Saturday, June 25

Seeing Patterns for fun and profit...

My nephue turns 5 this Thursday, and it's rather interesting to see things change with him.

He's really into Star Wars, with the same wonder and curiosity that I had towards it when I was five years old. I find it rather odd to share that with him, to watch him laugh and gigle and ooooh and ahhh over watching Luke duke it out with Vader.

The pure pixi-stix high he gets from that series makes me smile. Seeing him play with a lightsaber makes me smile.

It's sharing a story, a narrative, like a campfire ghost story, or a Grimms Fairy tale that amazes me. Seeing the pattern repeated. Youth get's their dreams, their hopes, their glimmer from stories, stories that generations share.

Star Wars is one of those stories that we now share.

And the pattern repeats...

Thursday, June 23

I aint saying a thing...

Not a thing. Ya'll can figure out this one on your own. For some of you it will be simple, and the only question will be weither or not....hmmmmm. Nope, to much in that already. Part of the fun for me is just watching the speculation. I already know how it all ends, so that surprise is gone for me.

So no I just have to watch ya'll and see it unfold in your eyes.



In norelated news. I have just fallen in love with a band called Ladytron.

It's that retro eighty's electronica that just grabs me...well that and I have a thing for dark haired nymphs.

Tuesday, June 14

I do it all for love...

Because this isn't paying shit yet.

I kid, I kid...Friday is a long one again. Sensing a trend here? I am too. Cut it out, I will never live up to your expectations.

Thursday, June 9

Yes...

Those are the lyrics to Tools "Die Eier Von Satan" A nice shiney half pence for those who figured it out on their own.

Monday, June 6

Picked up another review today...

http://www.livejournal.com/users/bats_eye/2460.html

What amazes me is that people think that this is a romantic comedy. If only you knew what I knew...

Sunday, June 5

Well, If George Lucas can do it...

I don't see why I cant.

I'm constructing a "prequil" to Anywhere but Here, using the scripts from the original 30 strips as a template for the "actual" introduction to the strip. This will NOT be a seperate series, nor will it be a "flashback" series.

Rather, it's going to be a very interesting implimenation...to be certain.

Try and keep this clear....

The very FIRST strip I actually published for this series was published on December 6th 2004.

However, very soon when you go into the archives, you'll see the first "intended" strip, the very begining...the "pilot" if you would...for the entire series, and that should have a publish date of June 1st, 2003.

See...when I first came up with the idea of the strip, it was in 2001. (I even found some of my old templates for it, and the first title for it was "the end of the road".) I actually have the outline for the first 30 strips...all written around 2001/2002. Looking over my outlines for Anywhere but Here, and reading over the final story arc, I realize that is VERY FRIGGIN IMPORTANT to get these strips published to the web. When I first started "doing" this strip in December of 2004, I had no idea if people would like it or not. So I started in the middle of the story. Why? Becuase that was what was most interesting to ME as a creator. I didn't want to do the backstory becuase I already DID the backstory in my mind. I'm at a different place now then I was then. So I started where I felt most comfortable.

The problem is, the backstory REALLY REALLY needs to be told. So, I'm going to publish them, and I'm going to publish them to the keenspace site...starting with the date June 1st, 2003. And HOPE that I have the right start date, and have aproximatly the right starting TIME. Fingers crossed.

So, the first strip that I ever DID will be the December 6th 2004 strip, but very soon when you hit "go to the first strip" you'll see "June 1st, 2003". Which means that the first strip in this epic story takes place 2 years ago...and you can, if you'ld like, read what's happening 2 years in the past, as well as what's happening "today".

In the realms of quantum physics, this is refered to "as a major head fuck".

Thank you Stephen Hawkings for coining such an eloquant term.

My suggestion...just read the daily's. And go through the archives as you feel the need to go through them.

This is why these strips need to be published:

The explain an awefull lot about what the hell "The Dude" is doing in North Dakota, why he's here, an awefull lot of character motivation that I understand, and actually explains an awefull lot concerning the entire, and I mean ENTIRE arc of this story. After going through my notes, a lot of what I have planned for the ending isn't going to have nearly the impact that it will if this isn't told.

