...but you probably know that already. What you probably DON'T know, however, is WHAT I've been busy with - y'know, that 'secret project' I've been babbling about when I've been babbling at all for the last few months. Well, the fact is, that secret project is now officially done with. And it went well, which means I won't just pass over it and never mention it again as I would've if it didn't go well - I'll actually tell you about it. Imagine that. ^_^;
So, Ida's secret project?
This is it.
Yes, I told you it had nothing to do with comics. (Also, that picture is shit. In fact, every single picture so far has been shit. I'll post some good ones once they exist)
Of course, this going well means that's I'll be... uhm... well, I have to make more cosplay. Dangn it. ^_^; Fear not, though - I have plenty of time and I WILL have time to make more comic in the mean time. In fact, I'm working on something comic-related right now! (Not saying what it is, though - yes, the secrecy has damaged me. Gotta do soemthing about that...)
Oh, and America? You rock. ^_^ I'm probably the last person on the internet to say that, but better late than never. That
was awesome.
Hi everybody.
This is... well, writing this was not easy. I can tell you that much. This is a post that I've been meaning to write for a long time now, but put off every time because of the difficulty. Of course, doing so only made finally doing it that more difficult. But at this point, not writing it would have been worse.
Here we go: I've grown sick and tired of this. Not of the story, not of the characters, not of the comic itset. What I've grown sick and tired of is the running of a webcomic, of the keeping up with a schedule, and the apologizing and bad conscience every time I fail to do so, which has, truth be told, been more often than not for the last long haul. When I started this comic, I did so with the intention and will to produce a regularly-updated, high-quality webcomic that would hopefully be popular, or at least attract some readers. When I did so, I was also 16 years old, deeply ingrained in the webcomics community, had very few friends, and even less to do with my spare time. Now, I'm a few days short of 21 years old, and pretty much everything has changed since I started out: I've slipped completely out of the webcomics community, I don't really read any (other) webcomics any more, I have plenty of friends, and I have projects and work enough to fill a 28-hour day. And keeping a work-heavy webcomic regularly updated just isn't worth as much to me as it used to be.
Don't get me wrong here; I love this comic, I love making it, and I love to see it updated, but let's be frank here. I'm not going to make anything close to a living off of this, ever (not that that was ever my intention). I'm starting college next year. In other words, there's no reason for me to believe that balancing weekly updates with school, work and everyday chores is going to be any easier within the foreseeable future. And increasingly, I've felt that updating weekly was not only becoming impossible, but, possibly worse, it was becoming a chore, prohibiting me from working on the projects I really wanted to do, because there was always a deadline to meet first. It was becoming something that took away enjoyment rather than creating it. Something I did because I had to. Something I did for
you, the readers, and not for me.
And as much as I love you, that just doesn't work.
I have to find a way to make this comic work with my everyday life, to make it not take away from my other projects, for it to be enjoyable again. Otherwise, I won't be able to see it through to the end.
So, I've been thinking. I've considered different possibilities - some with more, but lower quality updates, others with rarer, better updates, and some with no updates at all - but in the end, there was only one way to do it. The schedule has to go.
From now on,
Mechagical Girl Lisa A.N.T will update
whenever the heck I feel like it. It will be less often than once a week, but more often than never, and there will be no more filler. And the pages will be finished.
Really finished. Every single one of them. This blog will be updated again. With comments. With completely off-topic stuff. But never again with apologies.
I realize that this is less than optimal for you, the readers, and I'm sorry about letting you down reapeatedly - first with the missing updates, then with the broken promises and then with the silence. This is so I won't have to let you down any more.
So this is it. No more promises. No more delays. No more apologies.
...but a buttload of mechagical girl action coming at you - when it's done.
Thank you for reading.
