200 Comics…Mostly!
August 19th, 2008Well I’ve made it to 200 updates! That’s pretty awesome. Still, I should be up to three hundred. That’s how slow the progress on the story has been, and a big part of that is that the pages simply take too long to do. I love the look of the color pages, but they just take too long. I’m not totally happy with pg 200’s shading, but it was quick and I really wasn’t up to a lot of labor. I just wanted to post it. I think next time I’ll try to find a happy medium. As I said in the comic post I’ve been in the midst of researching and planning a second strip. I’ve been wanting to do it for a while, but I’ve been putting more work into it lately. The Far Reaches just isn’t what it should be. If a comic is really good, if it strikes a chord, it will automatically start gaining readers. It can’t be stopped. But Far Reaches just won’t grow. That tells me I either need to rework it so that it is the comic I want it to be, or start from scratch. Ultimately, I’d like to do both. But I can’t do Far Reaches in color three times a week. It’s just too much. But I could to it in black and white. Also, I don’t want to give up on FR because I really like a lot about it. I love the characters, but they just need some refining so that people can really care about them. And that’s a writing thing. That means more updates.
I’ve often called FR epic, and in my head it is because I know the whole story. And it really does get epic. But right now it’s kind of small. So my goal is to transform FR into the kind of comic and universe that I want it to be. If you have any thoughts about what you’d like to see improved about FR, feel free to chime in. I always appreciate everyone’s input.
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August 19th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Hmm … I wonder if there are any ways of capitalizing on a small number of extremely high-quality images, as compared to a huge number of low-detail ones? The former made the early Far Reaches comics extremely epic and memorable, especially with the amazing CGI, although the latter seem to power many successful webcomics.
As far as starting over, and being frustrated at not telling the story you want to … perhaps you didn’t start at the right point? I’ve heard it said that you should never write the parts that the readers skip over, and if you’re wishing you could skip over a certain part then maybe you should.
This is Murrquan, BTW! I think I listed that as my name earlier. ^.^; Good luck!
August 20th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Thanks that’s a good point about maybe skipping some stuff. And I think we will to some extent. There’s some stuff about the party that’s important, because Gilrec needs to grow into a stronger person, one who at least tries to do things without giving up. Also there’s some cool stuff with Bentley. But I think I know what needs to be done to fix certain things. I think FR will remain in color for know unless I just can’t color a page.
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I like your coloring, but if it’s too much for you, have you thought about trying to get someone else for the coloring? Some of the other comics I read have been doing that and it can turn out really well. The danger, of course, is letting someone else hold your baby.
August 24th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Thanks! I’ve thought about getting a colorist but I can’t pay them and I don’t have any way to pay them back for all their work. At least not yet. But there’s always a possibility in the future.