The Precocious Originals Up For Sale!

UPDATE:  New Copper Road and Precocious originals have been added! You will find them at the bottom of this post!  (After losing a chunk of my Kickstarter update today due to a browser crash, I'm saving this as I edit it - so I apologize if you stumble upon this post before the correct links for the new additions are in place.)

As part of the book three Kickstarter campaign, I am offering original comic pages for sale at a HUGE discount when paired with a book order. (Get then now, because prices go back up after this is done!) These pictures give you a better look of the originals for offer. They will come to you in protective plastic, with backing board. After each photo, you will find the titles and links to the web version of the comic. More originals can be added to this list by request!

Going in order ascending order:

Comic #28: "Poor Timing
Comic #38: "How Else Can One Land a Husband?"
Comic #44: "See?"
Comic #51: "Chess: Not Just an Analogy for War"

Comic #58: "Everybody Dance Now"
Comic #77:  "Those Bridges, and that House, are Burned"
Comic #110: "My First Chance to Traumatize You"  
Comic #115: "It's a Branding Issue"

Comic #117: "Exceedingly Cute"
Comic #127: "Max's Birthday Party"
Comic #128: "This Party is a Blast!"
Comic #156: "Insane Theatrics"

Comic #163: "Doctor Oven is a not a Kind Instructor"
Comic #167: "Holy Cognitive Dissonance"
Comic #177: "Sapphire Bowling"
Comic #180: "This is not Dodgeball"  

Comic #210: "NERDS!"
Comic #235: "Disorganize Some Sports"
Comic #236: "Hu's on First"
Comic #245: "Center Field"  

Comic #277: "Inferior Opponents"
Comic #289: "Target Man"
Comic #293: "An Adorable Concussion"  
Comic #299: "Muffins of Doom"

Comic #305: "Moms with Free Time"
Comic #306: "Aimless Ivy"  
Comic #363: "The Center of Attention"  
Comic #385: "Grounded" 
Comic #416: "Powers of Distraction"

Comic #426: "A Loving Family"  
Comic #427: "Let it Snow"
Comic #479: "We are not Amused"  
Comic #480: "A Matriarchy"
Comic #482: "Not the Queen"

Comic #488: "Progress Report: Group D"
Comic #495: "Together!"
Comic #524: "Paranoia Flakes"  
Comic #553: "Both Sides Together"
Comic #563: "Metabolism"

Comic #566: "Terror Therapy"  
Comic #567: "On the Water"
Comic #580: "Flying a Kite"
Comic #581: "Practice Makes Perfect"  
Comic #583: "Rule #1"

Comic #585: "Connect the Dots"
Comic #593: "Autumn, We're Bored"
Comic #605: "Can't Even Move"  
Comic #606: "There's a Bug on my Nose"
Comic #609: "A Delicious Death"

Comic #613: "Uh Oh Week 4"
Comic #618: "Uh Oh Week 8" 

Comic #631: "Hello Strange Kids"
Comic #637: "Unearthly Delights"
Comic #645: "Tap Tap Tap"
Comic #646: "Broken"
Comic #655: "The Aftermath"

Comic #657: "Someone's at the Door"
Comic #674: "Button Masher"  
Comic #688: "Meanwhile..."
Comic #695: "More Sage Advice"  
Comic #706: "Silhouetted"

Comic #708: "Welcome Back"
Comic #709: "Punishment"
Comic #715: "Making a Mess"
Comic #729: "Kid Shield"
Comic #766: "A Responsible Adult"

Comic #769: "Dreaming of the City"  
Comic #776: "The Things They'll Learn"
Comic #790: "A Hands-On Exhibit"
Comic #792: "Envy"  
Comic #818: "The Protest Begins"

Comic #821: "The Counter-Protest Begins"  
Comic #863: "We're Actors Now"  
Comic #867: "Acting Experience"  
Comic #877: "Rule #2"
Comic #881: "Rule #7"

Comic #882: "Rule #25"  
Comic #893: "The Kids as Teenagers"  
Comic #907: "To the Counselor's Office!"  
Comic #911: "Challenge Accepted!"  
Comic #926: "Mandatory"

Comic #936: "Autumn's Bedroom"  
Comic #962: "Great Party"
Comic #972: "Goodnight, Pingos"
Comic #976: "On Sapphire Lake"  
Comic #977: "Hugs!"

