R.A.N.T

Okay, apparently the post I made Saturday never uploaded to blogger, so sorry to all of those wondering why there was no comic Monday. The thing was this: First off, I got started too late, so I was only in the sketching phase by Saturday evening. Then, i made a last-minute arrangement with my best friend, which meant I couldn't do the computerwork on Sunday. And THEN something terrible happened. It always does. ^_~ Simply put, I screwed up on panel two - because I couldn't figure out how to draw the termite mecha, I put it off and inked the rest of the page, and then, when I finally found out how to draw it, I realised I hadn't left enough room for that. ARGH! Oh well, it got solved in the end, but this is still the most utterly frustrating page I've ever done (maybe except no. 4, but that's years ago). And the end result? I hate it. Hate, HATE, HAET! It's so full of stupid little mistakes and not reader-friendly at all. Oh well, at least I learned a lesson from this: Don't ink until you're done with the sketching, doofus! ^^;

Okay, done with the ranting: As said in the last, never uploaded post, I'll be leaving for Paris tomorrow, but contrary to what I thought, I'm not going to be back by friday, but instead on Sunday the 3rd. This of course means that next week's comic will be (argh) delayed again, but I'll try to at least get the sketching done while I'm there. I won't have any access to the internet, so if anyone has somthing they want to tell or send me (*pokepoke* more fanarts? *pokepoke*), they better do it before Wednesday evening or I'll be, y'know, gone. ^^; And on the topic of fanarts: there's still a couple of 'em left from last week, and those will upload over the next couple of days, after which I'll put all of them into the gallery (because this is heavily inflating my comic-count, and we can't have that, now can we? Nah, I'd never try to make people think I wasn't this lazy. Of course not. ^_~)

Okay, good things first: I finally got my behind in gear and put up a link to the forum (it's right where the 'contact' link used to be), so you guys are now no longer restricted to the tagboard. In fact, you never were; I've had the forum since October, but my idiotic design made that less than obvious that it was there. That should've been taken care of now.

And then, bad news: You probably guess this, but yes, tomorrow's comic is delayed. I got started on it too late, and then I suddenly got a last-minute meeting with my best friend, who might be leaving for the US soon, which means that there is no chance the comic will upload by midnight. The comic is already sketched, though, and I'll try to ink it while she's here, so if I'm lucky there'll only be computerwork to do tomorrow (I can't very well do that while I have guests ^^;). In other words: if nothing goes horribly wrong, the comic will go up at some point Monday afternoon or evening.

Also, the note up there IS indeed wrong; end here, fanart week does not. Since last monday I've received 3 fabulous fanarts (and a very special gift from Turi), which will update from Tuesday and onwards. If there's anyone out there still wanting to send fanart (thoroughly impossible. I've already received more than I should logically get ^^;), I'm still more than willing (read: fangirlishly excited) to accept and dish out the undying love, but since I'm leaving for Paris on Wednesday and not coming home before the 1st of July, fanarts that want to be unloaded this week need to be received before I leave, since I won't have access to the internet while I'm gone. This of course also means that I won't be able to answer emails or forum/tagboard posts, so please be patient. ^^

Yeah, I think that was all. Oh, wait: You're amazing. Yay. ^^

Wow. It's really been a year already? And I'm only 6 pages behind schedule. ^_~

Anyway. Wow again. This has really been quite a spectacular year (aren't first years ever?) In twelve months, the comic has gone from having 4 visitors a day to being among the top 125 most popular comics on Keenspace (which hosts a whoppin' 6000). Sure, it's no Megatokyo, but considering that I didn't think I would ever HAVE readers just 8 months ago, this is truly amazing. Adding the tagboard and having people actually discuss this thing was also quite a shock for me, but the biggest surprise was unboubtly the fanart drive. I expected to get one, maybe two drawings from my close friends, and instead I received NINE awesome pictures (including yours, Turi. Damn, you screw up the schedule ^^;), some of which were from people I had never heard of before. Mind-boggling indeed. Oh and I guess this is where I go all sappy and tell you how you inspire me and that I love you all endlessly. Well, yes, I do. Even you, Skyen. ^^;

