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GPF, Webcomics
State of the comic…ish
March 20th, 2007 (5 years, 2 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | Comments Off

I apologize for the quietness, everyone. Busy, busy, busy on this end. Thought I’d drop a quick post in to update you on a few things.

Good news: Feedback is so far very positive on the three-updates-per-week thing. Even though it’s not the main comic, you guys have been very open and accepting of the Sketchbook reruns and the new Mischief mini-series. It’s still not ideal in my book, but I’m much rather have you guys coming back more often, and this should provide us with good, solid updates through about the end of June.

Bad news: I’ve received an odd complaint or two about the fact that the Sketchbook updates aren’t showing up in the official GPF RSS feed. Yup, thems the breaks. The GPF RSS feed is an odd hodge-podge of bizarre coding which shoehorns Keenspot’s Autokeen automation software into doing things it was never intended to do. In general, though, I’ve been able to do some pretty amazing things with it, and my RSS feed is the loose basis upon which most of the other Keenspot RSS feeds are built. That said, the way I’ve coded the Sketchbook rerun updates is very non-standard for Autokeen, which means it can’t take advantage of Autokeen’s many features. That also means I have no clue how to insert the Sketchbook reruns into the RSS feed without resorting to some pretty nasty manual tweaking. There’s a point to automating things, of course: to completely avoid manual tweaking. I’m looking into what I can do to include the Sketchbook updates into the feed, but on one hand I’m not sure if I even should. One point of RSS is to allow you to come back and look at things at their permanent home at a later date. Since the Sketchbook reruns are transient and can’t be accessed directly outside of the two days they’re on the main page (without a PREMIUM account), I’m not sure if it even makes sense to put it in the feed. I’m still waffling back and forth on that one. (I should point out that the regular Sketchbook updates are in the PREMIUM-only RSS feed, which is accessible from the High-Def index.)

Worse news: I did my semi-monthly comic production calculations and February and March (as of this posting) are both down. That means that while I still have my buffer, it’s dwindling slowly instead of building slowly. I’m actually down to 0.75 CPW. That, of course, means no increase in the main comic’s schedule for April. Actually, at this point, I wouldn’t expect a real update on this until July anyway, as I’ve already planned for the bonus updates through the end of June. However, as stated previously, I’m constantly re-evaluating these calculations, and I try to keep updated on them when there’s anything worth updating.

Slightly annoying news: Yes, I’m aware there’s a typo in Monday’s comic. Quite a few of you have been very helpful in pointing that out, to which I am always grateful. (I always prefer to catch and fix typos while they’re only online, before they reach more permanent media like the books.) But I’ve been so blasted busy that I haven’t had time to correct the strip or even make a News post stating that I’m aware of it. So no more e-mails please… at least on this particular typo. It’s in my queue and I’ll get to it as soon as I can. Thanks.
GPF, Technology, Webcomics
Update on several things…
February 17th, 2007 (5 years, 3 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | Comments Off

I know I’ve been silent for a bit, but as usual that means I’ve been rather busy. However, I thought I’d pop a quick post up to keep you appraised of a few things worth updating you on.

First, I’ve noticed several of you have tried to register for commenting, which means the mailer script previous mentioned seems to be working. I know this because I’ve been getting messages each time someone signs up. Unfortunately, I’ve received reports that when you try to log in to comment that you keep getting redirected to the login page (or just getting a blank page). Looks like we’ve still got some bugs to work out. The good news, however, is that I’m in the process of trying to move the blog to more reliable hosting. It’s probably going to end up “hidden” somewhere on Keenspot; it will be on their servers, but it won’t be accessible from the Keenspot header drop-down or main page. That means there will probably be ads to offset Keen’s hosting costs, but that also means I’ll get a little extra ad revenue (or PREMIUM subscriptions) for each visit you make to the blog. This is something I don’t get at the moment, and it sure beats spending money on hosting elsewhere. If for some reason Keen elects not to host the blog (which is within in their rights as a host), then I’ll probably be moving to some other host where I will be paying, and they’ll probably be ads anyway to offset the cost.

