The Problem

Starting in 2024, I plan on getting back on the comic con and fan fest circuit. This means a lot of people who have never heard of Kevin Tracy (abhorrent as it may seem) are going to be asking for a link to my website or portfolio so they can vet both my artwork and me for their show. Right now, the first thing they'll see are the latest rantings and ravings from both my staff and myself. Nowhere to be seen are examples of my artwork; which are really limited to the Kevin Tracy Museum of Art and Photography and the Kevin Tracy Store.

As you may have noticed, my political views are somewhat moderate (leaning conservative) but very much governed by my Catholic faith. While I'm not ashamed of my political views, I do know quite a few organizers of these events lean extremely progressive. In fact, they don't just lean that way, they've jumped entirely to the far end of that spectrum. I don't mind working with people like this as long as I'm making money and not jeopardizing my faith, but these aren't often the people who feel the same way.

The Vision

Starting next year, I need the first thing people see on my website to be my art and updates about my comic convention schedule. That doesn't mean that we're done talking about politics on KTracy.com (far from it). It just means that it won't quite be as front-and-center like it has been for the last two years.

The News section will continue to be the archive of EVERYTHING that happens at KTracy.com, including my political rantings.

Likewise, the current month's updates will continue to appear on the KTracy.com home page. What will change is that the list of articles will likely appear below links to my art work (a page that will get a face lift), the store, a list of my upcoming conventions, and other features.

Katie and I are also discussing revisiting my Kevin Tracy YouTube channel once things calm down. If that happens, the latest video will also appear on the home page (although the jury is out over what streaming service we'll be using). The bottom line is that the home page will feature more "featured" content meant to direct people directly to what they're looking for rather directly into the politics.

The best part about this web design is that none of the directories have to be replaced. We're just updating files in new ways.

Graphic Updates

When I put this design together, I wanted to pay homage to the 2001-2005 Web 1.0 design I had when I launched KTracy.com. However, when I did all of that work, I forgot that I had already created something similar in 2013. There was a short-lived static-site experiment we did back then that featured some really cool graphics that brought together some of my favorite eras of KTracy.com design, including the portrait of me in the sidebar overlapping the top of the site and some other unique features. Some of you may remember this design that made heavy use of the 13 point stars.

I think the 13 point stars were a bit cryptic, but I kind of want to re-visit those design elements. When I saw an archived version of the site from this era, I was very jealous of how much better the static-design graphics looked 10 years ago. I'd like to take the tricks I've learned in the last 10 years with CSS and apply them to that design idea.

What's the hold up?

If you know me, you know I don't like to delay in making KTracy.com more awesome. However, just like there's been a general lack of content since last year, this face lift isn't happening now either. The reason? I'm getting married!

We're wedding planning, honeymoon planning, new home planning, life planning, and heaven planning together. This is all incredibly important to us, so we have to make sure we have this stuff down solid before I embark on a long process of revamping KTracy.com.

Rest assured, KTracy.com has survived nearly 20 years of life's most chaotic moments. It will survive a few months of me being distracted by more important things.