A Bit of a Heart to Heart…

Well, folks, you’ve probably noticed that the last few weeks have been rough, what with the late and missed strips.

There have been several factors, but the two biggest are an increased amount of artistic work in other areas, and a little personal questioning of what I’m wanting from this strip.

Let me address the first factor – I am thankful and in awe of how God has allowed me the opportunity to use my limited artistic abilities in a lot of new and neat ways. Did I expect to be kept as busy as I have been? No, but I’m thrilled about it. The only unfortunate thing is the position it puts me in – that is, the “something’s gotta give” position. It has led to a time of hard decisions I will have to make in the coming months.

Which has led to the second factor – personally wondering what I’m looking for from this comic strip. I had very few expectations when I first started the strip. Essentially, it was just for me, to prove I could do it, to follow through with it. With over 75 strips completed, coming back to the strip even after a major setback, I feel comfortable counting those as “goals achieved.”

Now, though, I’m stuck with wondering what is next. My attempts to increase readership has, for the most part, met with less than stellar success… and they weren’t that great to begin with.

That is now an issue. See, I’ve done what I wanted to with the strip, and I’ve shown myself that I can do it… so, if I’m not doing it just for myself anymore, I kinda need to be doing it for others.

For my faithful readers, you have my greatest appreciation, and don’t worry – despite the downer tone of the previous statement, I’m not stopping the strip.

But, there will be changes.

The biggest is that, for the time being, the strip will be posting every Tuesday and Thursday instead of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That’s right – twice a week instead of three times. For many of you who only stop by once a week to read the strips (and, my stats tell me this is many of you), you probably won’t notice any major difference other than the 1/3 drop in strips. For those of you that check in each day, I ask your pardon in the switch.

What am I hoping to accomplish with the twice a week posting? Well, I can’t ignore the fact that I’m getting more work away from the strip right now, and I’m choosing to cultivate that more. But, I’d also really like to make some improvement in my skills, and hopefully integrate those into the strip. Hopefully, the reduced workload will payoff in that.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

- Billy

Strip 78

It was just announced that the Sci Fi Channel (or whatever their stupid name is now) is going to be producing a telefilm based on The Phantom, with hopes of turning it into a series (like they did with Battlestar Galactica).

Now, some of you may not realize this, but I’m a HUGE Phantom Phan. (Yes, just dorky enough to use that spelling, too.) I’m both uber-excited over this, and a little scared.

See, two days ago, when the announcement was first made, I was not thrillled. Yes, it was a film of a favorite character of mine (a four hour film, as a matter of fact), but Exectutive VP of Original Programming Mark Stern talked about it being more “realistic” and made this statement: “It isn’t a guy in purple tights.”

Yeah.

Nevermind the idea of them using something BESIDES the purple outfit that the character has worn for decades, I was kinda thrown by the statement itself. The Phantom has NEVER been just “a guy in purple tights.” The Phantom is an honorable character, a generational hero, one that has stood for the best of what humanity is. He has made himself into an instrument of justice through training and education, passing down the concept from father to son for generations.

Making it sound like the concept was too ridiculous not to update with the throwaway statement like “It isn’t a guy in purple tights” kinda shows a complete lack of knowledge of the character.

Needless to say, I was worried.

Then, this morning, many of my fears were put at ease. In a story at Newsarama, more information was put out about the film. The concept, while a bit of a departure from the comics, sounds pretty good (and a bit familiar if anyone besides me ever watched the great animated series “Phantom 2040″), and you can tell that, despite the idiotic statements of an executive, the people handling the film have a true love and respect for the character.

Plus, we are told the character is keeping his overall attitude towards heroics and his low-tech approach, along with many of the traditional elements of the character. Oh, and we are also told one other thing is being kept: “And of course the purple and black. You just don’t mess with the purple and black.”

Hey, you know what? They want to make the suit more functional and practical, I’m okay with that. Just make sure that I can recognize the character.

Alright, I’m out. See you all on Friday.

Strip 77

I try to avoid “deep thought” kinda posts here. They just make for slow reading… especially since they are often cryptic. Nevertheless…

I’m dealing with some things, wondering about the line between what one is doing versus what they should be doing. I think we are all hesitant to close off opportunities, even for the sake of the stronger possibilities.

We, as humans, like to keep those options open. There is a comfort in not putting all of our eggs in one basket. And, yet, by doing so, we lessen what we could be doing with focus on the one thing.

It is hard to let go of those other things, though. It is like breaking up… like saying goodbye to a part of yourself… or something you always saw as yourself.

