Praising the Guest Artists!

I really hope everyone enjoyed diving into the multiverse again. Not only are these fun stories for me to write, but it's an amazing feeling to know some of the best people out there are willing to lend their time to make this concept work. Creating guest content is such a struggle - not just in the effort, but because artists are so nervous about trying to get the look/tone right. Some artists draw different styles of comics. Some draw different styles of characters. Some are just learning the ways of art. It's a huge undertaking, and everyone took an unreasonable challenge and made something spectacular. This is why you need to go tell them how much you appreciate them!  (Read the post below for more of my thoughts on that.)

The rundown:

Tourism Ads/Spaceverse - Erik Amill
-Erik draws the monsterliciously fun comic Biff the Vampire. You can sent him positive vibes over at his Twitter or Tumblr account. If you were at ConnectiCon last year, he was the poor soul I sucked into being my table servant! (Well, one of them. Hi, James!)

Mirror Universe/Evil Max - Rachel Edwards
- Since this project asked for a lot of work, I only went to one of my amazing crop of reader artists. I chose Rachel because I felt bad that her wonderful Halloween contest work didn't earn a prize, and because I've watcher her grow as an artist over the years. That's so special! You can follow her and send some cheer at her DeviantArt page.

Super Weird Crazy/Beyond Belief - Matthew Dawson
- Matthew is one who is well known for saving my bacon over and over. I wouldn't have survived without him. He's one of the most talented artists I know, and mind dreams up exceedingly clever things! Thanks to his excellent work in the first universe jumping story, I was inspired to re-use the artist so I could pull out further and show the hidden quirks. Follow him on Twitter and Tumblr!

The Kindest Tiffany of All/Impolite Conquering - Becca Hillburn
- If you're coming to Furry Weekend Atlanta this weekend, she'll be with me, so thank her in person!  Becca is one of the hardest-working and most benevolent artists out there. Not only is she working on family-friendly watercolor comics  - which is cartooning on HARD MODE - but she runs an art/resource blog with tips and essays for developing artists. She does so many things to make other artists lives easier. She is on Twitter, and her Tumblr is a must follow!

Becca gets a second paragraph, because she turn her guest comics into a learning experience and shared photos of the special process she used! It's really spectacular. See the making of "The Kindest Tiffany of All" and "Impolite Conquering" by clicking those links. Be amazed, and be sure to let her know how impressive she is.

The Weirdest Universe Yet/Attack of the Clones - Carl Sjostrand
- If you've been paying attention, Carl and I have jokingly crossed over with comics before. (You have yet to see what I have planned for all the random Gingerfoxes, by the way.) It's some weird similar-but-not-actually-them thing going on with our character appropriation, and because if that I *had* to make one Precocious universe one that is eerily similar to (but not actually) Carl's comic, Ginger's Bread.  Ginger is recently back from hiatus, so now's a great time to catch up and get on board. If you want to help Carl out, he does have a Patreon campaign going. Also follow him on Twitter and Tumblr.

Have Cola, Will Travel - Veronica Vera
- I know how busy Veronica is with her comic, Bittersweet Candy Bowl, so I tried to give her the simple one-shot transition page. BUT, I was so sick and incoherent when I sent her the script, she went and made something much more elaborate. Sucks to be her, but I WIN! (I mean, WE ALL WIN!) You can find her on Twitter and Tumblr and lots of other places if you click around the links on her site!

Polite Conquering - Mandy Seley
- Her reward for being such a clever and skillful artist is that we keep crashing her comic's website!  Fixes are underway, so go read Curtailed and enjoy every page of it! I am forever appreciative of Mandy for her friendship and her positive influence - I've been changing I draw tails because her art has inspired me! Like everyone else, you definitely should give her a follow and shout out on Twitter and Tumblr.

Cartooning is hard work, and cartooning with someone else's character is a big challenge. Everyone brought their A game and impressed me so much. When I was at my worst, they helped me put out my best! Bless them, every one!

Vote for a bonus comic!

First off, I'm so happy to have read such wonderful comments/speculation about the attic arc. I had no idea this story would go over so well, and with my current health issues I really needed such widespread positivity! I kept mostly quiet while the story ran, so as not to interfere with the discussion. It's always wonderful when commenting both thrives and (usually) stays on-topic without any nudging.

