Sorry I missed last friday’s comic. I was so busy working on another project and frankly just didn’t feel motivated to complete pg 201. But I decided to do it this morning and get it done. It really didn’t take too long to do, being pretty simple. I think the solution to my coloring problem is simply keeping the pages simple and limiting them to three to five panels, and have no more than one establishing shot or fancy background per page. Or something like that. That and I’m trying to simplify my coloring process so it doesn’t take so long. It’s the first step to doing it three times a week.
I’m going to try and get the comic on track again. I think it really lost momentum when I took the sideline to the Ice planet and this whole story with Vellara. It wasn’t strictly necessary to the main story and really if it doesn’t directly move the plot it should be left out. However, I don’t want to abruptly skip the whole thing as the conclusion should be really good and will be directly related to the main story. So I’m going to try and get us there as soon as possible. But page 201′s scene with Bentley is important. We’ll have some cool Bentley stuff soon, and revisted uncle Kilgore and Wellington too.
I really wanted to do a more comic strip style, gag a day with a good story, kind of strip. But the idea of writing gag strips and having to come up with punch lines is daunting. I can tell a story, but I don’t know that I can do a punch-line a day. So I’m thinking maybe the project should be a standard comic story, with comedy in it. I’ve been doing a ton of reading and research and really trying to decide what I most want to do. I’ve filled up an entire Moleskin notebook with notes and background research. I want it to be something that I can really have fun with. Of course, ultimately, I should transform Far Reaches so that it meets that standard too, fix it so that it’s really what I want to tell. And hopefully, I can do both.
Good luck! You already know you could always mix in gag strips or even whole side storylines (like the sheep one) if you feel like a change of pace.
Tales of the Questor doesn’t have a gag a day, and it’s awesome. ^.^ Not as rewarding on a per-day basis, but have you ever gone through its archives? It’s arguably jumped the shark at some point though.
Thanks! I’ll have to take a look at Tales of the Questor, though I’m not sure what “jumped the shark means.”
But I am planning on making some changes and getting back to the more epic storyline. I need to think back to what I really want to see in my comic and then make it that way.
It refers to an episode of Happy Days when Fonzie had to prove he was cool by jumping over a shark as a gimmick to keep viewers, however it actually made the show worse and Happy Days never recovered so now “jumping the shark” means that a show or game is no longer entertaining and any further shows, games, or projects with the name should be canceled.