It’s the beginning of a new year, and I want to take some time to outline the things I want for myself in the new year.

One thing is I want to get back into drawing, specifically comics. I had started to draw comics a few years ago before my daughters were born, but dropped it in favour of being a dad. Now they are at an age where they don’t always need me around. This gives me a little more time. Expect to see more visual art as part of my work.

All over the news is the move to public domain of Steamboat Willie. I’ve grown in the time where it seemed that this was never going to happen. having this content move into public domain seemed so far away, and was always moved further still. Disney just owned everything, and they were going to ensure that keeping that locked up would go forever. When I briefly went to work for Disney on Tron: Evolution, one of the things that you are shown is an orientation video about how Disney wants to continue to make content that spans the world. At one point in the video they talk about a Planet Disney. Even showing a Fifth Element like space liner and a Mickey Mouse eared satellite (mandella effect?). I’m not 100% sure that this is an allegory. Given the chance they would terraform a planet to turn into the next Disney World.

But now, here we are. I hope to see a lot of great new works created because we finally allowing more works to pass into the public domain. Not just derivative works, but new ideas. If you’ve not seen it check out Tom the Dancing Bug for Jan 1, 2024

And, of course, I can’t let the opportunity go by.

Quick Steamboat Willie sketch

Let’s not stop at Steamboat Willie