Once again, my "enhance the future books" promotion means you get a bonus strip! (Another will come next week too!) Click here to vote, and see where Jacob ended up! You'd best enjoy it now, as these bonus comics won't go into the online archives once a new incentive goes up. They are book bonuses you get to see *years* in advance!

Let's give everyone some love!

This week was full of some amazing birthday gifts, from amazing artists! I'm so grateful to those who sacrificed their time to let me pull off my sneaky idea! Each one of them delivered, giving me the variety of styles and intriguing interpretations that were exactly what I wanted when I reached out to them. I had so much fun tossing them scripts and anticipating the wonderful things I would get back.  Everyone who was involved, I salute you!

Now, let's cherish everyone who helped make this week a success! Go add them to your watch lists, read their comics and throw praise and every last one of them!

Tuesday:  Frosty
Wednesday: Mandy Seley and Alex Hoffmann
Thursday: Raiettei and Jennifer Wilder
Friday: ArtistJess, Mat Sherer and Dark
Saturday: Matthew Dawson
Sunday: Mandy Seley, ArtistJess, Becca Hillburn, Alex Hoffmann, Carl Sjostrand, Erik Amill, Frosty, Dark, Raiettei and Isabel Marks!
Panel up above: Artist Jess, who accidentally sent me extra art. Why not share it?

(Also a special thank you to DRB for chipping in with coloring efforts for Monday, Tuesday and Sunday!)

Guest art everywhere!

It's a SpiderForest collective lovefest today, featuring two pieces of guest art by me and the one above, by Nick Perkins of Cooties. This one was part of a Secret Santa art exchange, so apologies for just sharing this amazing piece now. Cooties is the story of a bunch of kids dealing with an alien invasion. Check it out!

As for the stuff I drew, head on over to Spare Keys for Strange Doors to see my guest art contribution. Stick around and read the comic too! It's a brilliant collection of cute and fun supernatural short stories, making for easy reading and great entertainment! Oh, and congratulate her on her babytimes, and maybe draw her something cool too!

Finally, here's *my* contribution for the SpiderForest Secret Santa, a guest comic for Silent Pirate! When I entered that draw, I admit that I was totally hoping to get Silent Pirate, as it's so cute and unique! I got what I wanted, and rewarded Ahmed with a comic that RUINS EVERYTHING. That's how I show love.

Thanks for the responses!

My thanks go out to everyone who submitted surveys. They have been very helpful in evaluating stuff. For the charms, I feel confident enough to do a test run. I will start getting 25 of each set, and we shall see what happens with that. If successful, future runs (and more sets) will happen.  Incentive: Future runs will have to be with another, more expensive, charm maker, so this first run will be the most cost-effective!

There's a chance the book 2 pre-order and charm sale will overlap, but they will be separate. The book preorder is now planned to start early March, and the charms will only go on sale when I have them in my possession - and printing may take a while. At worst, people buy the book and will have to grab the charms later, like maybe at my Anthrocon table? (Table N19!)

For survey results, I thank you folks for being surprisingly kind and gentle with me. I didn't expect to see so many nice statements! Informative AND sweet. You all rule!  And here are some reactions to what I've read (many were prompted by only one or two replies, but I felt it was worth talking about anyway):

-Most issues raised about the website are already on my list. Can't say I'll get them fixed soon, but know I'm aware of them. Some things I can't do, as the site has to be versatile enough to work on many screen resolution/font size configurations. On, and sometimes your questions are already answered! Just look at the links on this page and you might be surprised!

-It's a wonderful problem when I get a many "I'd like to see more of..." requests, especially since they're varied. I have many more stories to tell, and even with daily updates it takes a long time to hit every note. I hope to make you all happy down the road!

-As much as I'd love to offer everyone the world, I'm one guy - and that guy is currently broken. To keep Precocious moving, I need to be a writer, artist, colorist, designer, publicist, accountant, secretary, marketer, packer, courier, etc.  I am *trained* to do... funky looking fine-art prints using archaic methods? Uh oh. I'm doing a LOT of learning on the go, and I don't have the means to bring on assistants. I try to put the comic updates first, even before me earning money, so a lot stuff slides until I can get to it. So many of you were so kind about this, and I thank you again for your compassion.

