As many of you probably noticed a long time ago, before you forgot I ever had a comic, I haven’t updated my comic since February. I have a lot of excuses, none of them good except for the consistent unreliability of my computer.
But also, I never really knew what I was doing with Mister Woodles. It was my first attempt at a webcomic (save for one in college that never made it off my hard drive) and I never clearly defined, even to myself, what I wanted Woodles to be. Initially, it was going to be a series of jokes or humorous faux deep thoughts that I might have posted on Twitter, but enhanced with illustrations. Then I thought of a lot of puns and gags and decided I wanted a gag-based comic because I come up with so many damn jokes. But I also wanted recurring characters. I had come up with the characters of Neal and Greg in previous comic attempts. Keith was original to Woodles, but was initially a character of necessity because I needed a camera operator for the fly comic. But then right before I launched Woodles (which was January 2010) I went through a breakup and a bout of insomnia which inspired a fucked up emo artsy storyline about post-breakup insomnia. That launched the comic into even MORE of a “what the hell kind of comic IS this?” realm.
Plus I was still learning the artistic ropes. In the beginning, I sketched each frame in pencil, use Illustrator to make vector line drawings, Photoshop to paint and shade, and then Illustrator again to lay out. This was MUCH too long a process, and I eventually moved to skipping the initial sketches and going straight to the line drawings. The problem here was that all my perspective was fucked up and characters didn’t look the same from one frame to the next. After my summer hiatus, I came back with the idea of inking on paper (allowing me to work on comics anywhere) and then only coloring on the computer. This worked well for a time, but after a crash resulted in a necessary OS and software change-up I had to add “learn GIMP” to the mix. And the font… I used some free fonts off Blambot. The first one was much better for comics, but I switched to an incredibly ugly one for the sake of a joke that required upper-case-lower-case differentiation.
In 2011 I relaunched with the idea of seven storylines, each loosely based on a deadly sin, and starting at a holiday near the sin. (This was not a well-thought-out plan, as it would have required me to write a Wrath storyline that would take me from March to July). When further computer troubles and scheduling problems came up, I decided to shelve the comic for a little while. A little while turned into almost a year.
And now? Well I’m not interested in picking back up with something that was never very good to begin with. It was a learning experience, and with that experience I will start again.
So announcement number one is Mister Woodles is going away. Thank you to all of the readers and supporters, and especially those of you who provided me with guest comics! I will keep the site live.
Announcement number two? This is very early, but I am creating a spinoff, featuring a one-shot character who was initially intended to be recurring. The details are secret (at least until I get around to buying the domain name) but I will say that while it technically takes place in the same universe as Woodles, the comic itself will be different. Rather than focusing on gags, I want to try my hand at story, character development, and art. Not that it won’t be humorous, but the need for a punch line won’t sacrifice the bigger picture.
Stay posted! Right now I’m shooting for a March launch date.
