Blog of Last Resort

How to Decide if You Should Do a Webcomic

2007-11-08T20:40:00.000-05:00

Let's face a few facts: Webcomics are new. A lot of people think webcomics suck. An enlightened subsection of those know better and assert that only the majority suck. This does not speak highly of the ones who actually want to get good at it. Granted, you could say the same things for a lot of internet groups, but let's assume you actually are looking to do something with webcomics, in spite of all this.

You SHOULD do a webcomic if:

You have a story to tell (with some visual nature to it). If you find yourself cooing endlessly about the moons of the planet Mazz'zel'ta and the way they shine in the darkness, or other striking visual effects, go ahead and start drawing it.
You want to expand your art portfolio. Know what's big in portfolios? Related Works. Pages in a story are as related as related works get, and are more likely to test your boundaries as an artist. As a bonus, it pretty much ensures that if someone on DeviantArt or elsewhere sees one page and likes it in the least, they'll probably read the other pages as well.
You don't feel 'ready' to pitch your idea to the "Big Boys" yet. You'll probably never feel ready, but at least you can start working on it now and gaining fanbase instead of waiting for letters from them (rejection or otherwise).
You want to start making money off of your art. It won't be much money, but if nothing else it should improve your work and expand your audience enough that you can eventually start taking commissions (and now people will actually want to buy them!).
You feel there's a gap in the webcomics already out there. If an anime about baking bread can get taken seriously, anything can. As a bonus, think of all the new fans you'll get for covering a topic they care about. In the meantime, I'm just going to say this outright: I would LOVE to see a webcomic about crochet, or possibly knitting.
People keep telling you to start a comic. Hey, you've already got a fanbase, why not? Motivated fans you can actually have a cup of coffee with are rare enough that even just one or two of them is reason enough to give it a try.
You ever plan on doing a comic 'eventually'. Just start now. Seriously. Worst case scenario, you ditch working on it to start a new one.

You should NOT do a webcomic if:

You expect to make LOTS of money off your art. It doesn't work that way. The only truly 'successful' comics I've seen have been at it for years, and when making just above the poverty line in donations alone is considered 'successful', that means you're probably not going to become a millionaire doing this.
You think "I don't need ____! So-and-so did this, I can too!" Whoever you're holding in high regard did it better because they know what they're doing and how whatever rule they're breaking is meant to be broken. You don't. Don't try it until you do.
- This goes double for people trying to imitate stick-figure comics. Yes, good writing can eclipse bad art. This, however, assumes good writing.
The story you want to tell is fanfic. Come back when you have some originality and aren't a walking copyright violation. At the very least, tweak it until it passes the "I think _____ did it better" test.
You plan on using Sprites / Screenshots / Other Game-Originating Material in Lieu of Art. No publisher will EVER touch these types of comics with a ten-foot pole. Besides, it's pretty limiting as far as visualizations go. If you insist on doing it, fine, but don't expect it to go beyond being a webcomic unless you can find a way to make the rest of the comic shine in comparison.
You plan on hosting the comic at ComicGenesis, SmackJeeves, DrunkDuck, or any other "Webcomic Hosting Specialist" for the life of the comic. It screams "Ameteur wanted Free Space!" and is the webcomic equivalent of GeoCities. Starting out on free space isn't bad in and of itself, but the top Comic Repositories have bad enough reputations that you may be better off doing it yourself and avoiding the taint. For God's sake, if you're going to seriously start a comic, get a halfway decent webpage; if you have any readership at all, you can make the money from hosting back in ads alone. If you MUST be a cheapskate about it, go with ComicGenesis, as you have the most control there and the least-stupid name in the URL. Barring this, LiveJournal and Blogger work as well, provided you use an additional image host like Photobucket. DeviantArt and other Art repositories are also good.
You're only making the comic to impress people. Don't. They're not. You probably won't become famous for doing this, and if you do, it'll be so many years from now that if this is the only reason you're doing it, you'll kill yourself before you ever get that far.
You don't plan on drawing a comic for very long (and I mean in terms of updates, NOT time-per-page). Comics are a BIG time investment, and take years of updates and tons of strips to take off. If you don't have the time, do a short story, but starting a comic and then not being able to keep it up is terrible and pisses off whatever fans you've acquired.