Comic #979: "Another Invention"  
Comic #981: "Rise!"  
Comic #996: "For Sale"  
Comic #1001: "What a Party!"

NEW PRECOCIOUS ORIGINALS AVAILABLE:

Comic #338: "Who has the power now?"  
Comic #564: "Digging a Hole"  
Comic #199: "This is why I stay away"  
Comic #200: "Paddlebaddleboats"
Comic #660: "The Creature That Ate Everything"
Comic #676: "Guidance by Ball"
Comic #945: "Pingoball"  
Comic #978: "The Usual Suspects"

Comic #49: "Fearsomely Cute" 
Comic #157: "THE BAKE SALE IS SCIENCE"
Comic #184: "Jacob's Life Story in Four Panels"  
Comic #107: "Assigned Seats"

COPPER ROAD ORIGINALS NOW AVAILABLE TOO!

Copper Road #98: "Keeping up Appearances"  
Copper Road #85: "Birthday Gift" 
Copper Road #109: "Earworm"
Copper Road #87: "Crazy Outfits"

Copper Road #103: "Transforming"  
Copper Road #73: "Avengers" 
Copper Road #74: "Fanfic"
Copper Road #128: "Geek Signals"

Copper Road #130: "Are You Ready For Some Football?"
Copper Road #120: "Tales of No-See-Um"
Copper Road #117: "Smuggled Goods"
Copper Road #76: "A Final Request"

Copper Road #97: "Channel Surfing" 
Copper Road #102: "Division Champs"
Copper Road #65: "Mini Mes"
Copper Road #148: "Turn Left"

Copper Road #43: "On-Cue Corruption"
Copper Road #3: "Popcorn Flicks" 
Copper Road #68: "What to Draw"
Copper Road #25: "One Track Mind"
Copper Road #32: "It's Great to be a Kid"
Copper Road #63: "Down With the Sickness" 

Copper Road #107: "Fast Food Experience"
Copper Road #56: "Guilty Pleasure"
Copper Road #61: "Buzzer Beater"
Copper Road #145: "Orange Buddies"

Contest Results!

With the grand prize being awarded in the comic's costume contest, that means I can announce the results of the costume contest involving you readers! (See the big costume art gallery here!)

And your winner is...

As you can see, I disagreed with Ms. Monster. Creeping her out is what I call a bonus! Congratulations to Steven Towne for thinking up this wonderful idea.  This one did hit all the right notes. It played into the character's strengths, was super clever, helped inspire some great gags and it was far better than anything I could have planned for Bud! (I actually had no idea what his final costume would be, so thank goodness for clever readers stepping in!) Steven, you win an art piece featuring Bud's costume in action! (More details will come to you via email.)

There is another prize up for grabs too! All those who suggested ideas got put on a list, and I used a random number generator to choose that winner. And the winner of the draw is.... Steven Towne! Again! Hey, I never said winning the grand prize disqualifies you from this draw. Random fate loves you too, Steven! A book, or an art card from the store is yours to enjoy.

Here is a rundown of the story's reader-inspired costumes, in order of appearance, noting the brilliant mind behind the idea. (Costumes not mentioned on this list are from *my* brilliant mind.) Some ideas I seized and drew as is. Others I tweaked somewhat. Some people's ideas matched up with ones I already had in the script, but they still get credit!

Yvette as an invisible woman - Samuel Morehead
Bud as a Muffin of Doom - Samuel Morehead again.
Quincy as a Ghostbuster - DRB
Roddy as a Number 2 Pencil - James Rhone
Dionne as Marie Antoinette - Nefaria
Tiffany as Mothra - Seth Latter
Max as Indiana Jones - Christopher Trumbour
Bud as The Chef Special - Steven Towne
Kaitlyn as the On-Hu Ball - KZero

Congratulations to all above, and thank you to all others who suggested ideas. I feel terrible that so many brilliant suggestions didn't make it in, but this has been a wonderful experience. I hope you all enjoyed reading the Halloween story as much as I did drawing it!

