Hawaii

Herp, didn't take into account that I'd be on vacation to Hawaii last weekend. Here's yesterday's page, such as it is.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject May 22, 2011

Misses

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of updates. I've gotten caught up with school (yesterday was my last day of class, ever), Easter, and lady friend business. Also Portal 2 came out, which caused problems from a time perspective. So yeah, normal updates should return next week, sorry about all misses.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject April 30, 2011

More 3d

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject April 17, 2011

Dawwww

New misc page this week, detailing a fun little character that may show up in the backgrounds at some point.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject April 10, 2011

Oh Yeah, Announcements

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject April 3, 2011

Standing Horns

This page isn't finished yet, but I have to get to work.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject March 27, 2011

No Update

No update this week guys, on account of horse birth (don't ask).

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject March 20, 2011

Hands

Man I hate drawing hands. Eugh.

In other news, my personal life has turned upside down, so I will try to keep it out of the comic, but no promises.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject March 13, 2011

Spring Break

I am finally getting a vacation after this weekend (sorta) so hopefully next week's update will be awesome. This one's is kinda meh, in my opinion, but you should still check it out.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject March 6, 2011

Snacks

Holy crap its another update in color! Finally!

I figured since this is almost the 50th misc Comic I'd do it about something I love. Which is snack food. ... What?

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject February 27, 2011

Photography

Dunno why I haven't photographed myself wearing my hat, I've had it for ages (my sister made it for me). Anyhow, here's a keystone entry in the "On" series, talking about one of the main visual themes of the comic.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject February 20, 2011

Sick Once More

I am sick again, quite possibly con flu this time. Either way, it sucks and it's seriously slowing me down. Enjoy the sub-par update.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject February 13, 2011

Fail

Wow, I've managed to do one of my own pet peeves ... not getting my page scanned before leaving for the con. I tried to use my Droid to photograph the lineart but it wasn't gonna work. So the page won't be up till Sunday afternoon :(

Aaaaaand done!

Posted by t Go to Subject February 6, 2011

I am a Leaf on the Wind

Today's page started out as a sketch about moving, but then I discarded that idea for a more telling one about Eindring/Yarboan interplay.

Tell me, while I struggle to find an artist to do the story, do you guys want more cultural stuff, object-y stuff, character stuff? I like writing all of them, it's just a matter of what you guys want to know more about.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject January 30, 2011

Looking to Hire

Well, looks like I'm going to have to put up my hiring sign again. Everyone I've tried to employ thus far has flaked on me, which is tremendously frustrating. If anyone reading this is looking for some quick work, please contact me via email, I'm having a lot of trouble finding time and energy for the comic these days.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject January 23, 2011

Looking for Artist

Welp, it's about time I starting asking around for an intern again. With my current workload, I just don't have time to work on the comic like I wish I could. If anyone wants to get paid (!) to draw for me, please send me an email.

Oh, and there's a new page up.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject January 16, 2011

2011

A late start to the year for SC, not a great sign... well anyhow, I'm starting off with something new, a colored frame that I suspect I will never get around to completing. Thought you guys might enjoy it.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject January 9, 2011

Closed for the Holidays

I completely spaced and forgot to mention this last week- I'm closing down for the rest of 2010 (all two updates of it). I've got a number of things that need to get done in these weeks, and SC will suffer if I ignore them.

So, I'll see you guys in 2011! Have a good year.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject December 19, 2010

Its Cold Out There!

Preloaded this one pretty early in case of snow. Hope you guys like it?

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject December 12, 2010

Of course.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject December 5, 2010

Update Schedule

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject December 3, 2010

Late

Updated! Sorry about that guys.

Also, I'm thinking about changing up the update schedule. Any thoughts?