There's other tutorials and tips for starting comics, but if you're still on the fence about this at all, look at this chart and figure out how many reasons from each list are your own reasons for wanting to do a comic, and decide if you lean more towards one list or the other. Having a few "Don't" reasons in your list isn't a bad thing, (delusions of grandeur can be useful for those rough spots) but if you're hitting all cylinders on the bad list and STILL think you should do a comic, you need to rethink your priorities.

In Defense of Giving your Work Away:

2007-11-04T23:16:00.000-05:00

(a.k.a. "The edge Cartoonists have over the RIAA")

This post is a glorified response to an interview over at kottke with Cory Doctorow, who apparently has some fairly strong opinions about giving away your work. Naturally, there're a few hecklers in the comments who don't "get it". This would be a fine argument to sit on the fence of, except I know of at least one stable business model that basically thrives on 'Giving Work Away', and since I'm reposting my remarks (more or less), you can take a guess what I'm referring to: Comics, comics, and more comics.

For years, people only paid for their newspaper comics as an incidental part of the newspaper; to children and adults alike, such work was essentially 'free' for them, because newspapers were a given and the news content of the paper was what was truly 'paid for', and not the comics, except when they bought the books and merchandise. The system had hiccups, the way any general monopoly does, but for several decades this model worked out fairly well for cartoonists (at least the ones that "made it", anyway).

The internet equivalent is in webcomics, with several key differences; no editorial process, no risk of a risque strip being yanked, no pre-payment from newspapers to publish and carry the work. One would expect that, if comics worked the way books and music work, they would charge people just to see the pages.

Yet they don't. All their work is free to view, and in most cases, so are the archives, making it harder to justify book sales. And yet there are probably just as many (if not more) people profiting off of webcomics, even if these profits are not as big (yet) as the average person appearing in newspapers. These cartoonists are just as niche, just as specialized, have just as much to lose, and yet they thrive, even when the majority of their work is just 'given' away.

Why? Because cartoonists work constantly. There is always 'another day' to cover, another page in the story, another advancement of the tale, and thus each individual page is cheap and worthless without the rest of the story. That commitment to the work's creator (and NOT their work itself) is the most important vector for profit. Nobody 'cares' about DMFA; they like it, sure, maybe even love it, but they care about Amber far more. Schlock Mercenary is good, but Howard Tayler is better.

The comics are an elaborate lure designed to make you want more, and recognize the hand that feeds; the person behind the comics becomes center stage. And it's not just comics; the whole "2.0" revolution is based around this idea. Jonathan Coulton's songs and Hugh MacLeod's cartoons are proof that stable models can be built around people, and not just items. The work is worthless without the creator, and so giving away the work is exactly what they WANT to happen, because as long as people can follow the lure back to the hook, everyone gets what they want.

The way songs (and other media) are done now, though, there's no lure past the song itself; the song IS the hook, so to speak. So . . . perhaps the reason big, foreboding, faceless companies are afraid of giving away their work is because they know that there's no person behind the work, and so they're subconsciously afraid that once people have it, they won't want anything more from their 'creators'.

No wonder they're scared of file-sharing; it actually forces people to care about something other than material items for a change.

Apparently Google loves a Good Blog as much as the rest of us.

2007-11-01T17:45:00.000-04:00

Yes, I watch my statistics obsessively sometimes. When Google starts finding the crazy things people type into search engines and find me by, I can't help but chuckle a little (and wonder which ones are worth the second thought)

A list of search terms people apparently used, in no particular order or significance besides the hell of it:

Full of Win. I knew my obsessiveness about buffers had to come back sooner or later, though I wonder what the people who found this page thought they were after.
Wikipedia Notability. Well, since I had been fighting like hell to get the Wikinews article published in the first place, I'm glad some of my karma came back to me. (In case anyone was wondering who "Jigsaw" is in the comments . . . Great disguise, I know :-p)
Kid Friendly Vampires. Okay, I know my article on Schlock Mercenary and Family-Friendly comics in general gets a little more press than the others, but this one threw me for a loop. Although I suppose a fuzzy, tiny vampire would have some kid's appeal.
Drawing Tips on Pin Ups. This and several variants (including apparently "Sexy how to use restraints") has been getting search engine life for a while now. Probably a sign I should do another article on that.
How to Make your Webcomic a Success, and variants thereof. Lots of variants. Tip #1, apparently, is looking like you have a clue.

All things considered... I should really put more energy into this blog than I currently do. Search still works, at least a little.

