We've all at one time or another questioned our own existence enough to see what kind of digital footprint we have by typing our name into a search engine, hopeful (but also a little fearful) about what might show up, and whether or not we are, in fact, the most internet popular person with our name. I don't have the most unique name, but at the same time, I'm not named John Smith, either, so when I took the Google plunge all those years ago, I didn't really know what I'd find.
It turns out that there are, well, a few other individuals out there named Jeff McClelland, some of whom have had what I can only assume are rich and successful lives. There's even another published author of the same name; in 2004 (the same year as my first comic book publication), another Jeff McClelland published Where Big Trees Fall, an historical fiction/romance novel that takes place in the Pacific Northwest. It's important, I think, to note that I did not write this book, but Amazon is convinced that I did, and so it puts this book in a grouping with all of my comics work that's listed on the site, which I guess goes to show you how much control we sometimes have over our own digital narratives.
There's another Jeff McClelland who lives in New York, and I sometimes get email that is obviously meant for him, some of which is exceedingly personal in nature, so I just forward it right on over to him and I assume he thinks that this is normal and good. There's a third Jeff McClelland who used to run a major airline, but he's dead now. Time comes for us all. There are probably others.
My point of this all is to say that none of these other Jeff McClellands, not even the US Airways one - who died after being diagnosed with colon cancer at the exact same age I am right now and HOLY HECK, I NEED TO SCHEDULE A DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT - have had ownership of the prestigious website jeffmcclelland.com. This is, almost certainly, a gross oversight for all of them, because now they will never own it, as I will never give it up or die.
So what is on this website? Well, it's...actually, a lot of it just points back to this blog. So I'm talking about this website on this blog, linking to the site which links to the blog, forever and ever in an endless loop. I think that this is the perfect use of my time.
I actually picked up the domain name because I want to house some of my comics publishing portfolio somewhere people can actually see, and I think this site does that, although I need to fill things in a bit before it's complete. For the time being, I've set it up so you can find a list of my publications, some lettering examples, a way to contact me, AND THIS BLOG. I also link to some other external sites like my Tumblr webcomics page, my (at the moment completely empty) Etsy store and some social media. There's a fun picture wheel/image carousel thing with images from books I've published which, sigh, I've also got to update.
I also bought jeffrey.mcclelland.com because I refuse to have someone set up a similar, competing site. I refuse to share. Maybe I'll start telling people I also wrote Where Big Trees Fall. I should probably read it first.
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