend working on it. I’m pretty happy with how it came out. It’s a nice evolution of my last effort and I really feel like I’m starting to find my style and my voice.

I feel like I had some good momentum coming out of the gate on my first comic, but I was disappointed that it didn’t make a bigger splash. I guess I’m not really that web-savvy… I just started my first social media accounts to publish Barry’s World. But I feel like I’ve been plugging away at it for a few weeks now and it’s hard to get traction. It’s not so much about getting big numbers on likes, clicks, and shares… but it would feel nice to feel like people are seeing my work. I’ve heard that social media platforms use algorithms that make it hard for an artist to reach their audience, but I don’t really know how all that stuff works. And it didn’t help that I got a little bit of negative feedback on my first blog post from Mrs. Melon. She feels like sometimes I share too much and get too personal with my work, but I feel like I made a commitment with the real Melon Heads out there to share my life with them, and this is my real life. I’m just trying to be honest with the world and make a piece of art that people can connect to and it’s my. real. life.

Sigh. Rant over.

Let the Monday commence!

-Melon.