6 years old! + New Copper Road!

Six years ago, the first Precocious update went live. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was happy to do it! Today, I... well, that hasn't really changed. (The comics are better drawn now, though!) Thanks to all of you for keeping me going! Shall we aim for seven years? More???

To celebrate six years, I've done a little update with the Precocious store!  As long as I'm feeling festive, copies of book 3, and the book combo pack, are on sale for $5 less that usual!  (For those just starting out, or looking to indoctrinate others, the colorful book 3 is meant to be an ideal starting point.)

I'm also testing the idea of an original comic art grab bag. For a reduced price, you can get random piece original comic art from my "these are special" pile.

(All other store updates will wait until the end of the Kickstarter fulfillment, likely at the end of the month. For the backers who are still waiting, make sure you've been checking the campaign updates. I'll need some feedback from the art burst orders soon!)

Since this is the first of the month, there's a new Copper Road too! Vote here to see it!  (Even if TWC seems to have failed to reset, you get your comic on time.) One of the positives of me being fully unable to move through live without bumbling even the most basic things is that my constant failures often translate well into Copper Road scripts! I wrote this script a couple months back, but it gets the new year's duty because I managed to do the spice move again this week. Man, I'm glad 2014 is dead. It was mean to me. I spit on its grave!

As it's a new month as well as a new year, that means last month's Copper Roads are now in the Copper Road archive! Enjoy them again, folks! If you're looking for the Cylon sub bonus strips, all you need to do is scroll down the front page to see them.

Precocious is five years old!

Forget this New Year stuff! The most important thing about January 1st is that it's Precocious' birthday! Five years, and around 2000 comics between the archive, deleted scenes and the book bonus stories. Not too shabby! (Thanks to Isabel Marks of Namir Deiter for the gift art!)

(Want to celebrate the occasion too? Now's as good a time as any to check out all the goodies in the Precocious store!)

When I started, five years was my goal. From all my reading of dailies, I saw year five as when artist competence and character development come together to bring a comic into a golden age. Well, every year I've done this has been precocious to me. Year one of Precocious was fresh and new and exciting. Year two built upon a strong foundation and expanded the universe. Year three is when I took a major level up and committed to the goal of making Precocious my JOB and not just a hobby. Year four is when I pulled out all my tricks. Year five... this was the year I took for myself and drew what I wanted to draw. The stories from the past year were so much fun for me to write, and it was so gratifying to see so many people coming along for the ride. I told myself I'd reassess the comic at year five, and I can't imagine stopping now. I'm not done. I have so much left to tell and so much silliness to share.

2013 was a great year for the comic, but not so much for me. A toothache I thought would be a one-week inconvenience turned into a botched surgery and a year of medical hell. As the year comes to a close, I'm still in doctor limbo, dealing with chronic pain and fighting all the side-issues that come up when lengthy medical issues happen. I've been double sick for weeks thanks to a cold caught due to being in so many doctor waiting rooms, and my drawing hand is in a cast because I aggravated and old finger injury due to me playing too many video games while stuck in bed during pain downtime. (Yes, this means I'll have to be clever with next week's updates, as my buffer doesn't cover the full cast stretch.)  I am so glad to see 2013 go. It was brutal. BUT I DIDN'T MISS AN UPDATE! In you face, 2013!

Here's hoping 2014 brings me health, and chances to do all things that I wanted to do in 2013.  Book 3 is coming, and the preorder looks like it'll start in February right now. (It will be in color, and thus VERY expensive to print, so I'll really be needing your support!) The other plans? We shall see. I'm a one man operation, so I can't put in the extra work needed until I'm healthy enough. My convention schedule is likely to be scaled back, again due to health.  I'm confirmed for Fur The More, Furry Weekend Atlanta, Anthrocon and Mechacon. I'll try for SPX. Not sure about any others.

Thank you all for reading Precocious. Keep coming back. Keep contributing. Keep spreading the word.

New Copper Road! 8/16/13

It must be the season finale, as our Doctor Hu is facing down with the ultimate evil! Also, I apologize for the terribly-drawn Daleks. I didn't use a reference when inking, and things got... mutated. How can I ever face the Dalek Skittle Brigade after this?