Doh, the holiday got my days out of whack... the next page will be a little bit. Sorry about that.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject November 27, 2010

Optimizations

Things are back to normal (hah!) this week, with another "On ..." page up for your edification. In other news, I made a fairly serious optimization to the site last week, so we should be going a hair faster now. Hope you guys enjoy the update!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject November 20, 2010

Skip Week

As you may have noticed, there was no update yesterday. I'm afraid I need to take a skip week- we'll be back next Saturday, good as new.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject November 14, 2010

Interlinking Bubbles

I'm tired so I'll make this short. Comic is and reuses artwork from another project: I am trying to tie some of my worlds together.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject November 6, 2010

All Hallow's Eve

Hope everyone has had a good October- mine has been a mixed bag. Looking forward to the winter though!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 30, 2010

Backups and Traps

My love of science fiction- even very bad science fiction- has often left me wondering Why didn't anyone plan for this, or at least something like this? In my semi-sci-fi story, they did, and even planned for the complications of having said plans in place.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 23, 2010

Limping Along

Well, a lot more went wrong last week than my CPU fan. I have managed to make some lost ground back, but I'm gonna be poor for a while. (I guess I wouldn't be much of a webcomic artist if I wasn't poor.)

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 16, 2010

Camping

By the time this post goes live, I will be camping and hopefully getting some much needed distance from everything technical. My CPU fan died this week and it has caused me endless headache. Fortunately I was able to whip together this update while I was in the office.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 9, 2010

Late

This week's update will be late, on account of me being kinda burned out. I will hopefully have something by the afternoon.

Well, it took a little longer than I intended, but it's up. In good news, I have successfully wired several chunks of my house with Cat5e, so my wireless problems should be gone for good.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 2, 2010

Sick

Hard to believe that I'm still feeling the effects of whatever I caught last weekend, but here I am, still aching along. Have a render of a Yarboan sword instead of listening to me whine.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject September 25, 2010

Bang bang.

I'm coming down with something, so my lofty goal of starting a new short story this week is in the ground. Instead, have misc page detailing one of the details in the upcoming short.

I'm off to bed. Hopefully this will blow over.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject September 18, 2010

Huh. Getting old.

In North Carolina, at least, I am young for a webcomic artist. That said, with my birthday rolling around again today, I feel old. Particularly since I'm out of college but live in a college town.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject September 11, 2010

Words

Sorry for the lateness, my schedule is still out of whack from my trip. Anyhow, here's a new variation of the misc comics theme: On Yarboan Words.

It's not my favorite page but I feel like it does an ok job of conveying the concept. I was shooting for kind of a textbook feel, did I pull it off?

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject September 4, 2010

California!

I'll be gone this upcoming week, so no more august updates unless we're all very very lucky. Which I doubt, because I'll be on the other side of the continent, camping.

Also, if you haven't seen it, go watch Scott Pilgrim. It's very very good.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject August 21, 2010

Conceptualizing

Sometimes things work a lot better before I put them on paper. In this case, until I started inking, my vision looked nothing like Master Chief. Soon as I did though, realization kicked in and the design in my head crumbled. So. Here's the pencils I had up to that point, I'm going to sleep on the idea and come up with something better tomorrow.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject August 14, 2010

Pencils

Early update! I hope you guys like it.

I really liked my pencils for this update, so I decided to stick with them rather than inking. What do you guys think? Too unprofessional? Drop me a line if you have an opinion one way or the other.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject August 6, 2010

Spirits Above

It's been a long week. Ever seen Dead Like Me? Kinda like that. Probably because I'm watching that show on Hulu right now and parts of it are hitting a little too close to home.

anyhow, enjoy the update. It's always kinda strange making these pages, because I have a lot of ideas, and plenty of art assets, but most of it is not really all that interesting, so it gets binned midway.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 31, 2010

New Hard Drive

You guys are lucky- I finally got my system up and running again this afternoon, and was able to scramble the update together. This has been a trying week for me.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 24, 2010

Treading Water

Work has been... well, the usual crazy busy. This page (and all the other misc pages) reflect that, and I'm working on a solution. We're getting close to it, so keep your eyes peeled. Things will change, for the better. :)

Also, is there any interest in an open-source version of my webcomic engine? I think I can make something that would be useful to other artists who might not feel like writing an entire engine in PHP, but don't want a cookie-cutter website either.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 17, 2010

Sleipnir class ships eh?

Things are in the works, my friends. I hope to show today's topic in action soon.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 10, 2010

Sheep

Edit: Whoops, put the wrong datetime in the database. Fixed now, sorry.

Turns out I can't draw sheep that well yet. So instead you get a picture of some dudes. I'm trying to exercise my drawing muscles that I'll need for when I resume updating normal pages (which is imminent!)

