Looks like the delay is going to go on a bit longer. I have part of a thesis show to get set up this week and life has suddenly thrown me into wedding planning mode.
Crossing my fingers for time this weekend.
Like I sort of pictured back over the weekend, this week has basically kicked me in the face with a boot on as far as things that need to get done, so unfortunately I’m going to have to pause the comic until the weekend.
Friday will be the soonest I can get to anything, but that’s not so far off now.
It’s the first of the month, so if you’ve got a moment to vote it would really help out, since everything resets and starts over, so I’m probably back down in the thousands for now.
I do suppose the upside here is that if you’re new to the story, this gives you a chance to jump back to the beginning and check out the archives before the story progresses much further. Take advantage!
I made another silly process video, this time of the watercolors on page 5-22. Amuse yourselves. Comics soon. <3
Last page of chapter five, sweet.
I have the cover sort of worked out for six, that just needs a scan and upload, maybe later tonight if I get to it. I haven’t even started pencils for six yet. At least I have the first few pages scripted out, though. As a result, there may be a short delay in getting them up (since I have to actually make them and all) but we’ll see how it goes.
Been drawing/inking new pages for the book like a crazy person. There are at least 40 in all and I’ve gotten through less than half so far. Still, I’m pretty happy with how things are rolling along in that department. I’ve started laying out pages and it’s all looking pretty good. Maybe I will be sneaky and post some pictures of things in progress later!
Somewhat related to that, I have (yet another) question to pitch to anyone reading this:
If I made it so you could order the book through an actual bookstore like Barnes & Noble or Borders, or even through Amazon online, would anyone actually use that? I think it would add a little bit to the overall cost of the book, but not too much. I’m still researching and weighing out my options, so we’ll see where that goes. There are more details in this thread on the forum, which I’m using to keep track of stuff related to this and let people know what’s going on in more detail. (There are other forums besides that one, though, and you should totally check it out if you haven’t already!)
Now I am going to go be lazy with videogames for a while. Pokemon Platinum, yes! 
Another in the vein of the previous watercolor-only pages.
Yes, that’s blood.
Only one more page left for this chapter and then onto something else. I need to get on with making cover art, eek.
Vote if you’ve got a second <3
Good morning! Page 5-21 is go!
I felt like doing something a little different (within reason) so the next couple of pages here are going to be watercolored. It’s my comic and I’ll do what I want. >( No, seriously, the next bits are supposed to be a little blurry and I like to illustrate those kinds of parts with watercolor. This is trivia, I guess. Although I don’t do it as consistently as I’d like.
Book progress is moving along slowly this week, although it is moving. Got a bunch of work done on page layouts and some illustration work for one of the bonus comics done, so that’s a plus. Right now I’m comparing printers, but it looks like I’m probably going to stick with lulu for now because it seems to be the best quality and price with the least financial investment from me (because I am broke). More details as they come.
Here are some other cool things for the moment:
It’s getting nice out again and all I want to do is pack up the car and go on a roadtrip. Around this time last year I was on a twelve-hour drive to Chicago and it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. There’s no better way to get to know someone than to drive across four states with them. I miss that.
So with that, I’m out. More in a day or two.
Vote if you can! <3
I have added a forum to the site for interested persons to add their comments/thoughts/questions/complaints/etc. Also I will be using part of it to keep track of details related to the book and other things. Also, it might be fun.
The last time I had one installed about two years ago maybe? Was an exercise in failure. In a lot of ways.
Let’s make this work this time.
I forgot all about this until I found it on my desktop just a bit ago, but a few weeks ago I filmed some of the process of making a comic page. This is part of the sketch process and almost all of the inking process for page 5-18 from this chapter. I’m working on another short video of one of the upcoming pages, so that should go up sooner or later as well. This isn’t like a “how to” or anything, just for fun. I am pretty much not an expert at anything, especially illustration or inking with a brush. I just find these kind of videos fun to watch because I am boring.
If the embed isn’t working, you can get to it on YouTube by clicking here.
Meanwhile, back to prepping the next update…
Argh, it’s been a bad week. I should have some free time to get the next page up tonight, though. Stay tuned…
Ugh, I spent 90% of last week being really sick with a nasty ear infection, 5% doing stuff around the apartment that needed doing, and the other 5% playing the heck out of Fallout 3, which is an amazing game. To add insult to injury, it was also Spring Break week for me! What a waste!
So basically what I mean to say is between being sick and slacking, I kind of missed posting anything new. Oops. So that’ll be up shortly.
In other news, the book is a definite go. Here are my not-totally-100% plans:
I plan on getting a test proof through lulu and if the quality is as good as I’m hoping, I’ll release it to the public. Right now I’ve got all of chapter one converted to fit the pages and I am working on some extra content to go along with it. This includes stuff like extra backstory to go along with chapter one that isn’t on the website, and extra bonus comics that also won’t be available online. In total, I expect it to top out at around 60 - 65 pages depending on how long the bonus comics work out to be. (It may also be longer!) It will be printed in black and white (the pages actually look surprisingly good this way!) and it will be 6″ x 9″, pretty much standard comic paperback size. I draw the pages quite a bit larger than this, so they look really nice scaled down to this size. I am aiming to keep the cost down, so the total cost of the book will be around $10 or less. It’s not a very big book, so I don’t expect shipping costs to be high. (Unless you live in East Jahunga, then I dunno what you’re going to do.)
Don’t worry if you can’t get a copy, it’s not as if I rely on this to survive or anything. Pretty much anything I make is just going to go into my general “Bug Buys Comic Supplies and Survives Fund” so yeah. I won’t be offended or anything. :B
If I sell a few copies of the first, I will probably do chapter two in a few months, which means - you guessed it - a whole book on the Chios. Everyone loves the Chios.
So yeah, that’s about all I’ve got for the moment. Back to work and all.
radio_chio