Wikipedia, Notability, and Webcomics

2007-10-27T18:46:00.000-04:00

Those of you who follow more than just this comic may be familiar with the WikiDrama back in January where over 50 webcomics were deleted from wikipedia, with several more speedily deleted or otherwise nominated for deletion thanks to 'lack of notability', as determined by a few zealous mods.

It's about time someone told them what they accomplished. Namely, a lot of ill will from the people who SHOULD be making Wikipedia better. Since I can only edit the article itself so much, I wanted to post my opinions here.

Disclaimer: I create Last Resort, a weekly webcomic. You're probably reading this from the webcomic's page, but if you're someone random who's probably here because you have nothing better to do than argue with me about this, you might be coming here from the blog's permalink or just looking for an excuse to ignore everything I have to say past this point, so there it is.

If you think this makes my opinion invalid . . . you're part of the problem.

Wikipedia was intended as a site anyone can edit, with information on whatever people find appropriate. For the longest time, I even had my default search engine in Firefox set to Wikipedia, because whenever I googled anything for my classes I ended up going there anyway. But Wikipedia isn't for everyone anymore, Google's my default search engine again, and "Deletionist" drama like this is part of the reason why.

Creating articles is daunting, but adding edits to them is easy once started. Deleting them is apparently easier for mods and admins than editing, tagging it for cleanup and letting someone else do your work for you, or even, y'know, leaving it alone because it's probably fine as is. Then again, I suppose it's easier to just delete everything than to deal with the fact people have different opinions of what's worthwhile.

Yes, there are lots of webcomics out there, and quite frankly there are also a lot of bad webcomics too. By this same token, there are also lots of bad magazines, bad restaurants, bad small businesses, bad dot-coms . . . and not everyone is Mother Teresa when it comes to taking criticism either. We just happen to notice the drama surrounding webcomics more because it's all online and eventually if it gets bad enough it gets archived on Encyclopedia Dramatica for the non-involved to laugh at.

Comics in general (and webcomics in particular) get a lot of bullshit from people, even other artists, because it's either "not an art form", "not profitable", or it's "for children". Naturally, they have irrefutable proof in the inescapable fact that Japan is a third-world country. It's a growing medium, especially in places like the United States where there seems to be a corporate monopoly on creative content, and as such has only taken off with the internet.

Ten years ago if you wanted to be anything that involved creating stuff people actually enjoyed looking at, you either had to go to New York, Hollywood, or Florida and hope you landed a creative gig of some kind, or else you languished in obscurity on page 27X of your local newspaper. Maybe you submitted letters to publishers, and if they weren't immediately tossed onto the slush pile, you'd get a nice form letter back that said absolutely nothing of value beyond "Sorry, Play Again". Of course, all of this is said with the assumption that you already were a United States citizen with enough disposable income to take such risks.

I have seen beautiful works from far-flung places of the globe I never would have found otherwise. I have found stories with huge fandoms, profitable enterprises, and more creative energy expended collectively than any single publisher in the world could manage. I have found piles of absolute shit, and side-stepped the shit to find tales and art to die for. I have found people willing to persue the American Dream doing what they love and telling the stories in their heads to anyone who'll listen, and for a few of 'em it's even worked.

I'm getting flowery here, but hell, we're talking about a revolution in the creative process like nothing seen before, where anyone and everyone who thinks people want to listen to them can give it a shot, and the cream rises to the top one way or another. A lot like Wikipedia, really, except in Wiki-land the admins and moderators seem to think they're better than other users, and somehow this means they have the right to quash their work. If Webcomics worked the way Wikipedia works, Scott Kurtz, Fred Gallagher, and R.K. Milholland would be banding together to nuke ComicGenesis's servers from orbit.

Webcomics seem to putter along just fine with anyone and everyone getting involved in the process. Why can't Wikipedia be the same?

That Worked Fast. Bonus Update Tommorow!

2007-10-23T10:54:00.000-04:00

Apparently the old adage of having many interested fans vs. one dedicated fan just paid off.

Thanks to that, we've got two bonus updates to do. One goes up tomorrow, because this particular fan was eager for his fix, and the other goes up next Wednesday. At some point in-between the two we should have the usual Sunday update as well.

And at some point in all of that I'll be over here in the corner blinking in disbelief. Hoo Boy.

About the new Recharge Counter

2007-10-19T01:33:00.000-04:00

So, you've 'probably' noticed the new battery counter on the front pag e asking for donations. Dun worry, I'm not suddenly showing my true colors or anything; there's been a donation counter on the page for a while, and my current hosting plan is based on how much I raise (and seeing how image-intensive hosting a comic can be, that's a fair amount of bandwidth).

