To my relief, we are finally at the end of our flashback. Talk about a burden off my shoulders. You see, now that it’s out there for everyone to see, I can’t trick myself into rethinking it anymore than I should. When I write stories, (not saying I’m a writer or anything) I always get hung up on what needs to happen at what time and how much is too much information. As you can see, I like stories that keep you guessing. I just hope that after 3 months of flashbacks, you can forgive me for not exactly explaining how Victuals became a cat.
Last week I said I’d start posting page specific info under the pages but I decided to change my mind again. I’ll keep all my long winded jabbering here on the blog so I don’t have to write two posts. Just trying to keep you on your toes. Click the image below to see the new pages then swing back here for more info below.
This page was one of the last pages I colored before I took a long break from reMIND back in 2009. I made some minor adjustments to it before posting it and was tempted to dial every color around resulting in a completely new piece. I saw myself opening a massive can of worms so I quickly deleted all the new color tests to stick with the original. It’s hard because I feel like I’ve learned so much about color in the last year that some of my older pages feel flat. I used to enjoy making the colors really flat because it was the only way I knew how. Not saying I’m way better now, just more daring I think.
Well, hope your ready to move forward with the story now. I know I am, and trust me, it gets crazy. More stuff will be revealed soon, so bare with me.
This week I finally finessed 6 pages that have been giving me a run for my money. I finally cracked the color pallet and I’m very relieved. To celebrate, I whipped open my sketchbook and frantically scribbled thumbnails for book 2 of reMIND knowing that it still needed lots of figuring out. I can’t do thumbnails very long because they drain on my brain. I’m happy to say I figured out some of the stranger pages.
On the other hand, I’ve been a bit antsy this week because I should be hearing from the Xeric Foundation soon regarding their decision to give me $5000 in grant money to help print reMIND. If they decide to give me the cash, it will relieve sooooooo much financial pressure on this project. Wow.
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The Phoenix Requiem
So last week I decided to be really bold and email two of the top notch webcomics out there to introduce myself. These guys get hounded by webcomics all the time, trying to share links or get free promotion so I knew I could easily just be ignored. To my surprise, both of them responded right away with kind words about my comic. Sarah Ellerton of The Phoenix Requiem tweeted a link to reMIND the next morning sending over 100 visits alone.
Later that day she plugged my comic on the front page of her site sending a massive throng to devour and savor tender Victuals. I’m super grateful for how willing talented people are to support this project in it’s early stages. If any of you are not already coming from Phoenix Requiem, then you’ve really gotta see what an amazing graphic novel she is doing. It’s massive and very professional unlike 99% of the webcomics out there.
I’ll talk about who the other top notch webcomic is next week.
Oh yeah, since Sarah showered kindness on reMIND I’ve gotten so much traffic that I’ve moved up to number 3 on the ComicBlogElite! I took a screen capture just to prove it.
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T-shirt Update
Last week I was emailed to see if any more shirts were left. I still have about 5 medium and 5 large left. If anyone wants one just donate at least $19 and let me know the size and your address. This pays for shipping and handling too. If you are in Europe (as many of my last buyer were) then please add an additional $9 to your donation to cover the shipping charges.
Recap: $19 for US. $28 for Europe. Only Medium and Large in stock. Here is a picture incase you missed it last time. Front and back.
[EDIT] Only 1 medium and 2 large shirts left now.
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One of reMIND’s true fans, Andy Bailey, sent me an email saying he got his t-shirt. He attached a cool picture of his placement of reMIND postcards at his restaurant in the U.K. Check it out! Thanks for the pic Andy! In case your interested, Andy has a wordpress plugin called CommentLuv. Download it at comluv.com.
If anyone is brave enough, I’d love to see some pics of you wearing your reMIND shirts. I’ll post them here so my 20 fans can appreciate it as well. Come on, you know you want to be internet famous.
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Last but not least, please vote for reMIND at TopWebComics. If you do, I’ll show you a panel of the next page. Here’s a link:
Stellar stuff, really. Really digging the story so far. Talking cats, lizard men, formerly super-red crabs … every Monday is like Christmas for me
Haha. I'm glad you are enjoying it!
great stuff so far. Keep it up. You're getting some nice recognition which is well deserved.