Now for GPF. I haven’t fully decided on this yet, but I’m seriously considering adding a few extra updates starting in March. Now before you get all excited, these additional updates will probably not be comic updates. I’m still not comfortable with my comic generating output to increase the update frequency. However, I am considering some optional extras to be updated during the week to keep you guys coming to the site (and, to be completely honest, to keep my page views and thus my ad revenue up). Most likely, the main comic will update on Mondays and will remain weekly for the time being. Then there will be additional updates on Wednesdays and Fridays with extra content for those who are interested.

The primary candidate for the Wednesday update is reruns of Jeff’s Sketchbook, our PREMIUM-exclusive weekly extra content. Now, for your PREMIES out there, this won’t be a permanent thing; this is only filler until the main comic is producing at a frequency that I can do M-W-F updates again. In addition, I’d start running the Sketchbook from the beginning, so sketches that run on the main page will be around five years old. The freshest sketches will continue to be on the Sketchbook site. Another bonus for PREMIES is that these Wednesday reruns will not go into the main GPF archive; they will run on the main page from Wednesday to Thursday of a given week, and then will only be available again from the Sketchbook archive, which requires a PREMIUM subscription. Thus, non-subscribers will get a weekly two-day peek at five-year-old Sketchbook content, which will then go back into the vault where only subscribers can see it. I like to think of it as an incentive for non-subscribers to sign up, and as a trip down memory lane for loyal Faulties who already have a subscription.

The Friday update is, unfortunately, the big question mark, and why this entire plan may fall apart. I currently don’t have a long-term content stream to populate the weekend. Like the main page Sketchbook update, Friday updates would not go into the main GPF archive. However, depending on what gets run, it might go into its own archive elsewhere on the GPF site. Prime candidates are some of my old junior high, high school, and college comics (if I can find any that aren’t blatant copyright and trademark infringements), some sketches and concept art not currently in the Sketchbook, or other similar non-GPF content. I’ve also seriously considered abandoning my plan to make Surreptitious Machinations II a PREMIUM-exclusive and running it as a weekly main page feature. The updates would then go into their own archive, which will remain open and not behind PREMIUM. The problem with this last one is that SM2 is only about one-fifth of the way finished, and I would either need to spend extra time finishing its pages (thus taking time away from the main strip) or running rough scripts (which are complete but very sketchy and sometimes difficult to follow) and then replacing the sketches with finished comics later.

Of course, I’m always interested in what you guys have to think about these ideas. Unfortunately, since commenting doesn’t seem to work at the moment, I invite you to visit the GPF forum and discuss it there. In fact… there, I’ve created a thread especially for it. Please give me your thoughts.

And now, for being so attentive, here’s a fun little teaser for another upcoming comic. This ought to keep you talking for a while.
GPF, Webcomics
Still no schedule update in February
January 24th, 2007 (5 years, 3 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | Dump Core

Well, I just performed a new version of the GPF production schedule estimation that I previously mentioned. For review, I took the dates of recently finished comics (i.e. since the last estimation calculation), converted those dates to week numbers, and calculated the average number of comics I’m producing per week. Unfortunately, this copy of the calculation includes the Christmas and New Years holidays, so the estimation is abysmal: 0.58 comics per week (hereafter referred to as “CPW”). Thus, I’ve effectively produced half a comic per week, or a comic every two weeks, since mid-December. That’s not good. However, when I ignore the holidays (which are usually light on comic production anyway, but that’s typically hidden from you by my once legendary buffer) and only focus on the month of January thus far, the outlook is a bit better: 1.67 CPW. That’s technically better than the previous 1.27 CPW I calculated the last time, but it only covers three weeks, whereas the previous calculation covered almost four months. When I extend the previous calculation to encompass September 2006 through January 2007 (a nice five month average), the total average comes to 1.44 CPW.

