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Updates/News/Announcements > Post Archive (page 5) June 27, 2010 Feels like a long time since I've made a Bite-Size strip...almost three weeks, ouch. I had some extra energy today so here's a new one.. (No thumbnail today because it could spoil it!) - - - June 20, 2010 Page 27 of Paris is finished, and the mystery behind the title is explained (more or less). It's been a productive weekend. I would have put an exclamation point there, but in the world of comics I just can't justify celebrating only three pages. Looking at myself in the mirror this morning I said, "progress in comics is measured by tens of pages." Although, considering the whole "exhaustion" thing...any work completed is a miracle. Oh yeah, tomorrow is Monday. Sigh. Anyone know any rich people who want to donate a few thousand bucks to the Struggling Artist Fund? Free comics for life? No? Well, then, it's back to the corner of a windowless room again and again, until I can buy my freedom. - - - June 19, 2010 I have uploaded page 26 of Paris. - - - June 18, 2010 A courtesy update, since people still seem to be visiting the website and I feel bad: I should have a new page of Paris done tomorrow, and a new Bite-Size sometime during the weekend. The reason for the lack of updates is due to my psyche being crushed Monday through Friday. I spend my free evening hours trying to recover from the day's torments in preparation for the next morning. Weekends, of course, are spent pretending I'm a full-time creator, as I've written about before - but the result of this "lifestyle" is overwhelming fatigue and melancholy. I'm not working too hard, per se; I know of people going for their Doctorates and whatnot, with their disgusting schedules and blah blah I don't know how they do it but I can't. That isn't to say there won't be updates during the week. The pattern of the past few months suggests, at least twice, that I've had periods of high productivity following a period of deflation. I'm not even sure why I'm writing this - oh yeah, the Facebook Bite-Size Group. It's gone. I deleted it. I assume Facebook doesn't send a message telling people "the group is gone," or worse, "you have been removed from the group". But in case anyone was wondering, it was intentional. I don't like leaving things like that just sitting there, not updating, not growing, so I removed it. I don't think it will be missed - HOWEVER - I do like that it encouraged some people whom I've never met to say hello, which was nice. I rarely receive e-mails (maybe because people think the address is supposed to be a link or something) but I want to say I do and to those who take the time to write, even for no reason other than to say "nice comic today," I appreciate it a lot. Someday, someday, I'll have more published. UPDATE: Added page 25 of Paris even though it's Friday. All right! - - - June 11, 2010 Page 24 of Paris uploaded. - - - June 9, 2010 Once in a while a man has to do work he actually values. This illustration took me too, too long to finish - not because it was any more difficult than the rest - but because until fifteen minutes before I declared it "finished", I just had no idea what to do with it and found it a drag to work on. These illustrations delight me only after completion, because I never know what they're really going to look like until they're almost done. Until that point, they're usually a mess of lines and "maybe this would look better if..." I just keep filling in the white space with a pen until it actually looks pretty good. I begin with an idea and little composition on a post-it note. I'm really tempted to talk about the story behind this one, too, because the more I look at these pictures the more I realize how much "soul" I put into them. They're revealing weird things to myself about my psyche...or whatever. If anyone wants to know, well, maybe I can be convinced to share. It's not a big deal but it's special to me. (I hear that's what art's about.) Or maybe, once again, I should actually write stories to accompany the illustrations. People used to get paid for that sort of thing, back when books were valuable. -_- I truly believe these look SO much better on paper rather than a monitor. And this Bite-Size made me laugh out loud when (and where) I thought of it. I've been reading a lot about the "comics industry" lately, too. It's like reading about the promised land. Self-publishing or not, by the end of this year I'm going to make a serious push to get something made. I'm not going to patronize my few precious, loyal readers here by talking about what I'm gonna do - just, I'm going to push. Very, very aggressively.
June 6, 2010 New Bite-Size. I could write a whole blurb today, because I have plenty on my mind, but I suddenly don't feel like it...so...yeah.
June 5, 2010 Page 23 of Paris is uploaded. I don't know this for a fact, but if I'm having "quality" problems with the images themselves...ugh. I'm using the same process as usual but the recent images have seemed very muddy compared to the actual, physical artwork which is sharp. When I print them, they look okay. I guess it's a good thing, in a way. The printed version of Paris will look better. Probably. - - - May 31, 2010 Posting page 22 of "Paris". Some days, I pretend that I'm drawing comics full time. I wake up early, sit at the desk, draw a page or two at a lighthearted pace, treat myself to lunch, listen to some good music. It's hard work, and it's a grind at times, but there is so much value in being able to work under self-determined conditions. If I want to work near the window, I move the desk. If I want to take the afternoon off and work during the evening, fine. Long as the work gets done! I treasure these days, weekends usually (today being Memorial Day, I have off from the other work). I haven't said this and meant it in a long time, but I enjoy creating stories like this. My favorite part is typing the dialogue into the balloons - it's at that point, when the characters are most alive to me. Maybe that's why I've been struggling so much with Paris, now that I think about it. There's so little verbal communication in some stretches. - - - May 26, 2010 Just realized I haven't drawn a new strip in sixteen days...ugh. I've been grumpy. (Has nothing to do with the strip, though. I selected it because it made me chuckle - the criteria for any I decide to draw.)
May 23, 2010 Posted page 21 of Paris. - - - May 22, 2010 I made another page of Paris. (Page 20). Every time I finish two pages, I head down to the printing store and print a double-sided sheet. Then, I put them into a clear presentation folder and pretend that I'm making a real comic. Someday, I'm going to have Paris printed like all those other books on the shelf. I think I'm going to end up self-publishing it, maybe shopping it around at comic conventions. Is that what people do? I have no idea how it's going to work. I imagine, in the ideal world, people would buy copies of the printed version even if it was left here to be read for free. - - - May 17, 2010 I've been told of its existence, but this is the first time I've seen the Japanese version of Go With Grace - it looks so... foreign! With the big Kanji over a different cover and something that might be my name: ジョージ・アレクソポロス, which means Jooju Arekusoporosu. The Japanese title is, apparently, "Eternity Love Again/Feel the Killers?" I have no idea. If true, it's sad, awesome and hilarious at the same time. I don't how to find a copy of this, but if anyone does, please let me know! I want one! Meanwhile, I'm experiencing what I suppose is a "crash" right now, in terms of production or creative output. (Although some people very kindly asked if there was more of Paris being made, which makes me very happy.) There is more, slowly coming. The next page is currently sitting on my desk five feet away - another hour of work would see it done... but it would be a very tedious hour which, after eight wearisome hours at the "other" job, would feel like a punishment. Another hour and a half would produce a Bite-Size strip. If I were one of my readers, I'd be annoyed at me. - - - |
