September planning!

(First off, be sure to scroll down and show some love to the contributors from Guest Week 3!)

The big event of September will be my appearance at Intervention, in the DC area! I am very excited about this one, as it's my first non-furry con and the geek-friendly vibe should be a lot of fun. Just look at the list of guests and artists! I will have a hard time staying at my table, as lots of cartoonist friends will be around! You readers better make a strong showing too, as I'll have the usual Precocious stuff to sell. Come chat with me as I draw your commission, or sketch in your book, at the table! (Also, if you *want* to see me at a furry con, come November I'll be tabling at Midwest Furfest in Chicago.)

As for the rest of September? We. Shall. See. The move taking three extra weeks, and all the stress that came with that, zonked my schedule, so I've decided to go free and easy during the month and save the big projects for October. Doesn't mean I'm not doing stuff, though!  Commissions are technically open, so feel free to email me if you have something in mind. I'll also likely be doing more freebie stuff like the portraits. (Yes, I still have to finish and post the last portrait page. It'll happen!) Make sure you follow my Twitter account, as that's where I first do giveaways when I feel whimsical. Things might not happen until I've rebuilt a Precocious buffer, but when I'm confident with that, it'll get magical!

Oh, and if you didn't see it earlier, I'm also contributing to The Webcomics Tarot Project this month. The piece for Copper Road is already up, with an epic Precocious card coming soon!

Lots of news!

Ok, folks, I'm going to cover a lot in today's news post. I figure it's better to put it all together than spread a bunch of things out over separate posts. (I can only have four current items on the home page, and it's rare that anyone is even reading this, much less scrolling down to see more.) So let's go!

GUEST STRIPS! - I am still looking for contributions from those who are artistically inclined! If you think you can pull one off, shoot me an email and let me know! The reason I'm looking for these is because I have a big move coming up in a couple weeks, and it'll take me a while to settle in. I'd like a week to catch my breath.

Commissions! - Since I haven't had many bites this time, I'm going to shut down the studio early. I could use the space for packing. You can still commission me, but there's no longer a promise of a week turnaround. You might have to wait until September for delivery now. In related news, my attempts to figure out livestreaming has been pushed back to September due to the pressures with moving.

CONVENTIONS! - I'll be at FA: United in Whippany, NJ the weekend of August 17-19. Come see me! I'll also be wandering around Intervention in DC in September 21-23, and I'd love to do a reader meet up there!

State of the Chrispy Address

Here's an overview of what to expect from me and Precocious over the next few months, plus some reminders of other fun things.  Don't be lazy! Read this stuff!

First off: The book! As the release date nears, the order form will be closed down for a small stretch while the final shipping prep begins.  It looks like we may be able to get the books in (and thus ship them out) earlier, so that's a plus.  If you're not planning on buying one from me at a convention, grab a copy now while you can! Artist editions won't be shipping until around August 20, as those require me to draw in them and I won't have access to the books until the weekend of FA:U.

Next, if you've been following me on DeviantArt, FurAffinity or Twitter, you know I've been stressing about the future. That's because I'll be moving from Savannah back to Virginia next month. I knew it was coming, but I didn't really expect it to be so soon - and plans had to be rearranged. (I'll really miss Savannah. I love the people here, my apartment was in the best spot and it was so darn inviting and pretty!) The pressure of the move and the con in the same week will be taxing, but I'm hoping to be able to keep Precocious going without missing a beat.  (I may put out a call for guest strips later, just to be safe, so if you're a cartoonist or aspiring cartoonist, start thinking of ideas.)

Here's a rundown of my future conventions:

August 17-19: FA:United, Whippany, NJ
- This is a smaller con, and I'd love to have some of you guys around to keep me company. I'll have a lot of free time here, as I'm rotating at the table with the Code Name: Hunter team, so maybe a Precocious reader meeting and meal time can happen? If anyone's up for that, email me and let me know.

September 21-23: Intervention, Rockville, MD
- Unless a grand miracle happens, I won't have a table. I'll just be wandering around, totally lost because I have no idea how to handle a con as an attendee. Come be my guide! (If you want to find me, look for Mark, of Autumn Lake or Dave from Slightly Off-Topic. I'll be the one following them around and crying for attention.)

