In which, on the second anniversary of the strip, pHil seeks to address some issues, and so does Penelope.
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29. The Unfinished Classic
16 comics.
In which pHil makes a promise he hopes to keep, and Penny makes a monitor beep.
In which Penny does not appear, but her first strip is shown to be somewhat prophetic by recent events.
To clear up the discussions resulting from last week’s “interim strip”, I wanted to give a brief overview of what I have coming up.
Rather than return immediately to the gag-a-day format the strip has followed so far, I’m going to indulge myself a bit. The first story arc, “The Ring of Five Books” as seen above, is a hero’s journey-type tale in which Penny gets to know herself a bit better. It will basically cover what she goes through internally while in the hospital during the long period of neglect. It’s a longer storyline, inspired by research I did some time ago while assisting my daughter with a college paper on the monomyth.
This is one of two bigger stories that I have in mind for Penny that depart from the “standard” format I’ve followed thus far. The other one (which I alluded to back in June 2013) is the big one that explains everything Penny is about. I consider that one my magnum opus, and I’ve had it in the cooker since I created Penny back in 1991. I’ve decided the world’s not ready for that story yet.
So – “The Ring of Five Books” is the order of the day. I am aiming for a June reboot of the strip, with strips on Tuesday and Friday until the series concludes. It will be a 2-strip schedule instead of 3 per week, because the pages will be formatted differently. The dimensions will be a more print-standard 6×9 ratio instead of the iPad-centric dimensions I’ve worked with so far. The page layouts will also be more complex that the usual 4-square design, and will follow the needs of the story, like a regular comic book. The story will follow a very different style of pacing than previous arcs, but will have the same feel. And the same corny humor, naturally.
I’m wrapping up the writing now, and I’ve finished the character design for most of the guest stars, so things are rolling along! There will likely be the occasional “filler” strip between now and then, and I’ll probably post status reports from time to time.
And, since it’ll be a Tuesday, I think I’ll arbitrarily pick June 23 as my launch date. 😉
And we’re off!! Today’s strip may arguably be a bit of a slow start, but it is after all a preface. The journey over the next few months will take Penny down a road of self-discovery to a few (I hope) interesting places, encountering some interesting characters along the way – first among these appearing Friday! And where she goes, I will either go or have been of late, so I’m looking forward to the ride, at least.
Provided I can get that darn strip buffer built up! I fully expect to keep the “every Tuesday and Friday” schedule for the duration, but a few distractions have kept me from being several weeks ahead into production by launch, as I’d hoped to be.
What distractions? Well, some good, some bad as one would expect. Among them:
- New work customer – very busy few months on some good, meaningful work (good – a refreshing thing after my last gig).
- Adventures in autoimmune disorders, both common and ultra-rare (ungood).
- Tussles with insurance as a result (double plus ungood).
- Family vacation in Florida (double plus good!).
- And… A brand new computer and updated software to do the strip on – Quadruple Plus Good! (If there’s no such thing, I hereby trademark the term, and its corollary abbreviation, “QPG”.)
Computer in question is one I’ve wanted forever (before they even made it), and was my Father’s Day gift this past weekend – how great is that? The Wacom Cintiq Companion – the ultimate portable artist studio. I’ve used a wide range of Wacom drawing tablets in the 15 years since my first Intuos, but always dreamed of a Cintiq – or what it could do. Other tablet PCs never seemed to do the trick to fill that void, and my wife finally got sick of hearing me say so, I guess. 🙂 It’s gonna change everything! Maybe I can even find some aspects of the experience that might lead to a meaningful, fresh review – look for a lengthy post some time soon.
Enough rambling – I gotta make some new strips! Talk to y’all soon – I’m back!!! 😀
Oh – and happy birthday, B3!
Funny how simple things are when I first think of them. 🙂 Something as simple as the new page layout – taller, to better match the dimensions of printed comics – gets really complicated when I decide to get inspired by Winsor McKay and do away with panels, borders, and other comic page conventions. Something as straightforward as perspective gets real wonky, REAL fast. Good thing I’m changing things like that throughout the course of the five books.
Each book will be a little different – it’s really five separate stories, but each sharing a common theme of sorts. I think one thing this experiment (DtC) has taught me is that I enjoy writing more than other aspects of comic-making. But then, with the new Cintiq, I’ll actually be drawing again – for some fairly large pieces of the story. So, I’m sure I’ll rediscover the joy of that part, soon.
So… yeah! Scott McCloud is our guest star for Book One. Scott’s been very tolerant and indulgent of me over the years, for which I again publically thank him! He’s a great guy in every way I could hope to describe. I’ll try not to abuse his personna too badly as he serves as Penny’s guide for this segment of her journey.
I’d planned to use the old 3D model I first made of Scott ages ago, but after several trips through stacks & stacks of backup DVD-R’s, all I could find is the images I rendered back then – no original model. So, I was forced to start from scratch, and as one would predict, the model this time is far superior. Serendipity at it’s best! Now, I only need to get used to the new version of 3DS Max, and the new render engine I’m changing to… The first 5 strips (this week and next week) were rendered using the old methods – but the stuff I’m cranking on tonight uses a new renderer, and hopefully the change won’t be too jarring. I’ll make the transition as smooth as I can for y’all! 😉
Knee-deep in code today, so not a long description… But who among us hasn’t wanted to use the phrase “the Buddha nature of utter transcendance”? Just hard to find the right opportunity. 🙂
Tough to get back on schedule, especially in the middle of a busy week! Sorry to be a few hours late on the post, folks… I’ll endeavor not to let it happen again! 🙂
Waxing a wee bit philosophical today.
Today’s the first strip using the new render engine – definitely some trial and error here. Working on getting the kinks worked out over the next couple weeks. 🙂