I’ve talked about artists before. One of my majors in college was art. I was always amazed to read about artists whose focus was so varied. Great artists like DaVinci and Michaelangelo… and it would always strike me, what if they had truly focused on one thing – how much more amazing would their work have been?

Yet, I wrestle with it, and my choices are not nearly so recognizable. But, there is something there… a thing to embrace, to nurture… while letting everything else fall away.

You make the choice… embrace the narrow but deep path, or accept the broad and shallow path. It is a simple, but certainly not easy, decision.

See you next time.

Strip 76

Yeah… Monday’s strip didn’t happen. Sorry.

So, anyway, Warner Bros. has announced that they are releasing a collection of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons. These are, probably, some of the greatest cartoons ever made.

But the news is kinda “meh.”

See, these cartoons have been released many times over the years. In fact, I know I have some of them I bought on DVD from a dollar store, which is much nicer than the $26.99 price tag that is being stuck on this new collection.

Oh, sure, there are some special features, but it looks to be little more than the 17 original cartoons, interviews with animators about the impact of these cartoons, and somebackground on the Fleischer studios.

Now, if they told me that the cartoons were improved from the previous releases, like how Disney releases things now, that would be something. Cleaning up a print, improving the color saturation… I might go for that. But the same cartoons and some interviews? Not so much.

That’s about it for today. On a quick aside, I’ve been thinking a lot about this comic strip, and what I want from it. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not making any plans to discontinue it. I’ve paid for the domain name for the next decade! No, I’m thinking about how big a focus I want this to have in my life. There are steps I could take to make this bigger… but, since I don’t see this strip as a “career,” I don’t know if I want to make that kind of investment of self, time, and money. At the same time, I don’t know if I’m satisfied with as far as I’ve gone with this. The whole thing is going to take some thought and prayer for guidance. Just wanted to share.

See you Friday.

Nothing to see here…

… just move on.

Strip 75

Well, looky there! 75 strips!

As I wait for my complicated computer set up to boot up to work on cleaning up and coloring my strips each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I find myself going to Hulu and watching clips to pass the time.

Sure, that site has full length programs and movies, and that’s cool, but I’m not looking for that kind of time investment when I’m trying to work on my strip.

Lately, I’ve been really enjoying clips of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on Saturday Night Live. It’s been a long, long time since I actually watched an episode of SNL, for good reason, but in these two to five minute chunks, it can be pretty good. And, for some reason, Dwayne Johnson is generally pretty great in these sketches.

Alright, that’s the ramble for today. I’m planning on enjoying my weekend, and hope you do, too! See ya Monday!

Strip 74

So, they are thinking of rebooting the Fantastic Four and Daredevil film franchises.

Understandable, really. I mean, there is Fox, with the rights to these, and they performed kinda “eh.” That “eh” is only emphasized after this past summer with Iron Man and The Dark Knight.

I can actually go along with Daredevil. I’ve been told the director’s cut is actually really good, but I haven’t seen it, and, not being a big fan of Ben Affleck to begin with, I don’t want to sit through it again. Besides, I don’t think I could take that dance/fight scene on the playground between him and Jennifer Garner again.

The problem with Daredevil, though, is that it will never perform up to their hopes. First, unlike Batman, Daredevil is not a household name. Even with decades of comics and a major motion picture, Daredevil isn’t that well known. I know, I know – some folks would say the same of Iron Man. But that leads to the second point – even with a lesser known character like Iron Man, you at least had the uber-neat special effects. I mean, they could have called that movie “The Centurion,” and it still would have been a hit for the effects alone. But Daredevil? No call for any cutting edge amazing effects.

Sadly, the best they can probably hope for (and, I say this with much trepidation) is to ask Frank Miller to adapt one of his stories for the big screen. With it being his own work, maybe the results won’t be as catastrophic as The Spirit.

When it comes to the Fantastic Four, they are talking about a darker movie, less “Bubblegum.” Dark, in my opinion, isn’t the tone for a great Fantastic Four film. With a Fantastic Four film, you want a great, over the top adventure, and combine that with the amazing family dynamics for which the group is famous.

Sadly, I don’t think they will ever get it right. Oh, a Fantastic Four film that is perfectly balanced in that way was made, and it was great. It was called The Incredibles. That film is the perfect example of what a Fantastic Four film should be.

Maybe they should just hire that writer to handle the rebott of the Fantastic Four franchise, hmm?

Alright, folks, see you on Friday!

