I have seen the end..

There were no survivors. OR some news.

First, the usual news you get from me here, next weekend I’ll be out traveling, so again the usual update lapse will happen.

In other news, this past week I finished thumbnailing the last page of BRINK, it’s been a long journal but we’re winding down to the very end here. Looking at a little over 50 pages left before I get to make the last achievement of web comic creation, posting the final page.

Oops update and small delay

So yeah by now most of my viewers know I’m rather good at having preset dates I plan to be out of town and such not updating the comic.

Last weekend was one of them, and like I forget sometimes, I forgot to leave a note about this planned missed update.

This weekend’s update was planned to be a full two pages. However life had other plans. I broke my Wacom pen, and had to rush order a new one. So, Monday’s page is currently only penciled. Once that pen shows up, I’ll have Monday’s page finished and uploaded. For now, hang tight, it should only be a day or two delay and won’t effect next weekend’s update either.

Taking a two week break

Well, it has been awhile since I’ve taken more than a single weekend off from the comic, it’s been long over due.

I’ll be out for a usual one weekend break due to convention traveling, and a few extra days in Seattle after the fact. Due to this I’ve decided to also take off the following weekend to catch up life. Cross coast flights rather destroy me.

So check back for new pages on the 13th of October.

Hiatus, of some sort, or not?

Alright, that chapter end came at the perfect time, as I do tend to usually take off a week after finishing a chapter.

Due to some unplanned, and rather serious going ons here, there’s a chance I’ll be hiatus-ed for a bit.

How long will it be? A week at the least. With a very real possibility it may run two, maybe three weeks. It really depends on a range of very unstable variables from here. I’ll be drawing the pencil part of pages even during the off times, and should be able to do some three post weeks to make up for it, if this does run past two weeks of missed work.

Really wish this stuff wasn’t happening, and even more so that it’s going to directly interfere with my ability to create pages for a bit on a set time table.

EDIT: Updates will start again on the 21st.

Book one, ready for sale!

Alright, as promised details for grabbing a copy came along with this weekend’s update.

Right now you can get a copy of book, which contains chapters one, two and three, over on Indyplanet for $15.99, plus shipping: http://www.indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7205

I will be running a one time order of these books which I will sign, sketch your favorite character in, and personally mail out to you with some original pencil work used in the comic. This will open sometime this week, and will cost $25 with various shipping options for a little extra. Check back for details on Monday.

Massive update GO!

Alright, as of posting this all of chapters one to three are finalized in revision for print. Which means…book one will be available for purchase very soon. I have exactly half of the page formatted for print prior to this update, with the other half finishing up over this week.

Details on how yo get your hands on both normal dead tree books, and the potential for sketched, signed copies coming by next update.

RE: Site virus issues

First, a huge thanks for everyone that dropped me email letting me know about this. I would not have noticed this myself as I run every level of script blocker I can for web browsing.

The back story? This was related to a data breach late last month that happened with my host. Originally it seemed it didn’t effect my server, however it did effect some WordPress installs, of which I was not notified. The good part? It’s rather harmless, just an annoying redirect, and over all posed no threat to you or your PCs.

As of right now I’ve cleared it out as best I can, and there was some site downtime during that. I have a WP plugin running to watch for any new changes to my PHP, and have run some checks against the site, and so far this should be removed for good.

IF anything else starts giving any of you warnings via virus blockers, please bring it to my attention.

Thanks.

Oops

Sorry for the unaccounted, but totally planned two weeks off there. My message of such spent the same vacation time as me sitting in the draft folder on WordPress.

Next weekend posting will have Monday moved to Tuesday due to PAX East shenanigans.

Intermediate breaking

Taking off this coming weekend from updates, for two reasons:

1. I want to catch up on the revamping of earlier pages for print. Also, point 1.a: You have 4 new pages added today.
2. It’s safe to say I need to catch up on thumb nailing new chapter pages, to say I am close to finishing this comic would be an under statement. I expect I’ll be done thumb nailing the whole thing in the next few months, and have a set number of pages to announce then too.

If I don’t get up to page 85 done for revamping this weekend I will be so disappointed in myself. See you guys on the 10th with new pages.

We’ve been outbreaked

Added myself to Ink Outbreak for those that wish to have an easier way to keep their place in the comic as they read:

And I did some clean up on the layout. Chapters are now on the right bar, via a dropbox, the nested links where getting a little crowded. Should also help speed up your first load of the site, many things will be cached after the first load.

