T w e n t y S i d e d
I only made 2 strips this weekend. However, I hasten to add that both strips are quite hefty. One is double size, and the other is the very first triple-sized strip. To preserve the symmetry mandated by the obsessive-compulsive disorder I’m cultivating, I’ll post them on Tues & Thurs this week.
Every weekend I sit down on Saturday morning and think, “This is it. I really am out of ideas this time. I’ll never think of anything good.” I’ll then cobble together some strips, and wince. Are these funny? Am I losing it? Then I’ll post them, lots of people will like them, and at least one person will say they have a new favorite. None of this prevents me from going through the same thing the next Saturday.
I wonder if other webcomic authors go through this?
Internet News is All Wrong
Why is internet news so bad, why do people prefer celebrity fluff, and how could it be made better?
In Defense of Crunch
Crunch-mode game development isn't good, but sometimes it happens for good reasons.
PC Hardware is Toast
This is why shopping for graphics cards is so stupid and miserable.
Twelve Years
Even allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.
Steam Summer Blues
This mess of dross, confusion, and terrible UI design is the storefront the big publishers couldn't beat? Amazing.
Dude, Fred of Megatokyo lives on “oh i suck, here’s a new comic, ur going to hate it, i’m going to kill myself now.” It’s almost manditory.
Well, that gives me reason to like Tuesdays and Thursdays again, but I definitely think I’ll have to call in sick on Monday. No way I can face Monday without my DMotR fix.
What? Ah! Just the five-minute.
Wait. Wait.
Are you telling me that, right now, in digital form somewhere, there already exists this week’s strips?
I demand immediate access to my D&D porn!
Oooh, I think I was just supposed to think that part, there. Oh well. No going back.
Can we bribe you?
Dm of the Rings posting opposite Order of the Stick=no work done ever again.
The ideas will come.
After all, it won’t be too long until the characters finally get to do some fighting (at Helm’s Deep), at which point the two players who left will want to come back. Sam & Frodo are off doing whatever, so a split party would still be a pain, but if they really want to come back maybe they can play the halflings the party finds hanging out at Saruman’s place.
Can’t wait to find out how you handle the monster battles, too.
Just wondering, do you continually rewatch the movies to see what’s coming up? Or do you have it all pretty well sorted out (story wise) and just try to remember where good screen shots are?
Are you telling me that, right now, in digital form somewhere, there already exists this week's strips?
By Sunday night, I usually have all three strips for the coming week.
Once in a while I’ll have some sort of epiphany and end up with five strips. I love when that happens.
Thad: I usually sit down with notepad and write three strips worth of dialog, then put in the move and start hunting for the screen shots I need. Sometimes I step through a frame at a time, waiting until I see juuuust the right expression, like someone in mid-blink, or pronouncing a “W”, both of which are good for making funny faces.
Every weekend I sit down on Saturday morning and think, “This is it. I really am out of ideas this time. I'll never think of anything good.”
This describes me perfectly, except we game on Sundays (as in “Oh crap, I don’t have anything for tomorrow!”). I can’t count the number of times I’ve just made sh!t up on the fly.
“And there’s a, um… tower. Yeah, a tower that’s at least six…” Waitasecond, dumbass! Do you really want to draw pull six floors of tower out of your arse? “Um, sorry, four stories tall, not including the roof.” OK, that’ll work. Make the first floor a stables, and you’re golden.
“I wonder if other webcomic authors go through this?”
Yeah, they do. Life sucks. Success is no guaranteer of happiness. All is bleak.
:(
Rebecca: I think it’s a matter of defining success.
Shaimus: I think a lot of artists do wonder if others will find their projects enjoyable, but that’s sort of besides the point. Hopefully, you’re making these because you want to. If you get something out of making and posting DMotR, then you’re ahead.
That said, there are some absolutely terrible comics out there that I wish weren’t. 90% of Drunk Duck, for example.
I’m not much of an art…person (I would say connisseur, but I don’t know how to spell it, and I’m still boycotting the French), but it seems to me that some of the worst artists never give a [speaking Chinese] if anyone likes it. They’re perfect, and if people don’t like it, there must be something wrong with them. A good pop-culture example of this would be many of the arrogant idiots that try out for American Idol.
Does that seem right to you?
Was it clear in my previous post that the point was that I think it makes sense that you have a little doubt about how well your work will be received? Sometimes I say stuff without saying why I bothered to say it. My wife finds that a little infuriating from time to time.
Farvana: Let’s define “success” as achiving happiness and see if our logic processors can handle the paradox.