Thoughts…
I remember when I first started this webcomic, before it even had anything to do with the web at all. Sometime in the course of a year, I’d decided to take CB’s chicken doodle to the next level and began drawing out the rough storyline. I suppose I always wanted it to end up on the internet, and here it is.
When I got the tablet, I just assumed everything would be easy and awesome. I’d watched videos of VGC’s Scott and CAD’s Tim plying their trade and thought to myself “How hard could it be?” At first, it was actually pretty smooth. I had already done most of the work in a sketchbook, so I really just had to copy, copy, copy. There was a learning curve to the creative software I was using, but things were moving along quite well.
I first encountered problems when I ran out of work to copy. I was without tether, and really just flailed around for a bit. Eventually I found a consistent style, and things were able to progress a bit farther. Style, however, will only stay consistent so long as effort is sustained. Once upon a time, I had a great schedule, which yielded some pretty awesome work (here, I’m thinking of #75), but the wheels fell off rather quickly.
I guess I’d just get burnt out after each page. It took longer and longer between work sessions to build up my enthusiasm, and eventually I just lost touch with the story. Add to this the feeling that I’d never be able to draw anything as cool as whatever-was-in-the-last-page, and you come up with a pretty frustrating mix. This has happened a couple of times, and I imagine it will be repeated in the future.
I suppose working in spurts hasn’t helped either. There’s nothing more inspiring for me than the sight of a truly great, completed page; there’s nothing more demoralizing for me than the sight of a truly awful, half-finished page. Whenever I go on these whirlwind, four-pages-3-days binges, I end up hurting myself. The show always begins with fireworks and ends with sulphur and a migraine.
Not having a social life helped a lot, too. In my first year, I was all “Look busy, then they won’t ask you out!” In second year, I lived too far from the happening spots to be bothered to leave my room. In third year, things started to fall apart. Years four, five, and six have been utterly disastrous for my comic-making process. Too many distractions, too many interesting things to try. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had infinitely more fun in the last three years than in all years previous; it just irks me that I’ve had to give up something so dear as payment.
MJ