November 16-18: Midwest Furfest, Chicago, IL
- We'll be back to the big RCSI double table setup that looked so spiffy at Anthrocon here. It's a bigger con than the ones above, so I have big expectations for this sucker. This one should be a blast, so get your reservations in now!

Con-going readers, do you have any suggestions for my next year's con schedule?  As I'm moving 10 hours away, I'm on the fence about returning to FWA, potentially replacing it with the new Baltimore-based Fur the 'More. Since Massachusetts-based  RCSI Publishing won't always travel around to host me, I'll look into invitations from fellow cartoonists/artists who'd like to split hotel and table space at some of these. I don't care what type of con it is, as long as I can make back my investment without scarring my soul forever.

And now, for those who can't or won't brave the scariness to say hello at cons, you can still have Chrispy interaction!  I'm always happy to answer questions over on my Formspring account. I spend a lot of time on Twitter, putting on my grand neurotic show. You can also interact with other readers on the Facebook group. Come late August or early September, I also plan to venture into streaming.  You can come watch me draw a commission or a Copper Road or whatever and do some chatting with me and other readers! I love reader interaction! Your good will fuels me!

If you want to brighten my day, I obsessively check the Precocious TV Tropes page, so every time it's updated I cheer - especially if you also update the trope's main page with a Precocious mention as well!

Before anyone pesters me, I do know some parts of the site need updating. The cast page needs an overhaul, and the linking page needs maintenance - both of which involve creating new graphics.  That stuff takes a lot of time, and you see all that writing above this paragraph? That indicates I don't have much of it free. I'm not planning to start work on this stuff until at least September, and it'll take time to pull it all together.  Please bear with me until I can get to it.

If you read this far, you are a true hero.

Anthrocon info! (I will have books!)

Today I head off to furryland to do the Anthrocon thing. I shall play with many awesome people and hopefully make enough money to keep the comic dream alive a little bit longer.

I'll be in the dealers room pretty much the whole time it's open, so you have no excuse for missing me. Look, I'm so easy to find!

I will be at tables J16/J17 with the lovely folks of RCSI Publishing. Look for the RCSI logo out front and the giant Precocious and Code Name: Hunter banners behind us!

For those lazy folks who somehow never checked out my sketch blog, here I am. Memorize my face. That is the face you should be throwing your money towards.

While I'll try to look somewhat presentable on most days, I simply cannot let the con pass without breaking out the Tiff hat for one day! (By the way, if you guys covet the caps, let me know. There's a chance of more being made if the price is right.)

So what am I offering?

-THE PRECOCIOUS BOOK! The artist edition bundle will be available for $30.
-Commissions! Sketchbook or 8.5x11" pieces, starting at $20.
-Badges! 3x4" badges, starting at $10.
-Buttons! $1.50 for one. $6 for five. $10 for all 10 designs.
-Magnets! $1.50 each. $5 for all four.
-Whatever else I feel like offering. (Custom buttons looks like a go, for example.)

(More details here.)

I hope to see a bunch of you there! Make me feel welcome!

Why the quiet time?

In case you hadn't been tracking all the links I've been posting on Twitter, I sold out to the furries over the last month so I could have a usable portfolio for Anthrocon.  Since the animal stuff doesn't appeal to everyone, I kept the finals over on my FurAffinity account.  Shoulda shared shared the Precocious pieces over here, but I was lazy and I still have some hangup about reposting my art instead of creating original art for each site.

Art on this blog could be scarce for June as well.  I'll be doing commissions at Anthrocon, and probably posting some photos of them here, but that's it.  June is my vacation month.  The second half of June will have me traveling all about, so I won't be stopping to make much art. (Precocious and Copper Road will continue to update regularly, of course, as I've built a sizable buffer for both.)

Still, the news posts will be coming. Yes, the big ones will go on the main page too, but other notes will be on the blog only.

I'm excited for this summer. July should be filled with various crazy projects, August will have another con and, wow, the book's official release!  There's some wild happenings predicted for September too!  I'll be posting news of those projects here when I can confirm them - and there should be a couple of those announcements in the next two weeks.

The book! It exists!

Earlier tonight I was commanded to show up on Skype by the good folks at RCSI Publishing. Why?   Because the proof of the first Precocious book was in! It's real, and it's spectacular!

