I’m not sure about the future of the strip, but I have had this story line in mind for a while. I don’t have it scripted out yet, but I know that I want to finish it before I finally hang up my hat. I hope you enjoy the upcoming few weeks as much as you have the past three years.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, the strip’s third anniversary was 23 October 2009. Three years! Congratulations!
I won’t be extending deadlines this time, so I wanted to remind everyone that Christmas card orders close on 4 December. That’s next Friday! At $1 a card and $5 shipping, it’s a really good deal, and I even have prices on a complete card service, from print through mailing to your prepared list. You never have to touch them! It’d be a shame, as they’re fantastic cards, but who am I to judge? Head on over to the Merch page to check them out.
I went back to my Pentel brush last night, and I should not have. I can’t keep a flood of ink from pouring out of the brush, which is really counter-productive when I’m trying to do most of my line work. It’s not the end of the world, of course, but it does cause inconsistency in my work. Given I only update twice weekly as it is, that’s not a great thing.
Speaking of which, I’m watching my traffic numbers slowly die. I never sallied forth to set the world on fire, but it’s pretty clear that this strip just isn’t catching on. It’s a shame, because I know who my loyal readers are and I know you really dig it, but it’s just not going beyond that. I have so many creative endeavors I wish to pursue, and only so little time to do so. I’m considering ending the strip as we know it today. I’m not sure if I will continue, but with less spit and polish (perhaps rough pencils, maybe just black and white?), if it will go on a long hiatus or if I will just kill it off, but over the next month I’m going to seriously consider the future of this strip and what I could do with the free time (and there’d be a lot of it) if I were to cut back or cut it out entirely.
All comments are, as always, quite welcome. If I didn’t want to hear from you, I wouldn’t put it up on the web in the first place. That’s what sketchbooks are for.
Gotta love that term: Two-bit hussy.
I don’t like the first panel at all, among other things the fist is completely wrong. The fist is wrong in the fourth panel as well, but it’s smaller and less noticeable. My favorite panel is the second one. All in all, though, I like how this strip flows. Everybody gets to react individually.
There’s lots of fun things that go on here, too. We see the guy stand up for himself. He doesn’t need to make any lame excuses and run away, or have the girl run in and save him. This point will be developed a bit more in the next strip.
I also got to play with some word balloon techniques. I am not really happy with how they came out, but doing is how you learn. Heck, this whole strip is essentially one big sketch book for me.
And isn’t it funny that Eve disappeared before the girl saw her? I’m not saying she doesn’t exist, that she’s a figment of anyone’s imagination, but there’s definitely not room for both Eve and the girl in his life at once. Maybe I’ll explore that later.
I’m not sure this was the best layout for this comic, but it’s what I have. I took this strip as an excuse to do some perspective work, but it occurs to me that I should have done the same behind Eve in panel 3. Oh, well. That’s how you learn, I guess.
I like this exchange. He’s, of course, suspicious, and he’s looking outside as if he wants to be elsewhere, but he just can’t walk away. Eve’s got a hold on him for some reason, and I’m not totally sure why. She clearly treats him quite poorly.
I wanted to explore the history of the guy and Eve when I first introduced her, but that story was more about the lobster: How he has adopted some of the features of human life, and how he is between worlds. Over the next few strips, I am going to give more insight into the relationship Eve and the guy have, and how that will play out in the future. You can consider that a promise if you wish, because I definitely intend to bring her back for more after this story. She’s just too good a character to send off into the sunset. My only regret is not having more time to draw so that I can do more stories, and spend more time on each one.
Since it seems a whole bunch of other comics just opened orders for Christmas cards this week, I am going to run a second printing of my older cards, available for purchase. Please place all orders by 4 December, and I will ship on 7 December. The following page contains more details:
Hey everybody, it’s Eve! Y’all remember Eve, right? (Hint: she’s from a story arc around the 180-185 mark). The Evil Ex, we’ll see how things play out now that she has cornered her quarry.
Crackers, it’s Nov 6th already! I wanted today to be the cutoff for ordering Christmas cards, but I didn’t plan ahead. A lack of planning on my part should not become a problem to you, so I will accept orders for Christmas cards through midnight Sunday EST. This will allow me to print them and get them shipped next week, in plenty of time to send them out for the holidays. Remember, this is it: If you were waiting around for any reason, now is your last chance to get a set of cards for this holiday season: http://www.yawcomic.com/merch/