Promoting some friends!

One of the perks of having a comic is sharing stuff that I feel should be shared. I have a trio or friends doing promotions right now, so let's give them a signal boost! Maybe one is offering something you want!

Going in order of the banner, I'll start with Tiff Ross, creator of the Cyantian Chronicles and Alien Dice. She's currently holding an Indiegogo campaign to fund those adorable plushes of her character Darius. If you don't want the cute doll (WHY NOT!?) she is also offering commissions as part of the fundraising.

Next up is Becca, of the Nattosoup art and comic blog, who is working on adorable watercolors, featuring art of Pokemon, Studio Ghibli, Nintendo characters, Adventure Time and Gravity Falls, among original creations. Check her Tumblr for a sampling of them. You can commission new watercolors, or grab one already created, over at the Nattosoup shop! (Edit: There's some issues with the store check-out. It'll be fixed soon, but you'll have to contact Becca directly to purchase something for now.)

Finally, Darc of Code Name: Hunter is doing a fundraiser to replace her well-used Cintiq, and offering lots of perks in the process. This is one of the best-drawn comics out there, and funding keeps it going strong, with more updates per week! She's so close to the goal! Don't you want to be the one that puts her over the top? Remember, she's also giving back to artists, new and old, with her Pimp My Studio giveaway, so she deserves some love. (The deadline for that promo is midnight of June 10th - that's today!)

New Copper Road! 6/1/13

It's the first of the month! That means TWC has reset, so the fight for ranking begins anew. The higher up Precocious gets, the better the chance of new readers. The more new readers that show up, the more reason I have to keep putting out bonus content to entertain everyone! Vote on TWC to see the latest Copper Road, your reward for your support! Poor Vincent. He gets that a lot.

Also, thanks to the Kickstarter success, since it's the first of the month, that means the Copper Road archive has been updated with May's comics, starting here. You can now comment on them, and catch up in case you missed one. After that, start anticipating the many Copper Roads of this month! Oh, and no one panic over the recent increase of strip-size comics. That's just how my recent scripting came out, with a few of those planned for June making up a little Copper Road storyline. (Today's comic is a standalone, though.)

If you're wondering about where the bonus ending for the Charity arc will go, it's going bye bye for now. I desire to have my online comics and the printed collections each give a unique experience, and this is part of that. Online you get titles and alt text. In print you get commentary and bonus comics. That means, once the incentive rotates out, any bonus panels (one might happen for the attic arc, depending on how fine-tuning later scripts goes) won't pop up again in the open until it's booked.

Two worthy projects!

You may have seen the banners on this site already, but did you know *I* put them there? Both of these projects are dear to me, and I'd love to see them succeed! One is for comic lovers. One is for art lovers. All will enrich your lives! Click each banner to visit the funding page. (Then fund them!)

The Precocious kids read and love Newshounds, and you should too! (If you don't help out, you risk their wrath.) This is a comic that I adored and studied when I first started on my cartooning path, so it's dear to me. It's been going online for 15 years, and the time has come for Newshounds to end.  Thomas K. Dye, the creator, wants to give his comic a proper send-off and bring his story to a close on his terms.  In order to do that, he needs your support. The final book, fourth in the current series, must happen! Read over his Indiegogo funding page to learn more and see the special bonus options.

Heidi Black is one of the amazing artists I met during my time at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She's a recent grad of the top sequential art program in the country, and one of the most skilled, talented and versatile artists I know. She has professional experience, webcomic experience and knows more art tricks that just about anyone... and she's sharing it with you! Artists, this book is a MUST-HAVE. It's not only a beautiful art book, but a collection of tutorials to help level up anyone's art skills.  Non-artists, she is offering her version of a swag bag as a donation level for those not in the market for a tutorial book - support a good project and get some mini comics, a poster and some charms! Several other tiers of rewards are available to supporters, so check it out! ONLY A WEEK LEFT TO FUND THIS ONE!

Thanks for reading my pleas, everyone. I want these projects to succeed, and a perk of being a creator is that I can signal boost!

Guest Week 3!