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 3, 2010

Props

This is a somewhat unique update in that it will have lots of future revisions. This time I'm making something akin to a movie prop, and the process is much slower than drawing a concept sketch. Rather than delaying the update, I'll just show you what I've got as I go along.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 28, 2010

Moar Weddings

It is past midnight and I am still printing things for my brother's wedding. No update tonight, I am afraid. I will try to have one by the end of Wednesday.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 26, 2010

Weddings (not mine)

It's funny how weddings have a way of eating away your life, even if they have a meager connection to it. Oh well, such is life.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 19, 2010

Roda Jogo Rules

The second season of Roda Jogo is well underway, so in the interests of clarity, I thought I'd make a little rule PDF. Print out two sided and share it with your friends!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 12, 2010

Work work work

I've been doing a fair bit of writer-type things recently, so be prepared for some little revisions to start showing up around here. Some of the new ideas may necessitate some alterations to my older ideas.

Oh, and new misc page.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 5, 2010

Fears

This week I take a little look at what makes the Eindring tick. I've been trying to find a good way into their heads for a while, and this worked itself out pretty quickly. Hope everyone like pencils!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject May 29, 2010

Scanners (sigh)

Scanner is still giving me gup, but I didn't want to go two weeks with nothing, so here's a textually finished page. Now all I need is to get a proper scan done so you won't be staring at a half-finished concept.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject May 22, 2010

Scanner

Whelp, the plan got destroyed again. My scanner is on the fritz and it's causing me no end of headache. I promise that as soon as it's fixed we will have a proper update.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject May 15, 2010

Final Projects

Boy I am glad to have finals over with so that I can actually focus on getting stuff done. For example, this lovely 3d render of a vehicle you might see in the near future.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject May 8, 2010

Exams

Almost done with exams. Exciting but time-consuming. Still got a page done though.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject May 1, 2010

Comics

Tremendously unhappy with this art, need to take a breather from finals and get this all straight. Sigh.

Got some lineart from Jallen that I'm quite happy with, now pleased as punch with this page. Show your friends!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject April 24, 2010

Cons and Such

Later update this week, because I am at Nashi-con and it's messing with my internet abilities. Once I have a finished page and internet connectivity I will upload it ASAP.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject April 17, 2010

Wallpaper Bonus

I made a SC-themed wallpaper and have put it on this site as a bonus. Enjoy!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject April 15, 2010

Conventions

I should really make a conventions page... before I do that, anyone got any suggestions? Local favorites? Give me a hollar and I'll try to swing by.

Anyhow, I'll be at Nashi-con by the time most of you see this, according to my traffic results. If you're gonna be there swing by!

Oh yeah, there's also an update (another misc page).

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject April 10, 2010

Almost There

Due to graduation problems I do not have a page ready yet. Check back tomorrow!

Ok, updated later than I wanted, but this page is at least interesting, if kind of boring looking.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject April 3, 2010

More Explaination

Almost done with the filler series (ha ha... we can only hope). In a few weeks Justin and I will finish this semester and have lots more time for the comic. Whee!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject March 27, 2010

Warrior Traditions

Took a long time to decided on this topic, but once I did I was very happy with the lineart. Then I became unhappy with the color. Can't win.

In other news, I'm stuck in college for another year. Bleh.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject March 20, 2010

On Originals

I was asked recently why I don't sell my originals. Embarrassingly enough, it's not because I'm attached to my inks emotionally or anything like that. No, it's because I think people would feel gypped when an envelope arrived containing three napkins with seemingly unrelated sketches all over them.

Oh, and there's a new page up in the misc section.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject March 12, 2010

3d renders

I'm gonna be at StellarCon filling in for some of the other NCWCCC guys, so this weekend's page is a series of quick renders of a model I'm working on. They're nothing fancy, but it does represent a lot of design work.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject March 6, 2010

Internet Problems

Having connectivity problems, check back later.

Ok, time to be realistic. Between internet problems, schoolwork (I have 18 hours and a thesis), and both Justin and I working more or less full time, SC has been... less than happening this year so far. Sad, I was hoping to be 10% through vol 1 by now.

So, with the real-world restrictions clearly being more than we can do and publish a comic, I'm putting us on filler updates until we build up a buffer. The fillers will be concept art and reference material. To help speed things up, I may end up hiring a colorist, maybe not. I'm aesthetical by nature, but paying two guys out of my modest paycheck is gonna be hard. We'll figure it out.

