The Far Reaches Webcomic

Hey, everyone. It’s been a long time since my last update, and I’m afraid I’ve been off the radar for a while. I’ve not been able to focus on comics what with everything else going on in my life. Besides that I’ve been very busy with my game project which is coming along nicely. Maybe it’s because I’m feeling so burnt out I haven’t even been able to look at or read comics at all for a while. I haven’t been able to sit and write anything new on the story. It’s just part of my illness that it makes it difficult to work on some things. Even for my game I’ve only been working on getting the game engine together, but haven’t even been able to touch the story or artwork. It’s like I can’t even get myself to draw. But that happens when you’re bipolar. Actually I’ve been improving a lot thanks to changes in my medications. I went from being unable to do anything at all to being able to at least work on some programming and scripting for my game project.

The game has undergone a lot of changes as well. I’m using RPG Maker XP as my game engine as it’s seems the best for creating a story oriented game. The game is a scifi that takes place in a universe similar to TFR. Like Star Trek online, you get to be a Captain of a starship and start with a small ship and as a 2nd Lieutenant and can work your way up to fleet Admiral commanding a huge dreadnought ship. It takes a lot of the aspects that I like from Star Trek and adds a lot of cool stuff from Star Wars and other things. I’ve pretty much finished putting all the features into the game engine. You’ll get to explore alien worlds, great cities, and space stations, and battle aliens and monsters, and all that sort of rot. The game engine itself is very much like the old SNES Final Fantasy games, only in much higher resolution and full color. Right now the battles are turn-based and similar to early Japanese console RPGs. I’m still trying to work on ways I can make it more interesting.

Another idea I can’t seem to make up my mind is whether or not the player should be working for the Terran Star Navy or be more of a free agent for hire like a privateer or something of that sort that can except missions from the Terran Empire and gain in rank, much like in that old game Pirates! Gold. Still, I don’t want to make it too complicated, or I’ll never get anything done. Also I’ve been thinking of adding a bit of a Victorian steampunk flare to the futuristic scifi to give it some flavor and a unique look. I’m also looking at the various versions of the old tabletop RPG Traveller for inspiration. Let me know what you think.

So there you have it. I haven’t given up on comics entirely, but with bipolar it’s hard to keep up with everything. I still hope to release the second volume of TFR on pdf before too long.

Well, I’m sure you’ve all been waiting to see what our two colorists have been up to! Well, they’ve done a really nice job.  Here are some pages they’ve done:

This first one was always a favorite with me as the two loony doctors argue about treatment. Kelly did a great job capturing the whimsical feel of that page in her colors. Brilliant. The third one in the gallery, is my favorite one by Imposeren. He did a great job bringing life to what was always a favorite page of mine. Good job, both of you. They’ve got some more pages there working on and I’ll post those as soon as they’re done, and as soon as I feel up to it.

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Seeing the brilliant job these fine artists have done really makes me want to hurry up and write the next chapter. I’ve not been feeling up to it lately, and have been working a lot on my game project. But their excellent work has kindled my desire to get some more work on it. Good job, Kelly and Imposeren!

Well, some cool things have happened since my last update. I’ve got two artists, Squireborg (aka Kelly L. Brake) and Imposeren, who have kindly offered to help color the remaining 13 pages that need to be colored so that the comic will be entirely in color! This is of course very cool of them and will benefit the comic a lot

I’m doing some coloring tutorials and tomorrow I’ll do some tutorials for coloring in the GIMP. At least that’s the plan. My doctor has further adjusted my medication and while I’m still very limited, I’ve been able to do a little more on the creative end of things, including designing some early concepts for a new villain: Gundav Morg aka The Green Chicken. I’m also writing chapter seven, although I’m trying to figure out how to do a cool showdown involving Bentley. Health permitting, somehow I will try to continue TFR. The current semi-comic strip layout may be a key to simplifying my approach and keeping it doable. So we’ll see. I’m also thinking of doing a few changes to the character designs too. I’ll try to share some things as I’m able. Until then, a big THANK YOU to Kelly and Imposeren for helping out, and a big thank you to everyone for supporting TFR.

First I just want to say, thanks to you who love TFR so much. It’s really amazing to me that anyone keeps checking back after I’ve been sick all this time, and I think you’re awesome. For you, as much as for myself, I would really like to finish this story. Also this is an amazingly long post, but it’s important and so if you’re interested in keeping TFR alive please slog through it. Or if you prefer, skip to the last couple paragraphs to get the gist.

That said, first of all I’ll be honest with you all. I suffer from a lot of serious depression as well as health problems that often leave me fatigued and barely able to do anything at times. I’m bipolar, which really, really sucks. I mean, sometimes it’s too overwhelming to take a shower. I have days when I have to force myself to do it because I hate being grungy. It’s pathetic but that’s depression for you. I’ve been too depressed to even play any computer games for months, because it just seems overwhelming to me. I’ve been that limited lately.

Especially because of the depression, this comic has not been able to be finished as of yet and I’ve literally been incapable of doing any comic pages. It’s taken me months and several adjustments to my meds just to get to the point were I could draw a single sketch let alone anything resembling a comic page. I’ve talked about my health a lot, but right now I am really disabled and not able to do hardly anything at all, no matter how good my intentions. I know you guys are cool and understanding about that and I thank you for that. That said, my new meds are helping and I’m feeling creative again and able to take on a little more drawing and writing, a little at a time. It’s possible that I will recover enough to start writing TFR again, but I’ve come to the realization that I can’t do it alone.