To help keep me sane through my move ordeal, a bunch of supremely great folks have stepped up and provided some wonderful guest comics! Every day, you'll get a guest comic AND a bonus comic/art piece as a vote incentive on TWC! Don't miss anything!

This post will be updated every day to list all the contributors as their work appears. Make sure to go check 'em out and be lovely to them. They saved my skin this month!

Monday, September 3

(What? I'm not starting the back to school arc on LABOR DAY. That would be tacky!)

Comic: Carl Sjostrand, of Ginger's Bread! Slowly but surely, we're warping each other's canon, even though our comics clearly don't take place in the same universe. Stuff like this is why webcomics are neat!
Incentive: I'm leaving Sunday's incentive up an extra day, because I was so late in getting it up. (Check the sketch blog tomorrow for the story behind that.) I'll put the last bonus art up on Tuesday.

Sunday, September 2

Comic: A lovely reader comic by Jess! Is it not adorable!?
Incentive: This time, Iron Ed takes on Copper Road! Vote here to see it!

Friday, August 31 + Saturday, September 1

(I will be driving all Friday and Saturday, with almost no internet access, so I'll post both now.)

Friday's comic: The amazing Heidi Black! She is a wonderful friend and a wonderful artist and just the best at everything. (We'll be at Intervention together, btw, so come and express your appreciation in person!)
Friday's incentive: Erick Amill, of Biff the Vampire, has drawn probably the best pic of my characters ever. I should retire, because I can't top that.


Saturday's comic: Michelle Van Zandt of Ginpu! Her style is so adorable, and she was at the top of my guest comic wish list! Yay! Maybe it's best that you get day's head start on reading her comic. It might prepare you!
Saturday's incentive: Enjoy a guest comic by readers Jeremy and his sister!

Thursday, August 30

Comic: Lemmo, of Blank It! This man is a rare gem. He melted my heart with cartoonist generosity, and will melt your mind with cartooning excellence!
Incentive: A cute guest comic by reader Iron Ed!

Wednesday, August 29

Comic: This one comes from reader Ms. Dark! It's her second guest comic, so, for you scoring at home, that means she's in the lead!
Incentive: Once again, the bonus art goes hand-in-hand with the comic! This one comes from Precocious' part-time colorist and full-time savior, DRB_II!

Tuesday, August 28

Comic: Jackie Wolenhaus of Between Failures! This is one of the dudes that make you feel better about yourself when they talk to you and don't attempt to stab you in the face afterwards. I feel honored to have him contribute to this week. I wasn't face-stabbed! (Yet.)
Incentive: Bonus art from Lucy Lyall, the wonderful creator of Spare Keys for Strange Doors!

Monday, August 27

Comic: Ahmed Fahim of Silent Pirate! This is one of the cutest strips out there. A young lad who is not much for words ends up aboard a very odd pirate ship. Silly adventures happen. It is so delightful, you want to hug it!
Incentive: A bonus guest strip by Jordyn Jensen!

(By the way, if you missed a vote incentive, the guest art will eventually be compiled into a post for the sketch blog.)

I got some special fan art!

Every time someone makes fan art for me, it's awesome - but when another busy comic creator takes the time to draw something for me, it's really special.

Ok, so I kinda asked for this one. Mark, the creator of Autumn Lake, wanted to draw something and asked for ideas. I told him to draw Precocious fan art. Instead of e-slapping my arrogant face, he did! Check it out!

This makes me happy, as Autumn Lake is one of my favorite webcomics. There's something very classic about the feel and execution of Autumn Lake, and it's that sincerity that is so appealing. Mark and I share many influences, so of course it pleases me to see another out there aiming more for timeless than trending topic. It's special, and it really needs to have more eyes viewing it. For those scared of the archive size, I suggest starting with the epic Lonely Robot saga.

Bonus deleted scene!

There's a bonus follow-up to today's strip available as a vote incentive on TopWebComics. Vote here to see it!

As with the last incentive, this was also one of the proposed extra comics to be used to fill out the arc so it hit 35 strips. I ended up not needing it when Suzette's part was rewritten, but here it is anyway!

More book teasers!