Here's the deal: y'all are really starting to get into the comic, and truth be told it takes a fair chunk of my time to draw the pages (not to mention all the other little things I do, like picking up a domain name and other things). Ideally, y'all want to get the comic faster, and yet I'd still keep my buffer at a healthy size so I don't suddenly run out of comics right before I skip town for a weekend. This is a good way to test the waters and see just how much you guys are willing to put forward to advance the story, without me suddenly leaping to twice a week right when the semester's supposed to get difficult.

The Battery fills up every $50. I'll be keeping the battery counter around unless and until we need something a little more... accurate, like a monthly counter.

I'm not expecting this to actually launch me to twice weekly — More than likely it'll just give you guys a good bonus page every month or so. If I start getting into a habit (or suddenly speed up my drawing rate), the twice weekly thing might stick. But for now... hey, if you like the story and the art, donate.

Top 10 Ways Morning Coffee Changes how you Read Webcomics

2007-10-14T18:00:00.001-04:00

Yes, I've already mentioned Morning Coffee several times, but this thing really is a handy little gadget that I use daily, and I find it to be one of the best FireFox extensions out there next to ChatZilla and ForecastFox. It doesn't take much effort at all to install and use, and once you do, you'll really appreciate what it does for you.

It's FireFox Exclusive! If you don't have Firefox already, get it. I'm serious. It's free, it's uber-customizable, and if you're still browsing with Internet Explorer in this day and age, you may as well be bent over like goatse.
One-Click Browsing. Every day, all I have to do to read dozens of webcomics is click that little coffee cup, and they all load in their own separate tabs, loading in the background while I wait to see whose server responds first. You may already have aggregates or bookmark folders (or even del.icio.us!), but when a single tap does it all for you, why bother?
Browse By Day. As long as you tell it which days to look at a certain comic, it will being up the day's listed comics. No more stress trying to remember what day it is and which comics need checking; it's already there.
Loading While You Read. If one comic takes longer than the others, you read the others while waiting for the last one to load. Certainly less stressful than waiting for each page to load individually, and when we're talking large images (my own pages range from 150-200k each), this can be a big sticking point.
Find Out Which Comics Respect their Readers. Yes, maintaining a schedule is tough, but unless the artist is just starting out in comics, they should know by now what pace they can keep. If you keep visiting a page on the schedule it claims to keep and they don't, then you can either push their update check back a day, or you can drop the page if the schedule is truly erratic. It may be harsh, but if the artist assumes that the fans who truly care will check his page obsessively anyway...
Easier to Remember to Read New Comics! Found a great little site you're on the fence about? Set Morning Coffee to make you check it when it updates, and now you have several chances to read more of the comic as it progresses to decide if you really like it. If you hate it, you can always just remove it from your lists later.
Works at any browser speed! Yes, it's trying to load everything at once, which can be slow. But waiting once beats having to do it dozens of times for several sites each, and even if all that time spent waiting is enough time to make a sandwich, at least it's time you spent some other way than just sitting in front of the computer waiting.
Really Appreciate Little Domain Icons! Lots of Comic sites use 'em because they're cute, creative little details, but they really stand out when you've got 'em all in a row.
Waste Less (Loading) Time! This gadget really is a timesaver when you realize that it's already done the major legwork for you. That leaves more time for your own work (or even just wasting more time in each comic's forums!)
You can check 'em all at Midnight! Granted, not every site updates exactly at midnight, but for the ones that do, you can appreciate 'em properly. ;)

Why should reading comics be any tougher than it has to? People want you to read their comics, you want to read comics, and this makes it so you read them as quickly and easily as possible, with the least amount of effort.

Start using it!

BarCamp Recap (and some Comic Pluggage!)

2007-10-13T16:53:00.001-04:00

Just came back from BarCamp Atlanta, which is an overnight convention where you put a bunch of hackers, geeks, and otherwise smart people together, get 'em all to host panels on the fly talking about whatever it is they're interested in talking about, and hopefully you get enough folk that want to hear 'em talk too. No pressure, lots of fun, always something to do or see or nibble on . . .

. . . and apparently a good number of folk who had no idea about how big webcomics are. I ended up hosting a webcomics panel last night that went over really well; I'd say 8-10 people in the room, and a lot of 'em grabbed pins after I was done and were just really impressed in general at how much effort people go to in telling their stories and convincing people to just give 'em money. Even managed to get one of 'em to walk me though signing up for a proper domain name, so if you haven't already, check out lastres0rt.com (yes, the 'o' in resort is a zero).