Bottom line: I’m doing better, perhaps even increasing my production more than the last time. But there still won’t be a schedule frequency upgrade in February. Sorry, but GPF will remain weekly next month. Bummer. However, sometime in March is my next scheduled Keenspot Newsbox, so hopefully I can increase the schedule by then.
GPF, Webcomics
GPF schedule upgrade? Not in January…
December 5th, 2006 (5 years, 5 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | 2 Core Dumps

If you guys think you’re frustrated by the slow pace of my currently weekly update schedule, I’m at least twice as frustrated, if not more. Needless to say, I’m not happy with my recent projection about how long To Thine Own Self… will take. (See my comment at the bottom of that post for the shocking analysis.) So I’ve been strongly considering stepping up my update frequency to at least twice per week in an effort to get things moving. Of course, being the geek that I am, I can’t comfortably do that unless I know my current production schedule can handle it. Some freakish thing about accepting reality and not having demand (posting of comics) exceed supply (the production of such comics), I suppose. So I decided to do a few quick calculations to see how many comics, on average, I’ve actually been producing lately.

Of course, being a lazy geek, I didn’t particularly want to waste time writing a whole new program to do this, so I fired up MS Excel to fling around a few cells. I’m certainly no spreadsheet wizard, but I’ve done my share of cell munching over the years. Unfortunately, I quickly found out that my small business version of Office undoubtedly didn’t have the function that I needed. (Undoubtedly, I don’t have some Analysis ToolPak or some such installed.) Fortunately, OpenOffice Calc came to my rescue with the function I needed. I took the file dates of all the comics I’ve produced since Ben was born and put them in one column, then used the WEEKNUM() function to convert the dates to a single value. It didn’t really matter what that value was, so long as it converted all the dates for a given week to a single identifying value. I then performed a count of the number of comics produced in a given week, then averaged all the counts for the 11 or so weeks the range covered. Of course, since this is only Tuesday the current week technically isn’t complete, but I still consider it a valid experiment.

The bad news is, the average is 1.25 comics per week. Thus, it would be completely impractical for me to increase my update frequency in January, as I wouldn’t be able to sustain that frequency. However, the good news is that I’m statistically producing comics faster than they’re being consumed, so the buffer is ever so slowly increasing. Thus it’s conceivably possibly that the update frequency may increase in February or March. I doubt I’ll be able to increase any production through December because of the holidays, but as Ben gets older and things get more settled in my job (there is a strong possibility I’ll be brought on full-time by my employer in January), I’m hoping that next month will let me develop a more stable comicking schedule.

Just thought I’d let you guys know that I’m not sitting on my laurels here, eking things out agonizingly slowly just to tweak you. As proof, here’s a PDF snapshot of the spreadsheet. I’ll try and keep you guys updated on my progress as I can.
GPF, Webcomics
Some anniversary, huh?
November 2nd, 2006 (5 years, 6 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | 3 Core Dumps

I sit here typing one-handed with a baby sleeping (finally) in the other arm to confirm that yes, there’s no celebratory anniversary pic on the GPF site today. (Today is GPF’s eighth anniversary, for those who didn’t know.) I know a number of you have asked or hoped for one and have even given me plenty of ideas, but time just hasn’t been on my side. When I did get a bit of time yesterday evening, I made an executive decision and worked on actual comics (and nearly completed the digital half of one). I thought producing more content was more important than working on some quick sketch to celebrate an arbitrary date on the calendar. Sorry to those who are disappointed. However, I have uploaded the latest batch of finished strips, so GPF is on track for a return to updates (albeit one per week) on Monday, November 6th.
GPF, Webcomics
GPF will be back in November
October 23rd, 2006 (5 years, 6 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | 7 Core Dumps
Okay, I think it’s officially decided. GPF will be back on November 6th. The only real question right now is how often the strip will update once it returns. I’m currently looking at three options:
1. Update three days per week, Monday-Wednesday-Friday
2. Update two days per week, Monday and probably Friday
3. Update one day per week on Monday
Right now, the third option is most likely. While I’ve got a number of strips in the buffer, I’m just not producing them fast enough to update with any greater frequency. I want to go as high as I can, of course; my ultimate goal is to get back to the “daily grind” of every day of the week. That’s just not going to happen until some part of my schedule clears up. The twice-per-week option is appealing to me, only because it’s more frequent than once per week, but I’m not sure I can ramp back up that quickly. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind if things look more promising. But I’m fairly certain that I can at least get one strip out per week, which gets us that much closer to finally finishing off To Thine Own Self….