That would be Matt, of the Code Name: Hunter team, holding a VERY REAL book in his VERY REAL hands!

The first good look you folks have gotten at the back cover. I love the layout.

Bonus art! Bonus art everywhere!

And, oh yeah, an introduction from one of the founding fathers of Webcomics, the great Bill Holbrook!

Also: Those comics the people seem to be going on about.

A look at the Sunday strips in their book form. No color, alas, as that would have more than doubled the printing cost. I hope we made up for that with the giant 48-strip print-exclusive bonus story!

Guys, this thing is happening.  They checked over the proof and it looks FANTASTIC! We'll be putting in the print order for the pre-orders soon (they'll ship out to you early August) and the amount of pre-orders is going to determine the print run. Unless you're planning on grabbing a book at a convention, get your orders in now!

Giving 'em the business

When I went to the post office today to mail the recent commissions, I had a nice chat about the art I was sending with the lady behind the counter. She asked me for a business card, and I checked my wallet. One left! I handed it over and made a mental note to reload when I got back to the apartment. Once there, I pulled out my box to see... I'm in the market to reorder.

The cards I have now will get me through the next con easily, but it'd be wise to reorder before the next. That means updating the design! I like the "I DEMAND ATTENTION!" idea, and those at the cons seemed amused by it too, so it's staying for now. The art for it is quite old at this point, so today I drew a new attention-grabbing Tiffany.

For the design, I made a few changes:
- I removed the Precocious logo from the front, so I could make Tiffany bigger.  This may or may not be a good idea.
- Fonts switched around. While I kept the Precocious font for Tiff's voice, everything else was upgraded. The new logo font took over the important info, and a non-offensive Franklin Gothic was used for supporting information.
- The Bud and Autumn on the back were upgraded with the recent magnet images. (Poor Jacob remains shut out.)
- The tagline was rephrased to mention the daily updates, and "webcomic" was changed to "comic" so the label purists won't get mad.  (I don't care what you call my strip, as long as you read and enjoy it!)
- Twitter and blog links were added to my information. It gives folks other ways to contact me, and lets them see my personality in action.  (Is that good or bad?) The downside is that the back is now text-heavy.  I do think the black box for my name did a good job of stabilizing everything.
- I made the blue background cover everything.  The original card has a separate white space where the logo and website appeared on both sizes.

I'm liking the upgrade so far, but I'll see what the reaction is before I do any more playing around.  Plus, it'd be silly to order new business cards when the company I'd order from botched my magnet order and hasn't come through with the corrections yet.  (I was promised it'd happen, but I'll still worry until I see the proofs.)

Is there a Troper in the house?

Is it desperate and classless to do this? Does it matter? Eh.

I love TV Tropes so very much, and you should to. Yes, it eats up your time in 10-hour chunks, but you will love every minute of those chunks. Never before has reading about the details of a show you've never watched or cared about been so engrossing!

What makes that site so entertaining is the dedicated Tropers, who both know their way around tropes and have the will to share their knowledge with the world. They are a special breed, worth their weight in gold, and I'm hoping I have a few of them out there. (Or, if not that, a few do-gooders willing to learn the way of the Troper.)

I would love to see Precocious' presence on TV Tropes rise. It's both good for my massive ego and good for bringing in traffic. Even if I can't bring in much action through this post, I hope I've at least ruined a few good people's schedules by sucking them into the tropeverse.  The more people who get sucked in, the more likely I'll eventually create a Troper army!  Go, my pretties! Destroy your lives to my benefit!

Furry Weekend Atlanta!

Where should you be this weekend? In Atlanta! Hanging with me! And buying things from me!

Yes, it's my first-ever con. I'm super nervous, but also excited. Anyone in the area, please come out and say hi! I'll be at table #77 in the Dealer's Den, drawing pics for people and selling those snazzy buttons you see above!

For more information, check out the Furry Weekend Atlanta site. And, to make it easier to find me among the crowds of silly (and sometimes scary and creepy) things, here is a map showing where I'll be. (click on the image to see it larger.)



For those who can't make it, I'll be sure to post pics and commentary via my Twitter feed. You can follow the carnage from the safety of your own home - but what fun is that?

