Time to get serious.

I read Tangents webcomic reviews. I have recently started posting on his bboard. I have a link back to OOW in my sig. Now, my webalizer logs say people have been coming here from there. Possibly even Tangent himself. Now I know this comic is far from the quality of the other comics he reviews, but that's not the point. Thursday, he referenced another comic in Secants, saying, " the thought of a chicken card shark (as in, a real feathered chicken, if intelligent) has to take the cake in terms of complete and utter lunacy and uniqueness."

A chicken as a card shark. A chicken. As a card shark. Takes the cake in terms of utter lunacy and uniqueness. A chicken card shark. Do you see my problem with this? Our Odd World is built arround the concepts of utter lunacy and uniquesness. A chicken card shark doesn't hold a candle to the odd stuff I've come up with.

Now why is that? Why is it that this chicken card shark surpasses, say, my giant '&' monster (with tentacles) in terms of uniqueness and lunacy? Is it because the '&' monster isn't as original as I thought? Is it because Tangent is insane? Or is it because he never read the archive because he looked at the front page of the site, saw a crappy piece of paint drawn filler that effectively said, "I'll draw comics when I feel like it," and thought if The Author doesn't take this comic seriously why should he?

I'm betting on the third. So things have to change. I have to start treating this comic proffesionally (even if it is just a hobby). Its a good comic and deserves to be noticed by the public. But that won't happen if I don't update regularly.

So as soon as I get my computer back (hopefully this weekend. I'm getting quite irritated with not having it) this comic updates five days a week every week until I die. No hiatuses, no filler, no excuses. Just straight storyline comics.

And I need to get all the other things I promised done too. Like the next batch of cast page articles, or the rest of my commentary pages, or the New Atlantis tour stuff I've been working on. Yes, this changes now.

Now I've rambled enough. I have drawing to do.

Broken laptop

So, yeah, my laptop died. Fortunately everything is backed up. I just need it to scan in comics and upload them. Bah, hopefully it will be done soon.

I'm going to just go on doing the commentaries as I feel like. I'll remark here whenever a new one goes up.

Most of my energy now is going into school projects and my novel.

Speaking of my novel, I'll ramble on about that for a few moments. Now I know there are quite a few people online who'll say, "Yep, I'm writing a novel," just for people to go, "Oooh," when most people are really going, "peh, he'll never get it published." But I'm serious on this. I've been working on this novel longer than my comic strips, and like comic strips, its not going to stop fighting for existence.

I started on it in the fall of '03 by just writing by hand. I just wrote the story out going by whatever I felt should happen next. That took me about two months to do. Then I started typing out the story again, just going from memory, hoping to refine it. That was a mistake.

I quickly became frutstrated with it and gave up on it. It came back into focus every once in a while, but died every time. Finally, last fall I came up with a revising strategy I liked. I just wrote the whole plot out as if I was describing it rather than actually trying to write the story. Two more months of that and I was pretty happy with the story.

So then I went to try writing again. And again my pace became sluggish, because I still wasn't liking the way it was written. I liked the story, but was having trouble actually writing it. Fortunately, I found this website that helped me with a great deal of my problems (mostly by putting into words some things my mind was thinking, you'd be surprised how much that helps). Anyway, now I'm writing and my novel actually reads like it was written by someone who knows what they're doing.

So, I hope to spend two to three weeks typing it up, another few days revising it. Another two weeks typing up the revised version. And maybe another week or two reading through it and making minor adjustments. Then I'll start hunting down an agent (While continuing work on the other two novels I've recently begun (and Our Odd World, of course)).

Anyway, for those of you patient enough to read through all of that, here's what the novel is actually about. A young man named Shawn, 17, suddenly finds himself in a strange fantasy world (I know that much is pretty cliche) who soon finds he must defeat an evil wizard (also cliche) or the entire world is doomed.

Okay, you ask, with such a cliche plotline how can it be interesting? Well, first of all I did say "strange fantasy land." You read OOW. You know when I say strange I mean it. More so, one of my writing goals with this novel was to take such a cliche concept and tell it in a different way. You should know by now I have quite a few different ideas and am not afraid to use them.

So, yeah, you want some specific good reasons to read the novel? As much as I try to bring in some OOW style strangeness there is quite a lot drama. Its a novel that mixes humor and tragedy. I have created a cast of characters which are interesting because of their faults.
Bah, I could go on for hours describing what I like about the novel, but I would prefer to remain modest. These are things I've strived for in writing it, and I hope those who read it will say I suceeded.

The novel is named Of Blood and Ice. I expect every one of you to buy a copy. Maybe two. (I'm joking, but that would be nice). And tell your family. Tell your friends. Heck, tell your enemies.

Bah, I've rambled on long enough. I've got actual novel writing to do.

More lack of ethics, my commentary

I changed the name of "Ariana" to "Annaya" in the comic. Normally I would just live with a mistake like that, but I had an old character named Ariana in "The Odd World of Joshua Meyer" (read my commentary on OOW in the Extras section for details), and I didn't want people to get confused (as if anyone read that comic (as if anyone reads this one, for that matter)).

