My EYE!

Yes, hot on the heels of the last surgery I wrote about in the last newsletter, I had another surgery to correct my cataract surgery from 8 years ago. I’d joke that my surgery punch card will get me a free one soon, but I’ve actually hit my insurance deductible for the year, so it’s kind of true. I just would rather not have another one anytime soon. I’m happy to say it seems everything is going well, and while I have to have two more follow ups before I can get a new prescription for my left glasses lens, my current glasses corrects for enough of the astigmatism that I can work comfortably. That’s good, since I’m a visual artist.

Last month, one of my favorite annual events happened: CCIRA, a professional development conference for ELA educators, where I presented workshops, did a meet-and-greet, and drew caricatures of attendees over the course of two days. Here’s my video recap:

The next events I have scheduled:

• Saturday, April 4th (2-4 pm) Eugenia Wang’s First Birthday Party at I Want More Comics in Thornton, CO. The first 44 people to buy a copy will receive a special 1st birthday signed and numbered bookplate in their book!

• Saturday, April 18th beginning at 12:35 pm, I’ll be at The Colorado Teen Literacy Conference as a part of the Local Author Panel, Teen Connection Panel, and Author Signing at the Tivoli on Auraria Campus.

• Saturday, May 2nd I will be a part of the DPS Steam Expo at the CSU Spur at the NWS Complex from 9am - 2 pm doing comics and cartooning workshops throughout the course of the event and signing books.

• Saturday, June 6th from 11 am - noon, I’ll be teaching Comic Strip Creation at the Broomfield Public Library (registration link soon)

• TBA June - August, FREE caricatures at Friday Fest in Downtown Greeley (specific dates and times tba)

• July 29-30, I’ll be doing FREE caricatures of attendees at the CASE Literary Conference in Breckenridge, CO (times and registration link tba)

• Friday, July 31st from 6:30 - 7:30 pm, I’ll be on the Graphic Novel Author Panel at the Golden Public Library (registration link soon)

I’m happy to announce that my book is a part of this fun Juvenile Fiction March Madness Reading Bracket, a downloadable resource for educators!

News/Reviews/Accolades:

• Mary Kuehner’s blog: Favorite Books of 2025 - All of them (2/16/26)

• 36th Annual Reading the West Award - longlist selection

• ALA 2025 Best Graphic Novels for Children Reading List - Older Readers

Here’s a recap of a couple of my recent school author visits for my book:

• More reviews are coming in for my book! l don’t forget to drop me a review, and if you have already, make sure to copy them over to Amazon, where you can make a big impact!

Don’t forget I now have downloadable educator resources on my website for my books! Please check them out, and book me soon for your school author visits!

I had a couple new strips this month before the deadlines caught up with me.

If you need to catch up on the strips in chronological order (or reverse order), you can view the archive at salemcharteracademy.com.

These are the strips that ran since my last newsletter. You can visit the growing archive for this strip at stanyan.me/comic-strip/lmoe, and if you really like something, click on my TeePublic link at the bottom of the page.

Find the biweekly archives at eupologies.com, and if you really like something, click on my TeePublic link at the bottom of the page.

I won’t repost my CCIRA video here, and I’m still closed to studio commissions, but I have continued to do live gigs, so, you can still hire me to draw for your event at zombicatures.com.

I’m going to be regularly adding this section to my newsletter to highlight my favorite reads of the month, but I’m not soliciting books for review, so PLEASE don’t send me your book.

Thanks for your continued support! You're helping my dreams happen!