I’ve also had a formal request from a good friend of mine to have something up for GPF’s anniversary on November 2nd. I really hate the thought of missing that anniversary, so I’ll see what I can cook up. If nothing else, it might be a quick-and-dirty sketch, but hopefully it can be more. Keep your eyes peeled.
GPF, Webcomics
“Geat Site. Not buying the story…”
October 12th, 2006 (5 years, 7 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | 16 Core Dumps

You folks will have to forgive me today. I usually don’t do things like this, but I’m tired, cranky, and hyped up on my new vice called coffee in compensation for a 2AM bottle feeding. Normally, this is the sort of thing that I would quietly let slide and keep it to myself, but I had a few hackles raised by this and thought I’d get it off my chest. That’s also why I’m restricting this to the blog, as I don’t think it really belongs in the GPF News. That’s my place for being informative about the comic and associated things and events; this is my place for personal information and the occasional venting. I feel it would be unprofessional to post this there. (It’s probably inappropriate for me to post it here as well, but since when is that going to stop me?)

This morning, while juggling a squirming two-month-old, a bottle, and my measly, hurriedly swallowed and inadequately chewed breakfast, I logged in to check my GPF mail. Amongst the copious spam I received this little gem:

Regarding this latest news about the “hiatus”: Charles Schultz.

Do you think the “Peanuts” author didn’t have issues in his life?

Why am I saying this? Your hiatus “end dates” make no sense. And the difference between Oct 2, and Nov 6…? Probably the FIRST time you were — on time — with an update was to defer. (Oct 2)

And I’m already guessing, Come Nov. 6 — Wait until Dec. 4., RIGHT???

Look…You’ve created a web icon here, kind of like “Peanuts”. If you’ve decided to end it — DO SO!!! Your fan base is only going to be around for so long, and even if you think you’ve got a greater story next; they won’t come. Why? You might have other issues that preclude it. (Baby, new home, New job, etc…)

You started GPF, so you have two choices:

OK. Maybe it’s (webcomic) not paying your bills, but…

Either end it. OR, Suck it up, and continue it.

Or do you think that Charles Schultz had that choice from his family when he had to use inks? Maybe he and his wife had issues too. But we’ve had “Peanuts” for (I believe) 40 years or so until he passed. She apparently didn’t run off with the “other guy” that she could have, had she wished. Not that there was another guy, but really — a cartoonist? As a paid profession?

If you’re tired of GPF, end it.

(Or you could always get syndicated in newsprint. That WOULD pay your bills. Just remember, people WILL buy newspapers; they may NOT subscribe to a website.)

M.

Out of the many, many supportive and understanding e-mails I’ve received in the past few months, this is the first piece of truly negative “fan” mail I’ve received since I announced the current hiatus. (And when I say “truly negative,” I’m not counting the occasional half-and-half messages like “I really hope things work out for you, but it still kind of sucks.”) I’ve learned to develop a thick skin against flames and destructive criticism; you have to when you go into webcomics, as there are a lot of idiots out there who value their own opinions above anyone else’s and assume no one can possibly be more correct than they are. (My favorite from years ago was the self-proclaimed “Queen of Webcomics” who declared that GPF was worthless simply because it was her royal decree.) So maybe it was the lack of sleep, my own sensitivity and self-depreciation concerning the current state of the comic, or some other factor that I have yet to identify, but this person really touched a nerve with me this morning. A raw, seething nerve that’s gone from a dull, throbbing ache to the edge of blinding, searing pain. And I tend to get a little angry when I’m in pain.

So in the interest of fairness, I have reproduced the message in its entirety for your review. And if you’ll forgive a bit of self-indulgent venting, also in the interest of fairness I offer my public reply.

Has this person even read the past several months of News posts? From the subject line of the e-mail (which is also the title of this post), I can only assume he has at least skimmed them, since it appears the “story” he isn’t “buying” isn’t the plot to To Thine Own Self…. Ergo, I have to assume this person doesn’t believe the fact that the comic has been unavoidably delayed by the past five hectic months I’ve had. This, of course, is his prerogative; you should never believe everything you read on the Internet. That, also of course, does not change the fact that every single word I’ve said in the News since May regarding this issue is completely true, and I have the employment papers, mortgage contracts, and hospital bills and receipts to prove it.

