Status of the Blog

Lately I’m of two minds. I have to be thinking of the site and keeping it updated regularly. I also have to be thinking about the comic itself and the book it’s going to become when it’s printed. If I rushed an update through “just to get it done” and wasn’t happy with it I’d have to deal with seeing that lesser page in the book. Likewise I’d have to deal with seeing it in the archives on the site. The immediacy of a regular update is lost when I show that work down the road and get a “meh” response.

There’s only a few pages left in Chapter 1.0. After that I’m going to try working on the next sub-chapter as a whole before pushing the updates on the site again. I can work in weekly batches until I get 1.1 done. I need to give myself time to thumbnail layouts and spitball character/prop/set designs. It’s very different when you have time to develop and tighten the imagery versus when you have to constantly be putting something out. You all deserve something better than just what I can manage.

5 full color comic pages a week is a nice goal to strive for but it’s also a lot of work. (Plus I’d like to launch other new projects on the site, both by myself and possibly some from other creators in the future.) But I need to get further ahead in production before that can happen. It might even be a good idea to cut back the number of updates so that buffer lasts longer when I do push updates. I’m not bringing all this up to be whiney or to offer an excuse. The reason I’ve got a blog going is to involve more people in the creative process. Figuring out how to manage a production schedule, how to build and maintain a buffer, these are things to deal with and should be shared. I know I like having a buffer and feel better when there’s work loaded ahead of time. How big it needs to be is something I’m still considering.

I’ll blog while I’m working, maybe even bring back the progress meter I had. When I’m coloring and working digitally I’ll try streaming. Of course I tend to work in the mornings EST and that doesn’t seem to be a popular time for webcomics fans to want to tune in. We’ll figure something out. I want to make the act of creating the comics as engaging as the pages themselves.

Sorry I haven’t been very talky here lately. I’ve been working to make sure the comics go up regularly so that means time to write blog posts has been limited. I’ve got a few drafts written but I’d like to save those for days when I really need something good to post. The plan is still to have something new here every weekday, be it a comic, a blog post, a podcast, something. Making comics regularly is hard work and 2071 is easily the most involved comic I’ve done so far. But I also believe it’s worth all the effort I can give it.

I’d really appreciate it if you can comment on or share the posts on Twitter, Facebook, etc. (There’s links to share at the bottom of each post) Retweeting when you see something new posted would also be very helpful.

I’d like to use these Status of the Blog posts to get some feedback from folks, see how everyone’s liking things so far, and maybe get some ideas for more material. I know my posts about art are doing well so I want to write some more of those. If you have suggestions for things you’d like me to write about more in depth (Drawing hands, backgrounds, photoshop techniques, etc.) feel free to comment on this post. The podcasts are also open for discussion. Kyle and I tend to review movies on our episodes. I’ll eventually have my brother on a few, more than likely. If you’d like to be a guest or have an idea for an episode you’d like to see, comment here or Twitter and we’ll see what we can do. I’d certainly like to talk to some other webcartoonists and such on here. Thanks for visiting and thanks very much for your support.