Reality Amuck™

WARNING: I normally don't like to get all whiney and excusey on the blog, but I consider my long-time readers to be my Internet Pals and needed to chat with them. New Readers can and probably should skip this emo-moment and enjoy the comic.

"I thought you were going to start working in a new art style. What's the deal?"

Yeah, well I thought I was going to get a birthday party when I turned forty. Life is full of disappointments, deal with it.

Okay, that's a pretty snarky response to a very valid question. In March, after several missed updates, I ran a comic that sounded pretty final. When a few people asked about it I said it was just a ending for the first book. I also said that I'd be revamping the art and trying out a new style. There were a few posts about "Reality Amuck 2.0" and it generated a little attention. After that there were several more missed updates and then I started posting more comics in the old art style. Which led to the question at the beginning of this post being asked more than a few times. Your nice enough to read my comic and wonder the direction the comic is going and that means I at least owe you an explanation.

After the Reality Amuck Special Holiday event (RASH) I was feeling really trapped by my art style. Then January and February were pretty rough around Casa de Tovias. There was a lot going on behind the scenes and I didn't want the comic to be left hanging so I wrote the "Fin" comic. At that point it served two purposes, first it could be used as the end of Book 1 but it could also be the ending. I was ready to just dump the whole thing and walk away. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. For some reason the bank doesn't accept original art as mortgage payments (who knew?).

Many of you emailed, tweeted and called voicing concern that the comic was ending and I felt really bad about it. That's when I said I was just taking some time to work on a new art style. That wasn't a lie. (Don't get all Obi-Wan point-of-view on us)

As I said, I was feeling trapped by the art style and had been working on new character designs for the cast. I have an entire sketch pad full of character sketches, color tests, poses, locations and action shots. (So what's the problem?) The problem was translating those sketches into digitally inked finished comics. I was generally happy with my progression on paper but when I tried to put it on the computer, either by digitally inking or scanning, it looked like a mess. The more I messed with it the worse it looked. Also, I feel, a big part of it was that I was changing the designs of characters I was very familiar with already. No matter how well I drew them, they never felt like Ben, Grant and the rest. I let this slow me down to a complete stop and that was a huge mistake.

So I was left with a choice. Continue to not update while working on the new style and possibly never update again or get off my duff and start posting again. So I chose to start posting again in the old art style. I'm still working on the new stuff in my spare time but you come here for a new comic, not last month's comic, not pages full of excuses and whining. So I'll give you comics in the style I'm comfortable drawing and with which you're familiar. My Granny always said you should "dance with the one that brung ya'." so that's what I'm doing.

Thanks for sticking around and thanks for the ton of positive comments and well wishes. The feedback I get from you all is what keeps me going some days. It's hard to express how good it makes me feel chatting with you guys in the comments, on Twitter and on Facebook.