For the past eight years, I have worked incredibly hard to not only produce what I think is a quality comic strip in what I hope is a professional manner, and I’ve made every possible human effort to produce it in a timely and efficient fashion. I’m one of the few webcartoonists out there who actually started my comic with a buffer of pre-made strips, and that buffer was probably one of the largest and longest maintained ones online. It usually ranged from six to eight weeks, and its lowest point before the current situation was actually four weeks (when I actually stopped drawing for a month because of tendonitis in my thumb, but continued to update by posting from the buffer). Compare this to most of my online peers and that’s pretty impressive; multiply that by the fact that I’ve maintained this level of consistency for the past eight years, and it’s practically legendary. I say that not to sound conceited, but to state a simple fact of the webcomicking world. Consistency is not something that online comics are generally known for. Up until this most recent incident, GPF was well known for it; to use the author’s own words, a “web icon” of sorts.

So that becomes my first and probably greatest point of contention with this e-mail. Apparently, my eight-year track record of consistent, no-fail, never-missed-a-day updates means little in relation to his immediate comic fix. I could understand such a complaint if GPF were so horribly inconsistent that it updated only once in a blue moon when it’s raining and sun’s out while you’re wearing plaid shorts and bib overalls with a chicken on your head that sings “I’m a Little Tea Pot” to the tune of “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” I ask very little of my readers. I don’t beg for donations; I don’t hold my comic hostage to increase readership; I don’t go off into NeverNeverLand and disappear for months at a time. All I usually ask is that you endure a little advertising so we can pay the bandwidth bill and, if you enjoy the comic a great deal and wish to support it more substantially, perhaps buy a book, a PREMIUM subscription, or some other form of merchandise as a show of appreciation. With this hiatus, I have asked for one more thing: a small measure of patience. Most readers have seemed to enthusiastically and generously agree to this request. “M.” apparently does not.

All this makes me wonder where the “FIRST time [I was] — on time — with an update was to defer” statement even comes from. Undoubtedly, the first time “M.” ever read GPF was the beginning of September when the hiatus began, or at the earliest August when GPF dropped from seven-days-a-week to three. That’s the only way I can conceivably think it would be logical for me not to be on-time with an update, considering that the automation on the server has predictably and reliably posted the comic every day on the dot for the previous eight years. But I must be forgetting… history apparently has no bearing on the immediacy of the present.

On the hiatus end dates making no sense: They were actually chosen with a very logical and (I thought) well-explained rationale. I chose each end date because it would be the first Monday of the next month, so I could hopefully resume a Monday-Wednesday-Friday update schedule. A great deal of webcomicking history and research has proven that Monday is always the day of highest traffic for webcomic sites. It would make logical sense to defer updates from the first day of the month (which to date during my hiatus has landed on a Sunday and a Wednesday) to the following Monday. It would also allow me to begin this M-W-F update schedule with a full week of updates. As for why the end of the hiatus has been deferred, that too was fully explained:

However, it may take longer than that to rebuild my buffer to a satisfactory level. Thus, if October 2nd rolls around and I don’t have a comfortable enough buffer to work with, I may have to extend the hiatus for another month, continuing ad nauseum until my life returns to relative stability.

Thus, I have no intention of ending the hiatus until I’m comfortable that (a) I am producing comics again on a predictable enough schedule to (b) maintain a consistent buffer and thus avoid the current situation that caused the hiatus in the first place. Thus, the difference between October 2nd and November 6th right now is potentially fourteen comics (assuming I finish the digital half of the comics I’ve currently drawn the line art for). Fourteen comics at a three-day-per-week schedule is four, nearly five weeks of content. Fourteen comics that I did not have available due to life mishaps at the beginning of September. And this assumes that I cannot back to the art desk again before the end of October and generate more comics. Not a bad step toward getting back into the swing of things, if you ask me. Does this rationale seem logical enough now?

Based on this calculation, another delay until December is beginning to look unlikely. The true question is whether or not I can sustain a three-day-week schedule, a question that I’m afraid I still cannot currently answer. If I can manage to produce six comics over a period of the next two weeks, then yes, I think returning to a M-W-F schedule on November 6th is extremely likely. If not, then I will likely pursue another option: resuming updates, but further reduce the schedule to one comic per week, updated on Mondays. If nothing else, this will get something up on the site on a predictable schedule, and will potentially expand that buffer from four/five weeks to fourteen. It certainly isn’t ideal (for me or for you), but it’s definitely an improvement.