-On a similar note, I am a tiny enterprise and very limited in what I can do right now. That means many grand ideas for high-end merchandise and various goodies can't happen yet. That also means I MUST do what I can to start earning more and preventing more loss. The prices I charge for various things are as low as I can reasonably go.  I can't compete with major publishers who make up their discount prices by sheer volume of sales. Bargain basement and discount options might be great for you, but I know I can't sell at the volume needed to keep me afloat. (I mean, it's already a free comic. I'm not begging for charity here. Just let me get something from the merchandise!)

-And with *that* being said, there is a plan for simple, low-cost bonuses. It likely won't be ready until the second half of the year, though. I'll talk more about it when I have the system more in place. Again, the delays are because I lack the hours and manpower to do things quickly, and lack the funds to buy those manpower hours.

-I can't stress enough how amazing your responses were. All of them were helpful, no matter what they said. I love you all. (Even the one person with wildly unrealistic ideas was useful, as that survey alone prompted half of the above notes!)

Of course, now you've spoiled me. Now I know that these surveys are a great option, and I shall use them again when needed!

New Year! New Copper Road! (UPDATED!)

Update: Another Copper Road is up! One more to go! I'll edit this post again when it's up. The archive gets updated Friday night.

Update again: The final Copper Road of the week is up! I know you all think the strip is autobiographical, but it's really more about me using my life events to write something funny. This new one was written BEFORE I had my surgery, back when I thought it would be comedy gold. Haha. Who knew?

Oh yeah, and THE COPPER ROAD ARCHIVE HAS UPDATED!

*current**current*

It's a big day! 2013 is here! Copper Road is here! Oh, and Precocious is FOUR YEARS OLD TODAY! It all began January 1st, 2009 - and it all continues January 1st, 2013! Can we get to five? (Yes.)

Anyway, on to Copper Road! We're gonna wrap-up the Ursula story this week. New comic today! New comic Thursday-ish? ANOTHER NEW COMIC SATURDAY-ISH? Hey, sure. We can do that! Get your vote on to keep me motivated, and get Precocious some fancy attention!

By the way, the 100th Copper Road is appearing this week, so more celebrating will happen! Once the Saturday(ish) Copper Road goes up, I'll update the archive page with the recent strips.

Thank you, Midwest Furfest!

Look! Look! Badges by me everywhere! These people are heroes!

I had such a wonderful time getting to meet so many great people, and being able to draw so many awesome characters! You folks did so much for my self-esteem. I never could have imagined selling out of commission slots or having a line of people at my table in only my first year of conventioneering. I cannot thank you all enough!

I'll be posting some of the work I did over on my FA account through the next week. I was working so hard, I forgot to snap pics of half the commissions I drew - so if you got something from me, I'd appreciate it if you could scan it and link me to it!

For those who came by on Sunday when my queue was full, I said I would start drawing commissions again after Thanksgiving, and that will indeed happen! Feel free drop me an email now and set things up.  The next commission stream is currently scheduled for Tuesday the 27th - assuming I get commissions for it. Otherwise, it'll be a restocking-the-art-cards stream. I'll try to create a bare-bones commissions/store page for this site in the next week to make it easier for everyone.

Super thanks to Mat of Ask BDK, who volunteered to be my table buddy for the con. Your hand-drawn business cards were the best things - and thank you so much for letting me ride your coattails and hang with all the best people! Super thanks as well to the Code Name: Hunter team for convincing me to attend the con. You might not have been able to be there with me, but it's because of you things have gone so well!

Thank you, Anthrocon!

Ask me a few years ago if I'd ever be in a pic like the one above, and I'd laugh at you. Whaddaya know.  Turns out furry cons are good times! I had a lot of fun at my first Anthrocon, and I'm already looking forward to coming back next year - and rocking it even harder!

After two conventions now, I have to say it... I really like this dealers room stuff.  Everyone yelled at me to go see panels and get wubwubwub'd to death at the raves, but my joy is in meeting fans (old, new and future), fellow artists and throwing my art around to all who want it.  I'd do that every weekend if the travel expenses and all things logical didn't make it impossible.

This con was extra special, because it was the unexpected debut of the first Precocious book! (Which is still available for pre-order by the way!)  I finally got to hold it in my hands and it was so very lovely!  The first thing I did when the dealer's room opened up was rush over to the great Bill Holbrook, who made my life by agreeing to write the foreword for the book.

