News
Still working hard
July 22, 2009 11:29:48 PM
Just so you don't think I've given up, here's the page in progress. It's taking some time because it's a high-content 9-panel job, like the kind Dave Gibbons would draw.
Dude, where's my update?
June 21, 2009 02:13:43 PM
So where are all those updates in 30 minutes or less as promised? Well, there's a legitimate writing excuse this time. (ALSO, expect an update tomorrow-ish). The story/excuse goes like this: I saw the recently posted fake Green Lantern trailer on YouTube, and I thought, "Wow, I should do one of those for Fade!" Anyway, that got me thinking about central themes, and where things are going. I've always had one theme in mind, but I didn't really have a centralized thrust or thesis. I want this to be more than just a silver/bronze age anti-hero story. I don't want to have an angsty, whiny protagonist. I've tried to avoid that so far. Okay--he's been a little whiny, but not in that X-Men "Woe is me, I can lift a semi" kind of way. I'm trying to work with what I feel is a huge psychological issue in this country right now. It has afflicted many of us.
Long story short, I've got a new idea that in no way deviates from that, and hopefully adds some interesting story elements. I just wanted to consult with my editor, some friends, and family so that I had some assurance that I wasn't off my rocker.
What a tease, right?
May 7, 2009 03:53:58 PM
I gave you 2 pages in a week and evaporated. I promise you, I haven't lost the momentum. This is a completely valid pause. It's finals time. I'll be back ASAP. The next 4-5 pages are thumbnailed, and I'm still committed to my 30min-1hr time frame per page. We'll see.
RSS fixed and upgraded!!
March 13, 2009 06:08:18 PM
I didn't realize that I had errors in my rss. Only one news item was being shown at a time. The upgrade: I decided to put the actual new pages into the RSS feed so that you can read the comic from your favorite aggregator or reader (I like Google Reader myself). Being the computer nerd that I am, I wrote the scraping software myself. That makes it sound complicated, but it's really about 10 lines of PHP/MySQL code. But I fixed the errors.
Thinking
March 13, 2009 11:01:32 AM
I've been so slow at pumping out these pages. Every time I catch a break, BAM! something new comes up in "real life". That's probably only 25% of the problem, though. I get in these perfectionist cycles (and no, I'm in no way saying these pages are perfect) during which I erase and redraw, and then throw the page away for a few days in disgust. Sometimes, I completely redraw the page if I'm not happy. Well, guess what, kiddies? I drew this page one time. I drew it in about 30 minutes. I colored it in about 30 minutes. How? I gave up on perfection. I let my hand be looser. I let things flow more freely. And I was happy with the results! I think it's one of my best coloring jobs to date. I know. Keeping it loose is Art 101, but I've never been much for the rules (and I've never taken an art class outside of elementary school).
I've said it before, but I mean it now. I plan to continue this. If I could do more pages in an hour, I could conceivably pump out more than a page a week. Which I'd love to do, because this is the exciting part.