The next thing that confuses the heck out of me about this e-mail is the implication that I’m being some sort of wishy-washy, indecisive worry-wart sitting around wringing my hands trying to decide if GPF is even worth salvaging. What about the following excerpt from September 4th’s News post seems to convey this? No, seriously, I want to know. Because I certainly can’t see it:

One way or another, come heck or high water, To Thine Own Self… will eventually be completed. It will certainly take longer than I originally planned, and it may take months (maybe even years) more than I ever wanted. However, I positively hate starting something and never finishing it, so I can guarantee that it will be finished eventually. If I have to post unfinished inks, pencil roughs, or even text scripts, I will get the story completed somehow. And I have so many more ideas for GPF in the future that I can’t walk away from it forever once TTOS is over. I may have to find a new artist, readjust formats, or something, but there’s far too many ideas floating around in my head to keep me from this little comic forever. My fledgling little family will always come first, of course, but GPF is still a major factor in my life and I certainly won’t abandon it.

Should I have used bold type instead of italics? Increased the font size about a couple points? Perhaps the HTML <BLINK> tag would have made things more obvious? No, that’s largely ignored by most browsers now so that wouldn’t work. What about this paragraph could have made things more clear that I have absolutely no intentions of ending GPF in the foreseeable future? If I wasn’t absolutely sure and completely decisive on this matter before this e-mail, I certainly am now, if nothing else to prove this person wrong. While it still may be true that it could take months (or worse, years) longer to complete the current story given my current situation, GPF isn’t going away for good any time soon. End of story. Period. How’s that for decisive?

As for my “fan base… only going to be around for so long,” I am all too aware of this risk, far greater than anyone else. I am, after all, the only one with full access to my server logs. I can see the decline in traffic first-hand. Going on hiatus was a calculated risk, but it is not a risk that wasn’t calculated to begin with. I made a conscious decision to place my family before the comic, a decision I would have made anyway if the comic were replaced with any form of job, and I would make any number of times again. When (not if) I lose readership due to the hiatus, it will be up to me to rebuild those numbers with what I think is GPF’s proven formula: realistic, believable characters in exciting and humorous situations, delivered on a predictable, consistent schedule. If I am able to regain any readership I have lost, the I’ll be extremely happy; if I do not rebuild those numbers, then so be it. I consider my family more important than arbitrary numbers generated from a bunch of bloated server logs. Loyal readers will return and hopefully bring new readers with them. Those who choose not to return are free to make their own decisions on how to spend their time online.

Speaking of family, perhaps the implication that I despise the most from this message is that my family has suffered because of this hiatus. Considering that I specifically instituted the break to spend more time with them, I fail to see where this came from. I certainly cannot speak for the family of Charles Schulz (note the correct spelling), but my wife is GPF’s greatest supporter. GPF would not exist if it weren’t for her input, and it would immediately (or as immediately as possible) cease to exist if she felt strongly enough that it was time to pull the plug. I value her opinions so greatly that, yes, I would (and have) place the fate of my little dream in her hands. Considering how much love and energy she has expended over the years to nurture that dream, the least I can do is provider her such respect. The only “issues” my wife and I have are those from outside our home that we tackle together as a team, and I resent any implications to the contrary. As such, I respectfully ask that if you have an issue with the comic or with me, I’m the one you should be complaining to or about. Leave my family out of it.

And that brings us to this mysterious comparison to Mr. Schulz. What I read in the above message is a back-handed compliment. In one sentence, GPF is called an “icon” in comparison to Mr. Schulz’s venerable and beloved Peanuts; in another, I’m chastised for not “suck[ing] it up” because I cannot live up to his lofty example. As honored as I would be to be considered in a league with Mr. Schulz, I can only see my own inadequacies in such a comparison. To me, it seems a bit like comparing some of my favorite composers, such as John Williams or Danny Elfman, to the likes of Mozart, Beethoven, or Chopin. While I would definitely consider Mr. Williams or Mr. Elfman to be competent, gifted, or even masters of their current art, they are certainly shadowed by the timeless grandeur of such masters. That said, I’m not about to go burn my Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or Nightmare Before Christmas CDs either.