Off, away, gone!

Those news posts you hate so much, next weekend will lack in updates as I will be off on the opposite coast for the time being. I will have a few new updated pages to post the Wednesday prior to the disappearance, as a parting gift.

Updates will continue the weekend of the 21st, and not be interrupted again until March.

 

No power, no comic

I had things ready to go, but Nature had a different idea, one that left me without power for five days.

I am also STILL without power. I have been promised that 99% of my town will be back online by Friday at Midnight. I stopped being hopeful, and now think I’ll be in that 1% that’s going to be out until Sunday.

– I do have heat, luckily we have a natural gas space heater in the basement that can warm the whole house.
– I don’t even want to think about the cost of all the frozen food I’ll have to throw this weekend due to lack of power.
– My fish nearly died, and are pretty unhappy with the lack of filtration ATM.

What this means for comics? Right now, I can’t scan, color, or letter any of the three pages I have ready. I will likely have a page up this coming Monday, and do a three day update next weekend (Sat/Sun/Mon).

Bring it back around

Alright, yes I did miss last Monday’s page completely. I was busy.

In return, I bring you the results of my 24 hour comic: http://theskulldog.com/24hour/2011/

And the promise that tomorrow evening I’ll be updating four more pages on project revamp.

Also of note, I will be out of for the next two weekends, so no guaranteed updates. I may try to get a page ready for auto-posting, but not holding my breath that I get the time for it. After this, I shouldn’t have too many more breaks until the end of the year.

24 hour comic madness

I’ll be participating in my own 24 hour comic project starting tomorrow morning and running until I complete 24 pages of comic. last year I did this in about 22 hours.

This may mean Monday’s page will be delayed, depending on how hard a full day of being awake smacks me. At least I’ll have a little 24 page story to share with you afterwards.

Bonus page + Project revamp

Looks like we hit a bonus page for donations. :)

Already on it, and the extra third page for the week should be up Thursday, along with the standard two page update this week. Huge thanks, your donations to the site really help me as an artist doing this for mostly free, and I enjoy getting the seasonal Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes with your donations this month. HINT HINT.

I’ve reset the donation bar, another $25 and I’ll post another page mid week again.

Also, I’ve been trying to allot more free time toward project revamp, I’ve been poked, and noted, and emailed about the progress on the dead tree format , so here’s an update. I’m over halfway to having chapters one to three ready for print. The goal is to have the first book ready for sale around Christmas. I am not sure if this will happen, but I still have time. Right now it’s looking like the cost of a personalized copy with sketch will be $28, and include shipping within the US (Those outside the US, shipping will bring the price up a few bucks depending on your location)

[poll id=”8″]

I will only be ordering a set number of books to personalize, so this poll will help me find a comfortable number to order. After the customized books are sold, only orders for unsigned/sketched books will be offered for around $19+ shipping costs.

More details to follow, as I get closer to the end of my revamp work.

 

Other comic spam fest ’11

Otherwise known as, please don’t notice I missed page update last Monday. I was off enjoying the last of the summer weather I’ll get here in New England. This included some fancy beer and 12 hours of smoking stuff on the grill.

Anyway, two awesome folks have started posting comics that I am a fan of, and I think are worth sharing with you.

Halfmoon – by Milokey. Vampires, werewolves and other monsters in a modern setting, done up in digital color. The whole first chapter is up for this one.

Thieves – by Akumyo. Dark and gritty story telling, in lovely pen and ink. Up to page seven is up, and posting pretty regularly.

If you do one thing after reading today’s BRINK page, go give those two some extra eyeballs.

Incoming trip and resulting fail posts

No celver title, just a head’s up that next week will have a single page update, and I’ll be out of town from the 16th to the 25th, which means no updates during that time, other than the single page that will happen next weekend.

Go out, get some sun and enjoy the summer weather while I’m gone.

Maybe I’ll come back with some sketch art to toss up for bonus vote material (And maybe I’ll find the thumbnails for the current mini comic that’s been stalled for a bit? I can dream)

The past kind of sucks, things now are great

Pardon that I didn’t make a note that I would be out of town last weekend, and as such there would be no update. But that doesn’t matter now does it? Since we’re here, with updates now.