(Oh, techical stuff: Since I thought I had 8 fanarts until yesterday, these 8 will upload one a day (two on Wednesday) over the course of this week. I'll try to inform people when their fanarts will be up, but don't shoot me if I don't get around to it - I have a lot to do this week. And yeah, I promised to do a birthday picture myself... Well, let's just say that didn't work out. ^^; ´Maybe I'll do one and upload it at the end of the fanart session instead, since with Turi's extra picture this is going to go on into next week anyway. But, uh, don't count on it. I am me, after all. ^^;)

So, with all those words over with, let's go have a birthday party! Woo-hoo! *Breaks out the champagne*

Tomorrow's comic is all done and will upload in - checks - 2½ hour. It feels so good not to be behind on updates. ^^ In other news, I changed the Buzzcomix vote button to a link to The Webcomic List - visit and add me to your favorites! Since I signed up for it, Buzzcomix has been working for a total of something like 7 days, so it was time to give up on it. And don't forget, there's still TWC for all your voting needs. ^_~ I received another fanart for the birthday (thanks a lot, Emily), but if there's anyone out there wanting to do fanart who hasn't done it yet, don't forget that the birthday is next Monday, the 20th. Er, not that I don't like fanart on other days, mind you. ^^;

Also: Skyen and Gwennafran: No comment.

...

Damn it. ^^;

First things first: A hearthily, overjoyed (if a little late) welcome to those of you who came here from the n00b. I hope you'll have a great stay here and hopefully enjoy the comic as well. ^^ (Also ignore the rest of this post, new people. It's not interesting at all.)

Here we go: I'm officially cancelling the twice-a-week deal. Apologies to all who were looking forward to more A.N.T, but the last two weeks taught me a lot about the boundaries between having fun with a comic and slaving away on it. Honestly, I wasn't enjoying making the comic half as much as I usually am, and that's not a very good thing for something that should be considered a hobby, now is it? ^_~ I've also gotten horribly behind on my schedule, which didn't help the frustrations either - the joy of having finished a comic was completely overshadowed by the thought of having to start slaving away on the next one immediately to meet deadlines (which I didn't even manage to). So, in order to get back on schedule, I'm going back to strict Monday updates again. I actually have a comic in the works now that I could work my butt off on and get up by late tomorrow night, but if I did that I would have no time to get a comic up Monday, and I really want to get back into an organized schedule ASAP. I also actually HAVE tests to study for this weekend and next week, so trying to get a comic up during the week would not only hurt my chances of getting a decent grade, but also work against me trying to do a birthday picture AND a comic for next Monday. Plus, if I did one more comic in this time period, a semi-major plot twist would drown in all the Birthday fun and fanart. ^_~

So, quick summary: No comic right now, comic this Monday, Ida goes to school and hopefully doesn't fail Math horribly next week, comic and Birthday fun next Monday.

And finally, since this seems to be what all the cool kids do, I'll say something about school: I had a test today. It was German. I got an 11 (roughly equals an A). Wild, joyful screaming goes here. End of message.

... ^^;

Yes, this one is far too late. ^^; I actually thought I was going to have it up 24 hours ago, but my mother apparently had other plans, so I spent last night at a Elvis Costello concert that ended in a thunderstorm (and then the thunderstorm made sure that I couldn't pull an all-nighter on the coloring, either). And this morning, I was forved to go shopping. Oh, the woes of being a spolied teenager! ^_~

As for the twice-a-week schedule, well, I'm not too sure I can go on with it much longer. Technically, I have the time, but since each comic takes me 8 hours of straight, no-breaks work (which in real life becomes about two days due to annoyances like, say, life), the effort feels like it's becoming too much, Also, I don't have time to do the planning properly, and I don't feel as excited about each page as I usually do. To put it simple, it's no fun to keep up with this schedule. I'll try to pull it off for the last two weeks, but if I don't, now you know why. Plus I actually have stuff to do this week (like the test I'm really supposed to be studying for) - so if I get to put two comics up next week, you can be pretty sure none of them will be on Monday. Sorry, I'll try to do my best.

In a completely different and not-so-emo vein, I'd like to thank those of you who've already sent in fanart. You all roxx0rz my soxx0rz. (Sorry 'bout the leetspeak ^^; I guess that's actually worse than the emo.)And the rest of you, don't forget that you still have plenty of time to draw something (anything) before the 20th. C'mon, can you resist the undying love? <3