So, look for the misc section to grow a lot in the next month. This is all working towards having a real, professional comic published, but it's harder going than anyone predicted (well, anyone who I listened to).

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject February 20, 2010

About Those Updates...

No one likes hearing this, but between WTH Con, snow, and my thesis, no sandstorming has gotten drawn this week. Instead, might I direct you towards the updated Volume 1 storyboard?

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject February 13, 2010

Updates Saturdays

After looking at my schedule and Justin's schedule, I have decided it would be best if we start updating on Saturday mornings (about 1am on average). That keeps the schedule solid and gives you guys something to read on the weekends, and doesn't conflict with my 7pm class.

In other news, WTH con may be canceled due to snow. I really hope not.

Edit: Page is live and I am at WTH Con. Whee!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject February 5, 2010

Delays and Concepts

As I rather expected, school and paying jobs have hit us rather hard, so this update is not a page (sorry) but rather one of my concept sketches for the Eindring armor. Hope you guys like it, I have spent literally years rolling this around in my head (still not very happy with it).

In other news, WTH Con is next weekend, I will be attending and giving a panel or two- you should come too!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject January 29, 2010

Credits Page

If you're reading this, then it means that my date functions are working correctly, and it's past midnight in the time zone which my server resides. Unfortunately that timezone is not my timezone, but I'll live. A couple extra hours won't kill anyone.

Anyhow, this is kind of a boring page but you have to have this page to make a book work (and we are treating this as a book in mid-print). Some of the names may be familiar to you guys. :)

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject January 22, 2010

Volume 1 Starts Now

The front cover of Volume 1 is now live, along with the 0th page which explains hovers. I am working with Justin, our new artist, to come up with a better cover design, so check this out while it's still the same. Expect Volume 1 to start kicking into high gear next friday. :D

In other news, Modern Written Yarboan is mostly done. Thus far everything I have written has been in Basic Written Yarboan, but Modern is a much more sophisticated system that can say more with fewer brush strokes. I still have a few kinks to iron out, but it should be ready for public consumption by next weekend.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject January 14, 2010

New Site Design! (Again).

Well, it's terribly late, but here is the new site design. I'm not happy with the banner at all, and the archives are completely down until I rewrite them entirely, but it's progress. Please email me feedback!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject January 8, 2010

Happy New Year

Hope you guys are all looking forward to the new year: I certainly am, we have some cool stuff in store. For example, a new website design is in the works, which I was planning to make live today, but there are a few things left that I want to get perfected before I make it engage.

See you next week, hopefully with some less ambiguous news!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject January 1, 2010

Merry Christmas

Enjoy! I'm not terribly proud of this drawing, but it fits the season, so why not.

In other news, I may have a brand spanking new website design coming up next week. We'll see!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject December 24, 2009

Concept Sketches

I have good news and bad news. Good news is, we have a something on time, for once. Bad news is, it's just a concept sketch.

Also in good/bad news, I have decided to hire an artist to start illustrating Volume 1. In retrospect, starting with Volume 2 was probably too confusing, and my art still isn't where I can be happy with it. To make matters worse, next semester is going to be even busier than the last. To solve these two problems, I am turning to money for a solution. What does this mean for you guys? Well, probably better art, pacing, and all that. So that's definitely good. Not so good is that I'm going to have to start marketing this junk a lot more, so expect to see me peddling wares soonish. Definitely not good is that Volume 2 will go on hold until Volume 1 is done.

If you have questions, please email them to me!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject December 17, 2009

Adoping Roda Jogo

Well, after months of occasional effort, and tons of youtube updates to this site, I have one more for you: Adopting Roda Jogo, my first documentary. Mockumentary? Anyhow, it is done, and I can get back to making this ship sail again.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject December 10, 2009

Videos, of being awesome

So, because I missed last week, here is a buncha short clips from my documentary. Like them or else!

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5
Video 6

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject December 4, 2009

Have Some Video

Here you go. I know that some of you are a little tired of watching this game, but what can I say, that's just too bad. I like it.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject November 19, 2009

Kisses for Nobody

I am, at times, cruel to my characters. Pages like today's, while fun and informative to draw, are an illustration of how heartless I can be.