Speaking of comic commentary, I've started posting it in the Extras section (if you didn't figure that out from the parenthetical comment above). Basically I'll give a bit of my own feelings on each arc, what my goals were, how I met them, exceeded them, or failed them. I'll post one each day for the next few days to get caught up. Afterward I'll add one after I complete an arc. Hmm... that reminds me, I have to update the Archive page and the storyline dropdown for the new arc. I'll also add bonus comics in each later, after I've gotten the comic comfortably rolling.

All for now.

Lack of Ethics

I know, I'm holding off on posting comics while I build up a backlog. That means I'm drawing comics but not posting them yet. The main reason for this is that I am just more comfortable having a backlog, and would rather comfortably work to build one rather than feel rushed to get comics posted. Especially with the loopy state my mind is in right now. I don't know if this is ethical or not, but its the way that's best for me.

In other news, I'm going to start posting the Author's commentary segments tonight. So start checking those out in the "Extras" section.

State of the Comic.

Okay, firstly, I'm only going to put up one comic tommorow. I was originally going to try and make up for the ones I should have done, but building a backlog is more important than anything right now.

Second, I promised quite a bit in regards to the Extras page. Specifically I have been working on a "New Atlantis Tour." I was going to put this up, but now I want to spend much more time working on it.

I will be working on an "Author's Commentary" page, where I will whine about the comic more.

As for future plans, I must explain how I have this divided in my own mind. I have it divided into "years." Specifically 260 comics (5 a week times 52 weeks per year). Now, obviously this first "year" is currently at about 1.75 due to my inability to maintain an update schedule. I intend to maintain a set schedule from here on by using a backlog (as I suggested). Which means this "year" will last me another twenty weeks or so.

Which is good seeing as I have roughly two years worth of storylines planned out at that rate.

After this first "year" ends, I will also run a Sunday comic which will be three times larger and in full color. This will be slightly more dramatic than my usual fair and will tell the story of Serenia's life from when she was born to when she met Josh.

It sounds like I'm copying Amber Panyko's Abel's Story idea. But in reality I've been planning this since I started OOW. I have nothing but my word on that, but its true. Again, my inability to maintain an update schedule has cost me dearly.

That's all for now.

My problems

Okay, you notice there are not two comics up as I promised. I lied. Here is the very long reason why:

Firstly, I was on Spring Break this last week. Before it started I tried to backlog enough comics to get through the week (as I do not have internet access at home). I fell one short. I thought, "Oh, well, I'll just put up a silly filler comic for Friday and make up for it with two on Monday. I should be able to get at least two comics drawn during the next week."

The problem then becomes the fact that I never get any work done at home. Not drawing, not writing, not schoolwork. None. I should have known I wouldn't get any work done at home.

Now I did plan on working on them tonight (Sunday) to have them up in time for Monday, but right now I do not want to do anything that resembles work, much less art-related work.

This is because my spring break has been particularly stressful. I won't go into complete details, but I will state that amongst other things my dog died last Friday. She was a sixteen year old mutt whose health has been deteriorating for the past few years. Here's a link to her picture if you are interested. But yeah, I'm beat.

And now that I'm finally back at school, my room internet has died, so I'm stuck typing this in a computer lab. And I can't log into comic genesis for some reason, so I can't upload a lousy filler image.

Yes, I'm feeling quite frustrated. Bah, I need sleep.

Annaya! Annaya Annaya Annaya!

I can't get my own characters' names right, apparently. The long-eared cat's name is Annaya. Not Ariana. I used to have a character named Arriana and apparently got them confused. I will edit that as soon as I am able (next week).

By the way, I'm currently without access to a scanner so in all likely hood there will be no comic on Friday, but two on Monday to make up. Just so you're forwarned.

today's comic

Sorry today's comic is a bit lacking in humor. But I'm almost done with this mess of an arc.

I'm also sorry that extras stuff I promised won't be up tommorrow.

I'm going on Spring Break next week so that should give me some time to start putting together more of these extra things.

But its bed time for me.

A bit of rambling

In the middle of all of thesse update things I feel the need to ramble a bit on my art style.

I know that I am drawing this comic to improve my art, but its still frustrating, the slow process. I know all of the basics. I know complex things start as simple shapes, I know the basics of perspective, the basics of shading. Its just a matter of drawing over and over and over getting better one comic at a time. I know this.

Looking back, my art has improved alot over the past two years. But its still a far cry from being even decent, let alone good.

But at this point I've drawn over 140 comics. Mostly sporadically. If I buckle down and keep updating at 5 a week, my art will improve that much faster.

I think I'm at a point where I'm more prepared to take my art, and this comic, seriously. Bah, I've got work to do. Later.

Site modifications, plans

Alright, I've modified the "about" page in extras, as well as the "extras" page itself. I promise I have interesting stuff prepared for that. Honestly, I have a map drawn up and everything. Seriously, I'll have something else for that up by the end of the week.

Also modified the "Archive" page layout.

I'm going to start working on the cast pages for Harrison, LIB, and Anaiya tommorrow.

That's all for now.