Let’s Get Personal… for a Minute
Family, Comics, Life Changes, and What’s Coming Next!
I’ve been debating on how to, or if, I should say something publicly but we’re pretty open with our lives in the hopes that we can inspire, encourage, or otherwise help others, so this is no exception.
If you want to skip down to the comics stuff no worries. I won’t even know, LOL. It’ll be after the double-line break waaaaay below.
Most know we have a big, beautiful, and fun family. Seven kids in total, two of whom are adults living on their own (successfully!) while the remaining five still reside at home in various stages of life:
20yo is an accountant in the finance department of a local business
19yo is a manager for a local retailer
18yo is a front-end assistant for a local grocery store
All three of them are high school grads and now all three are going to community college to prepare for their future careers (business admin, occupational therapist, information technology engineer, respectively).
It’s BUSY here!
The remaining two are in high school (14yo) & middle school (12yo), homeschooled by their mum (like the previous five, all HS grads). The youngest of our brood is the creator and cartoonist for Commander Ram comics published by Yours Truly.
All of that is good, to be sure, even if it does make us busier than usual and a little resource-constrained. Time, money (of course), and energy are in short supply most days, so when I get to the end of the day I’m usually too exhausted to write, my eyes are too heavy to read, and I end up just zoning out until bedtime. 😅
Something New…
…recently, however, a new thing was introduced into our family that was both unexpected and unwelcome: tics. One of our children developed tics and that has been a whole-new world of adventure. It started as occasional vocal grunts, then changed to a quick slap on their chest and whistle (which was kinda cute, TBH), and so on. It’s changed maybe a half-dozen times in the last few months, but recently it got pretty tense with harder hitting (including once accidentally hitting themselves with their phone in-hand) and more extreme physical movements.
I tell you this for a few reasons, but one of those is to encourage anyone else who is dealing with neurological issues such as tics, Tourette Syndrome, or similar in your family.
As a family, we’ve been working to help by ignoring some of the tics (instead of noticing and commenting on them), and finding new ways to stimulate their brain in a way that reduces the over-firing impact of things like TS. They haven’t been diagnosed with anything, officially, so we’re using treatments and exercises for TS as a way to help.
Seems to be working to some extent.
Motion is Lotion — Keep Moving!
One thing Suzanne (my wife, for those who haven’t met her yet) found that helped stave off the larger, more “violent” tics and reduce the overall frequency of tics in general is quadrupedal movement. Things such as somersaulting, cartwheels, crawling, crab-walking, frog hops, monkey/bear/gorilla movements, and so forth almost eliminated the head-smacking, larger tics, but it also gave our child more restful sleep at night (when sometimes the tics kept them and their room-sharing sibling awake).
We moved on to simple things like going for more walks together, playing frisbee in the backyard, and just swinging on the swing set when the weather is nice.
All of this physical and mental stimulation seems to have helped calm things down. They’re still there, and when school gets frustrating or they sit too long or something spikes anxiety, the tics come back—sometimes more frequent, sometimes more “loud”—but, getting back to moving in any capacity helps calm things back down.
Emotional Health is Top Priority
We stay focused on the positive—especially when discussing things with them and their siblings—but, sometimes it’s difficult. These may end one day as abruptly as they started. They may get worse. They may last forever.
No matter what, we just love our child like we do all the others. And they have a lot of love & support here with so many siblings at home and nearby (even the two who moved out live within a 20min drive no more than a city over).
We’ll be visiting with a neurologist that’s almost 2hrs away, and we don’t know how frequently, so there will be a lot of windshield time in our futures, I suspect. At least initially.
Which brings me to comics, in a weird, roundabout way…
More Comics Coming…!
Just not as often or as timely as I had planned and proven in the past. I just funded my sixth Spider-Squirrel & Trash Panda (and the first under my Blind Squirrel Comics imprint) campaign and will be delivering on those starting this week, as well as delivering on the recently-funded American Yakuza 1-4 campaign from Xion Studios.
It might be slower than usual but unlike our politicians, I will always deliver on my campaign promises. 🥰
So, if you backed either campaign you should’ve received your Digital Rewards (AY 1-4) already, or will soon (SSTPv1 Redux), and all of our print reward Backers will start receiving your Physical Rewards starting as early as this weekend.
What’s Next?
Two major releases coming between now and the end of the calendar year, both Xion Studios projects, and one Blind Squirrel Comics project launching early 2026:
American Yakuza Act V - The finale of Volume One (2025)
Spider-Squirrel & Trash Panda #6 - The first issue of Volume Two! (2026)
CLAYMORE is written and created by Scott Fogg—creator of NIGHTCARE, published under Blind Squirrel Comics—and is his first published Mature Audiences title. Claymore is a fun magical western adventure that captures some of that Old West charm in a world where monsters, faeries, magic swords, and the like coexist.
For now, this title will be a series of one-shot adventures, so consider this first one your pilot episode. You can follow the Prelaunch right now!
FOLLOW IT HERE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/xionstudios/scott-foggs-the-monster-hunter-called-claymore
AMERICAN YAKUZA is written and created by Anthony Stokes, Chris Moses, and Charlie McElvy (me)—based on a concept by me—with gorgeous art by Damiano Restivo, John Rauch, and Taylor Esposito. This Mature Audiences title is a fish-out-of-water murder-mystery action-adventure comic that has proven to be popular with readers!
Avoiding spoilers, we’ve come to the final issues of the first volume: our hero, Xavier Watanabe, is on the run in Japan while trying to solve his friend’s murder. He gets sucked into a yakuza family feud, and spends more time running than he’d prefer. Will he survive this first volume? Don’t assume because there’s more that he will… you’ll just have to read to find out!
This issue’s campaign will allow new readers to catch-up fully on the series and get ready for Volume Two which is coming in 2026! It’s already in Prelaunch mode, so follow along for this wild ride.
FOLLOW IT HERE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/xionstudios/american-yakuza-the-finale-acts-1-5
SPIDER-SQUIRREL & TRASH PANDA is written and created by Charlie McElvy (me) with incredible art by D.C. Stuelpner, John Rauch, and HdE. This title, considered our flagship title now, headlines our Blind Squirrel Comics line and ties them all together (when necessary — we don’t do silly crossovers just to sell books, they need to make sense).
In Volume One we saw our heroes take a stab at dating, fighting time-displaced baddies, tumble through the indiecomics multiverse, face off against a city full of wild surprises, tackle a dimension-rifting villain, and somehow have time for rooftop burritos — PHEW!!!!!
Volume Two brings us back home to the streets of Richmond, Virginia—but only for a moment! Our Dysfunctional Duo gets whisked away into interstellar space to compete in a fighting competition that determines the fate of worlds! If Galactus selected worlds based on an MMA tournament, you’d have an idea of what they’re dealing with here… SHENANIGANS!
Watch for the Prelaunch here and on my social media. This is going to be our best SS & TP run yet, so buckle up!
I don't have a child with tics but I really appreciate the candor and the advice. Sounds like your child is surrounded by a great family. Godspeed and thanks for the updates. I eagerly await my American Yakuza books and will definitely do what I can to support Blind Squirrel Comics.
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