Vote here to see the new comic! (Which is attached to the earlier Doctor Hu comics, because I felt like keeping them together.)

(Also, happy birthday to Dana! And happy day-after-your-birthday to Andrew!)

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.

More birthday girl fan art! (Belated edition)

In continuing my Savannah socializing follies, I am the doofus who decided to back Twitter for my social media of choice while all the cool kids went Facebook instead. I can go a week without checking Facebook, and that means I miss important things. Important things like the birthdays of awesome people!

Last week was the birthday of the inspiring Sarah "Pickles" Dill, of Distillum. To celebrate, I thought I would whip up some much-owed fan art for her. Here we have Rob and Kavitha, looking very young and rather ridiculous, because I drew them and I am not one tenth the sequential artist she is. But it's the thought that counts, right? (Maybe I'll have to take her out and buy her lunch to make up for this... Whaddaya say, Pickles?)

Some fan art for a birthday girl!

Today is the birthday of the lovely and talented Darc Sowers, of the excellent Code Name: Hunter. To commemorate such a grand occasion, I am fan arting as best as I can!

Here we have Ruby and Max about suffer the consequences of angering Gadel. (Something I assume happens hourly around the offices.) I can't tell you how intimidating it is drawing someone else's characters - especially if it's someone you greatly admire, who is also a FAR superior artist. (Oh, Darc, I wish I could have done better for you!)

Anyway, much love and positive vibes for you! May this birthday be truly excellent!

Where have I been?

If you couldn't figure it out from the last post, I have arrived in DC and taken part in the massive birthday fest that is the fun side of my family. My birthday was the 24th. My grandmother's is the 5th. My aunt's is the 20th. About this time every year we all get together to massively celebrate. It's EXHAUSTING! But also much fun!

As is the case with most of my DC visits, blogging is going sporadic. All this family time means all my free time has to go directly to Precocious and making sure next week has strips ready to go.

Today was bonus Precocious work too, as my colorist was busy. Do you know how long it's been since I colored a Sunday? What a chore! I was so spoiled. A consequence of me coloring: Instead of every panel getting a background, only one does! Sorry, folks, but I'm just not fast enough to crank it out in time. If I go through with my threat and purchase a Waccom tablet, that may change. Those things are magic, I hear. While I don't ever see ditching traditional inking - I love having originals to hold AND SELL - many of my side projects would be made easier with a tablet. Once I learn how to use said tablet. Once I finally get around to buying said tablet. ONE DAY SOON! I SWEAR!

Tonight, all effort is going into inking.... whenever I get up the nerve to do it. I so want to nap instead. Bah! I will only allow myself to forgo inking if I can do something even more productive, like making a Copper Road or something. That's another thing that may go on hold for a week while I'm down here, but I'll make one if inspiration strikes. Anyway, I refuse to sleep until I've kicked the day's ass. That is all.

Birthday partying! Or not.

It has been a... dull birthday. The highlight of my day was an uneventful trip to the DMV to renew my license. Wheeee! Overall, it was just another day. Ho Hum. I did get some comics finished, so my obligations have been met. Otherwise, I'm going to close out the day by eating/drinking whatever the hell I want! MEXICAN COKE AND AMARETTO CHEESECAKE! Yay!

Hey, four-eyes!

So my first birthday treat was.... an eye exam? As was expected, I do need glasses, and I need them TOMORROW if I want to pass my driver's license vision test. Blah. I also got my pupils dilated, which means I get to rock AWESOME SHADES for a while. I look just like the terminator!

Actually, I think I'd look sexy with some glasses. It's the hassle of getting them that annoys me. Where's my angel helping me pick out sexy glasses and providing moral support? It's my birthday tomorrow - I demand the world on a silver platter! I'll be 30, and I think I deserve a reward for surviving this long.

Prepare to celebrate!