Most of the panel actually ended up being about a bunch of the comics I frequent and what I happen to think are examples of good stuff in the field. What actually ended up happening through was that I gave a brief overview of the Morning Coffee Firefox Extension and as a result, I showed off the comics that I had listed for Friday's lineup. My apologies if your comic isn't in this list, as it's just a review of the ones I showed off (and a brief overview of what I said about 'em, if anything special) since a couple of the guys asked me to post a list of the ones I talked about. There's other goodies, but hey, I ran out of time as it was.

Exterminatus Now - A good class act, loved the big battle scene at the top. One of the better-rendered works.
Ugly Hill - Can only say so much about a comic when it's currently in guest strip mode.
Schlock Mercenary - Nothin' but good stuff about this one. Good writing, good color, even told 'em about the buffer and how having a few comics in reserve is useful. I'm sure the barely-dressed Elf helped, considering I was one of the few women at this thing.
MegaTokyo - Eh... I basically admitted that if I hadn't gotten hooked on it previously, I probably wouldn't be reading it now. Because of the erratic schedule Fred keeps, it's almost better to wait for the books than to try and keep up online. To say the least, not a glowing review.
PvP - Same Chapter, different verse. At least Megatokyo's late because Fred knocks himself out on quality; I'm relatively certain that if Kurtz wasn't an early adopter, he wouldn't have near the same following.
xkcd - Gloriousness. Come on, it was practically a geek con, what WASN'T I going to say about this one?
DMFA - I ended up showing off more about how Amber collects donations than the comic itself, since at least part of the panel was showing how people made money off their webcomics. Specifically the Wallpaper Wars — or as one guy put it, "Choose your Own Adventure, but with money!" In hindsight, I wish I'd shown off the Abel vs. Regina war instead. Much more dynamic and a little easier to read when you've got to work with a projector.
StarSlip Crisis - Much love. Mostly talked about how distinct the characters in this strip are, even for a highly stylized form like Straub's.
Evil Inc. - Another generally great comic. They loved the general storyline too. ^_^
The Devil's Panties - Made for a nice segue into places like ComicGenesis and Smackjeeves. And hey, who doesn't love a local artist?
ps238 - Showed off where Aaron has his books for sale on the site elsewhere as well.

All in all, a pretty decent collection of comics, with a lot of examples of how comics differ based on their quality, style, and update schedule, along with a smattering of 'A-Listers'. (and yes, I showed off my own stuff as well, but only after the others — after all, this was meant as an introduction to comics, talking about donations and other ways to make money off a brand, some comparisons with blogging, and so on).

Which just goes to show that even when you're at a place where people are doing nothing BUT talking about how to shape the internet, they're still not always getting the whole picture. ;)

NEW FORUMS!

2007-10-05T20:04:00.001-04:00

In case I forget to update the site with the link before the next update...

Last Resort finally has forum space! Go forth and chatter! :)

Page 39, and the six-month milestone!

2007-09-30T00:35:00.000-04:00

Whoo-hoo! Six months of regular, uninterrupted, full-color updates! Take THAT, internet!

Page 38 - Anime Weekend Atlanta is in Full Swing!

2007-09-22T09:47:00.000-04:00

And I'm not there yet... -_-;;

I'll try to get over there later today. Enjoy the comic, folks!

Updates: The Last Resort Twitter Feed, Anime Weekend Atlanta, and FWA

2007-09-18T12:25:00.002-04:00

Twitter: The Last Resort feed has a new name! If you're not familiar with Twitter, it allows you to post and receive tiny messages (140 characters or less), and you can set it up to work through facebook, RSS, your cell phone, and instant messenger.

What it basically means is that if you're already in a situation where you're using one of those constantly anyway, it's not much more effort to go and pick up Twitter, especially if you're already on the facebook group.

Anime Weekend Atlanta: This upcoming weekend! If you can make it, I'll try to spot you. Unfortunately I'm still in 'wandering exhibit' mode because I couldn't secure a table, so if you're planning to find me, contact me somehow (reply to this post, email, something to that effect) so I can give you a better idea of where I am.

Furry Weekend Atlanta: Almost six months away, but securing a table here is infinitely trickier because there's two options here to get a table: pay $80 to secure a dealer's table, or try to do it for free and hope to get one of the tables at the same time as everyone else. This would be my first time there, so I'm not sure how fierce competition is at FWA for these tables.

