Comic for Thursday, May 11th
So… I have some bad news and I have some good news.
The bad news, is that, as mentioned, I’m fairly certain I will be taking one or two weeks off updating. During that time I will try to do the following three things: catch up on Patreon content, build a buffer of a comic or two, and take a bit of a break. If I get at least two of those in I’ll consider it a success. Work has been a giant pain in the arse recently, had a lot of balls in the air in general, etc, etc.
The good news is that for some of you this means more content, sort of. My current plan is to fill the gap for readers by posting the bonus comic I wrote for Patreon – it’s something of a prequel fluff, quite awhile before Peter left CI… as matter of fact, it starts with a character first joining CI 🙂 As for how this equates to more content, there is 10 pages of if that’ll somehow go up over 2 weeks. I will probably just do a page a day.
Unfortunately for people on Patreon who’ve already read it, that’s sort of a gyp deal (since it was your bonus comic originally :P), but I will do make sure we have more updates there over the timeframe to account for that, such as I can anyway.
To be honest, I am not 100% sure what the plan is yet, but I won’t leave you guys without content entirely 🙂 This doesn’t represent burnout, I’m quite excited for the arc coming up, I just need time to catch up on stuff. I’m tired of updating at midnight the day the comic’s due, rather going to bed the day before with it queued to post 😛 I think living pen-to-post is probably not good for the comic, not a great way to get better at drawing, etc.
I don’t anticipate any change in the long term scheduling, and of course, I greatly appreicate your readership and patience (and hey, for the most part… more content during the break, not less! How crazy is that 😛 Though, if we are being honest, it is sort of filler 😛 )
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I take it this is Arron Kepler finally getting to point out to someone “I have a reputation for a reason“?
Also, I’m guessing the name Kepler can also be attached to the information Koko got?
Generally if shit is going down you can put it on either Kor’s world or one of the Keplers. And you’ll almost certainly be right. Hell, if you’re really unlucky it’s both. Or even more unlucky it’s multiple Keplers.
Biana just lost so bad.
Unless there is a faction that really hates Kepler, she should just retire now.
OOOOOH! A full-on bitch slap to a very eponymous target! you go, Arron. ^^
And I’m really starting to like Ryn. 🙂
Do what you have to do to get where you want to be. And as far as posting the prequel pages, when we ordinary folk comment on them, the Patrons get to sound really smart!. ^^
I am not sure if it is intentional, but Arron looks a lot like Peter in panel 6. And a lot younger. I think he might have stopped being Arron Kepler at some point in the past, but he just got angry enough to de-age back into Arron Kepler from the sighing, patient, Arron Kepler.
I had originally thought that Ikki and Ryn were introduced as the bad guys. Now I’m just confused. While I do enjoy the characters, it can be really hard to decide who to root for. There are only a few objectively unlikable characters. Like this lady here, and Mir. Even Mir I am worried there will be some reason to like her when she gets more screen time, as clearly there is more going on there than meets the eye (and there is a lot to meet the eye…)
@PastUtopia don’t worry about it man. I can see that this page was a push to get out (looks like you were trying to wrap up the scene in on go?), take your time, we’ll wait. Especially if there will be bonus comic updates anyway.
its seemed , to me atleast, that from the 2nd time we saw them that they where flailing around half blind. ikki’s mom dissapears, possibly about the same time as martin. ikki is forced to step in as president and brings in ryn as ceo to run it while ikki is trying to figure out wth is going on with everything his mom was doing.
otoh most everyone else in the comic seems to be in the same boat. a bunch of ppl have “plans” but were only seeing half of whatever those plans are, and very little knowledge of what they are and what they are trying to do. the only one that seems to have a clue is peter… and hes not excatly a fount of information. more like a black hole that sometimes spits something out.
and guestperson, where do you think peter got it from? from what little we have and can guess at… id have to say when arron was in peters shoes(posibly the kor incursion) he was probly the then bad az of central.
and delta-v, ryn seems to be the personification of someone making lemonade. and of course not only to they not have chips at the table, they dont really care if what happens because they didnt originaly have a reason to be there. now all out war might not be best for them, but chaos can give them… opportunity.
I think Arron is getting a wee bit tired of the disrespect from the up and coming greenhorns. It takes a certain amount of ego to use your own name as a threat. “Be good, or I will Arron Kepler your ass”. If you think about it, he just name dropped himself.
I am starting to think that he is a Kepler after all. I am curious exactly what the implied threat is though. He has Kally and some other loyal followers, but Sophia was under the impression that Biana had stronger total forces. Biana clearly has some degree of buy in or support from HQ to get away with what she gets away with. I think he will need to be bust out more than a scary reputation and a bit of yee olde badass to get her back in line.
Oh, and personally I am happy that Minus Years will run, it means I get to talk about it with everyone. This way other commenters can stop giving me weird looks when I refer to Kally as adorable. Take the time you need.
Let me preface this with a disclaimer, because I know it could come off harshly, and that is the opposite of what I mean. I am not in any way suggesting “because this guy can do it, you can,” nor even that you should. This is strictly meant as a possible place you could go for pointers, tips, or maybe just a new friend. (No, I don’t know the guy, either; I’ve conversed with you more than I have with him, in that I’ve written in your comment section and gotten replies.)
Howard Tyler over at Schlock Mercenary has updated every single day for almost 17 years, now. If you want to get on top of the things you’re discussing, he might have advice, pointers, or techniques to share for helping get ahead and staying ahead of the update schedule.
