Okay, I did announce that I'm now on summer break, right? Well, for most people, 'break' means going away on longer or shorter holidays, and as the last two summers prove, I'm no exception. Nor is this summer. So, yes, I'll be going away and coming home a good few times over the next five weeks, and that will of course affect the comic's update schedule. My break plans are as follows:
Tomorrow-Wednesday the 5th: Annual biking trip around Sealand with my dad.
Sunday 9th - Friday 14th: Trip to London with my dad (again) and his wife - this'll be fun.
Somewhere in the 3rd week of July: My grandmother's birthday in Sweden, and
Somewhere in the first week of August: Trip to Greece with my mom.
School starts for me again on August 16th, and since I'm entering the 'easy' 3rd year of High School, that might actually mean stable updates, but untill then, as you can guess, updates will be sporadic. My (hopefully realistic) goal is to finish the (now 81 pages long) Episode 3 before the end of teh break so I can start Ep 4 the same week as school starts, but when these updates will be up ís anyone's quess, since I'm consequently not home on Mondays. o_O
As for this Monday, there will most definately NOT be an update, though I'll try my best to get one done on the trip, as, okay, I DID spend time that
could've been used to comics on the Cast page. Well, could've as in could've
hypothetically, since I probably wouldn't have got myself together to do a comic, whereas I actually
wanted to do the Cast page and show myself it could be done. So there.
Anyway, I'm off, so a great holiday to all of you. ^_^
(Yes, I know this should've been uploaded yesterday. I suck. -_-;)
Wow, it's really been two years already? I can't say I never thought I'd come to this point, but it
does feel strange to actually be there. When I started this comic, I remember thinking about the scenes in this chaper as something that would happen in the far, far future, perhaps never. And now, episode 3 is almost over and the comic is heading into it's 'establishing' phase (with the first three chapters constituting the 'introducing' phase). Weird.
Oh, and if you have eyes or any other vision-aligned sensory organs (if you haven't, how are you reading this blog anyway?) you've probably noticed that the two updates since Monday have not been by me, but rather fanarts from far superior artists. Actually, I received a whoppin'
17 pieces of fanart for this anniversary (a major improvement over the 12 from last year) and, like last year, these will be uploaded, some solo and some in bundles, over the rest of this month. And like any good Grammy Winner (uhm, let's pretend I won something, okay?), I'd like to thank everyone who made fanart; you're awesome, you (should) know it, and you deserve all the love you can possibly get. *Dishes out the Endless Love*. I'd also like to thank the people on the tagboard, for encouraging me to do this, critizising my work so I could do better, and distracting me from working with discussions about Yuri and pantyshots. Finally, I'd like to thank my mom, my cat, my producer, Suzumiya Haruhi, my dentist, the people who make Pocky, Carl Barks, Go... *gets dragged away by teary-eyed Grammy winners*
*Ahem* Anyway... Now to the depressing stuff:(No, before you get worried, I'm not going to end the comic, OR make Lisa a bunny-girl. Just rant a bit, okay?) Do any of you remember the promise about uploading page 80 this week? Yes, I screwed that up. It would've been pretty cool to end the episode the day before the anniversary, but whatever. That was just Not To Be. (And since I'm contemplating making the episode 8
1 pages long, it wouldn't have happened anyway, which at least helps me feel a little better.) The original plan for the comic's update schedule was this: A year has 52 weeks, meaning 52 Mondays, meaning 52 updates per year. Therefore, each chapter is 26 pages, which means I should technically finish two episodes each year. Now,
technically is the keyword here, since several factors have been working against that plan, resulting in the current status: Instead of four finished episodes, we have nigh-on three. So, where did those updates go? Well, since I'm on my summer break, I suddenly have too much spare time, so I took the statistic route:
Since the first update, 103 update days have passed (52x2-1, since a week went by between the random day that the first chapter page was uploaded and the day I had planned to upload page 1, July 5th [which, in turn, should probably be considered the comic's real
birthday])
Out of these:
- 3 updates were skipped due to cosplay work
- 2 updates were skipped due to my birthday. ^_^;
- 2 fillers took the place of updates due to Christmas
- 1 update was skipped and not filler-ed due to Christmas
- 3 updates skipped due to INSANE HOMEWORK
- 1 update skipped due to overexhausting from last year's twice-a-week-period
- 2 updates skipped due to vacations
- 1 update skipped due to the war with DrunkDuck (and other stuff I can't remember)
- 1 update skipped due to school trip to Budapest
- 1 update skipped due to INSANE FLU
- 3 updates skipped due to The Computer Death Of Early 2006
- 1 update skipped due to History Project
- 1 update skipped due to mindfuck
- 1 update skipped due to Komiks.dk
- 2 updates skipped due to exams
- 3 were chapter title pages
- 77 were honest-to-god real UPDATES!