I'm going to TRY and get that year and a half of backstory in by christmas of this year.

TRY is the operative word.

Because I'm ALSO going to be publishing the DAILY strip..well...daily.

So, if you do the math...

thats an ASSLOAD of strips to get in for christmas now isn't it.

To me the MOST important thing is to get the dailys out on time.

The second most important part is getting more of the back story out within the next year and a half. What I really want is to have someone in about a years time read the archives from start to finish and get the whole story, from the start to where we are at now. For my CURRENT readers, well, just think of it like this:

You caught a brand new television series half way through the second season. You're also able to check out the first season in syndication at the same time.

May god have mercy on my soul. This could get interesting.

Cheers.

-Jason

PS, to make things even shittier for myself, I'm going to mimic my "old shitty" style for those year and a half of strips. So as not to make it look like my art suddenly got terribly terribly shitty for a month during december of 2004. However if it does, those of you who were there from the begining can simply say "oh, he had syphilis for about a month. Man, did it show in his strips."

See, it all makes sense doesn't it?

Friday, June 3

What's in a Name?

That's what I'm asking myself. See, people are starting to wonder about "our hero". Mostly they're asking "what's his friggin name."

I've said it before and I'll say it again, tune in to the fifth to last strip and you'll find out.

So the real question is, "what do we call this guy."

I'm pretty partial to "the dude" myself. It came to me by the way of a gentleman (I need to go into my e-mail to find his name because I cant bloody remember peoples names on my own) who wanted to use "the dude" in a cameo on a strip he was intending on publishing down the road.

And I LIKE "the dude." It's very...western. "The Man with No Name" meets the retro hippy culture of College. (Cues up "the good the bad and the ugly in his playlist." And it has the "Big Lobowski" referance to it as well. Since I'm an absolute SUCKER for Coen brothers flicks, that's a very good thing in my book.

But you know what, I'm NOT going to say "call him 'THE DUDE'". There's something about comics that I adore...well there are a LOT of things about comics that I adore, but what I LOVE is the need for the reader to "fill in the blanks".

There is MUCH in comics that requires the reader to process, interperate, and dig into. It's a shared experience, and to some part, while I like haveing complete control over the cannon, I also want to participate. Yes, I love being able to whip out a "NIGGA' what you smokin" and pimpslap some stupid idea down in favor of my own, much dumber idea. But I ALSO love that those who READ the strip contribute to it. They may not be dictating the overall story, but they add little details that make it grow, change, and seem more fleshed out. Moreso then I can do on my own.

So call him "the dude", call him "duke", call him "clint", "Boss", "Frodo", "Zipperneck", "Skippy", call him whatever you like. And eventually something will stick.

It's just a name, and the real fun won't begin till it all comes to an end anyway.

Cheers

-Jason

Thursday, June 2

For those of you whom I may have offended on my strips for the first and second of this month, I hope that this Friday makes up for it.

And I want to talk a little about my motivation for doing what I did.

The very first strip Chris ever appeared in is the strip for January 1st 2005. She's been a very tough character for me to get a feel for. VERY tough.

I'ld like to say that I had her planned out since the start of the series. Well the truth is she's been the intended love interest but that was about it.

There's a lot about Chris that fell into place as I was thinking about her. True, there are some gags that have been floating around in my mind ever since I started peicing the strip together back in 01, but to REALLY get a feel for her, who she is, what she's about, didn't happen untill last week.

Last week I began to realize that these characters have lives of their own. What I mean by that is they have their OWN voice, they act independant of what I'ld normaly think of them. They now move on their own sometimes.

Take this week for instance.

I originaly planned on the relationship between Chris and our unnamed hero to take place later this year, possibly next spring. But then came last Fridays strip, and that changed.

I cannot tell you how long I debated running that strip. Seriously I was going over things in my head for a few days before I finaly said "SCREW IT, just do it. There's NO reason why she'ld wait around any longer."

So, she didn't. I didn't, and now I have to deal with the ramifications of a major plot point being bumped up a year. I may have quite honestly changed this from a five year strip, to a four year strip without realizing it.

Ah well, the most important thing is the story.

and I hope it's a story that everyone is appriciating.

Anyway, enjoy the read.

-Jason