Now, I’m pretty certain that’s his full time job, which I don’t doubt helps, but it’s still impressive. And, from what little I’ve seen, he seems like a nice enough guy.
So it might be worth your while to reach out to him and ask him for advice. See if he’s open to hearing out the difficulties you run into and if he has any suggestions for overcoming them.
As a side note, his art style has notably improved over the years, as well; I bring this up only because you mention “improving art” as one of the things you hope to achieve from this comic.
I wish I had direct advice to give, but I can’t draw worth a darn and I certainly haven’t maintained an update schedule. I was quite impressed, when I started reading your comic and noticed your comments about having a buffer. I respect your desire to recover it.
Best of luck!
Schlock Mercenary is a full time job and has a colorist, if memory serves, not sure that’s a viable standard to compare here. Most regularly updating webcomics are full time jobs (outside comicfury or whatever ones), and many of those are either two people teams, not in color, or only post once a week.
@PastUtopia My advice would be consider scaling back page size. I like more content. Everyone likes more content, but realistically at this point each page is almost always two pages. I am confident if you posted this as two pages no one would have thought you were being light on the updates. This page has 18 panels. Yes, some of those are small, low detail ones, but a lot of comics with 3 panels do the same thing not drawing background for half of the time.
Anyway, love the comic, and I’d read it if you just doodled stick figures personally. Maybe if you just posted the words for everyone else, then drew the scenes where Naomi beats people up? Good compromise?
The Schlock Mercenary team can pump out a “page” a day because it’s the author’s full time job. Also, because it’s a three person team: The writer, plus an editor (grammar, etc.), and a colorist.
More importantly, the comic is presented as a 4-panel newspaper-style comic strip. Monday through Saturday, it’s only ever 4 panels a strip. The only exception is on Sundays, which is 8 panels. Each strip is part of a bigger whole, but each strip is complete in terms of setting up a new punchline. And all panels are rectangular, which is easier.
Compare that with PastUtopia’s page for today. There are 21 odd-shaped panels! And it’s jam-packed with lots of dialog. By Schlock Mercenary standards, that’s FIVE DAYS worth of strips. (20 / 4 = 5). Consider that he does this 3 days a week. And, aside from the grammar checks readers provide, I assume he’s doing it all by himself.
I’ve followed a lot of webcomics over the years. (I still follow over a dozen.) From what I can tell, readers are lucky to see 3 pages a week. There are some like that. But others only do maybe 1 or 2 pages a week. We should count our blessings. The 3 Minute Max / Crisis Strike comic only ever releases 1 page A MONTH, if that. A page a day is very rare.
Some readers worry that PastUtopia is pushing himself too hard. I’ve lost count of the number of webcomics that went on hiatus and either never returned or quit. It’s sad. (To this day, I’m bummed that Shinobi Queen disappeared.) Webcomics that run for years and reach a conclusion, telling a complete story, are rare. The only ones that I’m familiar with are TRIPP, Luna Star, and maybe two others.
Like I said, he may have useful advice. Not that Past Utopia should copy his model nor expect to update daily.
Even professional webcomics often miss updates, whether scheduled outages due to travel or conventions or unscheduled due to illness or server disasters. It is notable that Schlock Mercenary hasn’t. Ever. It has had one late posting when the servers all crashed…and it was still up later that day, with an apology, not up a day or so later and not with a missed comic.
This isn’t meant as any sort of indictment of anybody else. This is me standing in mild awe of Schlock Mercenary, and wondering if there’s more to it than “full time job” and “three people.” That is, no doubt, a huge part of it! But there might be some tricks of the trade which are adaptable to Past Utopia’s style. I don’t expect that it would become a daily comic. I am not even criticizing Past Utopia; he provides a free entertainment service, and I am frankly impressed that he had a buffer and applaud his efforts to recover it.
In essence, I’m not saying, “Do better.” I’m saying, “Howard Tyler is doing what you seem to aspire to do with your web comic, so reaching out to make professional acquaintance might be useful.” (Well, okay, he’s doing more than Past Utopia aspires to in terms of daily output, but less in terms of content-per-comic, since, as has been pointed out, he does newspaper style, not the full manga spreads.) If nothing else, it’s networking and/or a potential new friend with a shared (at least semi-)professional interest.
Every job needs some vacation and if you think that writing this comic isn’t a job or is your vacation from your regular job, I would have to say you are mistaken and that you need to take a vacation from both just to reset your brain. Comics that have an impressive track record for being on time also tend to have shorter pages. I’m not saying you should make shorter pages you need to stick to your format but your format demands that you take some time, and you should.
Don’t just catch up. Get ahead. Post a page every few days and give yourself some time. Double comics like today’s aren’t helping you catch up. We can’t even fully enjoy them because we know they take more time than you have.
Indeed, while you probably can get refreshed by spreading it out over two weeks, you’ll probably come out better and less stressed if you spread it out over a month. The six week plan ISN’T horrible. Pace it out at the start and see how much time you really feel you need, and then if you don’t need the time you can speed it up.
I assure you, I can enjoy them fully, because I’m a callous jerk who doesn’t stop to think how much effort went into it while I read it. 😛
I do respect that effort, though! And I don’t encourage Past Utopia to do these to the detriment of his enjoyment and professional pride. But rest assured, my enjoyment is not diminished based on any meta-consideration of how little time the creator has to make the work.
I understand man. you need time to catch up on your shuteye. also, I found no messed up words in any of the panels.
He’s kind of on a roll, here, isn’t he? ^^