If you've been to FWA previously and have any advice on how to handle working a table there, I could use the advice.

Page 37 comes early this week!

2007-09-14T13:14:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be out in the middle of nowhere (i.e. South Carolina) this weekend, so you guys get this week's update early!

... Ssh. Don't tell anyone it's early.

DO tell people about the comic, though. We're coming up on six months of regular updates soon.

Page 36, and Some Facebook Fun.

2007-09-08T23:34:00.001-04:00

Is it still racism if they're different species? Probably.

Some notes for future fun:

There is a facebook group for this comic, and it is currently rather small (which is bad). The more people are in it, the more interesting it becomes (which is good).
Last Resort will be visiting Anime Weekend Atlanta, but no tables / panels have been arranged for yet. While I intend to correct that, help in figuring out the best way to pull it off is always appreciated.

Until next time, folks!

Mission Complete! Unlocked "New Last Resort Layout"!

2007-09-05T23:43:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Llearch and Darkmoon, I've picked up a frickin' sweet new layout which ought to be a good sight spiffier than the old ones. As a bonus, the comic sits a little higher, the site is a little cleaner with fewer columns of content, and . . . we now have the blog on the main page! Now instead of the news posts, I can post to here and have it show up on the front page where it belongs!

More to come as I feel like posting it, but for now . . . New Site Design! YES!

Dragon*Con Post Mortem

2007-09-04T12:04:00.000-04:00

The con's been fun, but getting promotion down to a science is still a hard sell. I've got a lot of information recording and general crashing to do once classes finish, but in the meantime, here's hoping the following lists are useful.

Tips for Promotion:

Get a damn booth, or at least take over a fan table for a little bit. Giving out random fliers have a pathetic return ratio; most of the cruft tables' material ends up in the trash within six hours if not less.
Panels are your friend. The more experience you take in, the more ideas you'll come up with, and that's always useful.
Make as many friends as you can. Being an interesting person makes it more likely to see a return for your efforts.
The smaller the con, the more likely you'll make an impact. In lieu of this, follow certain tracks.

Tips for Artists:

Bring your Art. Don't talk shit without bringing something to back it up. Pamphlets, business cards, demos, sketchbooks, art slides; if it's compact, it's good. If you can give people something to remember you by when they go through their con cruft, it's better.
- Printing in color is ten times more expensive than black and white. If you do it, it better be worth the money.
Don't argue with the people in the Art Show. Yes, they may be arrogant and condescending, but they've been doing this stuff for a lot longer than you and they're the ones with the table and the money to back it up. Even if their art is the just the exact same pair of eyes on fifty different paintings, they at least know how to make money at it.
Don't pick fights with the Comic Artists; they're too fucking awesome to want to argue with.
- If you do disagree, don't do it in defense of your own artwork ("But it's my style!") or a fan-pairing. Pointing out already-successful ventures works much better as a counterpoint.
- Take notes either way.
Focus on the methods more than the content if you do get advice from either type of artist.

For any Con-Goer:

Sleep Better, Eat Better, Bring the Damn Vitamins.
Don't order at the per-pound buffet; the food is good but you'll be eating out of the consuite the rest of the time from the price.
Hand Sanitizer is a must; if not to keep healthy than to get the sticky feeling off your hands.
SHOWER; you'll feel (and smell) better.
The more you eat, the less you need to sleep. To a point.
Don't count on having 'just one' of anything. I managed to ruin a perfectly good pair of jeans in one panel by getting a hideous ink stain.
You're carrying too much shit. You just ARE. Pare it down.
- Your cosplay better be doing double-duty for the bulk.
And, most importantly, if you're rooming with unfamiliar people, be honest about any mental/physical issues you have. Sharing a room with people requires several levels of trust and co-ordination, and if you're not acting the way they expect you to, people will get suspicious and rooming will suck (assuming they don't turn on you outright).

Page 33 - Yes, this page gave me fits. It's pretty obvious to see why.

2007-08-19T11:52:00.000-04:00

At least it makes a good color reference page for future pages.

The next few months of pages are going to be reasonably self-contained just by the sheer number of people we have to follow in this particular storyline. Fortunately, it also means that when we get around to the conventions soon, we'll have plenty of action and fun for them to see.

I keep bringing this up, but it's important: if you're going to be here for one of the two Atlanta conventions and you plan on saying hello, send an email. There's no official panel for either convention or even a table set up in Artist's Alley, so if you're looking for me you might have a hard time of it.

