First you had me, then you lost me - the idea I let go

One of the things I would love to be able to do is draw.  I have tried, believe me.  I bought the special pencils and the correct paper.  Those fancy erasers are pretty cool, too.  I even bought a book on learning to draw cartoons.

You see, I have a number of creative dreams. And my longtime struggle is separating out the fantasies.  The trick to succeeding in turning a dream into a business is finally figuring out which dream matches what abilities and then beginning to focus on that dream.  This dream of being an artist is a fantasy that is hard for me to break (as is the music fantasy, see below)

As someone who wanted to write, I also wanted to accompany myself as an illustrator (children's books and the like).  I'll tell the story of my song writing, guitar playing and singing attempts in a post in the near future.

So I had this idea for a cartoon back in the late 90's.  The main character was a basketball playing duck named "Slam Duck".  He was not a very good player but was passionate and always showed up at the court.  Basketball was going to be the metaphor for life as the cartoon strip matured.  So, even though I clearly could not draw, I decided to spend $39 and get the website www.slamduck.com.  No problem, it was available.

Now what?

Honestly, I had no clue.  I could not draw.  Didn't know any cartoonists or illustrators and really wasn't ready to be an entrepreneur anyway.  I had a new labrador puppy and a baby on the way.  Did I just blow $39?

Well, I paid for year two (another $39) with my dream barely hanging off the rim of the basket.  At year three I let it go.  C'est la vie. 

A few months ago, I searched my old website, and, course, someone owns it.  See below:

The pity is they are not really using it.  Other than to pitch search terms.  Maybe the people who own www.slamdunk.com bought it in case people trying to get to their site made a typing mistake.  Either way, did I do the right thing giving up on my old pal Slam Duck?  Is he out there somewhere in a "land-between" (envisioned but never born)?  Should I have spent $ every year keeping him alive with artificial life support?  

Hard questions, to be sure.

If you are an artist, illustrator or cartoonist who would like to explore a cartoon about a basketball playing duck that cannot jump high enough to live up to his namesake, send me an e-mail.  Who knows, maybe we could get out those shock paddles made famous on the TV show ER and bring him back to life.

Slam, are you out there?   

Comments

[LaNiMeRLiNa]

I just gave up my url 'meandrex.com' after having it for two years as well. Weird parallel in our lives. I wanted it to be a kids tshirt company where people would send me a photo of their kid and pet and I would illustrate them & put 'em on a tshirt. What do you think? I literally just let the URL go this Jan. Hmmm. Your blog is making me want to go reclaim it.

[Tim Tyrell-Smith]

Sometimes it is hard justify holding on to url's - some think they will sell them some day if they don't use them.

If the idea is a good one and have real plans to keep it, keep paying. But if not, at some point, you'll have to give it up as fantasy not reality and let someone else run with it!