I'm not actually behind schedule here - the thing is that I got a very sudden change of plans for the weekend (in a good way, don't worry), and since I'd planned to color this Monday's page over the weekend in the very likely even that I wouldn't be going anywhere, it's, well, not done. I'll be back on Monday, though, and if I'm not home TOO late I'll color it then - till then, I've uploaded an extremely seasonally-inappropriate thing I just realized I made several months ago (hence the seasonally-inappropriateness) and never uploaded. The real page will be better, but this will be better than NOTHING. Or so I hope.
Also, that's not supposed to be a bush. You'd think half a year in DRAWING SCHOOL would've helped my art, but no... ^_^;
After several hours of fighting, I managed to beat it into submission... or so I hope. At least now most of the page should make sense. ^_^;
Well, I'm off to Greece! As said, there won't be a regular update next Monday, but I made a quick sketch filler that will hopefully entertain you while I'm gone. Till then, enjoy the summer that is most likely plagueing your home country (unless you're scandinavian like me, in which case you should enjoy the summer that is
rumored to hit your home country while I'm gone.)
...well, except that I am actually (thank Newton) in the coloring and lettering phase currently, not in the drawin phase. If I was, it would be a whole different kind of block and I would be a lot more stressed and a lot less frustrated than I currently is. You see, the problem is not that the page isn't there. It's there, and I will have the coloring done by midnight, most likely. No, the problem is that the page SUCKS. I drew it way back in Viborg, but because I was primarily focused on getting a buttload of pages done for the buffer, I didn't think so much about the dialogue... and that is how I left my current self with a page of stilted, unnatural storytelling centered around a joke that JUST DOESN'T WORK. "%#"¤#"¤%"!!! The whole thing needs a serious dialogue overhaul, and I just can't seem to do that right now. Damnit.
Hopefully, this whole thing will look better in the morning so I can finish it up tomorrow - I'll pretty much have to because I'm leaving for Greece the day after tomorrow (third and last trip of this holiday). And yes, that means no update next monday, but I'll try to at least get a filler sketch done before I go south. ^_^ Ahh... actually warm weather. It's been mostly greya nd rainy here, as is the norm for danish summers, and London... well, it's LONDON, for crépe's sake! It is, quite possibly, the only inhabitable place on earth to have worse summers than Scandinavia.
...
...on a completely unrelated tangent, working in ballpoint pen is surprisingly satisfying. Don't worry, I won't suddenly start doing the main comic in it, but it might be worth some experimentation.
...
These things are getting more and more incomprehensible, aren't they?
...that was more like 'late next week' than 'early this week', wasn't it? *Checks date* Uhm, yes it was.
Sorry for not keeping you informed - my bad excuses for this are that a) I was staying at a friend's place doing early cosplay work and thus was busy most of the time (I was working full-time while I was there, as well), and b) I'm simply sick and tired of making excuses and a apologies. Yeah, you guys deserve to know what's going on, but the prospect of typing up yet another blog post that basically amounts to 'comic delayed due to lazy' is just not very inviting. -_-; Sorry. I'll swallow my pride earlier next time.
When that is said... well, I hope people can guess that this is a pretty important page. *^_^* 'Nuff said.
Oh, and... Here I go again: Next week is going to be late. >.< (Can you see why I'm tired of writing this yet?) I have it drawn and inked, but not yet colored, and since I'm leaving for a one-week trip to London without my laptop tomorrow, I won't be able to finish it up before late next week (or later, given that it's me we're talking about). It sucks, but now you know, and as a TV show I've never actually watched would put it, knowing is half the battle.
Meanwhile, by all means check out Crossoverlord, the crossover comic I'm doing (or rather, paricipating in when Al makes sure I remember to) with the brilliant creators of Mindmistress, Dasien, Lightbringer and Indefensible Positions (no links, because the blog screws them up - all comics can be accessed from the Crossoverlord page, though, which is available through the link situated just below today's comic *winkwinknudgenudge*.) 'My' pages are currently being uploaded, so even if this page is skimpy on the updates, you can still get your weekly bug-girl action by checking out Crossoverlord.
...
Did I mention Crossoverlord?
