Since my last post, I’ve gotten pretty into the idea of bringing back my comic.
I know, right! It’s been about two and a half years since ending it, and for most of that time I haven’t really missed it. I jotted down a few ideas as I had them, but not with any real expectation of getting around to them. And then came last week, and my need for a hobby that energizes me and makes a viable alternative to video games. (Which again, I’m still playing, but sort of more intentionally, I guess)
I had a day off on Friday, so on a whim I took my laptop and trusty drawing tablet to a coffee shop (actually Whitecap Coffee (actually home of the best Americano in Winkler)) and did a test. I decided that I’d use the software that I currently use to illustrate for the Bolivians, pluck the first idea sitting in my old Google Doc, and just go to work, and see how it felt. Flex the old muscles, so to speak.
The result:
So, flexing those muscles felt: pretty good! In fact, it felt so good that I ended up deciding to try bringing it all back. Maybe nobody will care, but in talking it over with Lori I really think it’s a wise thing to do.
I made some tweaks to the frame (it’s a little thick) and wrote another test over the weekend, which also felt good. But now I’ve found I’m kinda killing my own momentum by getting bogged down in too many extra questions, like:
- Do I make a splashy announcement video?
- Do I want to try and make radical changes to the format of the comic?
- How often do I post? Where? What about Instagram formatting?
- Do I really want to stick with Inkscape, or go back to The GIMP or try Krita or This or That or whatever
- How do I catch people up on the intervening 2.5 years, do I bother?
- Do I restart the numbering sequence?
- Do I overhaul the Interesting Times site?
And it isn’t as though those aren’t valid considerations, but today I started to think that maybe I’m just using all those questions as a stalling tactic. I think I need to just start putting my art out there on a regular basis again and answer those other questions as I go. Or maybe I don’t have to, and they really are all pointless. As I’ve said before, “perfect” is the enemy of “good”, and I know from experience how important it is to just start and build habits with the tools you have, and not worry about getting Every Duck In A Row before beginning.
It’s tough for me because I’m all about Rules and Formats once I get going (I mean, it took how many years of comics just to decide that it was okay to add speech bubbles) so part of me is saying that I need to make the important decisions up front. But maybe it will be a good exercise to hold this whole project with an open hand, as they say, and allow change to happen organically as I go, rather than bogging myself down before I even do anything at all. I mean, I’ve asked myself what a new comic template could look like multiple times in the past few days, and I really just can’t visualize something I like. So why am I even wasting brain cycles on it anymore?
One thing I want to make sure of is not to overwhelm myself, so I’ve decided that two updates a week is something workable. I want to allow myself to adjust that number upwards or downwards as I go.
Also, when I wrote comics Before, I strongly disliked 1.)using ideas that I had sat on for any longer than a week and 2.)pre-writing content for posting at a later date. My rationale was that the comic was supposed to be a “journal”, and doing either of those two things robbed the end result of its immediacy to me. I want, (actually, kind of need) to let go of those two things right now. My life is such that I’m going to have to write things down as they come to me, draw them whenever I have the space to do so, and post them later. Honestly, I am probably the only one that this matters to.
ALL THIS TO SAY: You are reading it here first that December 10th, 2019 is the planned launch date for the new comics! Updates planned every Tuesday and Thursday thereafter!
I don’t say I’m “excited” often, so Lori and I jokingly make a big deal out of it when I do. But y’all, I’m actually really excited about doing comics again.
Thing I Saw: I picked up Red Dead Redemption II for my Xbox One X on Black Friday, and the graphics are just incredible. I’m a short way in, but the game is very absorbing just to look at.
Thing I Learned: Cloudflare, a network security company, uses a wall of 100 lava lamps as a secondary source of unpredictable number generation.
I’m Grateful For: Finding a potential creative outlet again!