Thursday, August 11, 2005

The weeping continues, then stops

It feels very decadent to bury a project like my pack of cards after working considerable Englishman-hours on it but I think it is kind of dead. Now I think about it, maybe it was a bit ambitious. Or expensive. Expensively ambitious, or ambitiously expensive.

What I have really been putting off is another Scareodeleria book. I'd meant to do four of those a year, and I've managed - oh! - one since January 2004. And four pages in the Skellington book. That's kind of embarrassing, but Scary Go Round is so much more involved artistically (and physically 50% bigger) now than it was in late 2003, so there isn't as much time for side-projects. It's almost impossible to write them, let alone sit down and churn out additional several pages a week.

Part of my brain thinks I should drop to 4 or even 3 comics a week so I can work on the Heavy Metal Hearts/Scareodeleria-style projects. Another part of my brain knows that people would be very unhappy and punch me (via emails). What is best? I do not know what is best.

10 comments:

fontgoddess said...

travis' idea is good. that way when you take time off SGR you have enough time to do something substantial with your other projects.

it's important for you as an artist to stretch and do the projects that make you happy and keep your creativity energized. any true fan of your work will understand and support this, because it's also better for us in the long run. a happy artist is a productive one.

also remember that Piro over @ Megatokyo updates 3 times a week and his fans still like him.

eye candy said...

I also think travis has a great idea there ..but if you decide to go to three or four days a week, I promise I wont punch you.

Zach said...

John, I don't know if I can allow you to bury this most amazing product, so I'm looking into working out how much it would be to print cards over here in the states. I figure if I can find a cheap enough price, it would work out well.

So far though, I've been seeing things that would make charging 10 dollars (or 5 pounds) about the right price. What does everyone else think? Too much? Too little? The less decks produced the more it costs, so somewhere around 500 decks is the only place where it gets reasonable. Would 500 decks even be purchased?

Stu Popp said...

Travis does indeed make a sound proposition. Also, I would like to join the masses in saying that I too would be willing to pay-up front for playing cards even if there would be a wait for them until the money was raised

John A said...

The economies of scale mean it's very rarely cost effective to make less than 1000 of any print job.

Pre-orders stress me out too much and stop me sleeping, better to wait until funds are available. Please don't confuse any of these complaints with poverty, sometimes things just don't go to plan.

As for taking a week off every once in a while: basically suicide in the webcomics game (it's the oldest game in the world etc).

Thank you for taking an interest in the inner workings of my brain.

Teresa Bowman said...

People are going to moan whatever you do. It is in the nature of people to moan. (Whisper it: especially people who spend a lot of time on the internet.)

Personally I think 3 or 4 SGRs a week would be just dandy, if that's what it takes. I mean, it would be better than no SGRs a week. And if it prevents you from yelling, "That's it, I give up!", hurling your Wacom Tablet out of the window and going to live on a commune in Tahiti, it's all to the good.

>>>Thank you for taking an interest in the inner workings of my brain.

... now please wash your hands.

Unknown said...

I was going to suggest the preorders as well, but since that's been shot down, how about just starting a "Buy John A New Kitchen Floor Fund?"

I'd gladly kick in some cash -- no pressure involved. And if it eventually helps get a spiffy deck of cards on the market, even better.

As far as the updates go, it doesn't matter how many you put out per week, I'll keep coming as long as you keep drawing.

Suds said...

the cards be no more
the ghost in john's floor ate them
fie! fie to you ghost!

Steven said...

I was just wondering when and if the character bios would be updated to show the intriguiging student of Evil and Shel's new pal Gibbous Moon. Boy, I hope she didn't hear me call her Gibbous. :P

John A said...

Thanks for all your ideas everybody. I wouldn't take whole weeks off or drop more than one comic a week. I can work these things out.

As for the cards, the artwork would certainly be used - nothing is wasted.