Ahoy there, everyone!
All is good, but I need to let everyone know that I’ve made a decision to temporarily hold off on uploading new comics for just a while and put things on HIATUS to "reset" and play some catch up on matters. I'm going to take a brief pause for at least three weeks on posting new comics though I will be working behind the scenes on drawing new comic strips, filling some orders and requests, working on getting some comic books finally to the printer, and revamping everything here to make things better for both YOU and ME.
If that may be upsetting or a “let down”, I do apologize. Think of this approach just like one of your favorite television series taking a hiatus before delivering a new season of episodes. With obligations in my own life, it is too much of a strain for me at the moment to keep up with the pace that I have been doing this past year. I feel that a “reset” and revamped new approach can benefit myself and the SEA SHANTY FUNNIES comic strips for you. I am going to transition into a “season approach” with bigger blocks of work presented instead of uploading small tidbit strips here and there where I can. Keep reading if you would like to understand my plans a little more and what brought me to this conclusion.
MAJOR UPDATE AND MY THOUGHTS (…and yes, it is another long post. Sorry!!!):
So, I've been out of town over the two previous weekends. This weekend, I took care of some family matters. My son Mitch is moving across the country to New York City this morning, taking the next big steps in his life. I’m proud of him and was able to spend some time with him last night saying goodbye.
Regarding things going on in the Popeye-world, I took a trip last weekend to Chester, Illinois – the home of Popeye creator E.C. Segar. I visited fellow Popeye fans and spent some time at the Popeye Fan Club Headquarters and Popeye Museum at Spinach Can Collectibles. This gave me time to pause and reflect on what I'm doing here with SEA SHANTY FUNNIES and these Popeye comics that I create talking to fellow Popeye fans in person, seeing the sites, and looking at everything wonderfully presented in front of me to see. It was nice to get away from my desk at home and gain a new perspective. After seeing several original hand-drawn pieces of comic strip artwork done by Popeye creator E.C. Segar himself firsthand with my own eyes, it really hit me hard to rethink my own creative approach to my own artwork and what I'm doing with all of this things related to SEA SHANTY FUNNIES.
Again, all is good but in my time of reflection on matters, I realize things can be improved in my approach.
I do have a full-time "day job" and so the work that I do on SEA SHANTY FUNNIES is completed "in my spare time" outside of my work as a graphic designer. I have often mentioned that before here, but I have to remind myself most of all that I can only do what I can do when I find that free time and not interfere with the other aspects of my life, work, family, obligations, health, and personal time for myself.
Over the past year, I've been trying to post several comics strips a week along with other tidbits to give constant new content throughout the week to everyone. Someone mentioned to me that I am a "content creator" and it gave me pause. Is that what I yam – I mean ‘am’?
I'd rather be a "cartoonist" that concentrates on that first and foremost. I've realized that all the other fussy things and expectations that I had in my head are taking a toll on me trying to do all things where – as we say here in America – I am “stretched thin” and so things suffer just a bit.
I've realized that I've been rushing myself on my artwork and I feel it can get a little too sloppy at times trying to meet self-imposed deadlines to constantly have new material. Seeing the work of E.C. Segar firsthand inspired me to take a little more time and care. Plus, I have rethought the "delivery" method of how I want to post my future comics. I have decided to change my approach after trying to collect past comic stories into the small print run of comic books that I am currently trying to have printed. I also feel that my ongoing main storyline is taking too long this summer between the postings due to me only being able to post a panel or two during the week with my schedule. I want the work to have a bigger, better, and stronger punch with the ongoing storyline to “pick up the pace”.
So, once I return after this hiatus, I will now begin posting a full page comic page once a week with the artwork formatted into four rows of comic strip panels on a single full comic book-sized page to give "more story" at once each time that I post. I think this will make the "main feature" story flow and move along faster and perhaps it won't feel that it is dragging too long or waiting on me. On each full comic-book sized page released now once a week, there will be a main topper story for “the adventure” tale and then there will also be a bonus secondary bottom supplement separate "side story" going on. Or something else self-contained. I’m also going to slightly alter my approach to the artwork that I think will improve the quality.
You will probably better understand what I am saying here once you see the new format in a few weeks. Wait and see.
I've decided to halt and no longer post just a single one row "two-or-three panel" short comic here and there "when I can get to it". I've also decided to be proactive for my well-being to work way more in advance to finish a full-page comics to build up the stories in advance and “have it in the can" instead of my usual reactive method of drawing the comic strip either the night before or sometimes the very morning of release as I often do. Again, working in this previous method is taking a toll on my body and the work. I'm also taking too many shortcuts to rush and hurry my artwork to meet a morning deadline. Instead, I want to take more time to work on the quality of the artwork in advance and "bank" some pages ahead of the planned release weekly schedule. I think that will be less stressful on me and I will be happier with the work.
I also think that if you understand that you can look forward to a new FREE NEW FULL-PAGE comic EVERY TUESDAY MORNING (U.S. time) once a “new season” begins, it will be something that you can look forward to and expect on a regular basis for ongoing consistency instead of wondering when I will post a new comic.