Showing Off Now, will Post Details Later

2007-08-15T16:50:00.000-04:00

Short Story: The Convention Buttons arrived!

Details to be posted later, presumably.

Why you, Yes You, need to STFU and start Drawing a Webcomic Right Now.

2007-08-13T17:22:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time there were two artists who wanted to be Big. They could both draw -- not much more than stick figures, perhaps, but at least the art teachers liked their drawings and every now and then friends would fawn over their sketchbooks. At the end of the school year, the art teachers managed to corner the two artists after class and asked them if they wanted to try this new 'webcomic' thing; it wasn't Big, or Glamorous, or even Profitable, but the art teachers wanted someone to try it so they could see if it was a Good Thing to do.

The first artist wrinkled his nose at the idea and turned the teachers down, saying that he didn't feel he was good enough to start a comic, because he knew other Big comics had much better art than he did. But in order to save face with his teachers, he told him to check back with him when school started to see if his art was good enough then.

The second artist, on the other hand, wanted to tell a story anyway, and (after getting the art teachers to give him some extra tools for the task) he started working on his comic.

The second artist quickly found out he sucked, but kept drawing (after leaving whichever websites left a bad taste in his mouth), and posting new work every couple of days. And he kept drawing. And kept drawing. And then he'd post again every couple more days.

Every couple of weeks or so he'd tell the art teachers he needed more money for a new reference book, which they bought for him, and then he'd read it, and go back to drawing with the new information he learned. Eventually he started drawing strips in advance, so he could take breaks every now and then but the art teachers wouldn't notice what days he was slacking off.

As he was posting all of this work online, eventually other people than his teachers started to notice his work, and soon his work was getting Bigger. And because he was learning as he went, his work started to get Better, and he was learning all sorts of things about typography and character design, as well as form and shading.

Towards the end of the summer he went back to the teachers, and saw the first artist standing there. The first artist showed his work to the teachers, and the teachers didn't think he'd improved much at all; in fact, compared to the second artist, he'd somehow started to look worse in comparison.

When the second artist showed the teachers his work, the first artist blinked, turned to his friend, and went, "What the hell?! When'd you get that good?"

"Hey, when you're turning out so many of these things a week, you have to improve at it sooner or later..."

Now, just in case you're the type that prefers lists:

Everyone sucks when they start. Let's just admit it to ourselves and move on. No, I'm not going to tell you how you suck, but once you get at least ten pages under your belt, you'll look back at the first one and say "I suck!". It's a given.
Everything has a learning curve. Learning to draw, use a certain program, or tell a story only works if you keep doing in constantly. You can struggle in certain programs for years before you find out about Multiply layers, or how to Transparency Lock a layer to prevent coloring outside the lines, or what methods give you the best results for what you want.
The longer you're out here, the more people see your work. No, we can't really rush this unless you're That Damn Good. And heck, if you're not up for very long, you also don't have a lot to show.
Each comic you add makes your work that much more alluring. The more pages, the more odds of having a story, and the more people can see your work evolve. If you have enough to show how much the art has advanced (among other details), suddenly you give people more reason to want to read your work from there on in.
Even if you ditch it later on for a better idea, you'll start out that much better. Think of it as Artist's XP. You want to level up, you gotta draw.
Just drawing things isn't the same as drawing comics. Comics force you to think about storylines and action, scenery and setting, and a whole host of other things you won't get a feel for if you're just drawing your Level 17 paladin in 'exciting' new poses.

It doesn't matter when you start, just start already. You don't even have to be consistent about it, but it helps, because having a crappy comic that will eventually get better beats having no comic at all.

Page 31: Meet the Contestants

2007-08-05T16:04:00.000-04:00

Finally, we get to see all that the galaxy's got to offer, and you can tell somebody put diversity on the menu. They've all got names, but whether or not they all live long enough to tell their stories is another matter.

Still having a little trouble getting back into the swing of things, which may be just as well since school'll be starting up again soon. I still want to try and finish things up so the first semester's worth of comics is done before I return.

As for Dragon*Con and Anime Weekend Atlanta, the button order's been sent off and the pamphlet was finished midday yesterday, which means everything's good to go for it. The pamphlet won't be posted until at least October, so if you want it sooner, a little donation to paypal for "shipping and handling" is appreciated. So for your money, you get not only the new Daisy Archanis wallpaper, you also get a never-before-seen pamphlet sent to you.

