Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 16 Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - 9:13 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ My apologies for the strip being so late this week--work has been a real killer for the last five days or so. I don't want to get into all of that, though. I'm a little out of sorts right now, so I think I'm going to cut this blog entry short. However, I do intend to return within the next day or so for a little more discussion. And I seriously do mean that--seems like every time I want to make another blog entry in a week, it never happens. But I'm gonna try my best to get back here tomorrow or Thursday. Thanks for your continued support! Hope you like the strip, and I'll see you soon! Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 15 Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - 6:06 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The "Powerpoint slides" in this strip were all done in Adobe Illustrator, in case you were wondering. I was able to make this comic very quickly since there was not a lot of drawing and not a lot of Photoshop work to be done. This strip evolved quite a bit from my original idea for it. At first, I was just going to draw the slides in typical comic strip panels and it would have looked like a typical comic strip. But I thought that might be kind of boring, so I decided to draw a big picture of Pratt with a series of slides surrounding him, and I really like how that turned out. I'd say it definitely livens things up a bit. I want to say thank you to everybody who helped make 24-Hour Comics Day on Saturday a big success. I got some much-needed work done, which has already taken some pressure off of me in terms of always coming down to the wire to get comics done on time, and I got to have fun with my friends at the same time. I hope everybody who was here had a great time, and I really appreciated the company in this task. To everyone who couldn't be here, thank you very much for your support from afar. It's really great to see the comic strip getting this kind of momentum behind it. A lot of times, I get pretty worried that things are getting stagnant and that the comic will never go anywhere, but days like Saturday make me believe otherwise. Once I get some pictures together, I'll make a photo page of the event. That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and I will return soon. Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 14 Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 7:05 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Holy cow, that's a lot of text! However, I'm still really happy with how this strip turned out. If the tension is becoming unbearable, then I'm doing my job right. If it's not, well...hey, look over there! *Drops a smoke bomb and disappears* On Saturday I will be participating in my own little version of 24-Hour Comics Day, in which I sit down and work on comics all day while friends are invited to hang out, keep me company, watch TV, play games, party, or whatever they want to do. You can read more about 24-Hour Comics Day here or here. There is actually an official date set for it every year, and there are established parameters for what an artist can and cannot do. I don't really pay attention to any of that stuff, though. My goal with 24-Hour Comics Day is not to attempt to write, draw, and otherwise complete a certain number of strips within a 24-hour period. Rather, I'm just devoting an entire day to working ahead. I write the strips ahead of time and then go back and add the digital portion of the artwork later on, after 24-Hour Comics Day has ended. The actual drawing takes up the most time, so I just devote the entire day to that--it feels like I get more work done that way. Anyway, I'm hoping that this will give me at least a 1 or 2-comic buffer so I can take a week off without missing an update, should it ever be necessary, and so I can get a little bit ahead so that I have new comics up by 12:00 AM Tuesday instead of like 7:00 PM Tuesday. I hate feeling incredible pressure every Tuesday evening as I attempt to finish the comic as soon as I get home from work. Wish me luck on Saturday--hopefully it'll be a productive day! Thanks for reading, and I'll be back on Tuesday with a new comic. I may also try to document 24-Hour Comics Day via photographs, so be on the lookout for those, as well! Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 13 Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 8:20 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Yeah, now I'm thinking Stu was definitely right about them not coming. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am honest-to-God pleased with the artwork in this comic strip. I like how similar I was able to draw Renee in the first two panels, I like Gary in panel five, I like the cityscape in the last panel, the van actually looks like a van, and I like the back-alley look in panel four. I ain't gonna lie--I did look at some pictures of city for some influence on those buildings, but from what I understand, I'm allowed to do that. It just seems like such a change of pace--there's almost always something about the art that really bugs me or doesn't quite capture what I had envisioned, but for once, I think I got it right. The humor in this one is sort of subtle in that it's just some banter between henchmen, but you get the gist of it. I've always been sort of fascinated by the small talk that goes on while bad guys do their evil deeds. Think Star Wars, when the stormtroopers are talking about new speeder models as Obi Wan sneaks around to disable the Death Star's tractor beam. The dialogue in this strip isn't quite along those lines, but it kind of reminds me of it, or any other instance of conversational bad guy talk. You know they're probably always trying to one-up each other, so they're never quite going to get along--they're always going to do something wrong to displease the other. That's it for this week! Thank you very much for your continued support, and I'll see you next time. Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 12 Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - 7:32 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Maybe Stu was right about them not coming. I have all kinds of site and comic news to report. Unfortunately, none of it is really all that positive. None of it is incredibly terrible either, though. It's mostly just very irritating. First, Firefox 3 downloaded itself on my computer, and my site does not display properly in it. There's a little white line that runs vertically down the site between the comic strip and the stuff on the right-hand side of the page. As a result, I am considering revamping the site design a little bit--not a complete overhaul, but mostly just some technical improvements. It may finally be time to step further away from my beloved HTML and incorporate some newer, better technologies. I would also like to improve the look of the stuff on the right-hand side of the page--it looks very sloppy and cobbled together. Secondly, I tried out that Wacom tablet, and it's safe to say I don't quite know how to use it, yet. The sensitivity is set way too high, and my lines were going all over the place. I need to look up some tips and tricks on the internet and I need to better configure it for Photoshop and try to turn the sensitivity down, if that's possible. Or, if anyone reading has experience with the Wacom, I'd love to hear from you! Lastly, it's a good thing nobody ever emails me, because I learned this weekend that my outgoing mail for the site doesn't work. I can receive, but I can't respond to anything. I tried everything they told me to to get it to work, but no luck. I'm considering dumping Microsoft Outlook and managing my site email through gmail. My Outlook is from 2002 and sucks, and I figured, hey, maybe it's time to try something new. But hey, at least the comic itself is pretty cool, right? I'm hoping to deal with all of that other stuff soon enough. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time! Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 11 Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - 7:47 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ A little video game humor for you there. You know how I have to throw that in every now and then. For whatever reason, this comic took an incredibly long time to draw. I think again, it was just a matter of having to draw my characters over and over again, which is great for practice, but it can still be fairly time-consuming. I got my friend's Wacom tablet on Friday, but I haven't had a chance to mess with it yet. I'm pretty excited to see what I can do with it, if anything. I have the next five or six strips outlined, and I think things are really going to get exciting really soon. I'm looking forward to it. So stick around and see what happens next! Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 10 Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 7:45 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well, here we are at comic strip number 75. I hate to make a big deal out of all of these supposed little milestones, but believe me, if you take into account my lack of productivity over the last eight years, it's definitely worth it to me to point them out. This is also the 30th comic strip I've done this year. Wow, 30! The most strips I'd ever done in a single year before 2008 was 12, so that's pretty exciting. I hope to keep them coming! Also, for the record, I very easily could have cheated on panels two and five, since Stu kicking down doors has become something of a running gag. I thought about stealing a panel from a previous instance of the gag, but decided to do some real drawing and hone my skills instead. A friend of mine at work is going to let me borrow his Wacom tablet. For years, I've sworn off Wacom tablets because I really enjoy hand inking. But now that I have a real opportunity to use one, I might do some sketches and try my hand at digital inking. I'll be sure to post the sketches here for your perusal. Thank you very much for reading, and here's to 75 successful comic strips. See you next time! Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 9 Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 7:02 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well, the first panel took an incredibly long time to draw, but other than that, things went pretty smoothly with this strip. I still need to learn a combination of editing my dialogue down a bit and planning and structuring the panels to better accomodate the dialogue so the word bubbles don't cover up too much artwork. Seriously, I spent a lot of time on that artwork--I want people to see it! Honestly, I don't have much else to report this time around. Maybe this week I'll have a chance to do a little "more" for the comic, like I talked about a couple of weeks ago. I'm gonna go find something to eat. Thanks for reading, and check in again next week for strip number 75! Wow, that seems like so many comics, and yet so few at the same time. Ah well. Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 8 Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 7:25 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ah, no opportunity for cheating this time around. Lots of drawing, and it felt good to really have to work hard at it for the first time in a few weeks. Not only could I not copy and paste anything, but there was also a fight scene. I must admit that the fight scenes never look quite as good as I envision them, but this one is still all right. One of the advantages of doing a long-form comic like CNMB is that there's not always a need for a punchline at the end of every strip. While I always prefer to end any given strip with a really good zinger, the fact that CNMB reads more like a comic book or graphic novel than a strip allows me to move the funny parts around if I need to. This strip, for example, starts off with a (hopefully) humorous sight gag, and then there's a fight, and then there's story progression at the end. My original idea for this particular strip did have a punchline at the end, but then I came up with this idea and liked it a lot better, so I went with it, instead. I think it turned out okay. Once again, I failed to do a mid-week blog entry last week. I'll go ahead and say this week isn't looking good, but you never know. We're getting into mid-August here, so a number of my friends will be heading back to school (either to learn or teach), and the more summery activities will be slowing down soon. I must say it was a pretty good summer, and I can honestly say I was never bored. If I wasn't at a wedding, float trip, barbecue, ball game, movie, on a road trip, or just generally hanging out with friends or family, I was keeping busy doing my own thing--making comics, writing, exercising, taking a solo