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Email the author at
qwanderer7+lgc@gmail.com
The Elves of LleuGarnock is Copyright
Irene Pitcairn<2008-2009. The Elves of
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January 22, '09
Comics production is definitely up and running again. It's been going slowly, but I think it's going to pick up. Since the flashback/history segment has pages with the equivalent of three or four scripts each to work out, the work crawled while I figured each of them out to my satisfaction. I could have split the pages into three updates each, but I like to be able to post a full page. It's nice when you're reading a comic and the page doesn't change shape.
It's also been interesting because I've been doing more of a cartoony style. Not exaggeration exactly, but more simplification than I usually use. It's been very educational. As part of that I've been relying on body language to convey emotion, since my cartoons have no facial features (with two small exceptions). It's very new for me. I suppose that's another thing that's been slowing down the process: I'm absorbing new information, not just expressing it.
I thought I was going to be finished with Chapter 3 well before now, but I still have to do that fourth section. I'm still a little worried about the scripts, but I know I'll work something out. Only one script per page, and I already have the dialogue roughed in, so it should go faster. I don't know if Chapter 4 is going to be as cool as I imagine, but at least it's served one purpose by seeming to be just around the corner for all these months. It's been encouraging.
So in case you haven't been following my Twitter, here's the news: There's a new poster up in the store, a cleaned-up version of that one painting of Gemi in the tree. Mel said I should put it up as a poster, and I originally thought that would be so easy, but then I wanted to do a bunch of digital work on it to make it smoother and more detailed for the poster. So I did. It's pretty cool. Tiffany Ross agrees with me. I love Twitter.
Also news: We got passes to New York Comic Con. It's going to be pretty awesome. We're both excited to see Gabe and Tycho there, and to browse the booths, but I'm also going to drag James to a bunch of panels on drawing technique and stuff. I'm really hoping to be able to attend all three days. James, not so much. But I think I'll get him to agree, as it's going to be my birthday.
I'm really excited to get involved in the con culture, since it's how a lot of artists do business and get publicity. I'm tempted to get a booth myself, but I really know it's out of the question since I've never really been to a con and this is a really big con. At least now I'll have the experience of what they're supposed to be like.
As of this moment Buzzcomix is down again. I guess they're using more bandwidth than they can pay for? I don't know, but TWC sure has more visible ads in its voting process. I guess I'll be focusing on my ranking there. I'm near the bottom of their second page of fantasy, but considering how much larger their ratio of fantasy comics is, that's not half bad. If I can climb to first page fantasy on TWC, first page overall won't be far away.
I'm still kind of torn as to whether it's really the time to publicize, even now. I'm closing in on a year, but honestly at two pages a week that's still pretty short. Also, after June (yes it's moved another two months, but now it's staying put, I hope) I will no longer be able to claim that the story hasn't yet gotten started. So I'm thinking next summer is the time to publicize.
On the other hand, I guess there's no harm in pushing up the second page of fantasy. After all, I need a big fan base to exist already in order to vote for me at the proper time to get real publicity. I don't want to get my big increase in hits until my story's gotten some momentum, so it'll stick with all those new readers, but that doesn't really happen until you get on the first page overall, and I don't think there's too much danger of that at the moment.
I worry often about being too ambitious for this point in the story, and also about being too ambitious for my current skill level. But mostly this is how I see it: The only thing I have to take seriously right now is writing and drawing as good a comic as I can. All the other stuff, the rankings and the business cards and the merchandising, is just for fun. I feel a lot like I'm playing house. I'm not disappointed that no one's buying my CafePress junk because I made the store just to see my characters on little virtual tee shirts. I'm the opposite of disappointed at my rankings on the voting sites. I'm astonished at how close I am to actually making an impression on the internet.
Last week I was contacted personally about joining a webcomic collective which, in theory, has a good chance of making an actual profit. I'm probably going to put a copy of my comic up on their site; more on that later as things develop. Anyway, it's just been pretty awesome to have some people treat me like a professional, or at least truly appreciate my work enough to tell me about it.
I guess it was time to clean my mental house. I've been venting ideas into Twitter, but it just can't express the bigger picture. I didn't realize how much I was having to leave out. Anyway, I hope I don't wait this long next time before blogging. Keep your eye on this spot just in case - or on Twitter, as I'll be announcing my blogs there now.