In other news (if you don't follow my twitter), I hate my life.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject November 13, 2009

Designs and coding

One of the things that has become readily apparent recently is that I need to do more thinking ahead of time about the little details. This week I'm sharing just one (sorry) of those details with you, in the form of a design that you will start to notice in future comics pretty soon.

Did some code revamping, the bonus pages ought to process a bit quicker now. Also shifted some navigation around.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject November 6, 2009

Hiatus

Some of you probably noticed the signs a few weeks ago, but I'm finally going to admit it: SC is going on hiatus until the end of the semester. Don't worry, I'll still upload something each Friday, but it won't be full comics, sorry.

There are several reasons that I can provide. First, I'm trying very hard to graduate, so this semester is awful. Two, I have two big projects that are tangentially related to SC that I have hard deadlines for. Three, I'm having a lot of trouble drawing this part of the story. I'm trying to depict something I'm not actually familiar with, so the going is slow.

So yeah, hiatus until mid December. Many apologies!

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 30, 2009

Internets, Noo!

As some of you may know (if you follow me on Twitter), I have not had much if any internet access this week. I'm working to fix it, but with midterms and family issues present, it's not been going well. Update should pop up late in the evening.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 23, 2009

Video!

Remember that video I said I'd publish Saturday? Uhmmmm. The videos didn't really turn out so great, so here's some of the best footage. (I am apparently a terrible cameraman).

In other news, I really need to kick it up with the religion sidestory. I've run into some artistic hitches, but that can't slow me down now.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 16, 2009

Wait, it's Friday again?

Where do the weeks in this semester go? Well sh--.

I got distracted videotaping people actually playing Roda Jogo. Once I get some of the footage captured this Saturday I will hook you guys up, until then: "how are you going to keep some mean mother hubbard from ripping you a structurally superfluous new behind?"

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 8, 2009

Tutorials for the masses

A lot of people have expressed interest in how to make Shirugi (the practice swords they use in the comic). I can't teach you that (I'd be sued for sure), but I will teach you how to make a America-friendly version for little money! Hurray!

I'm doing some recoding in the backend, btw. Things may be a little weird.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject October 1, 2009

Conflicted

Not happy with this page at all, but I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Sigh.

In other news, I've been hit by a really cool idea... that has nothing to do with SC. :( I'm trying to find time to work on the project, since it is currently dominating my imagination. What I might do is sub out the religion sidestory I'm working on because it was rather poorly received. :(

Too much stuff to do, not enough time to do it. School is eating me alive.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject September 24, 2009

Exciting and New

This is coming in latish because I'm having internet trouble at home. Which is double-bad today, because I need solid internets in order to set up the new features for today.

What new features, you ask? Why, today I am very excited to announce that for the next month or so I am also going to be putting untoned versions of my upcoming Religion side story on this site. I haven't set up a nice little page browser yet, bt that's ok because there's only one page right now.

You can find the first page here!

Posted by Go to Subject September 18, 2009

Insert Pitiful Cough

I know that some people are still waiting for last week's page, and I hate to disappoint, I really do. This past few months have not been kind to my update schedule. (Ironically, I have a buffer for my personal site that could last me to the end of the month).

To those kind enough to stick around to read my feeble excuses, I have been sick since Saturday. Not bedridden or anything, but not up to leaving the house for the most part, which strangely enough does not result in drawing. I know, and I *will* make it up, sooner or later: all of these missed/delayed pages weigh heavily on my conscience.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject September 10, 2009

Angry Monolog

While putting together Friday's page, I realized that without the CG it doesn't even make sense to me, so I'm going to hold out until I have something that will make at least a little sense. Sorry about that, this is what happens when you add in last minute characterization panels.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject September 3, 2009

Boring Achievements

This is the last page that I regret writing. The next several are actiony and have some cool stuff in them: I hope you guys out there are sticking with me while I get my crap together, and forgive my oh-so-easy to do time-passage panel in today's page.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject August 27, 2009

Back Again

Well, my cool junk is not presentable, but I am back to posting comic pages. Yay? This page is pretty boring though, so I'm really looking forward to the cool stuff I'm working on.

In other news, school starts next week. :(

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject August 20, 2009

Sandburnt

Whelp, I was hoping to get a new cool thing done by today, but no dice (as evidenced by the extreme lateness of this post). As some of you know, I've been on vacation this past week, so to be honest, rather than thinking about SC I've been getting rubbed raw by the beaches of Nag's Head.

