Oops.

Whistles innocently while sidling toward the door.

There’s no stopping me!

Okay, I’m not gonna offer an apology for this one. The next comic isn’t ready yet, but I doodled this at work and thought I’d put it up so there’s at least SOMETHING new. You’re welcome. (Kidding.)

This is probably worse than anything else I’ve drawn, but it honestly was a quick doodle. I put a lot more time into the other stuff (believe it or not), but I just liked this for some reason so I decided to put it up.

Also, it’s totally true.  And completely accurate.

Things turned out alright, of course, but I think I was scarred for life (and also scared for life) about updates.  I began learning WordPress, CSS and PHP at the same time, much in the way one probably shouldn’t, and while it’s certainly exhilarating to learn a new skill, I was anxious about ruining everything I had done.  But still I was riding high, I had made something beautiful pretty that didn’t make anyone throw up and I was proud.  I just needed to get to an upcoming turn of events in my comic’s plot and I’d be able to finally go live.

And then they released ComicPress 2.5.

And then I learned it was incompatible with my old scripts.

And then I drank a lot.

No way, I thought!  I spent forever getting everything right!  I installed CP2.5 without overwriting CP2.1, and resolved to keep my old version–I’d poke around the new stuff, maybe consider a few new projects, but my beautiful pretty won’t make anyone throw up website would remain.

Wait a minute.

Upgraded, easier navigation?  Three columns?  Comic Manager?  Okay, the last one isn’t part of CP2.5, but I wouldn’t have found out about it if not for CP2.5’s release article.  This was all too good not to tinker with.  Eager nose to welcome grindstone.  Here I come.

Now it’s all done and done.  Record time, too.  I’m happily loving my extra column (Yes you, to the left, my sweet little thing.  So cute, too) and the Three-Column layout’s extra width is a welcome sight.  Tyler Martin, the one-man-wonder behind ComicPress, can do no wrong.

Unless he releases 2.5.1 in the next week.

Intermission YET AGAIN!

I know I know! Stop drawing! And: Make a real comic!

Well too bad! I made this, and it sucks, and you have to live with it!

Addendum 2008.05.11

I’m sorry comics have been kind of slow again, I’ve run into a motivation-deficit.

Seriously, I can’t drive myself to freakin’ make the darn things. I even have some all ready for production, but they’re just sitting on my desk staring at me with a mixture of pity, let-down expectation, and scorn.

I think the problem is that the next one isn’t very funny at all. Maybe after I finally belt it out I’ll build up some speed.

Part Three!

Here’s the conclusion to Nora’s introduction: I hope you enjoyed it!

Apologies for the length of time it took to do. I had been planning on having them all finished much closer to each other, requiring the whole “trilogy” to take far less time.

I’ll try to be quicker with the next few, although a hitch has developed on the horizon regarding what I’d like to do with the comic, so no promises beyond the next couple.

Intermission (again)!

I know I know–”what the hell?” It was just something that distracted me from finishing the actual next comic, and I figured as bad as it looks it’s better than nothing.

I may or may not bother trying to make a real background, or shading it, or ever looking at it again: as far as badly-made comics go, I kind of like how it looks in this “half-finished”-type state.

Addendum–2008.05.24

I’ve done a little work on this one because I just couldn’t stand having it online any longer. Honestly I didn’t do much overall, but here are the basic changes:

• Made the background gray scale–It was originally beige to match the post-it sketches I drew it on, but online it just added to the sickly quality.
• Shortened the frame boxes–The frames were originally much higher to accomodate the text, but it ended up looking sloppy with too much negative space. Rectifying that has left me with less room for word-bubbles though, so now the text merely floats. I think it’s the lesser of the evils.
• Cleaned up some of the lineart deviations–The background is the entire sketch, including characters, and there were some spaces where I had fixed too much on a character (surprised these drawings are the “fixed” ones?) so the background mistakes stood out like a sore thumb.
• Generally shrunk the entire comic–I made the whole thing about half the size it had originally been, thus accomplishing the following:
  • The file-size is now manageable by computers other than NASA’s.
  • More of the comic is visible on-screen at any given time.
  • Much of the comic’s details (where my poor workmanship really shows) is miniaturized into invisibility, and thus I look more talented than I actually am (according to the 1>0 principle).

Part Two!

Using both Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop is getting really troublesome… something is going to have to change. Unless nothing changes. Then I’ll just kill myself. But if something–anything–must change–if change must occur–then I sincerely hope it changes here.

ADDENDUM (2008.03.31):

I was totally aiming to have the new comic done Saturday, so I figured it’d actually be finished Sunday. Then I promised myself I’d have it set to go up Monday.

It’ll be ready for Tuesday I swear.

Don’t feel bad: I hate me too.

Part One!

I made this comic in TWO programs! That’s how cool I am. I’m going to work real hard so I can start hopping it around between three. It’ll be awesome.

Also, I know it looks mostly black and crappy, but I’m working harder on the comics now than I ever used to. The lesson to take away from this is that the comics stink not because I don’t put any effort into them, but because I don’t have any talent.

ADDENDUM:

Okay, so if panels two through four make absolutely no sense:

Tom, his vision poor on waking, has trouble making out his surrounding. He interprets the splotches as indicative of an island of some sort, and the girl as a native.

After he offends her with his off-color come-on, she literally knocks some sense into him, enabling him to see the world properly.

I probably shouldn’t be making comics.

Important: Double comic: Feb 17 and Feb 18. Read both!

After all my delaying I got so worked up in making the comic I forgot to make it enjoyable. Oh well. It was even worse in its original form, which was parts one and two in one gigantic-mega-non-sensical comic. So I did the only proper thing. I cut my comic in half. I did it for you, reader. I hope you appreciate it.