Mr. Schulz was a consummate professional. His distinguished, decades-long career is certainly one to envied and admired. However, as much as I try to project and maintain an air of professionalism (I believe that to be treated like a professional, you must first act like one), I am the first to admit that I am currently not. It is a goal I aspire to, but one I have yet to reach. I would certainly love to dedicate a full 40+ hours per week to weaving my little GPF web for your amusement and entertainment, but the simple fact remains that GPF does not pay the mortgage yet and I thus must devote those 40+ hours to another job that does. Until such time that GPF can meet all my financial needs, it shall remain what it is today: a little side business, not much more than an over-glorified hobby, that pays for itself, provides me a bit of a creative outlet, and hopefully entertains a few people along the way. Ergo, I do not consider myself a professional. I will, however, continue to strive to become one, and I will continue to attempt to conduct myself in as professional a manner as I can. Going back once again to my eight years of archives, I think I’ve gone a long way in establishing such a reputation. That, however, is left up to you as readers to judge.

Finally, I’m afraid this “M.” has a rather glamorous and inaccurate view of the state of newspaper syndication. Perhaps he hasn’t actually met any syndicated cartoonists. Well, I have, and the realities they reveal paint a sobering picture. Syndicated cartoonists have not received a raise in their pay since the 1970s. Having your comic syndicated does not guarantee that it will actually appear in any papers (and thus does not guarantee a paycheck either). The real money to be made from syndicated comics comes not from the distribution of the material itself but from merchandising–the Snoopy Snow Cone Makers and Garfields with the suction cups on their paws–and those deals only come to the most successful of artists. These points are dower enough, yet they ignore the facts that artists tend to lose all ownership of their syndicated work (which becomes the property of the syndicate) and that newspapers are steadily dying in this age of instant gratification via the Internet.

At one point, I actively considered pursuing syndication for GPF. I soon came to realize that this was extremely unlikely to happen. GPF’s audience is too narrow, too much of a niche, for a syndicate to seriously consider. Its serial nature is also something that would be heavily frowned upon, as comics with continuity are generally turned down in favor of those that you can miss any number of installments and still get the punch line. And then there’s the fact that my primary audience would be much more likely to get their news and information online than from the “out-of-date from the moment it’s printed” lag of a newspaper. (The last time I think I bought a paper was in 2000, when my old home town rag ran a story about my first book.) When I had the facts in the previous paragraph relayed to me by those actually in the field, I put all these equations together and completely abandoned the idea of syndication, deciding to concentrate my energies on online distribution. There is no future in the traditional newspaper medium; the media conglomerates know this, and that’s why you see the steady transition of newspapers to the Internet. While “M.” may be more likely to buy a paper than to subscribe to a Web site, he is of a dying breed. He can keep listening to his 8-tracks and vinyl LPs while watching those Betamax videos; the future of content distribution is obviously firmly planted in the Internet, and I currently see no need to seek backward compatibility.

I apologize to those of you who may disagree with “M.”‘s views, who came here to catch some sort of update about Ben or maybe find another leaked picture of the Gamester. This was more of a therapeutic post than anything else, a way to verbalize my thoughts and justify my issues with this particular e-mail. (Okay, so I haven’t “verbalized” much of anything, which is probably a good thing as I’m afraid I might break my usual calm demeanor with a rash of “bleeping” to keep the audio family-friendly.) You are, of course, free to agree or disagree with either set of opinions that you wish. Personally, I think my opinions are back up by some very strong facts and logical conclusions, and therefore consider the matter closed. The real question I have now is whether or not I’ll open this post up for comments, and if I do, for how long.

Regardless, I feel a bit more relaxed now. If I don’t post any sooner, I’ll see you all on November 6th. I firmly believe there will be a strip that day, and with any luck, two more the rest of that week.
GPF, Webcomics
Back in the saddle
October 11th, 2006 (5 years, 7 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | 3 Core Dumps

Not much to say lately, other than report that I actually got to the art desk yesterday for the first time since Labor Day. Unfortunately, the circumstances were a little atypical; I had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon, so I took my “short” day at work (I’ve been working four nine-hour days and one four-hour day per week lately) and was home by mid-afternoon. Since the nanny was still there and my wife is just returning to work this week, we agreed I could spend most of the rest of the day drawing. I’m still not sure how I’m going to develop a new regular drawing schedule with the munchkin in tow, but I certainly haven’t given up trying.

