Web Comic Realizations...

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to keep you posted on the web comic situation. While my original goal was to have the comic done early in the week (today or tomorrow), I know now that goal was unrealistic. I'm going to tell you why, and ask you not to judge me harshly because I'm already feeling a little down on myself anyway. (I always judge myself more harshly than others do...that's just the way I am.)

1. The first comic is about the lightning strike. To emphasize the amount of destruction, I decided to make it a nine panel comic showing the various things that were broken. (It'll make the punch line much funnier, believe me.) Still, for just starting a comic, nine panels is very long and difficult undertaking.

2. I haven't done graphic design work in years. I thought it would be very easy to remember those skills. However, I was wrong. Since I haven't even picked up the program in so long, it turned out to be very difficult. The first few days were a disaster. I couldn't even remember how to make the boxes line up with one another and felt like I was losing my mind, and my skills. I'm doing much better now, but it's going to take me a little while to remember everything, meaning the comic will take longer to produce.

3. The comic is in color. This means something I could've simply sketched out will take twice as long to finish. I figured if I was going to do this, I might as well do it right. I think the finished product will look much better in color and will set a standard for my work. I just should've taken that into account when I thought about how long the comic was going to take me.

4. Writing a web comic is a very different experience than designing a sign. When you design a sign you mostly want it to be eye catching, simple yet bright and interesting enough to catch someone's eye. With a web comic, you're actually telling a narrative. You already have an audience who likes to read web comics, so you want to make it more stylized and while eye catching, more of something that is fun and amusing to follow. While I've always loved drawing, I've never drawn out a comic before, so this is a new experience for me.

5. I'm a perfectionist. Even though I really want to finish this by the deadline I set for myself, I want it to look good. Already I'm dissatisfied with the way my characters look, mostly because I should have more confident strokes on the characters, but I'm willing to let that slide. Still, there's a lot of work that needs to be done before I'll deem it "acceptable."

And there you have it. I'm setting a new generous deadline by allowing myself to be finished by the end of next week. Still, I think if I work extra hard on it, I could have it done, or close to being done, by the end of this week or early next week. I'll keep you posted. Sorry for the delay, but I think it'll be worth it. After this initial comic, I think most of my comics will be around three panels, and I'm going to try to produce one every two weeks. Wish me luck, and sorry that I accidentally lied to you. It seems I also lied to myself as well. Ain't that a B.