With every day that passes, we get closer to the big debut! Mark your calenders, everyone, because we've decided preorders will begin on May 14!

There's so much good stuff in this book, folks. This isn't merely a collection of strips. The book has bonus art, some commentary and, oh, a GIANT BONUS STORY. To whet your appetite, allow me to give you a taste of what you can expect:

The biggest triumph for this book, however, is that it contains a foreword written by the legendary Bill Holbrook! His syndicated strips, On The Fastrack and Safe Havens are brilliant and have been favorites of mine for so many years. Oh yes, did I mention he's also one of the major webcomic pioneers? Bill was the first major cartoonist to embrace the rise of the internet, and his webcomic, Kevin and Kell, did so much to get the webcomic ball rolling. Bill has been one of my inspirations for as long as I've been trying to draw comics, and it is the greatest honor to see a master giving me his approval.

This is so awesome!

New SpiderForest Members!

I'd like to welcome the newest batch of spiderlings to the SpiderForest webcomic collective! If you haven't browsed the SF comic list (which can be found at the "more" arrow in the SF banner up top of the homepage) you're missing out!

Here's the list of new members. Click on their names and be happy!

- Silent Pirate
- Dark White
- Gods of the Game
- Spine
- Footloose
- Ley Lines
- LaSalle's Legacy

Cameo in Ginger's Bread

Go check out the current Ginger's Bread to see that a familiar Precocious face is back for revenge!

In non-cameo news, how's the new site working for ya? We're still discovering strange glitches here and there, so bear with us as we try to get things fixed. If you see anything weird, please use the feedback link to send me a note about it. We can't fix an error if we don't know it exists!

Ask the characters!

For the vote incentives for the last week of October, I am going to do an "ask the characters" series of comics - and I'd like your help! Send me your questions for any or all of the characters and I'll do my best to turn them into comics like the one above!

24 hour comics day: SEMI-SUCCESS!

I am 12 hours into 24-hour comic day, and, shockingly, I FINISHED 12 COMICS! And they don't even suck! Sure, they may not be as substantial as a regular Precocious update, but they are sweet and tasty bites, like comic candy! I can't wait to let you eat them up!

So the plan to make this project into a daily vote incentive is a GO! The first page is up now, so go vote for me to see it! I'm so excited for this! I met my goal! I WAS IN THE ZONE!

Oh, and did I mention... I GOT RETWEETED BY SCOTT MCCLOUD! He is a cartooning god and *the* 24-hour comic day guy! This was the greatest experiment, guys. What a great day.

I know I didn't do the full 24-hour task, but with my finger and obligations, it would have been foolish to go that far. I may still do a few more tonight if I'm up to it, but for now I will bask in my semi-success.

The Scanning times

The best thing in the world is having your own book. The worst thing, however, is MAKING that book. See, the problem with making a collection of your early work is that it's likely you had NO IDEA what you were doing at that time.

For me, that means I didn't regularly save hi-res files of my comics until I had over 400 comics to my name. You know what that means? RE-SCANNING ALL THE OLD STUFF! WOOHOO! What you see above is my current progress against the comics that still need scanning. (Hint: The to-scan pile is the one four times the size of the scanned pile.)

Let's take a look at some of my stupidity: I used RED pencil for the first seven strips, meaning my current scanner fought them angrily. I used larger templates for the first 27 strips - that is, when I used templates at all and didn't try drawing my own. (Each time I did it was a disaster.) When I did switch to my current templates, I originally used the small pads of 14 strips. (I now buy them in packs of 100.) Problem with those pads? Turns out THEY WERE ALL MISPRINTED, with the comic area slightly tilted. That is maddening for someone who is used to simply scanning and dropping a comic into the Photoshop template. I also was a mess with my panel sizes. Here's a secret: Currently, my comics are a quarter inch smaller than norm in order for all panels to come out the same size. I figured that math out around strip 40, and it took a while longer before I figured out how to implement it correctly.

And let's not forget that re-scanning means re-fixing all the mistakes I made in the originals! Not only can it be time-consuming, but I have to remember where those fixes happened. I *think* I got 'em all so far, but I can't be sure. Editing shall come. The good news is that a decent amount (less than a hundred - maybe way less) of those strips do exist on my hard drive in hi-res form, so I don't need to rescan those. I just need to locate them on my hard drive and re-number them so I know what I have.

