I guess I'm starting to get into the habit of publishing a journal. I don't care for myspace, livejournal, or anything akin to those websites so I will just stay here.

There is an extra challenge that comes with doing both story and art when it comes to making a comic. Professionals oven divide up the workload among a team of specialists who each reinterpret the story in their own way. The writer writes the plot and dialogue, the pencil artist draws out the frames and layout, the inker finalizes the artwork in ink, and the colorist fills the whitespace with color and texture. This is a nice arrangement, but as I said earlier, each artist, unless the team is fervently devoted to eachother, is trying to say their own thing with their artwork, and only the writer/original creator has any understanding as to how the characters act or the driving events and themes. Granted there are many webcomic artists out there who do it all on their own, a one man band kind of deal, but this is difficult because it means each of those steps has to be done at the same time, and it can be taxing for the individual involved. The lady behind Dan and Mab's furry adventures comes to mind, her story and artwork is fantastically humorous and charming, but she seems to be running herself ragged. I admire her spirit and willingness to update regularly in spite of all the misfortune that falls her, and I wonder if she ever ponders taking a sabbatical to recover. Others seem to offset the debilitating effect of constant work by updating once in a fucking blue moon, as evident by VGcats. Finally, some cut corners to enjoy their health as well as update semi-frequently, like Jolly Jack with Sequential Art, who eschews color and only seems to use a fraction of his talent.

What does this have to do with me, you might ask? I NEVER update, since I am constantly second-guessing myself and I always see the flaws in my artwork and I am terrified to publish anything for fear of it being laughed off as childish work despite 2 and a half years of college education and practice. Well, to be honest, my passion for art started at an older age than most of the child prodigies here. I started drawing seriously when I was around 14 years old, as opposed to others who seemed to make art in the womb using placenta like finger paint. Combined with the rigors of college and life in general and you wonder why I seem to rarely make anything anymore. Again, I keep a draconian standard for my artwork, in which nothing I make seems to be good enough. This is a sort of self-defeating aspect of my life that doesn't lend itself to a public image, but then to untrained eyes I might be a good hack artist, enough to work with minute details in the professional sphere. On the other hand, I have a degree of strength in writing, an aspect I am far less shy about. I enjoy writing and telling stories, I like following themes and motifs and I enjoy crafting a good metaphor every now and then with the casual furor of a nerdy coffee-shop douche. Indeed, most of my characters were born in text long before I drew them out in ink and pencil. I have thought of contacting a fellow artist to help me with projects, but being a bit of a glory-hog, and for fear of elements getting misplaced in psychic transit, I feel more comfortable working on my things myself. I'm not trying to be a dick about this, if I want all of the credit, I have to do all of the work. Perhaps in the future I'll be the writer for another project or something but for now I'll just write these journal entries and scratch out artwork at my own pace.