At The Green House. . .

It’s a good time to check in on our New Year’s Resolutions. . . if we made any. I stopped making resolutions years ago and began setting goals instead. There’s so much “greening” I want to do this year- and getting the Green House back online was goal #1.

Goal #2 was cleaning my basement. . . subject for a month’s worth of blogs at another time. . . Back to Goal #1. . .

The Green House came to life around 2006-7 and was shown to all the Comic Syndicates at a time when Newspapers were having a really rough time. We had no luck getting syndicated, and decided to invest in ourselves and try self-syndication. We gathered a group of about 30 newspapers who ran the comic for their “Free 6 Month Trial” and after that, they still wanted the strip, but weren’t able to pay or just weren’t paying for it. We found the Editors were getting reassigned, or let go- or they didn’t want to make permanent changes to their lineups. . .  and as Elaine would say, “Yada, yada, yada.”  Financially, Peter and I found we couldn’t maintain the schedules of creating a comic, marketing a comic and at the same time- making a living. So, we tried just selling the feature to Weekly publications and posting on green websites- and we gained a fantastic following. . . yet still, with minimal financial support.  Remember, this was pre- Facebook being a huge sharing space. . . blogs were just starting and the internet was just starting to figure out how to make money for content.

Long story short- Peter and his wife, Danielle had just had their 3rd child, Lily, I was getting ready to leave writing tasks on the comic, “Nancy,” and we both needed to find “jobs” and help keep our “houses” happy. . . So, we “put a tarp over the Green House,” and hoped with all hope that we’d get back to it soon. Well, Peter and I stayed in touch like brothers over the next 7 years and through that time, we discovered that The Green House wasn’t just a comic strip idea- it was us. . . it was our passion, it was what we really wanted to create to share with the world.

There was a lot of composting going on under that tarp and new ideas were growing. . . friends were asking about it. . . we were aching to have it be “WHAT WE DO.”

That’s really a fantastic moment, when you have that realization . . . “this is what I want to do, what I need to do.”

The people we’ve met throughout our first time doing the comic, were/are the kind of people we want to be surrounded by. Amazing people doing amazing things. Caring people. Loving people. People who help each other and our planet- and work at making it better. So, our reality, beyond wanting to do it, and needing to do it, was clearly. . . that The Green House and it’s characters were going to be our contributions to this amazing sphere of people- a daily dose of humor with a green tint. . . tiny green steps taken by people and “critters” that we can all share the journey with.

So, as Pam sprays her house plants with an organic pest solution and turns over a few leaves, she may find some bugs. . . she may find some buds sprouting out from underneath. Some solutions will work, Some won’t. But we are back with new resolve- alive and growing and doing what we need to do. We so appreciate you joining us, supporting us and being part of our journey. Please share your comments here and on Facebook to help us develop and grow our Green House community. There’s plenty of room, soil, water and sunshine on the shelves for all of us- if we work to keep it so!

We’re back working!

Brad   (for Brad & Peter)

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