Year: 2013

And GIMP caught up to OSX Maverick again!  Which means I can make comics again!  Huurah!  Here’s the color version of the most recent comic, and more to come!

So as you probably noticed, today’s comic was in black and white.  That’s not supposed to happen.  I’m having a couple technical difficulties interfering with comic-making.  Problem #1 is that I use a Logitech mouse.  Since upgrading to OSX Maverick, it has been a little touchy and won’t always drag what needs to be dragged.  This is a pain, but workable.  However, I ALSO have the problem of GIMP (my art program) crashing on me unexpectedly and frequently.  As you might imagine, this significantly delays comic production and turns making comics from a fun hobby to a pain in my butt.  The last few weeks have been very scattered in updates because of this, and that’s why there are no backgrounds or color in today’s strip.

SO, that’s where I’m at.  As we just reached the end of The Featherhead, it is a good time to put the comic on hiatus until I can get this sorted out/new drivers come out.  I don’t plan on being idle during this time; I will draw twice as many comics with the intent of editing and updating twice a week once I get my tech to cooperate.

So first of all, I’d like to thank Brianna for her help in getting the aforementioned GIMP issue fixed. That was a big help.  Turns out it was pretty simple; the version of GIMP that I had didn’t play nicely with OSX Maverick, which I had just installed.  Easy fix…if you realize that’s the problem!

The lack of comic today, however, has little to do with these technical problems.  It turns out that in making the comic (which was done ahead of time!), I realized I had come down with a severe case of nincompoopitis and accidentally skipped a week! Given that I had already made plans for today, I didn’t get a chance to rectify my error on time.  Today’s comic IS inked and will hopefully be posted in the next day or two once I color it.  The good news is that next week’s comic is already done!

So tomorrow’s comic is drawn, inked, edited, and colored. The only thing remaining is the text. HOWEVER, the art program I use (GIMP) is spazzing out whenever I try to type. Anyone familiar with GIMP who can help me fix this problem? I can’t finish a comic until I get it fixed! (And yes, IT Crowd fans, I have tried turning it off and on.)

As you have noticed, there is a lack of both comic and sketchbook this week.  It’s the end of the quarter, which tends to be chaotic, my mother-in-law is visiting from Colorado all week, we’ve had sewage issues (talk about a crappy problem…), I was out camping with the Boy Scouts all weekend, and I’ve been working through some personal problems.  I was hoping to get a late post up this week (it is already inked, after all), but I think at this point it would be best if I spent time with family and gave myself a chance to get back on my feet. Fall break starts tomorrow; I intend to get a buffer of a couple comics under my belt.  I know you guys are dying to see elf-Nikki; come back Sunday!

The Sunday comic may be a bit on the late side.  It’s been a really chaotic week with a couple of 12 hour workdays and a trip to Lincoln, so I haven’t had a chance to start it other than scripting and I’m on the road again today.  I am hoping to post by Sunday evening.

Also, yes, it appears I borked the website somehow.  Will try to fix later.

Hey all, I’ve listed my comic on several different places and I would really like to see my ranking go up! You guys are awesome already; I did the math and at the time of this posting we’re in the top 5.4% at The Webcomic List!  The links to the different places where you can find the comic are over to your right; feel free to click on the links and vote on the ones that allow voting! There’s a bit of extra incentive at Top Web Comics; I am going to preview the next sketchbook over there if you vote for me! You can do so by clicking the box to the right or just simply by clicking here.

I think i’ve gotten mostly everything the way I want it, with only a few small exceptions. Let me know if there’s something you would like to see on the site and I’ll see what I can do! Also, Frumph of Comic Easel gets lots of awesome points for walking me through the transfer between ComicPress and Comic Easel; I am NOT a programmer and some of this stuff tends to go over my head!

Also, I mentioned this on Twitter and Facebook, but I’ll also point it out here: there are now Cast, New Reader, and Archive pages! The Cast page in particular is pretty awesome. Not only that, but it’s linked to each comic so that little tags of all characters present pop up with info when you mouse over them. Very useful for when you forget who’s who!

Getting close to the comic’s fourth anniversary (Aug. 31); I’ve got all sorts of stuff planned and it’s really exciting! The first thing I intend to do is a large advertising campaign. While I may have been making comics for four years, I have done a very poor job of marketing the comic. That changes at the start of August! Because of all the new readers, I intend to do a recap of the comic so far. Now, you may be thinking “why a recap? You only update once a week; that’s gonna take a month at least!” Fear not! During the week of the comic’s birthday, I intend to update EVERY DAY.  This will be followed by what I consider to be the comic’s greatest story arc yet. I’ll give you a little teaser: it involves John.

I’m switching the comic over from ComicPress to Comic Easel. Please excuse the mess while I design the new site. Thanks!

So apparently the drama from this post isn’t over yet.  Mother Nature started by freezing Nebraska out through most of spring, and if you recall that also involved a lightning strike on my house.  Well, apparently the air conditioner got fried by that as well, and had been limping along until last Thursday when it finally gave up the ghost.  Luckily, the past week has been nice and cool, but living in a rural area means getting anyone out here, especially on the week of the 4th, takes time.  Got someone out here today and now we have to wait to play the insurance game and it’s gonna be HOT this week! Whee!