And once I have these comics scanned, I then have to resave them one by one into TIFF format and upload them to the bosses. And then it's on to working on book features, like commentary and the bonus storyline. Oh, and I really should work on actual Precocious at some point too. Yeesh.

But let's not forget this: I AM MAKING A BOOK! A book is the best thing ever, and worth all the pain!

Edited for some clarity: I am *helping* with the book by providing material. The awesome folks over at RCSI are doing the meaty brave stuff. I'm being the ditz who is not enabling them properly to do their job - but I am trying to make up for it the best I can!

A night for hero worship

Today the latest Peanuts collection reached my mailbox. I was really excited for this one, as the strip had finally reached the 80's - meaning I would get to see the strip that ran on my birthday. That's it, up above. It's not an iconic one, but it's mine. (The strip that followed was the one chosen to represent the entire book on the back cover! I missed it by one day! Dang it, Sparky! My birthday was a Monday - you always lead with the best strips on Monday!)

Even though his bite was wasn't always as strong by the 80's, Schulz was still able to knock it out of the park. As I read through this collection, I keep hitting strips that make me laugh and think. In one, Peppermint Patty is happy to be at a library. When asked what book she'd like, she isn't sure, finally asking for a blue one. That hit me because it's exactly how I felt when visiting libraries as a kid. I had no idea what book I wanted, so I'd wander around and grab a book with a pretty binding. I never knew what I was looking for, so no sorting system could help me find it. Eventually I did figure out what I wanted from the library: I found the shelf with a bunch of Peanuts collections.

I'd love to read all four years' worth of material tonight, but I've got to make comics of my own now!

Living the dream!

Organization is awesome!

Wish someone had told me that sooner.

In order to put together the book, I must first sort through my big bin of strips to find the comics I need to rescan. Best way to do that? Organize it all! Ye gods...

What you see on my drafting table (currently converted to a much lamer regular table) is not even one third of the strips I have to sort. Every pile represents a break in continuity in which the connection strips haven't been located yet. The most unnerving gaps are those of single missing strips. (Where are you, #593 and #386?) Chunks I know got shuffled away and should all be together, but the loners? Who knows?

So now... what do I do? I've run out of space to stack my strips! This tiny apartment doesn't have much in the way of surfaces. I guess I have to flip through the bin in hopes of finding the missing links... or start stacking on the floor. All I know is I need to get this done today. Which means back to work!

*sigh*

What a pile of every Precocious strip looks like

And today is when my (lack of) organization skills begin to cause me pain. I'm a good boy in that I at least keep all the strips together. (With one exception, but that loner will join the horde tonight.) I'm a very bad boy in that they aren't in order, and nearly all of them aren't labeled and numbered. Heck, those that ARE numbered are likely numbered incorrectly, as I shuffled the archives around.

I knew this day was coming, so I can't complain. The task ahead of me is simple: Sort through everything, number the strips correctly and begin the long and painful process of re-scanning and re-lettering all the early stuff. I also have to decide if I want to go through with re-drawing the first 17 strips. In my dumping out of my comics bin, I did find the beginnings of the redos started a looooong time ago.

In other news, the reason I keep falling further and further behind with things is because I keep giving myself more and more tasks like this. All of them are important and must get done! I just need to learn to function without sleep or something.

Could it be marathon week?

Almost forgot to share this. I have made commission progress! My first ever watercolor commissions are now complete, and I didn't ruin them horribly! I won't claim I have much watercolor skill yet, but the lack of ruination exceeds expectations and is encouraging.

That means two projects are now done. What's next? A GIANT MOUNTAIN OF WORK, of course! This week I was supposed to be in Virginia, but I decided against it so I could work and work and work and work. Let's do that!

There is a lot in front of me, so this week would ideally contain a bunch of epic grinding. How many days can I pull off a workathon this week?

I need a paintathon at some point. I have three sold bite-sized paintings that need heavy upkeep before they will be ready to ship out, and I'm still not content with the eyes on my big schoolgirls painting commission.

