How are you doing, comic-wise?

[Risky]

I planned Nanowrimo as a time to finish a few of my different plotlines and finally get organized. This did not happen. I did change my site layout once or twice, and my desk layout too.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I planned Nanowrimo as a time to finish a few of my different plotlines and finally get organized. This did not happen. I did change my site layout once or twice, and my desk layout too.

Lol. I've been there. Not for Nano specifically, but you know.


I'm really late working on Secret Santa stuff this year. I have one that's due Friday and my idea is fairly simple and shouldn't take too long to do but I've been so wrapped up in grad school apps (hooray moving forward with life) that I haven't had time to actually sit down and draw. At least I still have tomorrow after school and Thursday too. Then my other deadline is the 24th. That one'll probably take a little longer.

I had some ideas for some shorter stories I can do once this chapter ends, to stave off a dry spell before the next chapter begins. Otherwise I'd just have this huge hiatus because I need to do a lot of research for the subjects I want to cover in that chapter and a few that follow it. I also was really hoping to get to a few more main storyline pages before the week's end but it 'taint looking like it's gonna happen, really. Not between the applications and the santas and the sobbing.

[RobboAKAscooby]

I'm hoping to get the last few pages of my current LTD "storyline" done (and posted) this weekend as well as finish the next few chapter's art for FT so that I can start posting again in the new year.

While I haven't been so great at updating the last few months I have amassed a reasonable amount of sketches and stuff that I am slowly turning into finished pieces for my first sketchbooklet-type-thing.

And I recently did a commission for a friend of mine and that went well so I'm totally gonna start doing that more if I can.

[VinnieD]

Nailbat is FINISHED. Ok there's 2 pages of epilogue left, but I've achieved the ending I set out to create. So between the next 2 updates and a cover page I have 3 weeks to figure out how the Hell I'm going to start the next chapter of Gritty City Stories. The chapter is planned out, but I've been away from the core cast for so long I need a good way to return to them and start fresh.

[RobboAKAscooby]

Nailbat is FINISHED. Ok there's 2 pages of epilogue left, but I've achieved the ending I set out to create. So between the next 2 updates and a cover page I have 3 weeks to figure out how the Hell I'm going to start the next chapter of Gritty City Stories. The chapter is planned out, but I've been away from the core cast for so long I need a good way to return to them and start fresh.

Wooo yeeaaahhhh!!!!

Nicely done there dude!

[McDuffies]

I'm hoping to get the last few pages of my current LTD "storyline" done (and posted) this weekend as well as finish the next few chapter's art for FT so that I can start posting again in the new year.

While I haven't been so great at updating the last few months I have amassed a reasonable amount of sketches and stuff that I am slowly turning into finished pieces for my first sketchbooklet-type-thing.

And I recently did a commission for a friend of mine and that went well so I'm totally gonna start doing that more if I can.

Also Taylor Swift has big hits so it's probably good times for you right now.

[RobboAKAscooby]

Also Taylor Swift has big hits so it's probably good times for you right now.

True

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Did a rudimentary estimate on how many pages chapter 7 is going to take. It's... not pretty. Fingers crossed that as I actually start scripting the number will shrink because currently it's just absurd.*

Current pages are going frustratingly slow, I finished inking the foregrounds last night but still need to sketch and ink all the backgrounds, including an entire expo shot that's really up in the air right now, and also need to hammer down a few pieces of dialogue that have eluded me.

I was hoping to be coloring by tonight. I'm almost glad I'm going back to work tomorrow so that way I can stop worrying about the fact that the break is almost over and just get over it and go back to a normal schedule.

Idk what to do right now. I'm not really in the mood to do these backgrounds, honestly :/ Maybe I should give some of the scripting a go just to get my bearings set for that. At least write down some of the scenes I already have pretty much set up in my head, anyway.


*Chapter 1 was 36 pages (39 if you count the prologue); chapter 2, 24; chapter 3, 60; chapter 4, 29; and chapter 5, 37. So this current chapter will be the second longest when it's finished, coming in at 55 pages assuming I don't change anything else (I already had to add in a page ot this scene to help with awkward pacing). I really didn't want for it to be so long, but the way the storylines are diverging that's just how it happened.