Strip 73

I’ve been sitting here with the strip ready to be done and posted for almost an hour now. For the life of me, I’m having a complete blank on what I should write down here, though.

I had something earlier. I think. That actually happens a lot. I’ll be driving home from work at 7:15 a.m., think, Oh, wow, I know what I’ll write about. I then smile, turn the rado up and groove to the tunes on the way home. Somewhere, in that 10 minute drive (yeah, I live that close to work), I completely forget what I was going to type.

It is frustrating.

I know I wasn’t going to talk about Watchmen. I haven’t seen it, and, well, frankly, EVERYONE is talking about it. I don’t think I was going to talk about anything I’ve read in the comics recently.

Oh… wait… something…

Nope. Its gone.

Oh, well. I’ve wasted enough time. I’m just going to throw this strip up here and try to come up with something more interesting to type about next time. Maybe I’ll start carrying around a notepad…

See you all on Wednesday!

Strip 72

And, there you have my first flashback.

I have nothing against flashbacks, but I know some folks hate them. Only one aspect of this one really bothered me: coloring it.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I clean up and save these strips using Photoshop Elements, but I color using MSPaint. (And it shows!)

Today, I could have used the massive abilities of Photoshop, though. For a flashback, I think it is important to make a visible, yet subtle, difference from a “real time” panel. I once stopped reading a comic book years ago because most of the time I couldn’t tell if I was reading a flashback or something happening in the moment. It made for a very confusing read. I also remember a comic book where the flashbacks were done all in red tones – which may have been effective, if I could tell what was going on. Oh, I’m sure that the colorist, on his fancy 19 inch monitor with the ability to display 24 million colors could see distinct differences in the tones… but it didn’t quite translate to print.

If I was using Photoshop to color this, I would simply have placed a translucent color over everything – a soft, light orange or gold, giving everything just enough hue to make it look like an old picture. I find that to be very effective in flashbacks.

But, as I said, I didn’t use Photoshop.

Instead, with MSPaint, I opted to find the original colors I would use, and then take them slightly lighter when I could. This even extended to the black lines in the art, which are now a charcoal gray. Overall, this is close to what I was aiming for, and if I were to nitpick, I’d say the effect is a little too subtle… but I’ve been staring at the image so long I can be certain I’m not overexamining it at this point.

Whew! I’m verbose today. Better stop now. Have a good weekend everybody, and I’ll see you back here on Monday!

Strip 71

Toothpaste.

Just kidding. My dental hygiene regimen is not the subject of today’s note.

I’ve been thinking about binding. Books, that is. Specifically, comic books.

There are companies that do such things, and they aren’t overly expensive. I have a lot of friends that have been bitten by the binding bug, but I have yet to take the plunge.

See, I’m a recovering archivist. You know, the guy that bags, boards, and boxes everything? I’m better than I used to be, but I still fall into those ways on occasion, and the thought of “destroying” comics to have them bound into book form… I still have a little trouble with it.

This, despite seeing how amazing they turn out. If you want to check them out, look at the Comic Binding Message Board at The Comic Forums. Specifically, if you check out that top thread, the Bound Comics Gallery, you can see just how great these turn out.

Of course, I wouldn’t bind everything. Some of the folks on that board seem to be doing just that. No, I can really only think of about three things I’d really like to bind.

First, and this WILL happen eventually, I’m going to bind my collection of Who’s Who in the DC Universe. It includes the first series, the two updates, The Legion of Superheroes expanded books, and possibly the series of entries from DC annuals of the early 90′s. As reference material, I think having them bound together would be great.

Second, I think I’d like to collect the Mark Gruenwald issues of Captain America that contain the “Captain America No More” storyline. Frankly, I’d be just as happy if Marvel would just put this story into trade paperbacks for me, but that doesn’t seem likely at this point. So, that’s a possibility.

Finally, and this is a major long term projects, I’d like to collect all of the Batman: No Man’s Land storline and have it bound into volumes. I say volumes, because to get the complete story, it is over 80 issues. DC did trade this story a few years back… sorta. Huge chunks of the story were left out in an effort to condense the story into four or five trade paperbacks. Problem is, they chunks they took out are pretty vital for understanding and enjoying the story. I should know. I bought the trades before realizing how much they left out.

Come May, I’ll go to the Motor City Comic Con and begin assembling the books I need for Captain America No More and Batman: No Man’s Land. I have all of the Who’s Who books already. Then, I’ve decided, I’m going to bind these.

Yep, I’ve convinced myself.

Okay, that’s it for today. See you all Friday!