As far as the colors. From my experience as a designer who's done a couple of books, get everything layed out first. Tweak colors and stuff later. I'm sure at the end of the process you'll have another color breakthrough and want to change everything. Just don't get all George Lucas on your comic. =)
Thanks for the advice. I think this is exactly what I needed to hear. I can easily see myself getting all Lucas on this.
That's a great idea about taking a small pass at the end when it's all finished to tie it all together.
sounds like you need to approach it like a movie. (you work in that biz kinda sorta right?) after they do the edit they do all the final color correction and see if they need to reshoot anything.
Makes sense. I do work in movies but I've never been evolved with more than just the initial art. But now that you mention it they do the color timing at the end (where they adjust the final colors).
Thanks for keeping me thinking the right way about this. I'm so close to it that I sometimes don't apply things I should already know assuming it's not the same. Wow, did that make sense?
being too close to a project sucks and definitely can hurt it. one of the greatest benefits of school is the critique to get you to rethink things. once you're out you lose that. I bet on some subconscious level, you created this blog for that sort of reflection on your work to help your process.
you have a lot of good instincts (like designing your comic in spreads like an actual publication instead of single pages like most comics)
one thing that i learned from working on all those big art books was that its best to get all the content in there, then start editing. Everything always dictates what everything else needs and once you can step back, you can really see what you have and what design choices you need to make.
btw….voting for your comic on top web comics is rad because of the bonus art you get once you vote. Nice move. =)
Jason, I like the way this page layout gives the feeling of being trapped. It makes me feel like I am looking at it through prison bars.
Interesting point Mart. I never thought of it this way but it does feel like you're trapped with this layout.
It's all about networking. There's nothing wrong with contacting people on the internet with a large following and making a connection in some manner. It can pay off. Worst case scenario, you don't get a response or they're not interested. So you move on to the next person.
I'm glad that things are rolling in your favor. It's a lot of work, but you can see that work pays off.
Yeah, it is a lot of work. Way more work than most people think a webcomic takes. I've learned that you really gotta love the whole process otherwise it's hard to stay as motivated as you need to be.
You mentioned shirts to the US and Europe.. but what about that big chunk of land above the US? Lil Canada?
Also, when you updated last, your RSS feed on my igoogle didn't update for like, 6 hours after. Any idea why?
Canada is way to cold to wear t-shirts. haha Sorry.
I'd love to send you a shirt in Canada! If you want one, just add what you think will cover shipping to the $19. So if you think it will be $6 more then donate $25. How does that sound?
I'm pretty open to send anywhere I can as long as customs don't get in the way too much.
Not sure why your RSS reader didn't update sooner. I know google has been experiencing strange fluctuations with the feed counts lately, maybe is has something to do with that. Sorry, I'm pretty clueless with all that stuff though.
Bite me :D
These things gain a kind of critical mass after a certain point, it seems! I'm thrilled that your work is getting the recognition it deserves. A lot of the very best in graphic arts flies under the radar, and it is always good to see it emerging into greater recognition. It's very well deserved, I've said so from the start!
–M
Thanks man!
I've enjoyed seeing both reMind grow in popularity. I remember way back when I started reading reMind (back when it was about an inventor girl and her cat) and you were only getting a hundred times the hits that I was, to think that in such a short time the sites popularity has grown to a million times the hits I get, it makes me want to hit you… I mean, every reader is well deserved, congrats!
Thanks man. Yeah, this has been a real ride. AquariumDrinking will definitely keep growing as long as you stick to it and keep spreading the word about it. It's really cool to see how much you have learned and grown as an artist since you started.
Thanks for the kind words and thanks for noticing the art. It's strange to think that when I drew the first page nine months ago it was the first time I had attempted to draw in over ten years and now it's something I do everyday. Every time I finish a new batch of pages I hate the old batch that is currently being posted, I guess that's progress.
Thanks again, can't wait to see mother and son swimming together again next week.
Hi, I'm really really interested in a shirt. But I'm moving from Japan to Texas and it takes a long time. Can I pay now and you can ship later? Is there a medium left?
I'll send you an email and we can work out the details.