Still playing with shirt ideas.

Good feedback so far! As it stands, the first shirts I'll be offering will be SCIENCE! and Tiffany's unrestrained creativity masterpiece. Don't go salivating yet, though, as I haven't solidified anything, much less found a t-shirt provider.

But I'm not done yet! Let's keep throwing out more ideas!



(click the image to embiggen)

The top one is a Ghostbusters line applied to a cast group shot. (The sketches were lifted from past vote incentives, if you're wondering.) EVIL is an attempt to combine some universal appeal with Precocious. Dunno if it's successful. Man, why must my comic be so insular? Finally, we have a sample from the exceedingly cute strip. Who wouldn't want to wear that?

Try me on, I'm very you

Alright, I'm doing it. I am starting to think about merchandising Precocious. It's scary! What in my strip is truly shirt-worthy? I present to you the first wave of ideas. Help me shape them into successful designs! Also, PLEASE tell me what you want to see! Since it's the fans that will be buying the shirts, the fans kinda need to let me know what they want to buy.


I know I want to do a Dr. Oven shirt, but what slogan does he get? A nice, happy SCIENCE! is all-purpose and lovely...


...the full bake sale line is more comic-specific, but it is still awesome. Actually, this would make a good bumper sticker just by itself.


Dionne's heart shirt is a perfect vehicle for a Dionne heart shirt! (You heard me.) I like this design a lot, even though I doubt many will want the shirt. If I can pull it off, I am also contemplating a Tiffany button shirt.

Other ideas I have come directly from the strips:

"If I give off the vibe of sweetness and innocence, it can be quite disarming!"

Unrestrained Creativity

"From chaos comes creativity; from creativity, chaos"

Eh, who knows? This whole merchandising thing is still at the "glimmer in the eye" stage. Let's find out what works!

More downsides to productivity

Today is an inking day! The goal is to finish two weeks' worth of dailies and keep going into July - ignoring Sundays all the way! (I'll get to them LATER!) Anyway, this is my task for the day and you'll have to deal with the artful arrangement of strips I've presented.

Another downside of productivity: I consume supplies at an alarming rate! I cracked open a fresh pack of 50 templates for this current session - and realized I already knew what was going on 46 of 'em! I'm moving too fast! I bought hundreds of these buggers when I stocked up, and it's getting close to ordering time again. For being what I feel is unproductive over the past few weeks, I sure am consuming all available supplies rapidly. I don't want to restock! I just splurged on other stuff! I HAVE NO INCOME!

Of course, if I move *that* fast, I can take a month off from drawing the strip and use that time to play hype machine!

Buddy Christ

He thrives from your sins! Or something like that. I never paid attention in church. Anyway, this Dogma-inspired sketch came about from one of my readers concluding my Sunday strip depicted Bud as Jesus. I am entirely for this interpretation!

(The odd color is a side effect from the new GIANT SCANNER. It does comics great, but has no setting for sketches. Maybe I need to go with two scanners at the same time! Again: Aww, yeah.)

Large and in charge

Guess who got a new large-format scanner? I can scan ALMOST TWO TINY PAINTINGS AT ONCE! More importantly, I can scan two strips at the same time. (Aww, yeah!)

If this bugger keeps working, then life will be excellent. It will cut soooo much time off of tedious scanning sessions. Yay!

Precocious in five strips? Unpossible!

Alright folks, I am putting the finishing touches on my submission to the SpiderForest webcomic collective. (If you're from SF, should you be reading this?) All I need now is to write a conclusion and choose my five comic representatives. I've settled on four, but the fifth is causing trouble. I'm not going to repost the strips, as they're all three posts down, but I will review the choices.

1) Strip #43 ("Rule #4")

This may be the most Precocious-esque strip I've done. We have the kids up to no good, a parent catching onto the semantics and the revelation that a "no dynamite" rule is NEEDED - and it still only the fourth most important rule! What could the top three be?

2) Strip #62 ("The infinite canvas project")

Tiffany's painting exploits are adorable, exactly her style and overall is a nice, strong Sunday. I also like the non-malicious misbehaving going on. While my kids are at their best when at their worst, I worry about submitting five strips all with the kids being insane. That being said...

3) Strip #100 ("Paddle-battle boats")

I love this strip because it's funny and shows that I *can* draw backgrounds if I want to. It also does a great job in establishing the Sapphire set as uniquely demented.

4) Intro Strip #30 ("Now We're Getting Somewhere")

Another example of what the kids are about. They're at war, but it's still play to them. The "current gemstone war" hints that they do this often, and the dramatic speech closing with the announcement of a water balloon right... yes, "war is awesome" indeed!

5) Hmm...

What do I do for the last one? Do I choose a favorite of mine? Of yours? Do I choose another color strip? Do I look for another "this sums it up" strip?

Strip #45 is one I love. With an evil mind, a simple game can turn into something less than family-friendly! It's also based on a real game played with my friends, so it has sentimental value. The downside is that it dances on the edge of acceptable. (Which, of course, is the point of the strip - but still...) If I include this, am I playing the evil card too much?

Intro Strip #98 is a reader favorite and allows me to show the best-drawn color daily I've done.

Strip #14 hangs a lampshade on the over-the-top evil thing, which is nice. It's also another color daily that shows off the kids' creativity with costuming.

The dark horse here, which wasn't even in the initial group of finalists, is strip #55. It's a color Sunday in which Autumn remarks on the kids insular nature - before deciding their world is much better than the real world. It's a sweet take on the kids, and it might balance out the rest nicely. As of now, it might even be the leader for the last slot.

I'm making the decision later tonight, so if anyone else is a loser at home on Friday night, come and offer your opinion.

Just one of those days

Yes, this is a cursed day. So far everything I've touched has crumbled and failed on me. Can't draw a strip to save my life. Can't sketch to save my life. Can't write (in any form) to save my life. Can't really paint to save my life either, but here we go anyway! This one is going in a different direction than intended, but I think it can be pulled off in the end. I worked on two other mini canvasses today, but one was raw and one isn't changed enough to merit scanning.

Size doesn't matter!

Yes, it's time for more bite-sized paintings! These two are in the early stages, but are progressing nicely. I'm down to three tiny canvasses left. Do I make more fine art, or do I paint the rest of the Precocious main cast so the Tiffany painting doesn't get lonely?

Supporting cast parade!

Do you know how hard it is to draw a bunch of characters together? (Wait until you see the nightmare that I faced for Sunday's strip.) Oh, I wish I was a simple, talking head comic some days...

Pick your fav 5

I'm trying to narrow my strips down to the five that best convey the tone, humor and awesomeness that is Precocious. Here are my choices for the final ten, which may not match yours. If you have your own favorites, here's your venue to let me know. I may not listen to you, but you can still cast a vote!

No original artwork today, as I'm working on the strip TO THE EXTREME. I'll be back to my daily supremacy tomorrow.

Strip #43


Strip #62


Strip #45


Strip #97


Strip #100


Intro Strip #16


Intro Strip #86


Intro Strip #30


Intro Strip #98


Strip #14