Sorry for the delay in posting Strip 7. I tried a bit of an experiment for this strip. Instead of doing all 4 panels as one image, treating the strip as one continuous entity, I did each panel as a completely separate image then assembled them to a strip. It’s an experiment I will not be repeating. It was disastrously inefficient. It took so much longer to do the strip as a whole because it caused a terrible disconnect between the panels that caused a great deal of reworking… and still I’m not very happy with the result.
Still much learning to do with this craft.
Time Gone Vaughn 
*laughs* Time travel is awesome. I shall bookmark this.
Some day I will build a time machine and escape to the 19th century…
Comment by ninjakitties — October 15, 2009 @ 4:10 AM |
Hey man,
I was in the critique yesterday, and I gotta say that you have an excellent start on a cool comic. Your only 7 strips in and your learning a lot right? Don’t give up now!
A critique is meant to be an experience where a professional who is removed from any personal obligation to the artist can look at their work objectively and judge it with a critical eye. The artist should then take that information and consider how it may help them in their journey to become a better artist.
If you want my unsolicited opinion, I think you have a good thing going here. A good idea. and to give up on it would be a real shame. Get some hosting and install Comic Press and get to making more strips!
Comment by Matt — October 21, 2009 @ 11:47 AM |
Hi, Matt. Thanks for your comment here. I saw your site critiqued as well, and I agree with all the really positive things Scott said about Robot Beach.
And the thing is, I agreed with his assessment of mine as well. In fact, his was the first real critique I’ve gotten on TGV. Since early September I’ve been sending out my strips to message boards and art sites and to pros. Most of the time, I’d get nothing but silence in return. The few times I’d get any response it usually consisted of an offhanded “It’s nice” and nothing else.
So I’ve been rounding to the conclusion that my strip could best be described as bland, forgettable, and mediocre. And that made it difficult to work on, because I spent so much time and effort making it. To put so much of myself into this and only produce mediocrity was disheartening to say the least. So for the last two weeks or so I’ve been really considering stopping the strip, rethinking it, and maybe relaunching at some point if I could really make it something special.
Scott’s critique was the thing I’ve been wanting and needing all this time: an honest, frank evaluation of the strip, and I thank him for that. Please don’t think this is some hystrionic fit of “Scott Kurtz shit on my dream!”. It’s anything but. He didn’t rubbish my work, or tell me to quit, or insult me in any way. His review was professional, thoughtful, and honest. And it confirmed what I’d been thinking: that TGV is one of those things that aint horrible and aint great and in it’s current form will never stand out in the oversaturated “I lost my job and I’m starting a webcomic” market.
So, I needed that push. I’ll keep working, trying to improve, but I don’t know that I’ll be doing so publicly.
I emailed Scott about it yesterday, apologizing for the misunderstanding, and more fully explaining my situation. That I didn’t take his review in a sour, petulant manner, and am still very much a fan. He said it was fair, and he wished me luck. So, I hope he understands I wasn’t laying it on him or going for drama.
So, we’ll see if TGV continues, retools, or quietly stalks off the scene. I have not yet crossed that Rubicon. It depends on how I feel after the final 3 are done and dusted.
Comment by Michael Jones — October 21, 2009 @ 10:07 PM |
Well keep me informed on what happens. Friend me on Twitter. It’s a good thing that you emailed Scott. I know that he has spoken often in the past about how he hates giving critiques because of bad reactions. I don’t think you had a bad reaction, but it’s good to have that clarification for Scott.
Good luck man! I will be keeping an eye out for you!
Comment by Matt — October 21, 2009 @ 10:23 PM
Well, I’m still going to keep this on my bookmarks list. If you do give up on this (and it appears you have?) please post or something and let people know what’s up, and if any other projects are starting. Don’t give up on webcomics just yet 😀
Anyhow, good luck with whatever comic-y fancies come your way in future, and I hope to see some of your stuff in the future!
Comment by ninjakitties — January 25, 2010 @ 5:00 AM |
Got to strip 7 and then… sigh… I was just starting to get into the story and it stops. I like stories. I don’t think I’ve told you that. What happens next? I mean in the story. You can’t let the story just die there. At least give a little peak as to what the dude does to get time travel or what he did to become a tv presenter? pleeeeeease? I don’t like monkeys, but spoon monkey makes this all the more amusing.
Comment by Jovanna — November 29, 2010 @ 5:13 AM |
Well, he’s not so much a TV presenter as he is recording a video that tells his tale to anyone that may find it. But, I digress.
The problems with TGV are many: I didn’t have a very coherent idea of where I was going with it. I have some ideas, like I could write the next 4 or 5 strips easily, but then I don’t what to do with the tale, and maybe I could have lived with that, just winging it as I went, but for the other problems.
The other problem was that it took a whole day to do each strip and was not getting any faster, in fact each one seemed to take more time than the last. So, I knew if I remained unemployed I could do maybe 3 a week and still had time to deal with the demands of my life, but if I got another job (still haven’t), then I would have to limit TGV to maybe 1 a week. And maybe a comic strip with the artistic chops of an Abominable Charles Christopher can get away with 1 a week, but TGV isn’t now nor would it ever be on the level of a Charles Christopher.
And lastly, I had another project I wanted to work on, a long form called Enigmanaut that I have been brewing in my head for a long time. I have enough of that to last me years. It’s harder to draw, and most of the work I have been doing on it so far is development work, but it’s something that’s more important to me. I started TGV instead of Enigmanaut because I felt I wasn’t ready for Enigmanaut, and that TGV would be faster to do… I was right about the first part, but wrong about the second part. I wasn’t ready for TGV either, really. Brad Guigar, writer/artist of Evil Inc, always would tell prospective webcartoonists that it’s a difficult endeavor, but at the time I made the first 7 TGV’s I just wasn’t listening, and rushed ahead without charting a course.
I may revisit TGV at some point. I still occasionally draw Paul and Spoonmonkey, but I just don’t have it in me to really make a go of it right now. Maybe I should take this site down, eh?
Just a quick note, I did actually write the script for the next strip:
Panel 1.
Spoonmonkey: What’s going on here, Vaughn? What are those things?
Panel 2.
Paul: These “Things” are my Chronospatial Liminalocitors! They will allow me to travel anywhere on Earth at any point in history!
Panel 3 (segments into three close ups of the devices).
Paul: The left wrist controls latitude and longitude!
The right wrist controls elevation and temporal position!
And the belt activates the system and sends me on my way!
Panel 4.
Spoonmonkey: OK, just so you know… “Time Machine” is only three syllables.
Paul: I call them “Chronolocitors” for short.
Spoonmonkey: Time Ma-Chine.
See, that’s really not that funny, is it?
Comment by Michael Jones — November 29, 2010 @ 1:19 PM |
I dunno if you still check this site, but I just came here from Webcomics.com and I thought those seven strips you did were pretty cool. I hope you can get back on the horse and pick up where you left off. Cassie and Paul would have definitely gotten along, I think.
Comment by Thomas O. — September 17, 2011 @ 9:49 PM |
I don’t know if I’ll pick this up again. I think I could draw it better and faster now, but all the problems I had with it still seem relevant to me. If I do pick it up, I may just start it all over again. But I don’t know if I will.
Comment by Michael Jones — September 18, 2011 @ 3:55 PM |