And hey, if you're heading to Atlanta for either convention and get to see me, so much the better!

Pages 28-30: Setting the Stage

2007-07-28T23:47:00.001-04:00

It's called foreshadowing. Learn it well, it's one of my few applications of it so far, or at least one with a quick turnaround.

Since this is my first post upon returning from the Canada trip, it's worth mentioning the following:

This next storyline, featuring the first (televised) episode of Last Resort, is also the first one that's been outlined into a relatively neat/tidy package. Safe to say, the first couple of pages that are not only our first true glimpses into galactic life away from Last Resort Station are not just filler, and there's method to this madness yet. How much of it makes sense is going to vary based on how far you think I've thought this all though.

The simplest explanation for what I'm doing is that Cypher, Slider, Sudoku and Meridian are more than just throwaway characters, and it certainly won't be the last time they're seen. same goes for one-eared Xanatos back there.

Have your Say in the new Facebook group!

2007-07-10T00:17:00.001-04:00

Yup: If you use Facebook, I'm asking in the Last Resort group about which characters people want to see more of in the convention swag. Since I'll be out, I won't be able to act on the results for a while until I return.

Worst case, I ignore everybody's opinion. But at least give me one to ignore if I must.

Page 27: Oh, the Irony in this Page.

2007-07-07T22:58:00.000-04:00

The irony, of course, is in (temporarily) letting my Dad handle updates.

Okay, in fairness, as much as I represent myself through Jigsaw as a 'fursona' or avatar or whatever the hip new word is, Cypress is the one modeled off me more in terms of my personality. That said, I sorta see the relationship between Cypress and Vince as being two parts what I'm like with my Dad, and one part what the McMahons must feel like.

That sums up this current storyline, and next week I'll need to entrust my Dad with the next part... which we can only hope goes up without a hitch. No, he won't be updating the blog, but seeing how I'm having to dumb down the update process for him as is, that may be a minor blessing. Attempting to teach him went something like this:

"Okay, so we open these php files in notepad -- you'll need to tell the file viewer to show you 'all files', 'cause it treats php files weird for some reason -- and edit here, here, and here, and then you open winSCP, go to this directory-."

"... can you just put some premade files in a special directory so I can just go to that week and upload it instead?"

. . . I know my Dad's supersmart and everything, but really, when it comes to interfaces, you guys are spoiled rotten. Spoiled, I tell you.

Trying out StumbleUpon

2007-07-07T16:54:00.001-04:00

What it is: You sign up on their website, install a little browser plugin, and then trawl the internet. Rate sites up or down. If it's a site that's new to the system, you get to add a review in addition to this rating to help give people a better clue. If you get bored, Click 'Stumble' and rate whatever it is you just came across.

Why you care: 'cause it's another one of those "Web 2.0" gadgets and it's a good way to get attention for your work if other comics-minded people are checking you out.

My Attempts: Well, I'm not a fan of most 'Random Toolbar Gadgets', but I could see where this is useful. As a bonus, if you care about aesthetics, hitting Ctrl + F11 toggles the bar so you can shove it aside when you want.

There's not many comics in the system so far, so adding yours to the pot can't hurt you; as stated above, it takes a lot of people to affect a rating one way or the other, but once it's in the pot, it gets a pretty steady diet of hits.

After a few experimental clicks on Stumble ("Ooo! Jackson Pollack-style flash toy! Must Play!") It becomes clear the name of the game is to make a turing test out of the internet: You take a certain site, weigh the positive clicks against the negative, and come up with an individual profile for each user.

I've already added Last Resort into the system. Here's hoping it comes out all right.

Always Have Giveaway Material

2007-07-04T22:49:00.001-04:00

I don't care if it's buttons, pamphlets, business cards, whatever. Have a sample of your work and make sure you have it on hand when you're out in public.

This goes right in hand with having your sketchbook nearby. Public events (you know what we mean, right? We're talking cookouts, parades, general occasions where you're expected to at least say 'hello') are great times to try and expand your stuff and reach out to people you might never have picked up otherwise.

I just came back from watching some fireworks, and fortunately had brought some of the Four-by-Four pamphlets from MomoCon: even managed to give a few out. They're as ideal as a sample gets, though I was a little embarrassed they only had my DeviantArt URL on 'em instead of the new site's URL.

Still, in a situation where you get to talk to the artist, this isn't a big problem. Consider it incentive to strike up more conversation.