There will be an update in the next day or two, but not today. I am too tired to finish it right now.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject August 14, 2009

Cast Pages and Criminal Laziness

Well, maybe not criminal. It feels that way. My evenings, which were supposed to be filled with productive 3d modeling and research, have instead been filled with friends and Baccano. I really have no excuse, a model I was hoping to be rendering by now is instead unfinished from the hips up.

Anyhow, today's update is a cast page, a wondrous page that lets readers learn a few details without spoiling the story. I know that it's a pretty lame update, but it's better than nothing at all (which would be totally unacceptable).

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject August 6, 2009

Bros

I'm really not pleased with the current state of this sidestory, but that's what editing is for. I'll get it ironed out sooner or later (it'd probably help if I wasn't depressed while trying to continue a love story).

Not much else to report. I have made no significant headway this week, which bothers me greatly but there's not much I can do about that.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 30, 2009

Bleh

Well, I was hoping I wouldn't deteriorate like this, but I feel like crud and it's 2am already. I will have to rework the lastest page in the morning.

Edit: Well, I was hoping it wouldn't get to this, but it has. As most of you know, my RL job mostly deals with working in Photoshop all day. Now that I'm out of class for the summer, I'm spending even more time in front of the monitor at work, working in Photoshop. This means that the Photoshop aspect of the comic production is becoming ever harder for me to motivate myself into doing. I enjoy making comics, but a lot of days I come home and all I want to do is watch anime and play video games- not restart doing what I've been doing for the entire day already.

So, I'm going to take some weeks to recover a bit, maybe build up a buffer and get to those pages that I have left half-finished. This does not mean I'm on hiatus: I will be updating the comic. Just instead of volume two, I'm going to be uploading a side story. I'll decide which one by Friday night, there are several in the works. So come back Friday and see what I've got. :)

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 23, 2009

On Front Pages

Something I've been talking to other webcomic artists about recently has been front page comics. It's a widely held belief in webcomicdom that having a site that does not have the latest comic on the front page equates to having a crap site.

I contend otherwise. I think that, should you separate your "latest" page from your index page, the average webcomic reader is smart enough to figure it out and choose which one they want to bookmark. Since most people don't have a specific "latest" page, the community has forgotten that such a thing is very easy to code (seriously, it's an extra... hold on... 12 characters of php for me. whoo, complicated stuff -_-).

So why didn't we do it this way from the beginning? Offering readers options is good, right? Well, a lot of comic creators are not interested in getting their hands dirty with the code that does the work around their site. So when a feature was missing, they just did without. Or, a lot of comic creators believe simple web designs are better (which is actualy generally true), so in some cases they deliberately combined the latest page with the front page... which has led to some comics cramming almost everything onto the front bad. Eugh. Not a good idea.

I think that a lot of readers are genuinely interested in what you have to say each week, and will want the news to be on the same page. However, an equal or greater number of readers don't care: they just want the comic, and windbags like me can stuff it. The third group that is usually ignored is the incoming readers that do not want to see the lastest, spoiler-ridden page. Lemme say that again: there are people who specifically don't want to see the lastest page when they first visit your site. This is especially true for comics that are heavily plot based: a thumbnail of the latest page is fine, but what they're looking for is a "First Comic" link.

So, please consider: does your comic ever have big reveals or plot twists? Are you sure you want to brand that into the eyes of your new (or prodigal) readers right off the bat? I certainly don't want to spoil my own story, and that's why the front-page rule is bollocks.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 21, 2009

3D shenaginans

This page came out a bit late (and a bit rushed IMO) because I got sidetracked making a 3D reference model for the parking lot area. I suspect I'll write it into future scripts, so I made the whole thing in Anim8or and then drew it by hand.

Also, I have decided to change from lineart-textures-dialog to lineart-dialog-textures. It just makes more sense from my end, and I think it makes a little more sense for you too.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 16, 2009

Made it!