...yes, when you add that up, it makes 105 updates in all. Whatever. (Okay, I do know the reason: with the few extra updates the twice-a-week period actually managed to produce, the number of update days goes up by two. But I like to think of it as 103 days...)
Facts of interest:
- The vast majority of skipped updates are in the second week of a month. I've no clue why.
- Most of the skipped updates are in 2006. Not a good sign for the future.
- Hell, I thought I'd skipped about twice a many updates due to cosplay?
So, do these statistics show a failure or a success? I have no clue. At least it shows that I haven't just been sitting on my butt for two years, which is most likely good. Yup.
Also, if some of you missed it, amke sure to go back to Monday and check out the "OMFG PINXPLOSION!" update. Yes, I updated. Yes, I'm proud. Yes, that is pretty pathetic.
Finally, once again, happy birthday to the comic and thanks you to the people who read it despite my suckitude. You really
are awesome. And now: Enjoy the fanart!
YES!!!
As of yesterday, my exam period is officially over, and I'm now on
summer break! Yeah! ^____^
So, how did it go? Quite incredibly good, actually. I had verbal exams in Geography and Math, and scored a 10 and a whoppin' 11 on them, respectivly. Yes, that Math. The one I have been bitching about all year. 11. Really. Don't ask how. O_o;
(And for those 98% percent of you who DON'T know how to interpret Danish grades: Translating those grades into the American system is actually qite hard. Y'see, 11 and 10 are technically the 2nd and 3rd best grades in our system, however, the top grade, 13, is reserved for students who exceed every expectation and are smarter than their teacher. Obviously, it is given out very, very rarely - my Geography teacher, who is in his fifties, has given this grade once in his whole life - thus making 11 the
de facto top grade that equals A. Also, as far as I understand the American system, a 10 doesn't really equal a B, either. 10 is really only a step below 11, the difference being how "independent" or "routined" (the first positive, the second negative), and is generally considered very good. After all, the Danish system has 10 different possible grades (complete with three degrees of failing: "Bad", "You Suck" and "OMFG what IS this?", practically), so the margin between them is generally smaller than between American grades.)
Okay, I've bragged enough.
Well, now that exams are now longer killing me, it's time to get back to comicing, right? Hell yeah! Being buried in math for over a week tought me how much more fun this is, so I've practically longed to get some drawing done. So I did. Today, page 77 ahs been inked and had the basic computerwork done. The coloring is still lacking, but should be done over the weekend. Okay, I didn't meet the goal of finishing Episode 3 on Monday, but at least I'll get to finish this battle before the anniversary. Speaking of that - wow, A.N.T turns 2 this Tuesday! If someone is still sitting on some fanart, be sure tosend it in before then. Especially if it's in clay. Or Legos. Or embroidery. So far, all I've received were old-fashioned drawings, bah! ^_~
I think I should sleep now. This isn't making much sense...
Ida does comic. Awesome, right? ^_^
And to celebrate the awesome, there is a new voting incentive, which is (NOT) awesome as well: Vote to see the original layout/concept/What The Hell Should I do About This Page-sketch for #76. Just a warning, though: When I say "sketch", I MEAN "sketch".
#77 is still stuck in pencilling-hell, and I'm not yet sure when it'll be ready to be uploaded since I'm currently stuck between two rather important exams, and the amount of A.N.T-time I have depends entirely on how intensely I'm doing my reading. So, expect it to pop up unannounced and out of nowhere. Or, rather, expect it NOT to. This IS me doing A.N.T, after all... -_-;
Also, a semi-interesting fact: This year's real-life version of the carnival that all of this chapter has been taking place at starts today. (It's not in May this year as the placement of the carnival depends on the Whitsuntide). I'll be going there tomorrow and most likely find out just many mistakes I made in the depiction. ^_^;
Also, Wada Kouji is awesome.
