Jerry Chandler, Sean Scullion, and Micha Roded have been kind enough to critique the script for The Victory Streak #1, and in so doing have helped me get past the creative logjam that was getting in the way of finishing the story. (more…)

I recently was inspired to make a big push to get my comic back on track. For the better part of two weeks I cast everything else aside, hunkered down and plowed ahead. Unfortunately, during that time I neglected everything else: my day job, the housecleaning, everything. I’ve been spending the last month trying to recover. Worse still, I’m not that much further ahead on my comic.

I clearly need a new plan, one that is sustainable and avoids repeating my past mistakes. I’ll be posting about that in a bit. But right now I’m extremely fatigued from three weeks of sacrificing sleep to the overtime monster. I’m going to bed.

I have whined, begged, pleaded, cajoled, and nearly bribed a number of people to read my script. In return, I have promised to read the work of a handful of other people and as of now, I have met not a single one of those commitments.

If you’re one of those people, do NOT even bother trying to tell me it’s not a big deal. It is a matter of honor. I am going to make the time you made for me. It’s that simple.

I need about a month.

Oh, and Sean Scullion, if you’re reading this, I lost the file for your script again, damn it! Would you mind re-sending? This time I will PRINT IT OUT. Paper doesn’t crash.

The script I posted for the first issue of The Victory Streak? Crap. Complete, utter, stinking crap. So I pulled it from the site.

Before anyone decides to try talking me off the proverbial ledge, you might want to make note of the fact that I’m not ON that proverbial ledge. I believe in myself, and I believe in this project.

But I shouldn’t have posted that script to begin with. That’s what I did in January 2006, when I initiated this project. It was a mistake to post the first version back then, and it was a mistake to post this latest version as well. Both times I was giving into a deep-seated fear that I would never finish the comic. I wanted to get everyone’s attention with what little I felt I could do.

Well, I am through repeating the mistakes of the past. The only way this will work — the only way it should work, and the only way it CAN work — is for me to do things in this order: pencil, ink, letter, post. Repeat 24 times and I have an online comic. Send those 24 files to the printer, and I have a printed book.

Really simple.

I know exactly what was wrong with the script I posted, and how I can fix it. And NO, I am not wasting time tinkering with adverbs as a way of avoiding finishing this comic. If that’s what you think, well, you’re entitled to think that but you’re just plain wrong. I know that the best script I’m capable of writing today is going to look like junk to me a year from now. But when I finish the script and five minutes later realize it’s not REMOTELY close to the best work of which I am capable, yeah, I’m revising it.

It doesn’t hurt that this is an amateur, self-published venture and I have some grace time.

Well, except for that $250 grant offered by Colleen Doran. I have to have something to show for by September 15. And I will.

I just posted the script for the first issue. If I don’t sound jubilant it’s because, well, I’m not. I’m just tired. Moreover, I’ve decided it’s time to stop trying to get people excited about “previews.” I’m either going to do this comic or I’m not. Going forward, I’ve decided the drill will be as follows: take blank page, pencil, ink, letter, and then post. Repeat 24 times = finished comic.

If anyone wants to read the script and comment about it here, I would certainly welcome the input. But the script is behind me now, and my sights are set squarely on the finished project.

In between finished pages, I’ll probably post the best drawings from my sketchbook. I think that’s legit. “Real” comic artists do that all the time.

Thanks to everyone who has supported this project so far. Please understand that without that support, I don’t believe any of this would be possible.

I am now going to bed.

I am about two-thirds finished with the re-write of issue #1, and perhaps about half-finished with the re-design of the Web site. Unfortunately, last night’s WordPress upgrade debacle didn’t help matters; not only did it cost me an entire evening of productivity last night, but the resulting sleep deprivation has made it harder than hell to write anything decent today as well.

Then there are the character designs, which I haven’t touched yet.

Factor in that I’m going out to dinner tomorrow and having company over on Saturday, and making my self-imposed deadline is going to be a strain. But I am NOT giving up now. The script is shaping up really well — better than I’d hoped, in fact – and I know I can polish off the character sketches in a few hours. Finally, a great deal of the site re-design from here on will consist of re-using elements I’ve already designed.

I am NOT punking out. Somehow, some way, I’m seeing this one through. Why? Because, if I do say so myself, I think The Victory Streak is a story that deserves to be told. And I owe it to myself to see my dream come to fruition.

Colleen Doran is a talented writer and artist who is perhaps best known as the creative force behind A Distant Soil, a comic-book series published by Image but owned by Colleen. Her artwork has also graced a variety of other titles, including Sandman and Book of Lost Souls. Her other credits are too numerous to mention in the space and time I have at the moment.

Colleen has decided to run a contest through her blog to encourage anyone engaged in any sort of artistic endeavor. (more…)

I decided to take my own medicine today and subscribe to my blog.

You see, it came to my attention earlier this week that every time I made a change, no matter how minor, to one of my existing blog entries, my blog subscribers would receive an e-mail notification. I discovered this after I had cleaned up the formatting on about 25 entries, resulting in my subscribers receiving an equivalent number of e-mails about material that was not by any objective measure “new” or “noteworthy.” (If anyone got excited because I made the fonts consistent and cleaned up extra paragraph breaks, please don’t tell me as it will cause me to look at you differently and not in a good way.)