road trip, fulfulling other responsibilities, or something along those lines. It's been a few years since I've had a summer in which I've gained so much appreciation for my friends and realized how great it is to have them in my life. On top of that, I feel better about myself than I have in years, probably since 2004, which has gone on record among my friends as being the greatest summer of all time. I worry less and find myself overcoming more and more inhibitions. I'm still not quite to where I want to be, but for once, I feel really good about where I'm going. I was even so lucky as to attract the attention of a very special young lady, which has made summer that much more wonderful. :) But now that things are probably going to slow down a little bit, it's definitely time to further devote myself to the comic strip and hope that the positive feelings I have now carry on into the remainder of the year and help to keep me passionate and motivated about what I'm doing. I think back to how much progress I've already made this year compared to years past, and it's really exciting to think about where I might be able to go with this if I keep at it. I still have a lot of improvements to make, but at least I can face them with a smidge of confidence. Let's go. Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 7 Tuesday, August 5, 2008 - 7:55 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Yeah, okay, so it's pretty clear that I blatantly cheated on the artwork on this one, but this strip has been in my head for awhile now, so I swear it wasn't a matter of me being lazy or anything like that. Life has been pretty crazy for the past couple of weeks. I was out of town for the second straight weekend, and now I'm even more exhausted than I already was. However, it looks like things are going to slow down a little bit now, and I'm hoping that I'm finally going to have more time to devote to the comic. In this case, I'm not just talking about trying to get to a point where I'm doing two strips a week, but also just doing more for the comic. Because right now, I'm not doing enough. I haven't done any promotion for a couple of months now, and things just feel stagnant, despite the fact that I'm still making strips. I want to bring in more readers and develop a better rapport with the readers I have now--be more personal, write more blogs, try to come up with some extra little goodies, etc. The only problem is I'm still not entirely sure how to go about doing that. Sounds like it might already be time to re-read How to Make Webcomics. I'm kinda looking forward to it. I'm done here for the evening, but maybe I can find some time to return before next week with a blog, if nothing else. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time! A Villainous Interjection Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - 8:00 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hello! After fulfulling my other, more pressing responsibilities and taking a much needed vacation to Chicago to visit my brother and sister-in-law, I have finally returned with a new comic strip. I already feel like I have to apologize--there is so much dialogue going on in this one that it's hard to even see anything, but hopefully you still get the gist of it. I'm gonna have to start doing a better job of editing things down. That or just planning things out a little bit better. Also, I hope you don't think all of the silhouettes of the Goonish High Council are just copouts because I'm too lazy to design some new characters--that's intentional. I've always liked the idea of an evil, mysterious council of doom that's all dark and shadowy, even when they're standing in broad daylight. It took my awhile to get back into the groove of drawing after taking a week off. But once I got into it, I remembered how much I like it and got excited again. Next on the agenda is working ahead on the story--I'm still at a point where I know what's coming, but I don't have it planned out strip for strip. I would feel much better about where the story is going if I did that. Sorry once again for the missed update. Thanks for your continued support! I'll be back next week with another new strip. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT - no new comic strip this week! Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 12:59 AM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well, I hadn't missed an update since April, and I was feeling pretty good about my consistency here lately, but all of a sudden, things just piled up a little bit too much, and some other, more important responsibilities took precedence over the strip. Therefore, the next installment of Chewy Ninja Monkey Bars will come to you next Tuesday, July 29. Despite this minor setback, I still feel really good about the direction of the comic strip, as well as my dedication to working on it every week. (I'm also still on pace to reach my end-of-year goal, although I have a little less leeway to work with now.) But man, it still sucks to have to miss an update. I'd go ahead and do it, but I really, really need to get some sleep. I know that even the best webcartoonists miss an update here and there, particularly the ones with lives and dayjobs away from their strips. But it still feels like I'm letting you guys down. I'm really sorry about the delay, and I hope I'll be able to make it up to you with some quality strips in the coming weeks. Thanks for your continued support of the strip! I will see you next week! Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 6 Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 7:37 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Can't talk--All-Star Game. I'll be back later this week with a REAL blog entry. Behind the Scenes 3 Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 7:27 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I thought maybe I would give you guys a break from all of these drama-heavy strips with a little behind-the-scenes hijinks. A little backstory on this one: on a Monday last fall, my friends Katie and Cole and I were going to meet at my place and go see our friend Josh coach a JV football game in Scott City. My doorbell rang, and I answered it thinking it was them. It turns out it was this meat salesman. Allegedly, a regular customer of his down the street, the Vernucci family (or something like that), had a completely full freezer and couldn't accept their entire order. Thus, the salesman was going door to door trying to sell off the part of their order they couldn't accept. Well, I love meat, but my suspicions were aroused by a number of factors: 1) I could not verify the existence or non-existence of the Vernucci family. 