I may do some ducking out of double page updates over the next few months, as I’ll be doing the Art Slam Challenge. This is a tentative head’s up, but who knows, I may get time to do both in lovely artistic harmony.

And if you enjoy following my comic work, my secondary comic, Asis is going to start a massive seven page update to finish out the first chapter as of June 1st.

Books of interest

I think I would like to never deal with formatting over 250 pages in less than a week, ever again. Can we agree to this?

The work paid off though, right now I have two smashingly fun books in dead tree format just waiting to fill that void on your shelf.


Trails is a 220 black and white sketchbook featuring 10 years of art, as well as 50 pages of comic work. This War Machine is a 36 page full color stand alone comic, and features some extra design work sketches to round out the 50 page count.

Newsly updates

That IUO page? Coming up soon, I did the math for how to post the last of chapter 17, and it turns out this time, I end on an even number of pages for weekly updates. The usual tradition is to take the following off, so I can do some opener/ender art, but this time I’ll do a single page post to make up for that missed update a few weeks ago.

Deal? Yes.

Also, you should check out ‘Good Enough’, another webcomic I’ve added to my list of things I am currently reading.

Geekery and it’s effects

That Monday page? Yeah..let’s talk about that.

Not happening, nor is next weekend’s update. I can explain really.

I don’t get a lot of trips to relax to conventions, usually I’m busting ass and not sleeping so I can pay bills. I have one a year that I do get to just go, party hard, and geek out. And that’s PAX East. I will be there, just being my chill self all weekend.

And Monday? That was Pokemon Black. A million pardons, I also don’t get a lot of time to just enjoy a game.

I O U: One extra page after my glorious return from the pits of geekery.

My snow story

How’s it going? Yes.

Me, I’ve been battling massive snow storms, and internet outages the last two weeks. However, most of that is over now. I can wear normal jackets now.

In regards to the ‘One Week’ storyline, and the poll from last month. I’ve just finished doing the thumbnails for the chapter, it will contain some of the story as a weekly posting, but a handful of bonus pages (Official number TBA), will only be given out to donors during the month it starts to run. Best of both worlds, the stuff that furthers the story directly is will be available for everyone, and some fun extra stuff that isn’t directly referenced later will be a reward for helping keeping my hosting bill from eating my food bill.

If anyone is curious, I pay roughly $10.49 a month to keep this comic up, which currently, my adspace barely covers on a good month. Donations are always welcome. Or likewise, purchasing of original art and merchandise from my online store helps out just as much.

You know what else is awesome? A good friend is offering up pre-orders for her comic Elysion Age, and super good price, if you haven’t checked it out, you should.

Bittersweet Poll

So, lately I’ve been catching up to thumb nailing the comic, and it’s really hit me that I’m pretty close to the end at this point. I stopped work when I hit a point where I had originally included a 12ish page side story called ‘One Week’. Originally I had planned this side to be given to donors, as it didn’t add anything directly to the story and was just a fun little detour into details of an event that will happen in the story.

Now that I’ve actually hit this point, I think I might be able to make it a bit more in depth and pull it into a half sized chapter in itself.

What say you guys?

[poll id=”7″]

Away again

Alright, just a head’s up that next weekend there will be no updates, as I’ll be out of town, and then moving into a brand new home.

Donations made during the down time will go toward that next update. See everyone again on Thanksgiving.

Blasting back into action

Rocked a good weekend out of town, and back to the comic grind. I’m doing a three page update this weekend to make up for not having time to do a page for last weekend.

My other past time the last week as been soap making. It was probably a poor idea to start with my favorite smell in the world: Coffee.

You can grab some too, and make my work room stop smelling so damn good.

No page for this weekend sadness

Well long story short, I was out of town last weekend, got home later than planned due to a delayed flight, and only had two days to get ready for leaving again in a few hours.

And. I haven’t even gotten to the pencils for a new page.

I feel bad, since I also received some donations while I was gone, which would have tipped the donation bar into a two page update this weekend. I just didn’t have a free moment to do a page.

I’ll pus that into a three page update for the first weekend in November, deal? We cool.

Go enjoy some Halloween candy in my giant void like absence.

Camping out

Just a head’s up that I will be out of town over next weekend. Consider it an early Christmas trip to visit my parents. I have one page ready to auto post, but I will not have a Monday update for the weekend.

