WED, JULY 16, 2008

Wow. Been a long time, ain't it?

Sorry to let all you loyal fans down, but at the present time, I'm just not enthused about going forward with IMAGINARY FRIENDS the webcomic. I can't work up the enthusiasm needed to generate the pages. 4-10 hours of work a week doing something I'm not that crazy about...it's tough.

Maybe I'll change my mind, but not for the foreseeable future. If I do, I'll let you know.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but, jeez, it'd be like strapping on a freakin' ball and chain to go back to it at this point.

However, I don't come bearing only gloom and doom.

I've been busy the last six months. I haven't just been sitting on my couch in my underwear watching BAYWATCH reruns, y'know.

Well...I have been doing that...but I've been doing other things, too.

Like writing several PETER AND THE VAMPIRES stories.

Yeah, yeah, I know you guys want comics. But I want to write! I want to sing, momma! I want to BE somebody!

Ahem. Got a little carried away, there.

Anyways, for those of you who liked "Peter And The Vampires," I've actually completed the four stories that will comprise my next book.

And I'll be giving them away free.

One page at a time. Every day, once a day, seven days a week, until I run out of pages.

I started a blog. Check it out at PeterAndTheVampires.blogspot.com.

The first story is "Peter And The Dead Men," wherein we meet Peter and Dill for the first time, and come to find out what, exactly, is haunting Grandfather's garden patch. 68 pages long = 68 days of blogs.

And then we'll go on to "Peter And The Vampires"... and "Peter And The Changeling"...and "Peter And The Swamp Monster". About 250 pages/days all in all.

I'll probably be adding some artwork as I go along. We'll see how it goes.

AAAAANNNNNNNDDDDD...for those of you who couldn't afford to buy the IMAGINARY FRIENDS book from Amazon.com...

I plan to give away the novel, too, page by page, on a blog. So even if you don't get your comics, you can still find out how the story ends.

That way I can move on to
IMAGINARY FRIENDS 2.

That's right: you read that correctly. IF2. Not for awhile...but I already have the story. I even have a nice between-book tale about Davey visiting a farm.

I have other stuff in the works, too, but I'll save off on those announcements for the time being. Let's wait til I deliver on what I've promised already.

For those of you complaining that you bought the book when you could have gotten it for free (I'm talking to all 5 of you), don't despair: you have a genuine collectible. If I ever sell either PETER or IMAGINARY FRIENDS 1 to a major publishing house, you'll have a first edition of a book of which there's maybe 72 copies in existence. Jeez, even HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE (the UK title) had something like a 5000 print run.

Also, I plan to sell autographed copies from the site... at some point. Haven't got it all ironed out yet. Let me try to blog consistently for a month or two before we try that.

And the animation will be coming at some point. I've spent way too much *&%@*&@ time on it to abandon it. I'm just...slow. That's all. Surely you know that, by now...

Anyway, hope this is good news. Or at least that there's some good news mixed in amongst the bad.

As my mother always said when she served me microwave chicken pot pies, "Take what you can get."

MON, MAR 7, 2008

Well, it's not really an explanation. At least, not a good one.

I've just been tired of the comic, lately.

Don't worry, I'll get back to doing it. Not for another week and a half (I've got something coming up that'll keep me busy past March 15th), but after that, I'll try to tackle it again.

Here's the problem: I'm not really that fond of drawing.

Visualizing stuff, yes. Sketching, yes. Photoshop, yes. Actually doing the final drawing and inking it, NO.

It's always been a struggle to continue doing the webcomic, because, well, my return on investment - the hours put into it, versus the pleasure I got out of it - wasn't that great.

Writing, on the other hand, is far more enjoyable for me, and a far greater 'return on investment.' Consider: in the four hours it takes me to do a single comic that covers about 10 seconds of 'screen time,' I can write an entire scene of a novel. Maybe two or three. It goes a LOT faster. And for me, 'slow' is depressing.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy having a FINISHED comic. It's just getting there that's a pain in the rear.

Not only that, the site was originally intended to be my artistic say on what I wanted the story of IMAGINARY FRIENDS to be. As I planned to self-publish the novel, however, my thinking gradually shifted so that I saw the site as a Marketing tool to sell the book.