I need a comicathon at many more points. I have two weeks of buffer left, but the goal is to ALWAYS have at least two weeks of buffer. As soon as Monday's update appeared, I was technically under my buffer goal. This cannot stand! I was hoping to have seven inks done today, but it's looking more like I'll only get to four. That means a double work load for the next comicathon day! Oh yes, and I'm in charge of coloring all strips for this group of strips, so I must factor in a colorathon some day this week too.

I need a bonus comicathon on top of all those other comicathons, since I owe you guys two weeks worth of extras. I'm aiming for making Bonus Comics Day a big event, but that first means MAKING those comics. I have 15 scripts ready to go, which will turn into 14 finals, and I want them ready for July 11th. (More on Bonus Comics Day when the date is confirmed.)

Finally, I have some commissionathons ahead of me. Not only do I have a few donation sketches left to make, I have three commissions that are ready for the sketching stage.

Can I do this? I hope so. If I want to make a living at this thing, this is the world schedule I'll have to deal with.

The comic marathon

I know I said I didn't want to make this kind of post, but with this task dominating my life of late I have no other options for today.

I woke up this morning with 10 pages laid out and ready for sketching... so why not try to sketch ALL OF THEM in one day? Heck, why stop there? I'll ink them too! 10 pages? How hard can it be? (Note: During my recent workathons, the best I'd done before was taking four pages to ink in a day.)

So here I am, 12 hours after my insane resolution. How did it go? Seven pages have been sketched and inked. I don't think I've ever had a day this productive!

What finally did me in for the day was my blasted finger, who finally started to protest around hour eight. You might think it's bad that an injury incurred in 2010 is still causing me trouble, but I am THRILLED! I haven't been able to draw for this many hours since before the injury! (If one counts the motions of inking as drawing.) I'm sure I'll pay for all this effort tomorrow, but for tonight I can celebrate!

Oh, and it means the rest of June is now covered, aside from coloring. (Which can be partially outsourced, so woohoo!)

Cameo rundown

Edit: New site upgrades means no more hotlinking, so this post was all broken images! You now have to click on the links to see the comic pages. Sorry!

For the city arc, now in its final stages, I decided to indulge my readers and friends and offer cameo spots for strips where background characters are needed. It made all that extra drawing fun! Here is a list of which characters were cameos and who was behind them.

Strip #786
The gray fox in panel one of this strip was by the request of reader Iron Ed.

Strip #787
Reader Roland requested a Eurasian Wolf. I put the gender up for a vote on the forum and the female security guard won.

Strip #791
The yellow dingo is a character belonging to reader Al S. Romero. My webcomicker friend Irene Pitcairn asked to be drawn as a calico cat in a strip, and I was happy to oblige!

Strip #790
The lynx was reader Cyfrostan's request. The husky was inspired by reader InsanityKangaroo. Reader mrgameandpie requested a Welsh Corgi. Finally, Roland gets another show with his suggestion of adding some labs.

Strip #793
I then turned to twitter for my museum curator cameos. The first two replies came from @psychocatboy (the cat) and @comicalpanda (the fox).

Strip #794
More Twitter cameos! The kitty in panel one was inspired by @kendrakirai, while the one in panel three is little miss @drillecat.

Strip #795
On the wall of bans, you will see Ruby from Code Name: Hunter and Blue from Namir Deiter. The colorful kitties in panel two are readers Cookie (blue one) and PurpleCat (purple one, duh).

Strip #797
Our poor crewman here comes from the Twitter volunteers, @granite_grizz. Yorkshire Terrier was actually his 4th preference of species, but I hope he likes it anyway.

Strip #798
And we get to today's strip. The fox is reader @codefox. The bobcat mix comes from reader Adrik the Bat. The two ladies on the right are Sheana (yellow) and Celina (white) from The Cyantian Chronicles.

There's one more cameo coming up in the arc (Strip #802), from reader @JaxTracRat, but I didn't want to wait until his appearance on Saturday to publish this post!

If you want to get in on the reader cameo action, do know that a few more will be coming up in the next few weeks. Watch the forum thread or my Twitter account for when I open up for those requests.