Large and in charge

(My 5th post in 24 hours! Don't miss all the new content below!)



Despite being sicky, I am pressing on.

Next week I go to Furry Weekend Atlanta, my first convention. I know I've got a ton of rookie mistakes coming my way, but I want to do my best for a first showing. I want to have enough stuff on my table to tempt those walking by to come up to me and spend some cash. GIANT CARTOON CRITTERS SHOULD DO THAT!

I don't have a banner yet - I will for Anthrocon - so I have to improvise. My plan was to make 11x17 prints of my main kids and mount them on foam core. I can then scatter them on my table in order to catch some eyes. Good idea, right?

So far so good. It took longer than I'd care to admit to figure out how to load my printer and format the file in Photoshop so it printed correctly - but that was a success in the end. Next up... how the heck to I mount them on the foam core? I bought some spray adhesive, since that seemed like a good idea at the time. Then I mentioned the plan to my FWA tablemate. "Um, where are you going to spray that stuff?" Oh. Right. I don't live in Virginia anymore. I don't have access to a porch or a well-ventilated open indoor space. Hmmm.

SO WE'LL FIGURE THAT OUT LATER. For now, I stuck them to the foam core with scotch tape just to get them out of the way. Ideally, I'd mount the prints and then cut out the figures, but that sounds hard. I might just throw the prints on 11x17 chunks and leave it at that. Time will tell.

1000 comics party!

Can you believe Precocious made it this far? This party only happens once in the life of a comic and we should make it a special one! Let's go wild!

You guys are what keeps me going when things get tough on the daily comic front. When scripting gets hard and when my hand aches, I know I need to keep fighting to keep my readers happy and coming back. This is what I love to do, but I couldn't do it without reader support.

Active readers are amazing, and I am blessed to have them. Reading comments on the comics brighten my day. Seeing my comics shared using the buttons on the site gives me hope that my readership can grow. Word of mouth is very powerful on the internet, and I can't keep going unless I keep growing. It still blows me away that people make Precocious fan art. I'm honored that Precocious has a TV Tropes page, a DeviantArt group and a Facebook group. I absolutely love readers popping over to Formspring to ask me questions. Your active participation is my comic fuel. I love you guys!

Vote for me!

While we wait for my website to come back (I don't know what's up with SpiderForest), how about heading over to Code Name: Hunter site and voting for my entry in the art contest!

Back to the site outage stuff. I will be very upset if this down time goes beyond midnight, as I have yet to upload tomorrow's request week strip. So if you check the Precocious site in the morning and see no comic, that's why.

Also, I'm still taking suggestions for request week. I'll entertain ideas until all seven strips are made.

Looking for guest strips

The month ahead looks to be a particularly hectic one for me, so I'm throwing myself on the mercy of the internet and asking for Precocious guest comics to help preserve my sanity. If any of you artsy types out there are willing to craft a comic for me, I will be eternally grateful! (Guest artwork is also accepted.)

I'm setting a deadline of August 14th for submissions, since I know how cartoonists act without deadlines. Even if you wait until the last minute to draw something (again, cartoonists), I'd love to get a heads up that something will be coming. It'll help me plan. I'd like to get enough strips to cover a week of daily updates. If not enough show up in time, I may hold on to what I did get for later use.

Guest comics should be in jpeg format. They can be any height, with a maximum width of 1000px. Keep 'em PG rated at worst, as Precocious is a family-friendly strip!

Much love and thanks to everyone for supporting Precocious!

Precocious across the world!

Behold! A ego-tastical posting for today!

I can send off all my commissions and donation packages, but it doesn't become real to me that SOMEONE ACTUALLY WANTED MY STUFF until I see photo proof!



Look at this! THOSE ARE FRAMES! My work was frameable! All three Tiffany watercolors hanging together! Oh my heck! (I'll forgive him for making Ginger's Bread the centerpiece, since I outnumber it four to one.)



Since I got permission to post his pictures, here is my Skull Mountain commission with the awesome reader who set the plan in motion! (Note the Team Jacob shirt too. Bonus points!)



I'm even excited to see my magnets in action. This is not just a refrigerator, people. It's a refrigerator IN RUSSIA! Tiffany is demanding attention on another continent! That amazes me!