Bill got the very first artist edition, and was kind enough to let us gush all over him for a bit as we took photos. It meant so much to me to have someone I've idolized so long give me support, and I hope we con together often so I can hear more and more stories from a legendary veteran!

Anthrocon was wonderfully welcoming to me.  I had lots of traffic for the first half of the con, and enough free time to go chat with some friend and favorites after that.  Sundays are always slow, so I filled the time playing with marker experiments and lots of reader meetings. (Apologies to all whose chairs were stolen for that.)

Major thanks go to Matt and Darc of Code Name: Hunter, for being my hosts and my guides through this new experience. Ash, their pet British guy, was sugary sweet and helpful. I'd have been lost without them pushing me along and introducing me to all sorts of awesome people.  (The epic dinner adventure with us, Amber Williams of DMFA and her husband gave me my first con story!) I got to have wonderful conversations with a bunch of great folks, including Jenner of Doc Rat and RedCoatCat.

So, yeah, you furries wore me down with your niceness. I want to come back! I want to play again!  And those non-furry comic cons I'm doing in the future? You have a lot of live up to now.

As I recover more, I'll be posting a lot more about Anthrocon on the sketch blog and Twitter, and you'll be able to see a lot of my AC artwork over in my FurAffinity gallery.  (When people upload my commissions, I'm favoriting them like the narcissist I am.)

Darius Love!

Because I've been ill, Tiff Ross from The Cyantian Chronicles was a sweetheart and began working on a teenaged Tiffany watercolor.

Because she just had a birthday, I had to give a gift of my own! Here's an oblivious Darius about to get surprise snuggled by the darling Sheana!

Awww. <3

New Copper Road - 2/14/12

OK, I gave in and made a Valentines Day strip. I couldn't let this awful holiday go by unobserved. Enjoy! Vote here to see it!

Also, at some point today I will be updating the Copper Road archive page with the most recent comics. If you missed a recent update, you can see it there. And comment on it! Woo!

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!

It's a Precocious party!

The Skull Mountain commission did its job and made it to the DC area in time to join in the closing festivities! I hope some joy was brought into the world via my cartoon critters and the good will of the man behind the commission.

I want to give mad props to this guy and his brother (who did the Downfall parody on the Precocious home page), who are making a bid for the ultimate Precocious fans. That's right, all you other ultimate fans. You have competition! The only solution is to keep one-upping each other, making my smile grow ever larger. (I'm worth it!) That, or group hug in exceedingly cute fashion. Both options are good.

A good Precocite is an active fan! The comic needs to grow in order to become a sustainable thing, so every time you spread the world you are helping to ensure the strip will keep going strong. Seriously, I am absolutely amazed every single day when I think about all you guys have done for me. Don't ever change, you wonderful people!

Oh yeah, and if a good Precocite gets something from me, I want to see photos! Show off your shirts! Show me where you're displaying Precocious art! (Bonus points for super-creepy shrines.) Where are you sticking your magnets? I'll probably whip up a blog post if I get some good shots. If not, you're still helping my self-esteem - and isn't that the most important thing of all?

So now that we're all feeling good about ourselves, are we ready to party some more? Despite no one seeming to care except me, I want Bonus Comics Day to be fun for all. Since I'll be doing an update every hour, my plan for tomorrow is to glue myself to the computer for scripting and coloring - and hopefully lots of hanging out in the comments section!

Linkletter Love

Here's the first coloring of the wedding card! Sorry about the crappy photo. The colors are nice and light, which means they die to both a flash and my insensitive scanner. Hopefully enough came out that you can get a sense of what things looks like.

Get aboard the train!

Here's an updated version of the wedding card idea, featuring a new dress for Deirdre! (The original design is below for comparison.) Gone is the lace around the neck, as no wedding dresses on a Google search had them. I stuck a necklace on her instead. The big addition is a larger train on the dress, which makes it more wedding-y. The bow is something I am ambivalent about, as evidenced by me forgetting to draw the ribbons in the new drawing. It's something Deirdre *would* probably wear - neither Linkletter has much fashion sense - but it may be conflicting with the new dress.

