Spring Break

March 19th, 2017 by

FORGIVE ME FOR RAMBLING

With the Smoke Break story line done, I will be taking a few weeks off of posting to catch up on some things. My personal time is limited, and being a creative person, I get side tracked on other projects.

Having been a writer most of my life, I have found the best cure for writers block is to keep writing. No matter how stupid or cool you feel an idea is, write it out. If you ignore it, two things happen, it goes away, you have nothing, and you just might have lost the money maker or it sticks around and bothers you until you deal with it. Either way you are blocked.

Letting an idea just go away does not necessarily mean another one will come immediately. Sometimes you have nothing. That is it. The idea you thought was stupid, ignored, and now disappeared, was the idea, if you worked on it, might not work out, but it moves you forward to something else. It is like driving through a field of mud, with the ultimate goal to get to the other side of the field, drive as fast as you can, get as far as you can, until you are stuck. Then get out and walk. You are still getting to the other side of the field, just not in a car.

Dealing with an idea that won’t go away lets you get over it. You might have to wrestle with it, subdue it, and then make it submit to your will, but once you have it dealt with, you can move on. The idea might not be a great one, but it is now dealt with. The idea might be a great one, and now that it is subdued and submitted, you are working with it.

The other thing is, I tend to become distracted. Being creative, I have multiple projects going, and even though I focus on one project, my mind wanders. Ideas pop into my mind, and as stated above, I deal with them. With winter not being harsh, and snow removal not being part of the equation, I had more time to work on personal projects. Explore a few other things. Those things took up more time than I had intended, but it was a learning experience. I am still working on the YouTube channel idea.

I have also fallen out of love with Gorilla Fish in a way, so maybe a bit of a break will help. The idea started out fun, but even when I reformatted the comic, and changed my approach on how I produce the comic, I have run into a few issues with production. Being a one man show, I have to really love what I am doing, otherwise it becomes drudgery. This is where I am at with Gorilla Fish, drudgery. Writing I can do all day long, I love that aspect. Drawing, not my first love, I am a competent artist, and I did take art classes in college, but that was years ago. At least I can do more than stick figures, but I do not want to spend hours on end drawing. Which is unfortunate, because drawing is part of creating a comic book.

I have toyed with the idea of reformatting the comic to a comic strip format. Three or four panels running lineal and I have found through experimenting with other ideas that it is easier to produce. Though it means rewriting the scripts I have already produced, and I do not think it will do Gorilla Fish justice.

My production process at this point is spending time in the morning before work, drawing out a panel, possibly inking it, if I do not get to inking the panel, I will do it after work. Once all the panels are drawn and inked, I scan them in, clean them up, and assemble the comic page for coloring. Coloring the page is very time consuming. There is a process to do the coloring, working in flats, but the more elaborate the panel or the more elaborate the art, the shading becomes more time consuming. I will spend four hours coloring a page, maybe more. Once the page is colored, I letter the page. The whole process is time consuming, if i was not such an expert on photoshop, I would probably be spending even more time. Yes, I do cheat, and cut and copy and paste panels from previous work if I feel it will fit. Even step and repeat of panels.

My goal has always been to shorten the process time, yet maintain a certain level of quality. Make my work flow more efficient. I have not been able to develop the motor skills necessary to work with a Wacom Tablet. I have an old one, and the newer models are more advanced, but the costs are prohibitive for the tablet I really want, and feel it will work for me. I do not want to spend the money on a tablet, find out it is not going to work out, and have another piece of hardware laying around that is now a dust collector. Then sell it for dirt cheap on eBay, when I get tired of looking at it. Electronic equipment becomes obsolete quickly, and the older the equipment, the less people will pay for it. I would have to upgrade my photoshop to the latest version, as well. The costs for photoshop are becoming extortion. Pay our once a month fee or program not work for you. Essentially another monthly bill.

If I change the webcomic I am doing on this site, would that be an issue?

I own the website, I have owned it for 11 years, and I do not really want to lose that ownership, but I do want to put out an idea. The intent of the website has always been about getting my creative ideas out to a broader audience. So far that has not materialized. Here is a list of ideas, and description. Communicate through Facebook or through the contact form.

Kid Spider – He has appeared in Gorilla Fish several times, and I have worked on a comic strip idea for him, even drawing several strips. I had to do something during my time when I was unemployed. He is Bagboy’s young cousin, has spider like super powers, and the comic would focus on a young boy dealing with having super powers, measuring up to his older cousin, and being taken seriously as a hero. Very G rated and child friendly.

Urban Dig – A comic strip that follows Carl Winslow, a private detective who investigates the urban myth or legend landscape. Police do not take the stories seriously, but there are strange things happening in Chicago, Carl is looking into them. This would be sort of adult rated, with drug use, partial nudity, blood and gore.

Commander Valor – A comic strip about a superhero whom is black ops. Though he is the front man for the premier government funded superhero team, Frontline, he works in the dark. He is sort of a Captain America/Batman rip off. It would also be more adult like, i.e. possible nudity, drug use, etc.

Notice all are comic strips? I was thinking of just keeping them black and white for the time being. If you feel that full color should be the way to go, let me know.

Thanks for stopping by.

PS: Seriously communicate. I have all of six people who liked my Facebook page. Those are all friends whom support my creative endeavors no matter what, and I love that, but I need a broader audience.