Penny and I recently discussed finding regular time to draw. Normally this would be in the evenings, but we don’t get home until about 7 PM, and by the time I fix dinner and we eat, it’s 8PM. I first thought that next hour would be good, since we keep the dogs out of my studio, since there’s so much for Vivi to get at and want to destroy, including stuff that would be very bad for her. This is kind of a problem since the dogs necessitate almost daily cleaning of the house, that seldom gets done after we sit down and relax. I though about a half hour a night, and we decided that’s equally a problem unless I can organize the studio in a way that it’s dog safe.

It hit me the next morning at work.

When I come home for lunch, I keep the dogs outside most of the time and usually goof off online for half an hour until I fix a sandwich to eat on the drive back to work and bring the dogs in. This would be a perfect time to draw. I tried it out and it seems to work pretty good. Hopefully, this’ll mean that I can get back to regular additions to my Jet-Pack Jenny webcomic.

Jet-Pack Jenny and the Factor of 01 is almost set to restart after a hiatus that we’ll never speak of lest we give it power. The plan is to keep regular updates going on the comic, and occassionally going back and redoing the older strips. I’ve never been completely satisfied with the font or the perfectly symmetrical word balloons. I thought I would be, but its amazing the difference a little time can make.

The new layout will make for easier browsing of the comic, and the header will change (that’s for you, Antar) to reflect not only Carpal Tunnel Press but the comic as well. I still need to learn a few things for the site to work as I want it. There will be a gallery page coming soon, as well as the store, which has been in desperate need of restructuring since I’ve sold out of a few minis, and have no intent to reprint them. A links page for friends’ sites is needed as well, but on the left will be the links for where to find me on facebook, etsy, livejournal, etc. I haven’t decided if I want them to be graphic links or just text links. I don’t want the page to get too busy, and I feel that right now, it’s on the cusp of getting too busy.

In the meantime, there’s plans afoot to go to a convention this summer, albeit only as a normal attendee, not to exhibit. I don’t want to say until it’s certain. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to any type of show, and I’m a little excited about going, provided all goes well.

If anyone has any suggestions for plug-ins that might make the web site run a little smoother or do what I need, let me know in the comments.

I’m looking at the web site as it comes along and begin wondering if I should go back to coloring the comics. There’s a part of me that wants to do it, just because with the current state of the comics industry, especially given that Diamond Comics has raaised it’s minimum dollar amounts that a comic has to be expected to make for Diamond and for the publisher to be carried again.  Don’t ask me to explain it, since , as wiith most things with Diamond, it’s not been made entirely clear. Nevertheless, it creates problems for smaller publishers at the time that they’re trying to establish a foothold to get into the comic book marketplace.

Those of you that favor free market capitalism should find this move by Diamond to be deplorable. Diamond sits, thanks to the exclusivity deals signed with the major publishers in the 1990s, as the one company that a comic shop must do business with in order to draw any traffic. These exclusivity deals took Diamond’s competition and neutered them, making it impossible for get orders from comic shops in any amount that could be considered profitable based solely on small publishers struggling to keep publishing in an era where comics were selling in numbers only previously enjoyed in the days of paper drives. There are still smaller distributors out there, but they remain small fish feasting off the castoffs from the big fish called Diamond.

With this move to only carry those comics that make them the most money, they have determined which publishers shall survive. A publisher can, in this market, put out books of indomitable artistic merit, but until it gets the word of mouth necessary to survive, its numbers will most likely not reach these new numbers to survive. These publishers need to do a print run at quantities that they can afford to sell to Diamond at a 60% discount and hope to make a profit, not just to recoup the expense of the printed book but for the next comic to be printed as well. Unfortunately, given the sales of most independent comics, this is nearly impossible to do and presnt a $2.99 price point, the standard in the industry until, if rumors are to be believed, Marvel’s greedy profit-grabbing move of raising the price on comics to $3.99.  Even at $3.99, this meansthat a small publisher has to be able to print their comics at a rate of eighty cents each. It’s been a while since I did any offset printing, so I don’t know how possible that is.

Which brings me back to my original topic, whether to color the comics or not. Well, the leading factor is that this is probably the most exposure these comics will ever get.  Presenting them in color doesn’t cost me anything but time. The real issue that has me riding the fence is if I can do it in a manner that serves the story well, and is esthetically sound. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about science in the movies. People who are fans of science, scientists who are fans of movies all want Hollywood to get science right in the movies so we don’t get another Armageddon, Independence Day or The Core. This discussion, however has directed me more towards a similar topic, science as its portrayed in comics.

Now, in Jet-Pack Jenny, I’m really wanting to make it as scientifically accurate as possible. While I don’t want to let it ake over the tone of the story, I don’t want innaccurate science to take away from the story. I don’t want to have crap like the X-Men version of genetic mutation staring at the reader and going “Hey, I know that I’m not correct, but it’s a comic, so ignore it.” I also don’t want to have to explain every single futuristic thing that shows up. That’s just bad storytelling.

SO, how in comics, does one do accurate science without bogging the story down in details? Well, what I’m trying is starting with a world much like our own, aand adding just a few details to advance everyday life, such as TV on any flat surface in Jenny’s apartment, or the computer completely integrated into her home. Yes, there are androids, and those will probably get explained more thoroughly than anything else in the story, just because it’s vital to the story. What’s not vital to the story is how the jet-pack works, or how the cars fly. I know how the jet-pack works; I’ve got that figured out, and I have a one-sentence answer to the cars, and the bulk of theother little details that come up. Essentially, the world is the same, just to keep it relatable. I worry that if I make it too alien then it doesn’t seem real, much like the interiors of Kamino in Attack of the Clones.

In related news, I just returned from HeroesCon where I purchased Strathmore Bristol Board pre-cut into 5 x 17 pads.  It means that the re-drawn  strips will be a little shorter in height than the originals, but it will make storing the original art a heck of a lot easier, as well as a lot easier to scan. The re-drawing is going good, and right now, strip #2 is on the docket to be the next one posted. Drawing the half-hour a day that I’m home at lunch makes for a little slow movement, but it’s movement, so I won’t complain.

More on my trip to HeroesCon tomorrow. That and I hope to get a links page done.

I’m going to color Jet-Pack Jenny and the Factor of 01. I was riding the fence and posed the question on Facebook and my friend Jonathan urged me to go with color by just telling me that of all the comics that I do, Jet-Pack Jenny is the closest thing I have to a traditional four-color hero.

Because I keep the original line art files, I can always collect the story in a minicomic, especially if I decide not to collect it in color. Printing in color can get a little pricey, and if the saturation is too high on a page it can be very time consuming to press the pages flat after they’re printed, not to mention how much ink gets used.  So, we’re doing this in color for the sake of the web site.

I’m also using the opportunity to practice my coloring skills. I’m trying to work a little more naturalistic for Jet-Pack Jenny, and the coloring is going to reflect that.  I’ll be honest with the results, and along the way I may make a blog post to give you a tease of how it’s going. So at the end of this post, you’ll see a preview of the coloring job on strip #2.