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.