Today’s Monday Blog marks my 100th post on the site. That’s a lot of pictures and stories and articles in 2 ½ months. There’s still more to come in 2012! For today’s blog, I decided to give a few Animus updates.
CONTENT NEWS
Funnies readers will have noticed that the Funnies format changed just as Todrick and Nektara were formally introduced. I’m happy with the current full page format. If I were ever to make a compilation book of strips, this format will work well. The early strips will need some editing work of course. My Funnies buffer goes all the way to the end of January, but I’m having too much fun drawing the Funnies to stop so the buffer isn’t shrinking. The Funnies are taking longer to draw though as I’m getting braver and trying different poses and panel compositions. The character designs are simple enough, but some just take longer for me to draw. I can knock out a Todrick, Zoë, Barnaby or Red Rich pretty quickly. Cyran’s goggles, Sass’ money pouch, Big Oonch’s hat and Nektara’s hairdo are still proving to be a challenge. Also, after just finishing a short storyline where Sass wears a different outfit (due to show up on the site in late January), I understand why cartoonists keep their characters wearing the same clothes all the time!
I’ve still got a few stories to publish on the site. The “chapters” are super short I know. Nobody’s reading them (yet) though, so it’s not like I feel the need to publish them any faster! If you DO read the stories, you’ll find that I didn’t write closed endings for them. I wrote what I wanted and left the door open to continue them later on, with priority going to any story that gets multiple requests for a follow-up.
I’ve started writing the script for the Age of Animus – Fun ‘n’ Fantasy crossover and it’s already looking like a daunting project. I was originally envisioning a 25 page story, but I’ve already got like five or so pages of dialogue and the two groups are just starting to interact with each other (a crucial part of the crossover concept). Panel composition is going to be tricky because word balloons take up a good chunk of panel real estate and a lot of my humour is dialogue-based. And yet, I don’t want the panels to be TOO big. So I have no idea what the page count will be before I’m done. If it’s 50 pages or more, then I’ll break it down into several “issues”. What I’m thinking right now is that once I’ve written and drawn the first issue’s worth of strips, the pages will be offered on the site at a rate of one per week, meaning that the first issue (which could be between 25 and 49 pages long) would take half a year to appear on the site. I’d also put the issue up for sale on hulu.com for those who want to consume it more quickly (or who just like reading comic books in, you know, book form).
MERCHANDISING NEWS
I cannot tell you how awesome I find it that I can offer merchandise of any kind for something I created. I have to reiterate though that my actual expectations are small. I’m not delusional!
As I wrote a week or so ago, the Age of Animus Cafepress store is growing. I added a Christmas design too late for anybody to actually order it in time for Christmas 2011 but super early for Christmas 2012! It’s an homage to the final scene of A Charlie Brown Christmas. The picture is also posted on this site.
I was asked about signed prints of the digital drawings (no, really I was). I consciously avoided putting prints for sale in the store for cost reasons. The one print that I DID put up for sale on the Cafepress store is pretty expensive (it’s framed) and there’s no way for me to sign it without ordering it from Cafepress myself first, signing it and then sending it out myself (thus adding to the already high cost). I wouldn’t feel right charging anybody for a printout from my printer. I’m looking into how much nice prints would cost from the print centre at Bureau en Gros. If I can get them done for under $5 a piece and they look good, I’ll make them available for those interested. I was worried that the low PPI count on some of the drawings would make them look “cheap” but I ordered some magnets featuring my digital drawings and *I* think they look really nice!
I haven’t made much progress on Kerfuffle Shuffle since my last preview update. The character cards and the location cards are designed. They’re just missing the artwork. The bag o’ tricks cards have no artwork, so it’s a matter of creating a template and then cutting and pasting the text. As for the scuffle cards, I’m not satisfied with the icons I designed. I need a red sword, a blue shield, a green arrow, a yellow star and a purple fist (cue the Lucky Charms jokes). Anybody willing to work pro bono (i.e. for free) would get a hearty thank you and their name on the box cover and in the rulebook! Once that’s done and the card backs are designed, then I’m ready to print a prototype to start play-testing.
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
In closing, when I decided to create this site, I thought it would be cool to have other people play in a world I created. I wasn’t super explicit about it before, but I’d love it if people would send in their own drawings of the Animus characters (or their own Pelarian characters) or stories featuring their own Pelarian characters. I’d post them up on the site for everybody to see. Granted, stories at this stage are still tricky as I’m still writing articles describing the world. If you’d like to know more about something specific, you can email me atcarja@ageofanimus.com and I’ll see to writing an article about it for the next Wednesday update. You can send your art and story submissions to the same address.