I’ve also added three more pages to project revamp.

Project revamp progress

Finished up another five pages of project revamp, so you can enjoy up to page 38 in all it’s less blurry glory. That  puts me just shy of halfway, and with the work I’ll be doing next week, we should hit the official midpoint fairly soon.

I’ve also brought back the donation bar of official fun goals. This time for the magical week and half I’ll be away from my computer.

24 hour madness

Alright, I’ve set Saturday’s page to post automagically, since I’m not too sure how late I’ll be home to do it myself.

Me, I’ll be in Boston for this : http://www.roger-waters.com/

This is a bit of a ‘Bucket list’ item for me, and it happened to fall over my boyfriend’s birthday.

Then after I feel like I can die happen, I have to get up, make some coffee and start on a 24 hour comic. Since I won’t be able to make it out to any local ones being held, I’m holding one on my own time. Starting roughly noon EST on the 2nd, I’ll be starting. I’ve made a little chat room for anyone that wants to join in and try to stay awake for 24 hours along with me. http://theskulldog.com/blah/blab.php

Still hoping I can get a Monday update done as well.

Mini comic up!

Finished up the mini comic ‘Pass and Fail’, you can go read it now over here: https://paperfangs.com/brink/?cat=28

Next weekend will be a standard two page update, as I want to create some pages to cover the weekend afterward. The October 1st weekend is a bit crazy for me. First I’ll be seeing Roger Waters in concert, then the following day I’ll be holding a 24 hour day.

I’m also hoping to get a special donor only wallpaper done, so people have something throw their precious dollars at while I’m not working on extra pages.

State of the dead

Alright, the pencils for the two page side story are up as a vote incentive. I am coloring them as I type this, multitasking I know. I’m hoping to have one of them done over the weekend.

I would say both will be done, but..we’re having another three page update to the main story this weekend.  Doing a Friday/Saturday/Monday goal.

Next week I’m taking a break, so I can finish the mini comic, the next page of City full of Things, and revamp more pages for printing.

Speaking of that, I’ve just updated pages 21-27 with the new versions. Let’s see if I can blast through that and have the first book ready for sale by Christmas.

If you only read one of the non-comic posts here, this should be it.

Alright, Sunday’s page is all geared up to post automagically while I’m out of town. If for some reason it doesn’t auto-post, which has happened before, I should be home at some point on Sunday evening to fix it.

As an added bonus, you might also note that I’ve given the first 20 pages of the comic a little face lift. Every page in that group has it’s wonky text and speech bubbles replaced, and a few pages even got a little artistic updating.

Why do this? I think it’s high time I actually got together the early story into a dead tree format. When i sat down to start formatting it for Ka-Blam’s specifications, I really noticed how horrid the early pages are, and I couldn’t live with myself if I offered them as is.

I need some input from the readers on what size/price point you’d rather have in a paperback edition. Right now I’m wavering between the first volume being either the first three chapters, or the first five.

[poll id=”6″]

Right now the only concern I have with having the first volume be all five chapters, is that I don’t know the final page count for the comic, and as such, wouldn’t want to end up vastly different sized volumes in the end.

A tale of epic-ness

First I must lament that it seems I will NEVER find a Donation plugin for WordPress that works %100 of the time.  I’ve been manually adding donations here.

Anyway, the point of this off time post is that both my incentive bars are full. Yeah!

Thanks to the support of viewers, everyone gets a bonus page for this weekend’s update. Look forward to a Saturday/Sunday/Monday update path. However, since I’ll be out of town for a bit of the weekend, I won’t be able to start on the side comic right away, and will have to wait until next week to get them colored.

New donation goals will go up once I make good on what’s owed now. I have a cute wallpaper in mind to give out as an extra bonus to donors for the next goal.

And hey, entertain me with questions. I made a Fromspring ages ago. Ask deep serious art questions, ask silly innate stuff. Or since I’m hardcore, you can even ask scary anonymous questions too.

Cranking along

Been awhile since I’ve done such a long stretch of pages without any snags, delays or conventions getting in the way, hasn’t it?

Well, come October there is some potential weekend killing trips. I’ll try to gets some backlog ready for those.

In the mean time, if you’re craving more comics, you can take a little wander over to my secondary story I’ve started posting:

Updating monthly, with 21 pages already online.