And, to be frank, the sales of the book have stunk.

I haven't really put a ton of time into publicizing the novel, so I can't complain too much. And I heartily thank those readers who HAVE purchased the book. Much appreciated.

But, given that I have close to a regular thousand readers of the site (unless you're lying to me, Statcounter!), I expected to sell 200-300 books, easy.

Hasn't happened. Not even close. And by far, the most books have been bought by family, friends, and business associates.

Which doesn't leave me in a very positive frame of mind towards continuing the comic.

I want to make a living off of my creative endeavors someday. And every hour invested in a webcomic that hasn't even BEGUN to pay for its hosting fees is an hour taken away from a new book that I might potentially sell to a publishing company.

Anyways...the animated trailer might turn sales around when I post it on Youtube, but I'm not counting on it. I think I'm going to have to pull a page out of the ERAGON kid's book and go read at any library, bookstore, or street corner that'll take me if I want IMAGINARY FRIENDS the book to take off.

Speaking of the trailer: ever embarked on a project, gotten to what you THOUGHT was close to the end, and then realized, "Oh crap...I'm only halfway there, if THAT"? Yeah. That happened on Monday, when I did rough recordings of all the voices and realized, no, I don't make a very good Davey, Grandmother Tanner, or even Jeff.

Surprisingly, I DO make a pretty good Granny Jobson.

But I'm going to have to find actors to fill in the other parts. And I still have to lip sync it. And add in details like plates on tables, food for the Chubby Little kid to steal, etc. etc. etc.

Anyways, that's my vent for the year. Check back around March 22nd or so, and hopefully I'll have found the wherewithal by then to draw another couple of comics.

And if you haven't already, GO BUY THE BOOK.

TUE, FEB 19, 2008

I tried loading this up on Sunday night, but my hosting company's stupid new Java FTP program didn't work.

That seems to be a rule of technology companies: if it's not broken, let's 'fix' it. As long as whatever 'fixes' it is NEW.

SUN, FEB 17, 2008

Sorry for the low number of updates. To be honest, I've been feeling less than inspired. Haven't even been working on the trailer the last two weeks. And it hasn't helped that work is gnarly.

We'll see how things progress. Maybe the Inspiration Fairy will come squat on my head for awhile.

Enjoy # 286 in the meantime. At long last, we have an indication of just how bad things are about to get for Jeff...

SAT, FEB 9, 2008

Yep, I'm back. And in black and white.

Why, you ask?

Well, it wasn't because I prefer the look of black and white. Although there is something to be said for keeping a somewhat unified theme to the artwork throughout the comic, I actually prefer the color. (And all arguments of 'unified theme to the artwork' go out the window when you take a look at the first 50 pages.)

No...it's because color takes too dang long.

The average black and white comic takes about 4 hours. The average color takes about 8.

Part of why I didn't do a new comic for almost 3 weeks was because I found myself dreading having to spend so much time on it.

Yeah. I'm trying to LIGHTEN my workload, not double it.

So, for those of you who were enjoying the color...sorry. I'll post the both the black and white and color versions when the two comics get off the main spread and onto their own pages.

For those of you who preferred the black and white look...it's ba-aaaaaaack!

And I'll fix Jeff's hair at some point in those two comics...although I kind of like it darker...

MON, JAN 21, 2008

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day to you.

I've got a buttload of stuff to do, so we'll talk later. Enjoy #284.

WED, JAN 16, 2008

I'll do my best to get a new comic up this weekend, but I've mostly been busting my butt trying to do artwork on the animated trailer for the book that I want to post to YouTube.

At this point, promotions for the novel are taking precedence over the comic. Until I get the next page up, here's four stills that I've completed so far for the trailer.

The trailer itself will be about 45 shots, and probably around 90 seconds. The pics above are just one frame from four of the shots. I've completed about 35 so far. Well...let's just say I'm about 80% done on 35. (Still have touch-ups to do on some.)

Then there's editing the clips...and recording voices for the dialogue...and lip syncing...and getting background music...

It's a major production. Hopefully it goes somewhere and gets some major hits on YouTube. After that, I gotta start hitting up librarians and bookstores to do readings.