![[Comic 243] Him and His Hobbies](http://www.thefarreaches.com/comics/2009-03-27-0243_microspace.jpg "[Comic 243] Him and His Hobbies")
Mar 27
This is the first of the new simpler four panel format. More comic strippy and not as cool looking as a full page traditional comic or manga layout, but it’s much easier for me to do. Way easier, which means I’ll be able to keep up with three comics a week very soon. One of the previous pages often took ten to fourteen hours to do. The last page of chapter five only took about seven hours as I was already using some of the new techniques involving Flash. This page took about five hours including some wasted time trying to figure out the best way to do things. The page I did Thursday (pg. 245, not this one) only took about three hours, and I think came out really good.
I’m not totally happy with the look and expression of the characters today’s page, but I think they came out much better on the next page. Anyway, I won’t abandon the full page layout completely, but it’ll be used when appropriate for the story.
Hey, looks good. I don’t think this will detract at all from the story, and I’ll be glad to keep reading it as it progresses!
Oh, good. A big part of my goal is to keep it focused on the story and characters and not let it become too gag stripish. Glad you like it.
Looks fine to me.
And I definitely appreciate the interest in not becoming too gag-stripish. 
Yeah, I want the humor to be more Hitchhiker’s Guide with a dash of Wodehouse, which is more in subtlety and narrative, rather than punch lines. Although it may occasionally work out to have sort of a punch line.
That’s really awesome that you’ve managed to reduce the time to three hours! Congrats!
The new format looks good, although I’m glad to hear that the full-page layout will make the occasional reappearance. ^^ My favorite part of this page was the explanation of quantum microspace. I imagine it was somewhat of a shock for the people who were in that men’s room at the time. XD And the note on how Gilrec’s uncles rival survived 45 assassination attempts by his uncle in one week! Hilarious. So far, you are indeed keeping to your promise to put some great humor into each page! =D
The only con-crit I think I should give is that you shouldn’t draw one person in the same position too many times on one page. This applies to blonde guy (who’s name in my absent-mindedness has escaped me); he is facing the same direction and is at the same angle in all three panels we see him in. He also looks kind of blank in the last panel. I think if you just diversified the angles we see him at, it would be perfectly fine. Gilrec and Bentley don’t have any problems as far as I can see. ^^
Thanks for the update! =D
Thanks, the footnote is my favorite part too. Good constructive crit too. That’s the only problem with this type of layout. I’m going to be trying to doing more interesting poses and camera angles in each panel. And yes, I had a hard time with Mad’s expression in the last panel. Expressions are a big challenge. I’m sure I’ll work all the bugs out of it after a while. Thanks so much for the input. It helps a lot.
Hey, sorry I haven’t been on in a while (it’s me, Minor Key). I’ve been too busy with life, the universe, and everything. Its good too see new pages in TFR. This one cracked me up with the LOTR refernece .XP
Hey Minor Key. I know what you mean about being so busy. That’s why I’ve had to reformat the strip. I just can’t keep up with it the way it was but I want to keep it going. I’m glad the LOTR reference cracked you up. I love that line from the movie.
Good, funny strip this week!!
THanks!