The downside of the new dress is that the train makes it no longer fit on the card front. That's either a design flaw or a feature, depending on what I do with the back of the card. I had sorta planned on nothing for the back, as this was to be a smaller project.

There's not much change for Harvey. I added his signature bow tie back in, as all tuxedos I Googled had one. Otherwise his clothing remains a bit off - but deliberately so. Tuxes are really boring from the side, so I had to make it wrong to make it look right in a cartoony drawing.

Here's the original wedding drawing, for reference:

Love: In Color!

As the prophets foretold: The next step was indeed colored pencil tracing!

Here we have the happy color in color - quickly hashed out color, but color nonetheless. I tried a few things in drawing this one, namely tracing using the color of what I was tracing instead of black. Mixed success. The downside to black is that once it smears, it's there forever (see Harvey's foot); the upside is that comics work well with a strong black outline.

Best results might be in attempting to do the outline last instead of first, limiting the smear. That would be rather difficult, but nothing about this project is that easy. Another solution is to simply go with a pen and ink outline. The only downside to this is that ink shows through the card stock, so the card will have to be one-sided or the stock will have to be card-ier. This is why we do mock-ups, people! Things are learned!

Twue Wuv

It's the new skill-building exercise that's sweeping the nation: TRACING! Seriously, I've got to get good at that if I'm going to make these cards look right. I can have lots of guide marks on the DRAFTS and TEMPLATES, but finals need to be done right the first time, with no extra lines! I must learn to trace like a GOD! (Also, drawing a perfect heart is impossible, so let it go already!)

This wuv incarnation attempts to swap the Linkletters' attire to something more wedding-appropriate. It should be obvious I did not use a reference for either the tux or wedding gown, but that's fine for now.

I may go back and try coloring this, to make it look snappier, but this is where I am at the moment. For my next trick: Tracing with colored pencils to see what I can do!

Wuv

More potential card ideas! This one goes out to the romantics out there. Of course I'd have to bring in the lovey-dovey Linkletters for this one.

What I'm saying with my card of love... I dunno. Haven't thought that far ahead. We are solidly in the doodle stage and nothing more.

Another ugly beginning

Worry not, citizens - they all start this way. It'll be fantastic soon enough!

The latest anxiety is now in display, as the painting begins. This time, as mentioned, it's concern for others! The game of social interaction is a dangerous, rewarding and insanely complex one. Each new connection leads to many others, and it all weaves together in a wondrous way!

That's what I'm going for, at least. I'll settle for the painting being pretty.

Another anxiety conquered!

At long last, the painting of frustrations is coming to a close! As suspected, the background was holding me back. I swapped it out for pale umber - also known as the color of Jacob - and it works much better. It's not perfect, but saves me the time and pain of mixing a color. Now I have to do some white and gray touch-ups on the edges and I'll be ready to throw it on the heap.

This isn't my best work by far, but it'll look nice next to the others. There's no time to dwell on it, the show must go on! It's time to start a new painting - one with blue this time! (I think my refusal to use blue in this one caused the frustration.) So now the questions is... what is my new anxiety.

Well, that one is clear. My favorite person in the world, Dana, just gave birth to twin girls - two months prematurely. First: CONGRATULATIONS, DANA AND JASON! SMART PEOPLE HAVE PROCREATED! THE WORLD NEEDS MORE OF THIS! Second: Ack! The girls are doing as well as can be expected - but it's certainly causing some concern.

Needless to say, the family is in my thoughts. I'm going to stand back for this one and give them some space. They are surely deluged with family and well-wishers, and my best gift at the moment is to not add to the craziness. Is this a good friend thing to do? I dunno. I'll be there for them soon enough.

So I guess my option here is to take out my neurosis on painting - where it can't harm anyone! (Or help anyone.) Woo!

Back, with a loving family!

Hey, y'all, the blog's back up and running! To commemorate my return, I present to you the *almost* final version of "A Loving Family."

The camera needs to painted, and a few places on Harvey needs a second coat, but I'm about one night's work away from having this done. I had thought of going pink with the background, but I have no pink paint. Since I wanted it to be uniform, I went with pistachio. It might not look it, but it's really hard to "draw" characters in paint, so I'm looking forward to going back to painting my modernist pieces.

Let's see if I can keep this daily blog going again. Also, let's see if that hiatus left any readers...