Rethinking the Comic

Okay. You must know by now that I've decided to just continue doing the webcomic (art, writing, the works) all by myself. I think I'm starting to get enthused about doing it again. I dunno why, really.

Right now, I'm drawing lots of the Lovarian Adventures' main characters on my sketch pad. I did notice something though. I feel that my art style has changed somewhat again. This usually happens to me whenever I stop drawing for a long period of time. You, the reader, may not notice the difference but I certainly do. I'm going to try and streamline the way the characters are drawn. Minimilise it a bit but not too much. We'll see how that goes in May.

That got me thinking about another aspect of the comic. The obscenely long story line I had in mind for the title. And I think this is also one of the culprits for my losing of interest in the comic. Thinking of the comic pages needed to be drawn just to finish the story makes the task even more daunting.

So now, I'm thinking of altering the storyline somewhat. I'm going to make it less epic so that I can draw the end within my lifetime (and yours). I'll probably cut out a lot of the other stuff that may make it more interesting but hopefully not too much to make the rest of it uninteresting.

Ending the current story line will not necessarily mean the end of the comic itself though. I just want to close off the "current" story line and introduce new ones that I would've otherwise inserted while the main story line is still running.

Of course, even with the extraneous stuff cut out, I think it will still take a lot of pages to get to the end I wanted. So that means that the main story line will not end real soon. It will only end sooner.

Modern Tales Server is Down

And in turn, Graphic Smash is down. Here is the message you'll see if you try to view this webcomic's Graphic Smash page as of this writing:


Since the MT servers are down, you also won't be seeing the current page on the lovaria.com home page. Don't worry though. I'm sure Joey and the MT guys are doing everything in their power to bring the servers back up and running as soon as possible.

Artist Hunt Over

Yes. The past few days got me thinking that I'm not really too comfortable handing over the art chores to anybody but my own brother. Anyway, I'll just continue drawing the webcomic myself.

The art quality may dip a bit while I find my groove. But at least the comic should continue beyond May without incident.

Sorry to those interested in the art job. Thanks for everybody's patience.

Replacement Artist Wanted

Richard aka ToonerFish called me Saturday night after he found that I'm having some dilemmas with the comic. He suggested that maybe what I need is to get an artist to take over for me.

I've actually thought about this in the past, too, with my brother Ringjo taking over from me. However, I know he is busy so if he does take on the art chores, I don't know how reliable he could be in following update schedules. So maybe I should just make the artist role available her on my blog to anybody who may be interested.

Here are some details regarding the "vacant position" for those who are interested. The artist will have to make the comic pages based on a prose-like "script" I write rather than the expected professional comic script.

Here is a sample prose for one comic page:

Nadine strikes a gargoyle with Blade effectively. Nadine says, "One down, five left. You two can go find some place to hide while Blade and I take care of these flying stone monstrosities!"

Helix is amazed for a second or two. Then he recovers, "Uh… No way I'm going to leave you to fight these gargoyles by yourself."

Lili tries to stop Helix. "But Helix, like you said, gargoyles can only be harmed by enchanted weapons."

"Who said I didn't have an enchanted weapon?" Helix winked.

As you can see, I do not specify how many panels there should be nor what should be in each panel. The artist will have a bit of leeway in terms of comic page layout and design. The artist is expected to figure in the dialog balloons and the dialog text in the font I'm prescribing. I would have the right in the end to modify the text and/or dialog balloons for the final version of the pages.

The artist will be expected to complete at least two pages per week but if he can work faster, then that will be better as I'm also really keen on increasing the update frequency to three pages per week.

The artist does not need to have the same art style as I do. The artist can make the pages at the minimum be all pencils. The artist has the option to make the pages inked and/or coloured if he/she feels he/she can keep up the quality and quantity of pages.

Now, here is the main thing to watch out for: you will not get paid for doing this. You will be credited as the artist of the comic but that is it. However, since Lovarian Adventures is now under Graphic Smash, I'm supposed to get some share of the profits from Graphic Smash. So far, I haven't received anything yet but when I do, the artist may get 40% of what I receive from Graphic Smash.