Here's what's got me down: Let's round the start of the chapter to the month of March. So from March to December I made 44 pages. It's not awful, and I am pleased with how the updating-daily-by-scene instead of updating a page at a time with gaps in between has worked, I think it makes it better for readers. However there was an awful lot of downtime over the course of the year that was really beyond my own control, mental blocks I mentioned here pretty often and stuff like that. What concerns me is that, while I don't think it takes me longer to actually draw pages, I'm spending more time doing research now and doing preparatory type stuff, so the process has on the whole gotten longer (though the new way of coloring has offset that somewhat). From here on out, settings and locations are only going to get more complex, which is good to challenge me as an artist but also means I'm going to be taking way longer than I even do now. And chapter seven is shaping up to be well beyond twice as long as six was/is.


Aaand this isn't even the last scene of this chapter. Lololololol I really thought I'd have the whole chapter done by new year's, and then I thought for sure I'd at least have this meager scene done.



Not really seeking advice, as I'm happy about where the narrative will be going and what is in store for the cast. Just bitching about worrying whether I've bitten off more than I can chew. I'll fucking chew it, don't worry.

[RobboAKAscooby]

Not really seeking advice, as I'm happy about where the narrative will be going and what is in store for the cast. Just bitching about worrying whether I've bitten off more than I can chew. I'll fucking chew it, don't worry.

That's the spirit!!


At least with your comic there's research and complex backgrounds and stuff to cause delays, I can only blame my pathetic life for mine.

I mean seriously my comic is so simple it shouldn't (and doesn't really) take so long to get things done, I just keep having to fight this internal bullshit. And then of course when I do have the motivation I don't have the energy.

FML

[RobboAKAscooby]

Plus side, I just got a new chapter of Flying Tigers up and the next five pages of LTD are pretty much on target so I have a little to be encouraged by.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I mean seriously my comic is so simple it shouldn't (and doesn't really) take so long to get things done, I just keep having to fight this internal bullshit. And then of course when I do have the motivation I don't have the energy.

FML

I get that too, so much. I mean even with the research it doesn't take me as long to do a page or a scene as it does for a lot of people, people with really complex art or even just people who want their art to look neater than mine. But like you it seems like it's always either the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak or vice versa...

[JSConner800]

The good news is, we've finally launched Part 2! http://www.steelsalvationcomic.com/page ... 2-01c.html

The bad news is, our new artist seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth. He's been really good about communication so far but it's been over a week since I last heard from him. He said the internet is spotty where he lives, but he's always managed to touch base when he's had problems in the past. We have a 10 strip buffer, so I'm not worried about the comic, I'm just worried about him. Unfortunately, all I can do right now is wait and hope he's still alive.

[JSConner800]

Nevermind, I just heard from him tonight. He didn't drop off the face of the earth, but a flash flood nearly washed him off of it. He's been without power for days, and things are just now starting to get back to normal.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Glad to hear he's alright, jsc. It would have been a bummer if he suddenly skipped out on the project, and a tragedy if something more serious had happened. Was there property damage from the flood?

[JSConner800]

I don't think so. He said some water got into his building, but the worst that happened was the internet and electricity going out. He lives in Malaysia, so they're generally prepared for monsoons, but this one was apparently the worst in 30 years. Fortunately, it hit the other half of the country much harder than his (he was only out of electricity and internet for about 4 or 5 days, while in other places they've been out of power for a month and whole towns have been destroyed). When I said I hoped he was still alive, I was sort of joking, but it's a little freaky considering how dangerous his situation really was.

[Yeahduff]

Intense. Glad it's worked out.

I finished a short comic but I'm shelving it till Fall because it seems more appropriate for then than the dead of winter.

[Humbug]

It's looking great Conner! Yea, the rains been really intense here, but I live in a more uphill area so the floods don't affect me, that doesn't stop the roads from being a mini waterfall tho.

On my end book 1 for ToP is finally complete, yippee!

[JSConner800]

I dunno, mini waterfalls sound kinda fun, as long as they're not inside your home. Then again, I'm from California, where it's a Big Deal if it rains for more than half a day.

[CaptainClaude]

I am fantastic

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I am fantastic

claude