So I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything of real substance. Besides some brief ramblings on Twitter and the ChatBox, you all haven’t heard from me in about four months. I’ve gone through phases of missing the comic and having no desire to come back.
Right now, I’m missing it. Badly.
I’ve been busy lately. Not with anything important. Playing a ton of video games, as well as building up my collection. Spent a lot of times with my friends, my girlfriend, my family. Started collecting comics thanks to DC’s “New 52”. Been trying to lose weight, but I’ve had setbacks (like the gallbladder removal surgery I had last week).
No drawing. No writing. Nothing related to my comic.
I’ve probably spent more time not missing it, having no desire to come back to it. It felt moreso like an obligation, and it wasn’t fun. And from the very beginning, I said that was something I wouldn’t deal with. It’s not a job, I don’t make money off of it, at least not enough to brag about. I had moments where I pulled out the sketchpad, but I usually just stared at it for a few minutes then put it away.
However, today I had an epiphany. Well, it’s been brewing for a couple of weeks, but today it all came to me. It wasn’t fun anymore because I made it not fun. I lost focus of what the comic was supposed to be. I was having fun doing conventions, but it never really dawned on me that I was losing much more money than I was making. I was pushing to do as many comics a week as humanly possible instead of putting out a quality product, because I knew I could make more money from advertising if I got more hits.
It’s all gone to shit. I let my business sense outweigh anything else. Instead of doing a comic for fun, I was focused on profit. And the reason I got sick of that is because I wasn’t making profit, mostly because the product I was putting out was sub-par.
That’s over.
It’s time to get back to basics. I was flipping through some older drawings from JBS with my girlfriend today, and I realized that I need to go back to the past to get better. My art wasn’t the best, but it was better than it is now. Screw finding a new art style, screw the re-vamping. I’m gonna get back to what worked from the beginning. I’ll tweak some things, sure. I’m more technically sound than I was. But I get overly technical. I never practice it enough to make it work, make it look natural. So I have some work to do. It’s not like I can just jump right back in and have an update tomorrow. It’ll probably be a few weeks, maybe a couple months. I’m not gonna rush it back. It will be back when I like what I see.
As for frequency, I’ll probably be down to once a week for now, possibly twice a week later on. I’m gonna be looking for a promotion after the first of the year, so I don’t want to get too caught up in it only to have my schedule fucked up later.
But I am coming back. It’ll be better, it’ll look better, it’ll be written better. C.J. might even have some interaction with Frank.
I have an awesome arc written out in my head, one that I want to start with when I come back. I’ll be sure to not leave any loose ends, considering I’ve laid the foundation to a few different arcs this chapter, but I can work around that and not make it awkward. And I promise, no more sending characters on vacation because I can’t write them into the script.
I’ve learned a lot during this hiatus, and I’m sure it’s cost me a great chunk of readers. But it’s quality over quantity, and as long as I stick to that, I can get everyone back, maybe even increase readership. But that’s not the point. Anyone who stopped reading, I completely understand. Anyone who stuck around, thank you, and I promise, your patience will be rewarded.
Nowhere to go but up.
So for any of you who didn’t see the post, or those of you who aren’t regular readers of it, Treading Grounds is coming to an end on Friday. Unlike most comics, it will actually HAVE an ending.
Now, me and the creator of TG, Nick, have a lot of similarities: both of us started in 2003 (he with TG and me with Jelly Bean Sniper), both of us took a long time to get our shit together with our webcomics, and both of us use boobs way too often to lure readers in.
And while I am sad to see it end, I am glad that he gets to end the comic the right way. Too many comickers (myself included) end a comic wrong or not at all. My original comic, Middle Man, ended after three strips, then I had George Bush drop a nuke on it (literally) (those comics are long since destroyed).
But Friday’s finale will only be comic #251. It seems like such a low number for a comic eight years in the making, and also low considering how long most comics of lesser quality last.
Some comics just don’t know when to quit. Questionable Content is one of the rare ones that, with a staggering 1963 comics (as of this writing), still manages to stay fresh and entertaining, whereas a comic like MegaTokyo, at 1308 and sporadically updating, should really pack it in, and should have a while ago. No disrespect to Mr. Gallagher; he is my hero and my inspiration, but it seems like he lost interest in it when his son was born, and he’s ruining the comic as opposed to giving it a well-deserved ending (like Josh Lesnick did with Girly).
It makes me wonder, how long will Space go on for? I’m only working on comic #189 at the moment, and I’m sure I will probably surpass the 251 TG is gonna be at, but by how much? I set up everything so that if it ran into the thousands it wouldn’t throw off my coding, but really, is it necessary for it to go that far? I’m only on chapter two, but how many chapters do I need? Twenty? Ten? Four? I don’t know, and it’s the disadvantage of writing one script at a time instead of outlining the whole thing in the beginning. That’s why comics by Sarah Ellerton (Phoenix Requiem, Inverloch) never have that problem, but I haven’t done that. I have a notebook with random ideas that I come up with, and I could use them next week, three years from now, or in another comic. I can’t tell you if Sam and Jack get together because I don’t know either. I don’t know if C.J. will ever come back from Miami, if Jim will ever know how to run a business, anything like that.