2) The salesman could produce no documentation proving the legitimacy of the business. 3) The truck was unmarked. 4) It was raining--if it was a scam, nobody in any of the other houses would come out in the wet to help me if I needed it. I refused everything and just sent the guy on his way. As we headed to Scott City, I told Katie and Cole about what happened and considered the possibility that the dude wasn't a meat salesman at all, or perhaps a seller of human meat products, and that he was probably trying to kill or kidnap me. In hindsight I thought the whole incident was pretty funny and thought it might make a good comic strip in the future. And here we are. And nobody take this thing the wrong way just because it appears as though I am to become mincemeat in the last panel. I assure you I'm really not that morbid, nor do I have any desire to die or anything like that. It's all in good fun. :) Back to action next week. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you then! Rise to Power, Part 6 Tuesday, July 1, 2008 - 7:36 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Finally, the epic conclusion to our flashback. Okay, if I wasn't already out of it last week, I definitely am this week as I recover from an absurdly awesome camping trip over the weekend. I was already suffering from an incredible lack of sleep, and the camping trip compounded that even further. And with the 4th of July occupying the coming weekend, things may get even worse before they get better. Ah well--it's all worth it. The only problem is I'm still having problems finding time to do site promotion and all of that good stuff that goes along with making a webcomic besides...y'know, making the webcomic. But pretty soon, maybe I can really get going again. I got nothin' else! Thanks for reading, and maybe we'll be getting back to some serious action pretty soon now. Rise to Power, Part 5 Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 7:29 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ .... As if making this comic strip wasn't sad and poignant enough, Don Henley's "New York Minute" came on my .mp3 player as I was working on it. I don't know what it is about music always seeming to sync up appropriately with things that I do or things that happen around me, but it can't just be coincidence. This comic strip comes at an interesting time for me--I feel like if something like this happens in the story, it should come at a time when I'm feeling all depressed and in the dumps in reality. But it turns out I actually feel better than I have in a very long time. My good friends Katie and Andy got married over the weekend--it was bound to happen for these two sooner or later (well, we had known it was coming for awhile now), and to see them finally seal the deal and to see them that happy...well, maybe the feeling is a little contagious. For me, anyway. On top of that, I had more fun at the reception than I've had in a long time, so that didn't hurt, either. They're wonderful people and they deserve absolutely nothing but the best. Congratulations, guys! I don't have much else to report as far as the strip goes. I really need to get back on the promotion trail and get the strip out there for people to read. I've been slacking off a little bit lately--there's been a lot going on. So I'm gonna try to work on that, and on that note, if you ever feel the need to tell your friends to check out the strip, please don't hesitate. That's all for now! Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon. Rise to Power, Part 4 Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - 7:45 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ New comic is up, and before the 8:00 hour, even! I think that's only been done once or twice since switching to the Tuesday schedule. This one ain't too funny, and the next one won't be, either. But I hope they are compelling, at the very least. Astute readers may recall in Strip #5 that Stu mentioned an incident involving trolleys. Perhaps some light will be shed on this mysterious event? Next week, mayhaps? I dunno...we'll see! Also, if you're dedicated enough to have read some of those past issues, you'll notice the actual words are only barely legible (if that). I'm thinking about maybe going back and replacing all of the lousy, hand-drawn word balloons with digital ones so that new readers interested in familiarizing themselves with the archive can do so with ease. In those days, I just didn't consider the appearance of the word balloons to be so important to the strip. However, I foresee this endeavor being potentially difficult because some story details may have changed since some of the early dialogue (namely some pieces of Stu's origin), and I'm conflicted on whether or not to change things in the older strips to reflect what eventually happens in the more recent strips. I probably won't, because in a comic strip like this in which ideas have been perpetually bouncing around in my head like a years long game of Pong, I think some ideas and story elements are just naturally going to change and evolve over time. It still stinks, though, because to me, it doesn't feel like everything is coming together perfectly. I feel like I've retconned, which isn't a horrible sin or anything in my mind, but it's still not perfect. In all honesty, I should probably just not be so hard on myself. Also, the fact that I was an English major will tempt me to change bad grammar and such. But if I do end up going back and essentially "cleaning up" the text, I think I'll be able to resist all of these urges and leave things the way they are. Just more readable. Aesthetic changes are okay, but other than that, things need to stay the same. That's all I know. I'll be back next week with a new strip, and maybe sometime in between with a blog or some minor updates. Thanks for reading! Decided not to add Twitter...for now. Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 11:42 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ So I was about to put one of the little Twitter feeds over on the side bar. If you don't know what Twitter is, it's a social networking service in which you basically sum up what you're doing at any given moment in 140 characters or less. It's like the little status update things you can do on Facebook or Myspace, only you can show off your status updates wherever you want by adding a little widget to your website that updates itself whenever you update your status. It seems like sort of a fun thing to do. I went ahead and signed up, and it's cool that I can see what people I'm interested in are up to. But as far as putting on the site, well, maybe now is not the time for the following reasons: 1) I don't know anybody personally on Twitter. 2) I don't know if anybody who looks at this site uses Twitter. I want to use Twitter at least in part for promotion of the comic strip, and I don't see that going too well at the moment. 3) I'm already inundated with social networking services and obsess over them on a daily basis--adding another feels like I might be overdoing it a bit. I believe it may be more useful in the future, but for now, I think I'll limit my use of Twitter to personal amusement only. Also, I looked at the site with the Twitter widget applied, and it sort of made things look messy. I had it over on the side bar, and if I'm going to add anything else over there, I may need to make some graphic or layout adjustments, because it was starting to look like a Tetris board when the blocks get near the top and you start to panic and throw stuff everywhere. I may need to add some sort of box or containment unit over there to keep things looking a little neater and more professional. I will revisit the idea in the near future when time allows it. Welp, I gotta get to bed. I should do these blog entry things more often. Rise to Power, Part 3 Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 8:05 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Again, I apologize for all of the narration. However, I assure you that it's all worth it, so make sure to read every last word of it, you lazy bums! This strip is the 20th of the year. I'm well on my way to doubling the production of my most productive year. Sad, isn't it? Yeah, I know. My actual goal for the year is to double the number of strips in the archive. There were 45 at the start of the year, so I need to get to 90 by the end of the year. If I keep up my current pace, that shouldn't be a problem. Hooray! I wasn't too thrilled with the artwork in this one, but to be honest, there just wasn't a whole lot of artwork to begin with, so I guess it doesn't bother me too much. I am, however, extremely proud of the logo for the Hired Goon Association. If the strip ever becomes popular enough for its own line of merchandise, you can bet there will be some HGA items for sale. My comments last week about possibly switching to a twice-a-week format generated some discussion on the forum, which I then followed up with a question about the current pacing of the strip. I was wondering if the pacing has improved at all--I know it used to be a problem and I've been putting legitimate effort into improving. So check it out and let me know what you think! I plan on adding a Twitter feed to the site within the next week sometime. I don't know if anybody who comes here uses Twitter or not, but you should follow me when I get it set up. I'll let you know. That's it for this time around. Thanks for reading! I know there was a lot of it this week. Rise to Power, Part 2 Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - 8:10 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well, as long as he admitted it was stupid, I guess I can let it slide.... I've fleshed out the story of the strip for what will probably end up being the next couple of months, and it looks like we're going to learn even more about Stu's mysterious past than I originally thought! What can we expect to find out, you ask? That's a good question that may or may not be answered next week. Sorry about all of the narration--it's just gotta be done sometimes. I'm really starting to put serious thought into switching to a twice-a-week format. Before I do this, I'm going to need to build up a bit of a buffer so if I get really busy in the future, I'll have some strips to fall back on if I don't have time to draw two comics every week. Right now I do all of my work on Monday night and Tuesday evening. But if I can put a couple of hours a night a few additional nights a week into the strip, I think I'll be able to manage two a week once I have a buffer. This is a sign that I'm getting better with managing my time, and I'm proud of that. Only drawing one strip a week was an incredible and frustrating grind at first, but it has definitely gotten much better since then. Now that I have the strip planned out a little better, I'm really excited about where it's going, which is probably contributing to me wanting to do two strips a week so we can get rolling. However, it's going to take some time to prepare for the change, and then even more time to settle in to the change once it happens, so bear with me. I really hope I'm able to do it! Thanks a lot for stopping by! I'll be speaking with you again soon! Rise to Power, Part 1 Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 7:48 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We interrupt our current story arc, Stu Versus San Francisco, to bring you the exciting flashback, Rise to Power. Looks like we're going to find out how Mayor Pratt gets away with what he does, how Stu got on his bad side, and perhaps a little more of Stu's mysterious past, as well. Stay tuned! Or whatever the internet equivalent of "stay tuned" is. That last panel looked a lot cooler in my head--it still turned out all right, I guess, but not quite how I originally envisioned it. Astute readers may recognize the design of the building--it's based on something in one of my favorite video games. Also, if you missed the update on Saturday, you might find a couple of new and updated character bios on the cast page. As always, thanks very much for reading, and the next installment is coming soon! Cast page updated at last! Saturday, May 24, 2008 - 2:49 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The cast page has been totally revamped with some all-new character entries, some updated character entries, and new pictures! It looks a lot better now--all the pictures are the same size, which gives it a much more polished and professional look (sorta). Also, at the request of some readers, I removed the "WHO?" from below my name on the title graphic. They told me I should be proud of my work (and I am) and to let others know that I'm proud of my work, and that self-deprecation shouldn't be included in one of the very first things you see when you look at the site. And they're right, of course. That's all for now! More comics are on the way! Editorial Changes! Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 11:30 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ You know how I was disappointed because the most recent strip was sloppy? Well, I went back in and added three things that I forgot to do, and I feel a lot better now. I don't really like doing that, but it was really driving me crazy that I had forgot this stuff! See if you can find the changes! (Hint: They're all in the last panel.) With Memorial Day coming up, as well as some more free time here and there, I'm going to try to make some long-anticipated (by me, anyway) updates to the site in the next few days. Will it really happen?! Stay tuned to find out! Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 5 Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 8:50 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ugh...sorry this one is so late. Let's hear it for last-minute script re-writes. This one is a little sloppy--I was running out of time, plus I'm not very good at drawing people sitting down. Also, I forgot to ink a bunch of lines in the background and ended up doing it in Photoshop. Hopefully this will be something of a lesson for me in spreading my work out more and not trying to do everything in two nights. You would think I'd have this figured out by now, but things just never seem to work out the way they're supposed to, and everything gets left until the last minute. Anyway, self deprecation aside, thank you for your continued support of the strip. I will be back soon enough with another update! Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 4 Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 7:58 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm steadily getting a little bit faster at this whole thing. This strip would have been up even earlier if Adobe Illustrator hadn't started getting all finicky on me right at the very end. I hate to say it, but I think for the first time since I've had it, my PC doesn't have the power necessary to do the things I do. It might be time to start saving...ugh. I'm proud of today's strip because it's probably one of the hardest ones I've done. I've only done a few fight scenes in the entire series so far, and I don't think any of them were as involved as this one. It was fun to put together, but also a little daunting. There were a few times I had to go stand in the middle of my living room and act out Stu's motions to make sure I was drawing things correctly and that he was lashing out with the right limbs. Also, I apologize if the art is a little sloppy in this one--again, drawing my characters actually doing things and not just standing there can be challenging, but it's something I want to learn to do well. Maybe it'll pay off someday. Also, there is a new topic in the forum that I would like your input on, if you don't mind. That's it for me. Hope you like the strip, and I'll be back soon! Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 3 Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - 8:18 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Oh, that pesky mayor.... That last panel was a lot of fun, but pretty difficult, as well. I'm trying to get the pacing of the strip down a little bit better. I always have all kinds of ideas for strips involving anything and everything that could possibly be going on at any given moment, but I'm learning to better pick and choose what you get to see. It's important for me to keep things moving, even though there are a lot of little things that I think would be neat to include in the strip. If I want you guys to keep coming back, I have to keep the pace at least slightly faster than that of a fast slug. I think I'm improving slightly! Anyway, enjoy the strip! Thanks for reading! Public Service Announcement Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 8:10 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This one was a lot of fun. This is an idea that's been kicking around in my head for about a year and a half now, so I figured I would throw it in just as the tension was beginning to really rise. These intermission strips get pretty positive feedback, so I'm intending to keep doing them every now and then as a brief, but silly break from the story. Originally it was supposed to be Mike and Stu lecturing about the name of the strip on a stage, but at the last minute I decided to take a different approach and have the bad guy do it. I'm really excited about how it turned out. I still haven't made those cast updates I wanted to make! Maybe I'll finally get around to it this week. Hope you enjoy the strip! I'll be speaking with you again soon. Stu Versus San Francisco, Part 2 Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 8:25 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm rather proud of the artwork this time around. Not only did it not take me a million years to draw today's strip, but I actually did it fairly well compared to some of my more recent outings. I actually liked the last one quite a bit, as well. I think not having to draw any vehicles just makes the strip so much better overall. I guess maybe I'll put some practice into that in the event that vehicles appear again later in the story. Also, this strip marks another minor milestone for me. With the completion of today's comic, 2008 has officially become my most productive year for making comics. And it's only April. I don't know if I should be proud or disgusted with myself. I'll go with the pride for now, but things can always change. I'm going to try to make some updates to the cast page later this week. If I don't see you then, I'll be back next Tuesday with a new comic. Thanks for reading! Stu Versus San Francisco Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 10:15 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Once again, my completion and posting of the strip was delayed by quite a bit. Feel free to blame TurboTax and my dad's taxes for that. Also the fact that there is a mysterious 8-hour gap in my day that I cannot account for. It might be my job, but I'm not entirely sure. You have my apologies. I'm a lot happier with this strip than the last one. I think maybe more than anything else I need to learn patience in my drawing, and patience in my improvements to my drawing, as well. I'm starting to spread word of the comic strip a little bit. I told some co-workers about it and I'm going to get involved in some more online communities and shill it there. The going is slow right now, but that's expected. Here again, patience is going to be key. I just have to stick with it and they will come. Maybe. Nothing more to say this week. Enjoy the new strip and I'll be speaking with you again soon! Thanks for reading! Have Fun Storming City Hall! Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - 8:50 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Holy crap, I am so pumped to finally get to this point in the plot. You have no idea. I was pretty discouraged when I determined I wasn't going to get the strip up until tonight sometime, but I'm reading How to Make Webcomics right now, and it drives me like that car from Rad Racer. Best resource for making webcomics available today. Each time I pick it up, I get a fresh boost of determination that puts me back into the comic-making mindset--it makes me feel like I can really do this. I don't know whether or not it'll actually happen, but I should be enjoying myself while I try. I still didn't leave enough room for my word bubbles--I'm working on it. I also need some more improvement in my backgrounds. And I need to work on my characters, too. Basically all of the artwork needs improvement. I'm hoping that with my new Tuesday schedule, I'll have a little more time late in the week to practice drawing. The good thing about my strip is that it's not just a bunch of talking heads--the characters are always interacting with something or in some kind of action pose. It's challenging to make it look good, but I'm hoping that in tackling the challenge over and over again, I'll eventually get kind of good at it. But we'll see. Hope you like how things are going! I'll be back soon with another blog entry and/or strip. Chewy Ninja Monkey Bars is Moving to Tuesdays! Thursday, April 3, 2008 - 11:40 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ You know when critically acclaimed, but ratings-starved TV shows try to hook you with that line, but then you and the rest of America forget to watch it when it actually moves and the show ends up getting canceled? That's exactly what I hope doesn't happen here. Until further notice, the strip will be updated on Tuesdays. And by Tuesdays, I actually mean Monday at around 11:45 PM central time. So for you night owls and obsessive fans*, it'll technically be updated on Monday. But for all of you non-crazies, barring any unforseen complications, the strip will be up ALL DAY on Tuesday for you to check out at your convenience. Reasons for doing this are simple--I'm less busy at the beginning of the week than at the end of the week. Thus, working on the strip at the beginning of the week should give me more time to devote to the strip, and as an added bonus, I'll still be motivated because my day job usually doesn't suck the life out of me until around mid-week. Right now I'm working a lot on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and I'm just not able to fit the strip in on these days anymore. I'm also cranky and irritable when I get home from work, which is not conducive to efficient strip-making. Since the strip currently only has three fans, I hope this won't be an issue. It was something I wanted to straighten out now, in the event that the fanbase eventually grows to four people. Thanks for reading, and sorry about any inconvenience this may cause. The next strip will be up on Tuesday! *Current obsessive fan count: 0 At Last! Monday, March 31, 2008 - 11:00 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If this keeps up I may have to switch to a Monday schedule. Maybe this week I'll officially get back on track. If nothing else, at least I've abandoned my old response to getting off schedule--stopping production altogether. Even though the strip has been late the past two weeks, I'm still doing it. That's not ideal, but still a step in the right direction compared to how I used to approach this thing. It's amazing (and irritating) that only three days have passed since Mike and Stu set out for San Francisco over five years ago. Ouch. It's pretty easy to tell from today's strip that I'm still struggling with consistency. I cheated with a little copy and paste in one panel, then didn't cheat and tried to draw the last two frames approximately the same and failed miserably. I need more practice--that's all I can say. I'm also developing an annoying habit of not leaving enough room for my word bubbles, forcing me to partially obscure characters and details I would have preferred to have left visible. I'll get a better grip on this eventually, as well. However, I've really struggled with it over the last couple of strips, and has me thinking about trying out hand-lettering sometime. I'm curious to see how it would turn out, but it already takes me so long to make a strip as it is. Nevertheless, it's definitely something to consider if I can't manage my artwork well enough to leave room for the digital word bubbles I'm using now. I'm done talking for the evening. Be happy--Mike and Stu finally made it. Now we're getting somewhere. Also, I'd like to say happy birthday to my friend Ashley, who will never see this, but is still cool enough that I didn't want to not say something. And celebrating a birthday tomorrow is my friend Rick, who coded the strip archive and was essential to the re-launch of the site. Happy birthday, Rick! See you next time! A Meager Victory Monday, March 24, 2008 - 11:38 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ah, now that things have settled down just a bit, I had a chance to finish last week's strip. I apologize once again for the delay, and will do my best to make sure this week's strip is up on time. Unfortunately, at this point I can't make any promises since I still seem to be getting slammed at work on a daily basis. But with any luck, I won't need to work any overtime this week, and the rest of my responsibilities (such as this comic strip, of course) can be tended to promptly and smoothly. At least, for the time being, it looks like I shouldn't have to deal with any freak flooding in the immediate future. I guess that's the one disadvantage of having a creek behind your house. As for the strip, you may remember Ted from his unfortunate encounter with Stu some strips back. He's still a