I’m currently in the process of reapplying for disability because my doctor is firmly of the opinion that I am completely incapable of working even the simplest of entry level jobs without having a serious remission of my illness and possibly ending up hospitalized, because of the stress of the modern workplace. My health has totally degraded these last couple years. That’s the big challenge. That’s why I have spurts where I can update the comic fine, and then a total breakdown where I can’t update at all, and often this lasts for months. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to update at all, and it really blows my mind that so many of you great people are still interested in my humble and perhaps too ambitious efforts. I really really would like to finish what I start, but maybe I can’t do it. Maybe it’s too unrealistic to think I can. But then that would be sad. TFR has so much potential and I believe it could be truly great with the right team helping me.

Thus, I’m open to ideas. It has suddenly occurred to me today that, while I can’t do this alone, it may be possible to team up with some talented and enthusiastic people who are willing to negotiate terms, and handle this as a partnership, or form a small studio for putting out fun and family friendly comics of high quality and splitting any profits whatever the profits may be (assuming there are any). It’s an idea worth sounding out. I’ve even thought about asking around on Deviant Art and seeing if anyone wants to work with me, or at least help me out. I have a professional contract with Drivethrucomics.com, and Wowio.com (which is starting to get back on it’s legs – we’ll see how they do), to produce ebooks which is finally becoming viable with the iPad and other Tablet computers coming out.

To be realistic, there’s not much money in comics usually. Artists do comics because they love doing comics, not because they think they’ll get rich and famous. And frankly I don’t want to be rich and famous. I just want to finish this story, and then possibly go on to another project if it works out (preferably smaller one volume graphic novel sized projects.) Is this even realistic for me to do this, being so disabled as I am right now? I really don’t know.

But because I am so limited, if it’s going to happen at all, first we would have to discuss things without any obligations and I would try to work out the outline to the end of the story before production. Because if I can’t even finish that, then there’s no point getting others involved when I’m to sick to do anything. Be that as it may, I’m thinking finishing the story will take 100-150 pages, divided up into several somewhat self-contained episodes. Maybe six 25 page episodes, roughly?And this is of course assuming my meds continue to help to the point where I could do anything at all. I am feeling better and better every day. So maybe with right partner or small team, it might be possible to update regularly and finish this thing which would certainly make me happy, and I know many of you would like to see that happen.

Then before doing anything definite as to the art or production, because my health is so limited, I need to work a little at a time, I would write the entire script for the first episode. As I see it, this episode will be sort of self-contained and start with a page of “the story thus far” like Girl Genius does with their books. This will allow new people to get up to speed, but it’ll only be a one or two page summary, and then the story will start just a little after where the last strip left off. This would be on their quest to decrypt the data in the ancient datasphere. That will be like a TV episode of a scifi show. It’ll advance the over-arcing storyline, yet have a beginning, middle and end, and be a doable 20-25 pages. The story is in my head, it just needs to be scripted.

I want to to be easy for new readers to get in on it, with a view toward selling ebooks on Drivethrucomics, and Wowio, but still updating for free here. And I want to do better with planning before production so the story has a solid structure, and I won’t ask anyone to work with me until I’ve got the first story written. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew (again), so I was thinking of dealing with just one 20-25 page episode at a time and trying to keep it low stress. Assuming I can outline out the whole story (which is already in my head, I know how it all goes it’s just a matter of writing it), and then finish a script (possibly with help if anyone is willing to work with me), then maybe we can at least have one nice finished episode. If I can find one or two able artists and or writers who’d like to partner up on the project, with good organizational skills, and a desire to help see it to the end and split any money if it makes any, then possibly we can raise TFR to a new successful level, and keep the comic going one episode at a time.

I’m sorry this post is so long and possibly not as coherent as I’d like. This has literally just occurred to me this afternoon as I was replying to Imposeren’s comment. Will it work? I don’t know. Am I getting well enough to deal with this? I don’t know. But I thought it’s at least worth throwing out there and seeing what everyone thinks. Can I find the right people that would be able to work with me as a good team and really care about the project and be able to handle it professionally? I really don’t know. It maybe biting off more than I can chew again, but I do know that I simply can’t do this on my own. I’m just too disabled right now.

On the other hand I was able to get done over 300 pages when I was feeling better, though I wasn’t capable of updating consistently. So there you have it. It’s just an idea literally hot of the griddle of my strange and somewhat limited brain. I have to be honest and say that I really don’t know what I’d be able to do. But maybe with one or two team-mates it could be a success.  Well, that’s all. That’s how everything stands. I’m very open to comments, suggestions, kind reality-checks, ideas, etc. I really love The Far Reaches, and I’d really like to see it become something special and hopefully successful, and I’d really like to hear everyone’s ideas.

Sorry this is so incredibly long but I had a lot to say. But to sum up, I’m very disabled right now and am thinking of the idea of teaming up with some talented and professional people if I can find any who would like to help me take The Far Reaches, with all it’s potential, and raise it to new and exciting heights. I’m taking this project very seriously, despite my limitations, and I’d like to keep it professional. Yet, because of my limitations, it has to be easy going, low stress, “baby steps” etc., and most of all it has to be fun! This is more than my webcomic. It’s more than my dream project that I’ve been evolving and building on for the last 15 years or so, and finally turned into a webcomic four years ago.  TFR has been my therapy. It’s been my organized creative outlet. And it’s been wonderful sharing my dreams with all of you. So I would really like to see it’s potential realized and see it successful or at least finished. But there’s more wisdom in a multitude of counselors, so please give me your input.