Whew. First just barely finishing the colour on the previous page, and now just barely getting done with today's lineart before playing more TF2 going to bed. Aaaaaand dangit I have already spotted something I overlooked. :(

EDIT: You would think that being out of class for the rest of the summer would give me more time to work on stuff. Instead, it seems that my friends are better at talking me into doing stuff other than working on texturing (read: going to the Celtic Rock festival and then going to the bar with a gal I'm sweet on). I'm thinking I may revise the order of my updates to lineart-translation-textures, rather than the current lineart-textures-translation. Texturing takes much longer than adding in translations, because I've created some tools to help me translate quickly.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 9, 2009

Some Clarification

So I was bumming around with texturing the latest page (one panel left, whew), and decided to take a break by making Page 0, which is a web-only page which ensures that incoming readers will notice the hovering aspect of the comic. It also enunciates the three methods you can use to browse the archives (which are finally starting to fill out a bit).

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 7, 2009

Seeing Double

It's hard to look at your comic and see what other people are going to see: famous examples range from Gary Larson's dog-catching-a-car comic to... other examples that are not occurring to me at 1:30. -_- Today's comic is a perfect example of me seeing something different than my audience, and not catching it the first time around.

Had a fascination discussion/coffee/hang with Evan Dahm, who is one of the very few people I know who is willing to make me defend my habits, goals, patterns, and ideas. It's a rarity that I cherish deeply, because most people stop being willing to challenge me on anything as soon as I mention one of the languages I've created for the comic. :( Thumbs up for making me reconsider how I approach some things, we're already seeing it positively affect the art in the comic.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject July 2, 2009

Lazy Lazy Lazy

Just finished with summer classes, get my grades back tomorrow. Whoo! This hopefully means that I can finally catch up on coloring the last several pages. :(

Edit: got so caught up in coding and re-coding that the page didn't get colored in time- I failed to anticipate that I don't know of a good way to texture rock without killing the lineart. :( So, color later. I also need to catch up on the other pages, so it might be lots later. (I am beginning to regret doing a color comic).

Just putting a general reminder out to the internet that Evan Dahm (of Rice Boy) and I will be hosting the first meeting of the NCWCCCWB (North Carolina WebComics Coffee Clatch Western Branch) Mountain Brew?

Where: Boone NC
Specifically: Expresso News
(http://www.espressonews.com/ (has sound))
When: 6:00pm this Saturday.
How long: About an hour or until they kick us out
Contact: If you need help in realtime, I can be reached at 828-773-2829. Otherwise I can be reached at tentus@gmail.com

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 25, 2009

Religion Red Book

I actually put this up yesterday, but neglected to post about it. So here we are.

Oh right, explanations. Uhm, in a nutshell, I'm a member of the NCWCCC, and their next anthology is about religion. I figured this would be a perfect opportunity for me to talk briefly about what the Yarboa believe, in a manner that people would be able to decipher easily. So, the above link sends you to a PDF storyboard (another red book, actually) of what I'm planning to put in as my entry. It's still being edited and all, but I like it so far.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 23, 2009

Pages 20 and 21

Two new pages! The previous two pages are still kinda empty, but I want to try and pick back up some of the momentum that summer classes have killed.

In other news: if you are a webcomic artist in western NC, please come out to the first meeting of the Western NCWCCC! Evan and I will be hosting it at Express News at the end of this month, and we're kinda in the dark about who might come. More details on that... soon.

Edit: a good friend of mine has returned from a two-year missionary trip to Taiwan. I am bringing him up to date on the 'states, so color is delayed (betcha didn't see that coming...).

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 19, 2009

Idiot Mishaps

Ok, we've had a number of idiot mishaps on my part, but I think I've gotten them ironed out now: the archive is back, the images to the side are rendering, and my super manly top secret comic database is coming along and should be online soon. Once I get it working well I may release it to the public, or maybe not, we'll see.

To everyone coming over from AGAHF, uh, hello? It's been a rough month for my websites, so I'm sorry that you've walked in on my messes. Hope some of you get to stick around, I promise that I'm usually pretty punctual. :)

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 16, 2009

New Site Design!

New Site Design! The old site just wasn't working for me, so I've whipped together a new one, working on a different design premise (grit is great, but it's a pain to get it working, especially if you're an optimization obsessive-compulsive like me). If you notice anything weird going on in this design, please send me an email and I'll look into it.

In comic new, the current pages are in production- they should be up soon! I apologize for the hiccups in the update as of late, they should be smoothed out very soon.

Posted by TSHolden Go to Subject June 15, 2009

And that's it. :)