29.12.10

Daily Comic 50: Onward


Didn't even think I'd make it past a few weeks, to be honest.

2 comments:

Cognoman said...

Wow.

Congratulations, John. I don't think I was really expecting this either, but in hindsight, I should have known better. Your productivity is an inspiration.

Good luck in the New Year...in Onward.

(Also...I could say this too: with your 50th strip here, you've just passed me in the number of strips posted for your webcomic, heh. And you did it in just a few weeks! Well done. I'm coming back in the New Year, though, so I'll be hot on your tail then, heh.
...Although I might only update 3 times a week this time around. I've been thinking my focus this time will be a little more on "quality drawing" rather than speed because I think a higher-quality product is a better/more useful thing to work on - it improves one's skill more and, in the end, you end up with a product that people might put money towards, and that you can hock around to publishers if you so choose, instead of ending up with, essentially, a large stack of doodles. On the flipside, a better-drawn comic is harder to make and takes more time to do, which means less comics produced and so less updates, less personal experimentation, less new ideas discovered and a slight mental shift from "carefree comic-making fun" to "more careful, focused work", which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on one's personal psychology/goals. So both approaches have advantages and disadvantages, depending on one's purpose, I suppose.
...this tangential bit of overthinking is getting way too long here, heh, so I'll just finish with: good luck wherever you end up choosing to go with things, John. I'm looking forward to your next 50 and I'll try to catch you in the New Year! ...Slowly, but I'll try, heh heh!)

NHOJ said...

Cheers, Conor! I'll be looking forward to seeing you crank out some comic work again, your stuff's a constant inspiration!

As for your musings on the pros and cons of doing daily comics, I kind of fall somewhere in the middle. Basically, I do these daily but I also try and put some work into the art and layouts so that my daily comics at the very least bring something to the table (in a visual sense) that other daily comics (*cough*AmericanElf*cough*) may not. My main focus is not on speed (though I am getting quicker) but on just putting together something that is fairly visually pleasing, if a good narrative comes of it? All the better!

It's also an excuse for me to pick up my pencil every day and draw *something.* I often find it difficult to sit down and do some doodles but something about putting together a comic page focuses my mind like nothing else. I'm sure it's obvious that these comics are also my way of getting used to using a brush pen.

I'm sure at some point in the future, life will do its thing and get in the way of doing these daily pages but until then, I'll stick with this as long as I can.