I've been fighting to keep pace with all my work lately, and it's treats like these photos that keep me pushing forward. Sure, the money is nice for allowing me to eat and stuff - but it's the ego boosts that come from selling art that keeps me going. Thanks to everyone who has supported me. Love to you all!

I WANNA FORCE MEMES!

"That advice dog is a pretty cool guy. I wonder if I can get in on his meme action?" This is the thing that popped into my head when I woke up early this morning. This is why I tend not to do the early thing.

Having one's creation abused in this way is truly a noble goal. I'd love to have a legion of fans filling my forums with these! As my forums currently constitute one of the saddest ghost towns on the internet, this is not going to happen - BUT A GUY CAN DREAM! One day, man. One day!

So igniting an internet craze isn't gonna happen. Doesn't mean I can't start preparing for one anyway! Enjoy these templates I quickly whipped up:

Concerned Jacob:

Optimist Bud:

Panicked Autumn:

Happy Tiffany:

Card me!

So there's a chance I will be able to get some business cards printed up for cheap... if I get something together by tomorrow morning. Ok, sure, I'll put in a little bit of effort for that.

They say a good business card demands attention, and I needed a good image to use... HEY, I KNOW! (I just hope it comes off as metahumor and not pure desperation.) Eh, it's not the greatest card out there, but it didn't take long to make and that's what matters.

I really should design a more professional card for my fine art side. To the heap of priorities it goes! If I get a moment later, I'll try to knock one out. For now, it's heap time. I have a cast page that needs updating and a comic buffer to build. And letters to write. So. Many. Letters. WHY ARE DAYS SO SHORT?

Shameless self-promotion!

This is not my official blog o' the day, although I wish I could cop out like that. ;-) This is me attention whoring to the fullest, with images for you to share on your websites if the linking page on Precocious is not enough. I'm shameless, so I take all the good attention you can give me!

Slow motion day

I woke up today and... well... didn't wake up. Despite going to bed early, nothing I could do would get my brain in gear. A few hours later I came to the horrible conclusion: I was sick. Now this is nothing major, friends - in fact, it is the smallest amount of sick one can be to still qualify as sick - but it's enough to make me very, very sluggish.

Everything moved in slow motion today. Coloring the Sunday strip took MANY hours, and work on the next week's stuff was painfully slow. I had been hoping today would get me ahead, but my sniffly head moving like molasses on a cold day was not allowing it. I did get two more strips done, and I've started work on two more. After that, I have to go back to scripting, and that's probably not gonna happen. A soupy brain does not creativity make.

I expect this bug to be out of my system by tomorrow, so maybe all the work can be done then. If it persists, I will be very upset. This is barely enough sick to complain about! Had I been a student or salaryman, I would not have been able to call in sick with this. Give me disease I can rock for pity or, better yet, LET ME BE HEALTHY, DAMMIT!

Choose your wallpaper

After checking the calendar, I see time is running out for me to get this wallpaper done. That means I need a final direction, and for that I turn to you!

Thanks to everyone who suggested wallpaper ideas! Now it's time to choose. Look over my recent posts and tell me what you'd most like to see, and how I should expand upon those ideas. Did you like Tiffany as a witch? The campfire stories? Supervillains? The horrific Rocky Horror mistake? (If so, what is wrong with you!?) Let me know what you want!

Hey, know your vote will count. Not many people will be giving feedback, so your voice could push one idea to the front of the pack! If I see a clear majority, I will follow it. Otherwise, I do what *I* want... which totally defeats the purpose of asking you guys, so SPEAK UP!

Also, I apologize for not getting to every suggestion. Some proved a bit harder to sketch than anticipated and others just got cut for time.

I thought it could do everything!

So I have my interview tonight, and I'm doing the required STRESSING THE FUCK OUT over it. I should prepare some responses to anticipated questions, but instead I think I'm going to wing it and hope my inner awesomeness pulls it out.

Today's already brought one shock. I asked what I needed to do to prepare and the replace was simple: Give him my skype information and all would be fine! My...what? I'm not on Skype! I have an iPhone! I want to call in and use my iPhone to be jerky and/or cool! This whole Skype thing passed me right by.

So now I have to learn Skype before I embarrass myself further tonight. Blah. I hate learning new things!!!!