I scoured my blog’s administrative control panel and couldn’t find any way to prevent this from happening. In fact, I couldn’t find any way to manage these subscriptions or even find out who my subscribers are. I happen to know one of them is my good friend, Bill Mulligan, and the other is my beautiful girlfriend, Jeannie. The third is a mystery to me.

I realized I had no idea how exactly my subscriptions worked, and this was unacceptable. I refuse to be a party to clogging up people’s in-boxes. So I signed up for my own blog. I was relieved to learn that every e-mail notification comes with an actual, working “unsubscribe” link.

I seriously considered switching to WordPress or something similar but those can be one hell of a lot of work to set up. So GoDaddy is off the hook… for now. If I were them, however, I’d get on the stick about offering a more feature-rich blog. Any more headaches and I’m tryin’ WordPress.

And to subscriber number 3: I would’ve personally apologized to you for all those unnecessary e-mails, but I don’t know who you are. And frankly, you have every right to remain anonymous if you wish. I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry, and that I’m holding myself accountable for making sure that subscribing to my blog doesn’t result in problems for my subscribers.

Bill Myers Creations is undergoing yet another transformation. What will make this one different from the others is I will not set myself up for failure by making unrealistic claims about what will happen, and when.

Basically, I’ve decided to put my Web/graphic design ambitions on hold for the time being. There’s a very good and very logical reason for that, but I can’t discuss it at the moment. Let’s just say it’s not a bad thing. In fact, it could turn out to be a very, very good thing. I’ll let y’all know as soon as I am able.

Anyway, the timing is serendipitous. After my last re-design of www.billmyerscreations.com, I realized something was missing. Oh, there are some purty graphics and such, but I still don’t have a grasp of the fundamentals. There is too much I do not know. So I have embarked upon a period of self-study. I want to understand the principles of Web design, to learn about what are considered best practices and why they are considered to be so, in order to build a solid foundation upon which to structure my creativity. I want to stop stumbling around.   

This has given me the excuse I needed to finally de-couple The Victory Streak from my would-be Web/graphic design venture. The two don’t exactly produce any natural synergies. People looking for a professional Web designer might get annoyed at the prospect of having to wade through stuff about The Victory Streak, and vice versa.

Given that I am putting thoughts of a Web/graphic design business on hold for the moment, it makes sense to re-position Bill Myers Creations so that it focuses solely on the creation, marketing, and distribution of The Victory Streak. I’ll be revamping the company logo and Web site to reflect that. If and when I decide to resume my attempt to dive into the Web design industry, I’ll set up a separate business name for that purpose.

As far as my self-publishing schedule goes… well, I’m not making any more announcements or anything until the first issue is penciled, inked, lettered and ready for the printer. I hope that will be soon. In the meantime, I’ll probably post some preview art and pages from my sketchbook here in the blog for those few die-hards who have been patiently sticking with me through this painfully slow process. When the book is done, I’ll not forget you folks. Your support has meant a lot and it will be repaid. How? Oh, that would ruin the surprise.

Thanks, all!

No, you’re not going crazy. I upgraded my blog account and along with that decided to give the blog a new look when I realized the true price of using a free blog.

I was actually quite happy to keep using the free blog account that came free with my Web site hosting package from GoDaddy, until I noticed some of the advertisements that were running in the banner at the top of the blog. One of them was a link to a fundamentalist Christian Web site that promised to tell “the truth” about the conflict in the Mid-East, and how Biblical prophecies spell out everything that is to come in that area of the world. Another was for a dating Web site; the text with the ad mentioned a “sexy, single Israeli woman.” I can’t remember precisely what the third one was, but it too was related to Israel.

See, I had written a blog entry that was an editorial about Israel. So I’m betting some marketing software residing on one of GoDaddy’s servers keyed in on that and decided to serve up ads that would be “tailored” for my readers and me. Because with today’s technology, you can do that, you know: key in on what’s in the hearts and minds of consumers using algorithms and silicon chips.

Except that my blog has covered a number of topics. Israel happened to be on my mind recently because, well, they were at war and what happens in the Middle East inevitably affects the U.S. sooner or later. But that doesn’t mean I want to be associated with fundamentalist interpretations of Biblical prophecies (I’m not even a Christian), or that I want to date Israelis (I have nothing against the concept of dating an Israeli woman, but I have been in a monogamous relationship with the same woman for five years, and I don’t think she’d cotton to me fooling around behind her back with any woman, Israeli or otherwise).

Anyway, art is about expression, as is this blog. I didn’t want this blog to be advertising things that have nothing to do with the way I think or feel about things, so I decided to shell out some dinero for the ad-free blog.

Don’t get me wrong: I intend to maintain my open-door policy. Anyone is welcome to post here. I will not censor posts except under extreme circumstances (for example, spam is gonna get flushed, period; and I won’t be a party to outright slander). That’s different, though, because in these threads it’s clear what opinions belong to whom. Whereas ads in my blog imply some kind of tacit endorsement of what’s being advertised (or least it feels to me like it does).

Anyway, I hope GoDaddy didn’t pay too much for those marketing analytics capabilities.