Yesterday, Mom and I went over to my son’s (Jamey’s) house to see what he and Sage had done to it in 2019. Due to Covid, we weren’t able to see it when I was here last year. In fact, Jamey hasn’t been to a barber since Covid hit and I was surprised (pleasantly so!) to see that he has grown a ponytail and it’s curly like my hair!

Many years ago, Jamey built a webcomic aggrandizer called Comic Rocket so that he could keep track of his favorite webcomics and be notified when the artists put out new comics. He made this available to anyone else who wanted to do the same. He started a Patreon account for anyone who wanted to support him and he would get a few dollars a month from it. Over time, he moved on to other projects, and then recently discovered that Comic Rocket was still working and people were still using it, so he decided to reach out to his followers and patrons with a survey to see what they would like from him and they mostly said, “Just keep doing what you’re doing!” He let it be known that he had this Patreon account and more people began contributing, so he decided to develop his own merch. The cool mask and hoodie he’s wearing in this picture are some of the things he sells to support Comic Rocket.

I have to say here that I am very proud of my son. I just read a post he wrote on Comic Rocket about the upgrades he’s been working on and he admitted that he had figured not very many people were using it anymore, but he got an outpouring of love from people who told him they have been quietly using his site for many years and talking about their lives pre-Comic Rocket and post-Comic Rocket; how confusing their leisure life was before and how much more relaxing it is now. His site is the best thing they’ve found out there, and they were surprised to find out that he’s been running it alone for the last 5 years or so.

I am reminded of the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, where George Bailey never knew how many lives he had touched until he was in desperate straights and an angel decided to show him what Bedford Falls would have been like if he’d never been born. Jamey, my son, you are the George Bailey of webcomics, and don’t you forget it!