In celebration, here’s a quick pic from an upcoming strip of the Gamester in action. That’s right, kiddies; no more standing around, brooding and watching glowing spheres while ruminating about how things are going from bad to worse. It’s time for some extra-dimensional butt kicking. Booyah!
GPF, Webcomics
No new GPFs in October
September 19th, 2006 (5 years, 8 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | 5 Core Dumps

Two updates in one day; imagine that. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t have the happy ending of the previous one.

Try as I might, it’s starting to look like there won’t be any new GPFs in October. I’ve actually made progress with the strip, getting a number of weeks scripted (including the fates of “Nega” Nick and “Nega” Ki and we actually get to see the Gamester (gasp) doing something other than standing around and grimacing), a full week drawn (using the old seven-days-a-week reckoning), and half a week completely finished and ready to upload. However, all that work took over two weeks to complete, including the Labor Day holiday weekend. That’s nowhere near a sustainable schedule, and as I stated in the last GPF News post, I won’t start updating again until I can either build a buffer and sustain it or finish To Thine Own Self…, whichever comes first. Thus, my target end date for the current hiatus will be moved from October 2nd to November 6th (the first Monday in November). As promised, there will be a News update on October 2nd stating as much, but I thought I’d give those of you who visit her occasionally the initial heads-up.

It’s been good working on the strip again, but with wild events like Ben’s surgery interrupting things, it’s getting really hard to come up with any sort of predictability.
GPF, Personal, Webcomics
Maybe it was Persephone’s third cousin twice removed…
June 26th, 2006 (5 years, 10 months ago) by Jeff | Permalink | 1 Core Dump

I had an interesting little surprise a week or so ago. I had recently come back to North Carolina after a week on the new job and was spending a lot of my “free” time cleaning and repairing things in an effort to make the house more presentable and sellable. Unfortunately, this meant a lot of yard work, something I’m not known for being very good at. I’m fine when it comes to mowing the lawn (not that I’m an expert at it, nor that I necessarily enjoy it, but at least I’m competent), but just about anything else involving chlorophyll is foreign to me. However, I’ve recently successfully planted flowers, spread mulch, and cleared over a foot of clearance between our overgrown bushes and the front of the house. All in all, not bad for a gardening newbie.

One day, I stepped outside for a reason that now escapes me. As I was walking past the front planter along the walk to the front door, something bright yellow caught my eye. I looked down to find the interesting blob you see above. While I had a sneaking suspicion of what it was, I knew I couldn’t be certain. I rushed back inside, grabbed the camera, and snapped a few photos to take back to my biology teacher mother when I returned to West Virginia. Sure enough, she confirmed exactly what I suspected: it was an honest-to-gosh slime mold.

When one of your main characters is a slime mold, you tend to get a lot of slime mold related mail. I’ve had fans send me tons of unsolicited photos, hyperlinks, and amusing mold-related anecdotes over the years. Needless to say, when the news hit SlashDot back in February of a robot controlled by a slime mold, I was inundated. But I’ll have to admit that my actual personal slime mold experience is relatively small. Other than the above snapshot and a chance meeting on a hike during a recent vacation, my path has rarely crossed with any slimes of note.

Sadly, this chance meeting would not be repeated. By the following morning, the little mold had been baked thoroughly by the scorching NC summer sun and formed a crusty, hardened shell. When the shell broke, a fine black mist of spores rose into the air, carried away by the breeze. As far as I know, the mold never showed any signs of sapience, but I conveniently neglected to tell my Fred plush doll the news of the encounter, just in case it would have broken his heart… er, nucleus.

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Webcomics

GPF, Webcomics

State of the comic…ish

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Update on several things…

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GPF schedule upgrade? Not in January…

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Some anniversary, huh?

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GPF will be back in November

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“Geat Site. Not buying the story…”

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Back in the saddle

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No new GPFs in October

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Maybe it was Persephone’s third cousin twice removed…

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