September 21, 2014

Painfully Late Update (No comic, sorry!)

The last comic was in May. It is now September.


Uh, yeah... sorry about that. I should've given you an update MONTHS ago.

I just want to get this out the way first, Possum Tails is not dead! It will be back with vengeance! Eventually!

As for why this absence happened, I fell apart and wasn't able to put myself back together. I had been putting WAY too much time and detail into my comics. I eventually came to dread them every week. Sitting in front of a computer for that long, picking at the same lines over and over... It's hard to maintain sanity doing that. I was treating each individual panel like a painting. Looking back, that was pretty stupid. It's a comic - people quickly hop from one panel to the next in order to catch a story and a joke. It doesn't need that level of nitpicking! (Except maybe on Sundays, but even then there's a limit!) The joke, story, and expressions matter above all else. Those are the parts that are fun to make, and fun to read. So from here on out, I'm going to shift my focus on them.

My habit of excessive nitpicking is very deeply ingrained, and will be hard to break. But I'm determined to get back in the game - there are too many stories and jokes left untold! Even though it's been over a year, it feels like the comic's only just started.

As for why there still hasn't been another comic, it's because I'm balancing quite a few projects. For the last few months, I've been trying to build up a deadline buffer for them (slowly but surely). I'm a week or two from finally achieving my goal for that, after which I can get started on building up a deadline buffer for Possum Tails.

My plan is to start drawing the comics similarly to how they're drawn in my notebooks - quick, loose, energetic, and fun. It's faster, easier, and probably does the joke more justice. Unfortunately, it's not a style I'm used to recreating on the computer, so Possum Tails will probably be going through yet another awkward phase. If you want a good idea of what that might look like, refer to that Remus drawing up there. It's not terribly elegant, but hopefully I'll get the hang of things and the comics can start flowing again.

Once I'm back in the game and maintaining things, I'll finally have the time to update the blog background and the Possum Tails tumblr! (Which is currently a train-wreck.) Sorry for the absence, and the atomic textbomb! I'll try to get things done quickly, but I'll also try and make sure not to push myself too hard.
Take care, and see you again (hopefully) soon!