I’ve been meaning to write a follow-up to my initial post of webcomic workflow for some time now. It may be that I over-complicated my task and hand, and I’ve been so busy because of it that it held up writing this post!

In a nutshell:

• Illustrator is out of the mix: It quickly became apparent there was too much back and forth between Photoshop and Illustrator, and this sucked a lot of the fun out of it. Part of the crutch was that I was enamored of Illustrator’s Art Pens, and the pressure sensitivity of my Wacom Intuos4 (see my YouTube review here) was a good match. I needed to force myself to draw better in Photoshop as well as…
• Ink more completely the hand drawn, traditional paper layout to minimize the computer drawing time. Vague and sketchy layout has given way more complete pages ready to scan. This is nowhere near where it needs to be to sell the originals which provides a major source of revenue for select webcomic artists who work this way. At this point, it is not a pressing concern for me.
• Somewhat related, I blogged a while ago about upping the publishing schedule by offering single panel-type gags a la Gary Larsen. I decided against this; I would rather make the main strip the best it can be – besides, others do this particularly well, like WebDonuts Webcomics and Spudcomics. I don’t know if I have anything new or unique to contribute to that style of comic.

In closing:
In the words of Teddy Roosevelt “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…”

Russell Seager, 51
Racine, Wisconsin


As I wrap up this small tribute to the brave men and women killed by a troubled fellow soldier in a place they should have been safest, I feel doubly saddened that this little project has come to an end. Then I realize the cold, hard truth that there will be other opportunities to remember future atrocities on our own turf, by one “of our own”.

Thanks to cnn.com for keeping the gallery which served as my source online.

Happy New Year! Time to look at last year’s post and see how I fared:

• Create ashcan sample of original graphic novel. Attend NY Comic-Con to assess market.

Working avidly on this as a remedy to the frustration of not drawing much by hand in 2008, my eleven complete pages are a good sample of achieving this one to the best of my ability. The Con only served to enforce that it’s all about superheroes.

• Break with under-performing music project(a). Concentrate on the TMJ Ensemble exclusively (while continuing home recording pursuits) to free up time for graphic novel

This was easy, too. The amount of betrayal, disloyalty and “cut-throatedness” I have experienced in cover bands over the last twelve years is mind-blowing. I’m completely retired from playing music with other people. I have only recently begun rewiring my modest MIDI home studio and am pushing my gear to the best of it’s capacity, and my ability.

• Register at New School Professional Studies and take at least one online course

I did this, and was accepted but needed to withdraw. There is no tuition reimbursement with my employer, and the conundrum of a respectable combined household income disqualifies us for financial aid. Taking on out-of-pocket debt of this size is not something I’m comfortable with.

• Work out more intensely – lose some weight

Yep, the universal one. And I did – depending on which scale you believe. I really enjoy the Spinning Class that I discovered, it’s the best way to break a sweat and I’ve never experienced exercise so tightly integrated to music. I’ve taken off ten pounds and kept it off, but I’d like to lose another ten.

• Play fewer video games

I think I fared well here, too and would like to take this further. Played Beatles: Rock Band (a must-have, come on!) , and I’m playing Uncharted 2 at this writing, but I may return it to my friend unfinished.

So, how about 2010 resolutions?

• Webcomic (which wasn’t even a concept last year):
  To continue building readership by doing the best strip I can and stop obsessing over daily traffic in the interest of growing over time. As long as the monthly readership trends upward (however much is irrelevant), I’ll be satisfied. This is my top priority.
• Pick up the free weights.
• Assimilate at work, spent more time chatting (if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em)
• Resume painting. This can be either fantasy or the figurative work I typically do; this is akin to the “draw more by hand” desire

Thanks for reading. I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

– Tim

Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, 52

Woodbridge, Virginia

Thank you for checking out my webcomic. Here are some plans percolating for the strip in 2010:

• A hand-drawn, more organic look
• My alter-ego Tom must have a job, and I’ll introduce office/co-worker characters and situations
• Updating the ComicPress template.  There may be some sporadic downtime between Dec. 19th, 2009  – Jan. 3, 2010

Best wishes for a safe, healthy and happy holiday season.

– T.A.D.

Juanita Waman, 55
Havre De Grace, Maryland

Frederick Greene, 29
Mountain City, Tennessee

I’m toying with the idea of adding another day of publishing new content to my webcomic in the New Year, with a twist. I’d have to be nuts to try and merely double my output, based on the time it takes to produce the core, “main” comic.

So, I’m exploring ways to quickly produce a Saturday/weekend edition. These would be one-panel gags like the one above that have nothing to do with the core comic’s characters or stories. The influences are numerous: the great Gary Larsen (hey – did you know he didn’t start cartooning the “Far Side” till he was forty?) and contemporaries like Mike Gruhn of WebDonuts , Crow of Nicky510, and Joe Combs’ Rusty The Wonderdog.

The plan so far addresses my chief concerns:

• They have to be mostly completed by hand, typically while waiting between chauffering the kids around on Saturday. That drawing will be scanned with very quick Photoshop digital inking. If it takes more than an hour of computer time, I’m doing it wrong.
• B/W using a lot of silhouettes and hand-lettering. Maybe half-tones.
• Hosting another website and domain is just not something I want to do so I’ll offer it on weekends on the main comic website. Keep it simple, stupid.
• Obviously some Saturdays, especially during holidays, get nuts. So while a full buffer isn’t desirable… having a few in my back pocket probably isn’t a bad idea either.
• Finally – and most importantly – I can do the topical humor I’ve been craving. The pitfall of filling a “buffer” for the main comic months in advance is the inability to riff on some controversy (Tiger Woods, anyone), or passing Internet meme when it’s fresh.

Wish me luck, it’s not a whole lot of extra work, but once I get an idea in my head like this, it’s usually stuck there.

There is only one thing in the New Year that could put the kibosh on this aspiration, but more about that if it happens.

P.S. If you missed the point of the sample comic above, read more here.

Justin DeCrow, 32
Evans, Georgia