Last, I need the artist to be able to commit to this project for a year at the very least. So, if you don't think you cannot fulfill any of my requirements and expectations, don't bother volunteering for this position.

For any of you who are still interested, you can use the sample page "script" I have provided above and draw a page out of that. Then, redesign and redraw the current page. The two pages should be shrunk down to 500 pixels wide and 751 pixels high and should not be bigger than 11okb.

Send your submissions to gabefua@gmail.com. I'll have my friends take a look at them and let them decide who the new artist will be.

Anybody interested?

Not Into It Anymore

I guess, to be honest, I was never into it for a long time. By "it" I mean drawing and writing my webcomic Lovarian Adventures. I've posted in the past about my lack of willingness to continue this comic and I thought having been offered a spot on the respectable Graphic Smash roster would revitalise my ebbing enthusiasm for the project.

At first, it really did. I was very excited to put together my little homepage and archives on the Graphic Smash site. I edited the older pages to make them more presentable. I wrote a more polished script for the upcoming Chapter 7 of the story. But when it came to actually drawing the comic, I procrastinated a lot. The excitement wasn't there. I'm actually half-way through page 4 of Chapter 7 but my heart wasn't into it.

I had a hard thought about it and these are what I thought may be the reasons for my lack of enthusiasm for my own comic nowadays:

• I started this comic back in 2001 only to test and hone my art skills in preparation for a totally different comic book story I really wanted to make. Since it was to be a test comic, I just made a comic I know I'd be very comfortable in making: a comic based on a fantasy world I know by heart (because it was a setting I used for my old Dungeons and Dragons campaign) with characters I'm familiar with (having drawn a lot of Tolkienesque fantasy characters before I started the project). It being a test comic, I never expected it to do well during its first year in the web.
  
  
• The story and premise is not unique. I did not design it to be unique right fromt he start. Anybody who drops by will know that it's just another Tolkien rip-off or D&D inspired story. Although I haven't received a lot of feedback from readers explicitely complaining about this, I know this for a fact. And to me, that makes me unoriginal. Although nobody is saying it to my face, I know a lot of passers-by would be thinking so.
  
  
• I created a story that will not end any time soon. Two years into doing this comic and I was still at the very beginning of the story. It was then I realised that in order to finish this story, I'd have to update more often but even then, it'd take me several years to end this story. In hindsight, I wish I started with a simpler story. Something I can end in less than a year so that if my feelings about the comic change, I can conceivably endure drawing the comic until I finish it then move on to a different story.
  
  
• I'm not receiving a lot of feedback about the comic lately. I cannot fault the old time readers for not giving feedback though as they've already read the pages that are being shown as current at this moment. Also, based on the stats I have on the comic, it's not doing as good as it did like two years ago. So, no feedback and low readership would additionally (and probably) equate to my having a small share of the divvy come payday at Modern Tales (though I don't think money would make a difference anymore). That makes me think, "why am I continuing to do this comic again?"

So, would I continue unwillingly or should I simply resign now and give my slot to some other webcomic artist who will be more willing to draw comics and in turn would be more worthy of the Graphic Smash spot I'm currently occupying?

I don't know what I'll do but I should decide soon. The earlier I decide on a course of action, the better it will be for everybody (readers, the people at Graphic Smash and me).

Not Stuffed

Yep. I was fortunately able to save a copy of the finished chapter 7 script in my office PC. Whew. I couldn't really bear the thought of having to rewrite most of it from memory when I thought I lost the final script. Well, I'm breathing easier now.

Stuffed

Yep. I'm stuffed. I recently upgraded my PDA from a Sony Clie to an iPAQ hx2110. The thing is, I wrote the entire chapter 7 script on the Clie. And when I started using the iPAQ, I moved most of the documents I had on the Clie. Thought, Clie files aren't exactly 100% compatible with iPAQ so it wasn't a simple matter of copying files over. So, I missed some important ones. One being the Chapter 7 script!

Since I don't really need the Clie anymore, I decided to sell it on eBay. So I prepared it and its accessories for selling. Included in my preparation was that did a hard-reset on the Clie (equivalent of reformatting the PC).

I only realised that I do not have the current version of the Chapter 7 script when I wanted to start drawing the pages early today. Darn it.