I have two big occasions coming up next week. On Tuesday, Precocious' 500th strip will run. On Wednesday, I turn 30! So.... what do I do to commemorate such events? Hell if I know! All I can say for certain is that you are encouraged to give gifts. ;-)

Every year, I use my birthday as an excuse to splurge on something needed. On year I got the light table, which is infinitely valuable to me! Another year I bought a TV to use as a monitor, which is also fully beloved. Another splurge of this kind was in getting my giant scanner, which CHANGED MY LIFE it was such an improvement! This year... what to get?

I've been thinking of giving in and buying a wacom tablet, which would allow me to draw digitally. While the comic would remain traditional, being able to work digital would help a lot in commissions, wallpaper designs and merchandising. Assuming I learn how to use the damn thing. If I go this route, I'll go for the low-end model, like the bamboo, and learn from there.

But then there's the issue of what to digitally draw IN? My copy of Photoshop is so painfully old, I don't have many features modern incarnations have. Problem is, I don't have $600 or whatnot to shell out for CS4 (or whatever the current version is). Even worse, I really don't have any more to purchase Illustrator, which is vector-drawing deliciousness. (Manga Studio may also work for this, but I know next to nothing of the project.) Now, my Photoshop 7 works well enough for now... but if going digital causes some problems, I may have to take drastic measures to procure an Adobe product: Donation drives! Ahh, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Not that a donation drive would be a bad thing. The art supplies that go into Precocious aren't free, and a daily strip blows through them like nobody's business! Add in drafts and Copper Roads and sketchbooks... it adds up! The problem with a donation drive is that I feel like I'd have to give something back, be it a wallpaper or some signed prints or hand-printed cards, and I need the time to get those suckers into production. Another problem: Who would donate? I may have a lot of readers, but most of them are the *casual* variety. They love me because I'm a lot of content for free. The second I make something difficult to get to (like, say, voting to see a Copper Road) the readers evaporate! Darn those lazy people!

Another problem: I think I need a better printer to do the signed print thing. (Is there a market for that?) A REAL nice printer would cost me as much as those out-of-reach computer programs I want, so that's also out for now. My current printer's quality is fine, but it's so old that I can't rely on it. Since it's also hodgepodged into working with Vista, I have no fine tuning control over documents. They just print at whatever default the printer has.

I don't know what would benefit me the most. The tablet is the likely choice, if only for cost. Besides, that could open up new frontiers, which is good news. I wish I could have it all! Why must I be so desperately poor?

(This counts as an on-time blog post because it was started before midnight, ok?)

We come from the land of ice and snow

I'm 25% Danish, donchaknow! 100% of that 25% is my grandfather, who - as you might have suspected - has a birthday today. Also, he's a retired rear admiral, if you couldn't suspect that.

I was tasked with making him a card. He has Alzheimer's and it's kinda lost on him, but grandma should enjoy it. Anyway, here's my dramatic composition, Apologies to the owners of the images I stole...

New year of life; new sketchbook!

Ahh, synchronicity. This day of transition brings with it a new beginning. No, my life is still crap. It's simply time for a new sketchbook! As is tradition, let's look at some sketches that never made it to the blog; the not ready for prime time players, if you will.

This one took *so* long to finish, which is a wonderful thing! I've been working too hard to waste time doodling! I will take that trade-off any day!



A birthday sketch! Man, I wish I had this many presents. Then again, I have no room for any new things. All I really require is goodwill and acts of benevolence! That or cash.



Since this sketchbook happened during the parents arc, adults were on center stage. We've seen the kids drawn grown up, random adult characters (not "adult" characters - don't think that!) and lots of parents showing off their glorious flaws.

I gotta admit, that is one cute drawing of Sydney Oven. Normally she's more sarcastic and weary, but a playfully sly cat is fine too. Deirdre Linkletter is more in-character, if not a completed drawing. I had another of her, which was a loose sketch and made her look a bit Bohemian, but it didn't fit the style with the rest. The panther in the back is an attempt to draw Dionne's mom. I can't remember if I shared the sketch or not, so into the background she went!



And here I wander into strange new territory. On a whim, I tried to draw those scary *other* animals. Precocious is purely doggie and kitty territory, as the animal forms are supposed to "human, but cuter!" and not "furry comic" outright. The bunny and raccoon chicks... not so great. Oh well, I have no use for them anyway.