Plus, changing over and doing these already made as a full-size comic page will save me time in the future of trying to put together pages in post-production the work it would need me to take to send files to a printer if I collected the stories in a future souvenir-style printed comic book that you can hold in your hands. Trying to piece all these piecemeal comic strips into issues two and three recently has been time consuming. This will also allow me to more easily place “ready-made” full pages into a "flip-style" digital comic book that will be easier for you, the readers, to access and read online as a comic book in my archives if you are either wanting to go back and re-read or for new readers to catch up of what has been published before.
I've also decided that the spin-off comic strips like "KEY MOMENTS" and doing something like the shortened black and white "A QUICK CRACK UP" will now be re-tooled in the future to fit from time-to-time in the weekly full comic page as a supplement in the "bottom" strip. I'm approaching this similarly to what Segar did on his Sunday comics when he had the main THIMBLE THEATRE comic strip and placed what was considered the "topper" that was his spin-off related comic strip called SAPPO (Originally THE FIVE-FIFTEEN) featuring John and Myrtle Sappo with Professor O.G. Wottasnozzle for you Popeye aficionados and diehard fan historians that know what I mean. So while there will be the main Popeye story-related storyline, I can do a side stories with a secondary character or something else for a quick chuckle and laugh in the “bottom” panel event.
Another benefit of working in advance to have pages ready by a few weeks instead of the night before is that I hope to also continue offering variant language translations of SEA SHANTY FUNNIES in Italian, Spanish, and Greek on the same day that I post the English language version. We are a global community here at the SEA SHANTY FUNNIES Facebook Group and I want to extend a show of goodwill to those Popeye readers from all over the world.
I am already now conferring with our mutual friend Tano Strilla to graciously proof-read the Italian translations of my comics to offer me suggestions with any changes he feels that I need to make in the dialogue to make more authentic for his fellow Italian readers. I hope to find someone else willing to proofread and do something similar with my Greek and Spanish translations who are native speakers and willing do the same things as Tano.
On a next phase if this works out, I hope then to begin offering translations of SEA SHANTY FUNNIES in French, German, and Arabic next if the need or desire is there. If you are reading this and qualify and are willing to help proofread my comics in your own languages that you want to see made available to your fellow readers, I can then begin offering SEA SHANTY FUNNIES in an accessible way for readers from around the world in your native languages. If there is another language out I haven’t mentioned that you would like to read SEA SHANTY FUNNIES in, please let me know what language and if you can help.
NEXT ON MY LIST... I have a few commissioned drawings to do for about three people I'm aware of and I also have some more comic book orders to mail out this week. I haven't forgotten you and will send you a private message later. A few of you, I need to know what character you want me to draw for you in my pen and ink drawings.
AND THEN THIS IS THE BIGGIE UPDATE.... SEA SHANTY FUNNIES #2 and #3 have been a bit delayed over the past month with things that popped up in my personal life but production is back on track. Over these next few weeks, I want to finish up the "pre-press production" work that took longer than expected and get the files sent to the printer as soon as possible. I will update everyone once they are off to the printer. At that same time as I send those off to the printer, I will then post online all three comic books so far with the archived stories from earlier in a new collected online comic book format that you can "flip through" and read the past stories like a digital virtual comic book giving you the "feel and experience" of turning the comic pages on your screen. I think this will be easier for everyone to catch up and read the previous material instead of hunting it down here on Facebook or trying to read webpages where you keep clicking.
My volume of past material is getting unruly, and I want to streamline and make it easier. Again, you will see in a few weeks. So, hang in there for me.
With ALL THAT, this is why I need to pause on posting for two or three weeks to do these renovations, improvements, and to catch up. All is good, but I have decided I need to do this in the short term for long-term sustainability and to make good on my promises. And to so some improvements where I see fit.
I do all of this as a labor of love for the enjoyment and entertainment that Popeye has given me in my own life. And I know that he has given many of you as we move closer to his 100th birthday in 2029.
Working on these comics also scratches that creative itch that I’ve had since childhood that inspired me to be a cartoonist (at least in my spare time) where I now get to write and draw a public domain-based Popeye and his friends in my SEA SHANTY FUNNIES comic stories thanks to your support, enthusiasm, and encouragement that keeps me going and making more.
Writing and drawing these comics in my spare time is more than just a hobby for me. Yet this isn’t an official (or even unofficial) paying gig either. I realized last weekend in Chester that Popeye is truly once again a big part of my life again like he was in my childhood and I must be responsible in my handling of these characters that I love and respect.
Anyway, enough of my long rambling. If you are still reading this, you've got my additional thanks for taking the time to allow me to share my thoughts.
While I won’t be posting much these next few weeks as I work on all of this, I will still be around on the Discussion Group, but it may seem I’m a little disengaged as I prepare for the “new season”. Just know I’m around but I’m taking care of things quietly behind the scenes outside my "day job". I will make updates when I can or have something relevant to say.
If you got questions, let me know here and I will try to answer things as we “reset” over the next few weeks. I don’t want to place a hard-deadline on myself or the return for new comics, but I’m aiming for mid-October return after this hiatus. It may take a little longer, but I want to send the two books to the printer and have minimally four full-sized pages completely finished before I relaunch. My plan is to post once a week this new ongoing full comic page every Tuesday morning and then assess things early in the new year with how all of this is working out.
HOLD FAST for me. Thanks!
Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment