Epic #followfriday list of 2009!

Twitter has been, without a doubt, the greatest time pirate of 2009. If I had a productivity chart for myself, I know that I would see vast majorities of time dedicated to replies, retweets and clicking links given by trusted followers. It is also fair to say that a lot of 'research' I've done started off by someone mentioning it on Twitter. For as much harm caused, just as much good has come from this bird-brained machine.

I started my Twitter account in September 2007.
My first 10 followers/follows were all people I knew in the real world. Since I was so annoyed with facebook and it's constant changes, obligatory 'friends' and the need to keep everything 'pc' so as not to offend in-laws or young relatives, Twitter became the pub while facebook remained the family restaurant.

Over the past 2 + years, the friends have multiplied as well as friendly strangers. During that time while I was creating this site and switching careers, the support from my followers was radical! With the help of #followfriday and word of mouth, I am humbled daily at the thousands of people visiting the site and stoked emails I get saying that they found me on Twitter through a friend. 

So, as my first post of 2010, here's a small list of some of the friends and strangers I'd like to personally thank for their support and encourage you to follow them because they are all so fantastic!

#ff in no particular order.

Maya and Sperlin at The Freakin Coffeeshop are two of the most laid back, giving and fun humans you'll ever meet. I can't say enough great things about them that could do justice to how thankful I am to call them friends. 

Matt Andres likes to think he's a shy dude, but really it just takes him longer to get rowdy like the rest of us. Matt is a solid dude who has his art and musical selection down on lock.

I met Paperbullet (Lisa Romero) and Isaac McKay Randozzi in San Francisco while covering a show at the FFDG in 09. We were early arrivals at the show that night so I had a chance to get to know them better than others that night. Lisa, Isaac and their gorgeous baby girl, Bebea,

awesome humans, they are both mad talented in the arts of photography, writing and a delirium of painted media. 

Peter Berg, also from SF, does really smart things at Joby. He's a busy guy but still manages to find time to meet for coffee and be entertaining. He also does great things for charity. Thumbs up, PB.

Penti, Matt Harrington, is an old friend from high school who has taken a lot of awesome abuse from me and still comes back for more. There is something wrong with this guy but he's a good friend and funny as hell so I keep him around. 

Max Kauffman was an artist that I found on Flickr and became the fist person to be a featured artist on this site. Since then, Max continues to participate in wallfarmer shows and be a contributor to the site. He is also known as a pretty stand up dude.

Looking at the art of Ben Templesmith, you may think that he is a definite psych case, though you may not be far off, he is one talented shit disturber. His sarcasm, political cynicism and uncanny ability to create the creepiest looking characters, is all part of his charm, or the closest thing to it.

Walrus is a unique boutique on Cambie St. in Vancouver. Owned and operated by adorable humans, Caroline & Daniel.

Justin Nelson is a master of lines. So many lines in a drawing that my eyes crossed and have never gone back to normal. Please don't stare. His art is hairy and sometimes militant and completely fantastic!

Dusty of Pigeon Hole and the whole Sweatshop gang count as one, mostly because it's my list and I do as I please. Anyone who writes a song about mustache love is tops around here.

Olivia from Fabric8 is a very kind chick that happens to run a particularly rad shop in SF. Her cash register is inside a bbq and occasionally, she has a hard time keep dogs from mistaking her store for a park.

Chris Brett has a knack for creating awesome creepy cute characters. Looking forward to his west coast invasion later this year. 

Jeff Hamada of Booooooom.com is not only a cool cat and funny artist, his website is stellar.

Phoneticontrol is another damn talented gent from SF..it must be the water there. This dude is the creator of some my favorite musically enhanced robot looking characters ever. 

I met Brian Wood several years ago after I started collecting my first comic series, which oddly enough was the acclaimed, DMZ. Brian's art (though he rarely draws these days) and  writing talents continue to stun me.

I do not know Brad Barrish but he works at Tipspin and makes this list on account of his funny words, music industry updates and more than awesome monthly mixes.

Some enjoyable somehow-comic-related-peoples and all-around great cats I'd like to mention;

Curiopraxis

Nightwyrm

Zakkajj

Aaronthestrong

Philipalanoneal

This is by no means a complete list of all the great people of Twitter, I could go on and on but this is just a small thank you and bow to my shortlist for #ff.

I'm looking forward to meeting more of you in the new year!