jerk. And there was something of a brawl, as well, as you may or may not recall. It was fun to draw a variety of different faces other than those of the regular characters. They're obviously not as polished as the regulars, but I'm sure it was good for me all the same. I need to get some sleep--I've been making myself sick staying up too late recently. Enjoy the strip, thanks for hanging in there, and I'll be back with a new one soon! This week's strip will be late. Thursday, March 20, 2008 - 11:20 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ A crazy week of flooding, a day job in which I seem to be picking up more and more responsibilities all the time, and a sudden irritating need for at least seven hours of sleep a night has thrown my comic-making schedule completely out of whack. I'm very dependent on routine sometimes, especially when it comes to making comics. I can't seem to adjust very well when my routine is thrown off. As a result, this week's strip may not be posted until tomorrow at the very best, or Sunday or Monday at the very worst. I'm really sorry about the delay. I try very hard to get the strip up on time, but occasionally real life really does get in the way. I'm getting better at treating the strip as if it is a second job, but I'm still not very good at it, nor am I very quick about the comic-making process. However, I would be very grateful if you'll grant me this one screw-up. Thanks, sorry once again, and I hope to be back here with a genuine comic strip soon. Score One for the Good Guys Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 11:10 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hey, this strip didn't take so long to make. I'm noticing a direct correlation between the time it takes to draw the strip and how many times I have to draw my characters in the strip. I guess that's normal, but it may give you an idea of how long it sometimes takes me to get my characters to look (sort of) correct. Anybody remember the escapades of Mike and Stu and the hired goon dispenser? Perhaps this will refresh your memory--I know it's been awhile. Again. That only happened 20 strips ago, but it was years ago that it was seen for the first time. But hey, at least I'm getting better with consistency...for now. It's funny how cartooning works sometimes. I literally haven't drawn Evil Bad Guy Ninja in years, and out of nowhere here he is, returned to my drawing board like an old friend (or enemy). Sure, he looks basically the same as Stu, but it's still just not the same as drawing Stu. He's a different guy. And much more villainous. In other news, I made a makeshift news/blog archive and moved the older entries there. You can check it out if you ever need to kill some time before a date or colonoscopy. Next I am hoping to make some improvements to the cast page. Also, I was thinking maybe I would start doing some more blog entries here. You know, something to tide you over between strips. Does that sound at all like a worthwhile endeavor? Any interest? I'm done here for now. Enjoy the strip and I'll be back soon! More Desert Hijinks Friday, March 7, 2008 - 12:10 AM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Crap. I didn't get the strip done by Thursday. Here lately it seems to be taking more time to get the strips out. Isn't it supposed to be taking less time? Ah well. I'll get there someday. In my defense, I did have to spend some extra and unplanned hours at my real job this week. Since this is strip #52, that means that at our current rate of update, there is exactly one year's worth of strips in the archive. Remember kids, it only took eight years to get to this point! Bleh. If you need a recap on the robot bounty hunter mentioned in today's strip, you might want to climb aboard here or perhaps here. Even if you're not a new reader, it's been awhile. And if you've already forgotten its alleged replacement (shame on you), you can catch a glimpse of it right here. I gotta go to bed so I can work tomorrow, even though I'd rather just sleep through the inevitable snow storm of doom projected to hit sometime within the next 24 hours. It's going to crush us like a crunchy insect. Thanks for reading! See you next week. Ninja on the Clock Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 11:12 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ In which we learn how long it takes ninjas to do certain things. I know there's a lot of the talkie-talk going on here in the past few strips, but it's been necessary for character development, avoiding plotholes, and giving me an excuse to draw my characters over and over again so that I actually get good at it. If it's starting to wear on you, bear with me--we'll get back to action before you know it. It's at times like this that I wish I was at a point where I could dish out two or three strips a week so that things moved a little more quickly. But maybe we'll get there sometime soon. Not much else to report at the moment. Thanks for reading, and I'll be speaking to you again in approximately this same spot next week! What's in Here? Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 11:25 PM [Update by Brian] ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well, it only took almost eight years, but we've finally reached the 50th comic strip in the series. You may choose to applaud if you so desire, but I would highly recommend that instead you deliver a much deserved kick to my ass for being such a bum all these years. Ugh. In all seriousness, though, it does make me feel pretty good. Once you make 50 of something, you feel like you can make 100 of something. Although, I really hope it doesn't take another eight years to get there. 50 strips is nothing compared to...well, every other webcomic around, but it's what I feel is my first real milestone. That coupled with my actually being productive and pumping out a comic (almost) every week has me feeling pretty good about this whole thing. I still need to work on finding new readers, but we'll get there someday. And the strip isn't perfect or anything, either, but again, I'm hoping that working on it with even the slightest bit of consistency will help to improve it. I also feel pretty good because I was way behind this week, but still managed to successfully finish a strip by my Thursday deadline...even though we're in the 24th hour here. Just ignore that part. I know I said a few weeks ago that Wednesday was going to be the official update day, but I usually wasn't