I can’t tell you a lot about where my comic is going, or how many comics it will last, but I can say that I don’t want it to be a joke.
I would much rather be Treading Grounds than treading water.
So right now what I’m doing is really breaking down my art. I have a comic that’s close to being done (might be up tonight, might not), but I figure since I’m on borderline hiatus anyways I may as well try to make any improvements to my art as possible.
Don’t get me wrong - I undestand my artwork is fairly decent, and definitely beter than 40% of the crap on the net. But in order to really be taken seriously I need my art to get evn better. That means tearing every aspect of it down and starting from scratch - some aspects will be less time-consuming than others.
Don’t worry, my art style itself won’t change - you’ll know it’s me. There are just certain things I can improve upon in every aspect. While I’m pretty satisfied with straight-on angles, these aren’t used very often in manga-style art, so I should focus more on everything else. Also, while having a good handle on side, front, and 3/4 angles is more than a lot of webcartoonists have in their arsenal, I still can’t shake a stick to the good artists - Between Failures, Misfile, and Flipside come to mind. Their characters are anything but static, whereas I can recycle panels from months ago because they are so similar.
This isn’t something that can be done overnight, but since I’m not updating frequently at the moment anyways, I may as well come back with a product that is much-improved. I’ve never really cared if my art was described as “weaboo”, but let’s be honest; I draw an anime-inspired style, so I may as well go full-on anime at this point. Anime art-style comics are a dime a dozen, and while I’ve managed to seperate myself from the back of the pack with my comic, it’s been mostly on the heels of the writing. What I need to do to become a front-runner is make my art “wow” people.
I’m not trying to take on the big guys (like Paradigm Shift) - really all I’m doing is trying to present the best product that I can.
That’s the secret to success, after all.
[video]
SO my nephew was watching Monsters vs. Aliens, and I realized something; Seth Rogan makes any movie instantly better. So I compiled a list to prove it!
Movies w/ Seth Rogan (instantly good):
Monsters vs. Aliens
Anchorman
Donnie Darko
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
40 Year-Old Virgin
Knocked Up
Superbad
Pienapple Express
Movies without Seth Rogan (not as good):
Dragonball Evolution
Matrix: Revolution
xXx
Blacula
Congo
Batman Forever
So there you go. If you want to make an awesome movie, you need Seth Rogan.
So I’ve noticed there’s been a lot of chatter in the ChatBox recently about whether or not Keri should be considered emo. Really, it’s tough to say without getting more into her personality, but as far as appearance, we all have our own images of what an emo kid looks like. Essentially, it’s someone who ran through a hot topic and got the tightest clothes possible. It’s easier for me to tell you what an emo GUY looks like as opposed to an emo girl, because you can easily chalk up an emo girl to teenage angst, but an emo guy who walks around pretending to be bi-sexual and wears his little sister’s pants is not going through that angst, just being “emo”.
To clarify, my definition of emo is “someone who wants people to mourn their death without dying”. As far as looks, you have to understand that someone emo wants and NEEDS attention, because even though they don’t have any REAL problems (not being able to buy liquor because you’re 15 is NOT a real problem), they want people to sympathize with them. So their looks would be something to attract attention, whether it’s a guy wearing pants WAY too tight, a girl getting her face filled with more metal than should be legally allowed, or bright pink streaks in black hair (see: Raven from Questionable Content), it’s a fashion designed to attract attention. That’s why we always get the goths and emos confused, because the goths were getting the attention and the emos just took that extra step.
Now, as far as I’m concerned, Keri could be considered either emo or metal, depending on how she presents herself. Sam clearly thought she was going to be emo, which is why she was expecting a Simple Plan or Green Day song to come on (note: Yes, I consider Green Day emo. Their older stuff like “Good Riddance” and “Basket Case” are good, but American Idiot is an emo piece of shit record), and was surprised at the rap music that came on. If metal had come on, or even pop, it wouldn’t have shocked her nearly as much, as she just slightly misread her.
Really, it’s everyone’s opinion as to how to percieve people. Obviously my idea of an emo chick doesn’t match up with everyone else’s, but it’s ok. It’s just a metal/emo-looking chick who listens to rap music.
Yes, this is from one of those chain e-mails. but it made me laugh and I want to do every single one of these!
To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity
1.. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don’t Disguise Your Voice!
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ’ For Marijuana.
6. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get..
7. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
8. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is ‘To Go’.
9. Sing Along At The Opera.
10. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can’t Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.
11. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream ‘I Won! I Won!’
12. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling ‘Run For Your Lives! They’re Loose!’
13. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, ‘Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.’
And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity
14. PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WHERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.
(Via the Chatbox) PrincessLea: Found out ‘bout this thru QC, very awesome comic! I just couldn’t resist the topless Sam ad.. ‘twas quite witty, too!
Suddenly I realize JT was right. Lure them in with the nakey, then hook ‘em with the awesomeness. XD