paoniapawns

Wow! Six whole months. I suck at this.

I did not win (or even place) in the contest I wrote about way back in April, but you can read my entry here. 

I just (Saturday) finished Chapter 10 of Paonia Pawns and Chapter 11 is about to start. The first strip is here.

Also started a new project called United Allegiance: the Web Comic or UA:WC.

10/10/10 kinda cool.

More later (maybe :p )

Not a lot of posts lately.

Part of it is not being on the computer much until I'm too tired to think.

Part of it is simply forgetting to log in when I am on the computer.

But part of it is because in addition to Paonia Pawns, I've been working on some other things.  One on these is a contest entry. Eight page (max) graphic novel style comic; black and white.

There are kids, teens, and adults categories. Top three in each category win prizes and get published in a very very VERY limited run book.

Not really sure if I have a chance of winning. Entries can only come from a limited geographic area, so maybe I have a chance. Maybe even a good chance. That's not really the point though. The point is that it's a fun exercise in trying something not entirely like PP. Black & white poses some challenges, especially in character design; no relying on color to make cast members distinct. Also, drawing it wit printing in mid, so it's twice the scale of PP; I've had to up the resolution on my monitor to previously unexplored levels. Even then, a single panel sticks off the edge of the screen and laying out the pages requires lots of scrolling. Also, eight pages isn't much when one has spent HUNDREDS telling stories.

Win or lose, it will appear in some version online. Somewhere. Not sure where yet. I do have some cyberspace real estate that I haven't decided what to do with yet.

Plus I have another project that will need a home online at some point. Maybe they can share a space.

Anyway, doubling the size of each panel has multiplied the time to build a strip/page by a factor of five to six.

Only two pages to go (and the artwork for six of the eight remaining panels is done) and the deadline is looming, so I'll be done with this one soon.  That may not mean that I'll be b logging more. But it sounds like a reasonable plan.

 One of the blogs I read pointed me towards an entry at EmptyEasel.com entitled "Should we make art that we love or make art that sells?"  I haven't read it yet, but I've been thinking about it.

My answer is make art that you love.

If you're making art that sells, it would almost always be more profitable to be postal employee, or a soldier, or a teacher; and would almost always be easier to be a surgeon, or a nuclear physicist, or a rocket scientist.

On an unrelated note, I have a friend who actually IS a rocket scientist.  Hey Arthur!

If you're not making art that you love, it will never matter if it sells or not, it will have no soul, and eventually, neither will you.  And if you are making art that you do love, other's willingness to buy it has no more value to you than their willingness to enjoy it. (Because their willingness to enjoy is priceless gift.)

Bad news. I probably won't be able to go to Wondercon. My Sig O is going to be out of town this weekend and I'll be standing guard over the kitty who wants to pee on the couch every time we turn our backs.

Good news. I remembered to come sign in here and post. 

Better news. Paonia Pawns hit #1100! www.mekulius.com/paoniapawns/pp.php 
(Permanent link: www.mekulius.com/paoniapawns/archive.php)

Over at Twitter I pondered why 1000 should be more worthy of celebrating than 1100. What do you all thing?

Not that I actually went anywhere.

I had hoped to make it up to the Emerald City Comic Con. The guest list read like the past five years worth of SDCCs rolled into one in a much less crowded setting. Didn't make it. Spent the money on a couch and groceries instead. Seems like a bad call to me. Oh well. Sigh.

Entered last weekend with almost no buffer and came out of it with nearly two weeks, so it wasn't a complete loss

And I'm taking a long weekend coming up. May only get a little drawing in as I have plans all three days.

Note to self: post more! How the hell did it get to be St Patrick's Day without a single March post. Geez, I suck at this. 

 Took a longer than usual lunch break today and got almost three weeks worth of scripts written.  I'm hoping to get at least two weeks worth of those drawn this weekend. Suspect I may have to fight for the computer time to do it, but such is life.

Lots of exposition coming up in these. When you've been dropping hints to a future storyline for nearly five years, you kinda need to refresh everyone (including yourself) when you finally reach that point.

Maybe get a little work done on one strip tonight and then burn through some DVRed stuff. That should earn me some points to comic time tomorrow.

Not sure if I'm making sense. Too much work. Too little sleep. Gonna need a coffe to get through the rest of the day.

Laters

Despite a slow start I did manage to get four comics done over the weekend and at least maintained my small buffer.

My doc's instructions to not go into work ended today, so I'll be back in the office tomorrow.

"You've been missing an awful lot of work lately."

"I wouldn't say I'd been MISSING it."

But seriously, I'll be glad to be back in my cubicle. Even my hi-speed connection is too slow to work efficiently from home. And not having access to the second computer has been a strain for the past week.

I'm not really sure if anyone's reading these ramblings yet, but if you are, please take a moment to go check out my test of a new combined home page/current comic page here and let me know what you think. 

Didn't make it to the Clam Chowder festival after all.  Got some scripts written.

But most of my time in front of the computer today was pure entertainment.

Read another dozen episodes of Warren Ellis's excellent Freak Angels.  Trying to stretch it out a bit. It's easily good enough to want to consume in a single sitting, but given that new installments are a weekly event, I don't want to be caught up quite yet.

Watched Doctor Horrible's Sing-along Blog for about the dozenth time. Just as wonderful as the first time. Plus I'm slated to portray Captain Hammer at a gathering of friends later this year so it was good to see how much of the lyrics I remember.

Followed that up with my 30th or so view of "Do You Want to Date My Avatar?", the music video/third season advertisement for The Guild.

And then I finally sat myself down and watch the first two seasons of The Guild. I know, I know. What the hell took me so long? Mostly the pain in the ass desk I have that makes it damn near impossible to hook the speakers up to the computer.

All in all, an almost totally unproductive, but highly enjoyable, day.

This past weekend's head cold turned nasty (which happens when one is an asthmatic) and my doc grounded me. Rather than burn a bunch of sick time, I've been working from home. Somehow this has left me with even less personal computer time than normal.  Shit!

Did manage some minor updates.  "The Story Thus Far..." and the main Cast page especially.

No scripting or drawing since last weekend.  Maybe after I post this. Damn breathing treatments are keeping me awake. Or maybe later today, before or after the Clam Chowder Festival. Sunday's probably the best bet. I'd like to at least get 4 strips done and not lose any of my minor buffer. I'd much rather add to the buffer, but crappy sleep patterns and drug-induced nervous energy really aren't the best creative fuel.

Stray thoughts:
--enjoying the hell out of the Winter Olympics
--ArtPatient is now following me on Twitter
--I need to add a spoiler-free-as-possible New Readers Start Here page

Overtime and Site Updates: that's my life right now.

I've revamped the homepage, the links page, added a "best of 2009" links page, and added the Paonia Pawns Tales page.

The latter-most of those will EVENTUALLY  host a series of short (probably 20-50 strip) comics featuring a variety of PP characters in stories scattered throughout the PP timeline.  For now, it features some non-continuity and guest strips (used or not) that I've drawn.

Speaking of drawing Strip #1075 is up, and I must say that I love it. It was fun showing off both major and minor characters all decked out in their high school dance finest.

The Valentine's Dance was not originally intended to actually appear in the story; rather I had thought it would be a completely "off-panel" event. But (as has happened before and I'm sure will happen again) my characters had other ideas and the dance became a nice opening act for a story that I know will take some time. It was fun writing and drawing some strips driven by the characters rather than by the plot.  That being said, we'll be on to the main plot of Chapter 10 shortly.

This week should see my overtime schedule go back to a manageable level (I hope, though I'm looking forward to payday) so I should be online, and updating here, more this week than the past two.