It took most of last week for me to fully recover from the play I had been in. I was just a member of the ensemble, one of almost fifty onstage, but it was exhausting. Not so much the work--our dancing and singing probably only amounted to fifteen or twenty minutes of each show---but the excitement of undertaking such a large project with so many people and the inevitable celebration after every show took a lot out of me! I wanted to grab every moment of fun that I could, and I'm glad I did; but I'd pace myself more if it had involved more than one weekend.
I'm lucky. I was able to adjust my work schedule last week around the occasional nap, or start later and work later as it suited me.
I watched House last night. It was about a genius who intentionally drugged himself to make himself stupider, so he wouldn't have the pressures of being an overachieving writer and thinker. He says at one point, "I'd rather be happy than rich." I could identify with that. While I wouldn't mind being wealthy, the reduction in stress since I moved from being a kitchen designer to being a cartoonist is huge. I was taking anti-stress medication and Prilosec for indigestion every morning at the end of my designer days; a month later I was off both. The ultimate outcome of QlownTown will, I believe, be a very comfortable income--it's growing already--but I've already received the biggest payoff: I'm happy. I don't know how many times I've received an email or had someone tell me face-to-face that the first thing they do in the morning is check their email-box for the daily cartoon. The idea that I'm directly responsible for starting someone's day off right is exciting. I don't feel pressured by this, but I do feel honored. Of course, if I had a dollar for every time someone felt a lift from reading my cartoon...
So, two days before Thanksgiving, as I struggle to get the calendar all assembled for the printer (several months behind schedule, I know!), I'm thankful for being able to do this. I have a wife who works in partnership with me as I build this dream. I have friends, family and readers who encourage me. And I have a bunch of qlowns who make me laugh every day, even if I have to draw them before they can do that for me.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Free shipping
Today (Thursday, November 12th) only, the Cafe Press store (www.cafepress.com/qlowntown) will be offering free shipping on orders on $50 or more. QlownTown merchandise makes a great gift, so grab stuff now and save a few bucks!
Use the coupon code SHIPSHAPE.
Use the coupon code SHIPSHAPE.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Busy busy
When I embarked on the QlownTown adventure, I envisioned sitting at my drawing table playing with cartoon characters, which I would then casually scan, color and upload to the site for automatic release on the proper date. What I didn't envision was discovering that coloring them was as much fun as crayons were when I was a kid, and, as a result, spending hours playing with color and patterns after the initial black and white drawings are done.
This on top of being in Production Week for a play I'm in, doing work to publicize a concert for this coming Sunday, and trying to put the finishing touches on the 2010 calendar. The calendar has become an especially large undertaking since I decided to list a holiday for almost* every day of the year---yes, there are that many. So, after a 4-1/2 hour rehearsal, I found myself putting a cartoon together till 10:45 last night so it could go out to subscribers at midnight.
This is the danger of being only one day ahead on drawing the strip, but I plan to change that after the play and calendar are done. At least doing the play and researching the calendar are both lots of fun.
Interestingly, one involves working with about sixty other people, and the other involves working alone, yet I love both. I can't imagine drawing a comic strip with sixty people, and doing a one-man show would be nerve-racking. If those sixty people worked well together, the cartoon process would go really fast, though.
Anyway, this is the type of week one often refers to as Hell Week, but I think/hope it'll be Heaven and Hell Week. Next week will be Catch Up and Nap Week.
*I may ask people to suggest holidays for the few days that feature, as far as I can tell, no existing holiday or celebration, to be listed on the 2011 calendar.
This on top of being in Production Week for a play I'm in, doing work to publicize a concert for this coming Sunday, and trying to put the finishing touches on the 2010 calendar. The calendar has become an especially large undertaking since I decided to list a holiday for almost* every day of the year---yes, there are that many. So, after a 4-1/2 hour rehearsal, I found myself putting a cartoon together till 10:45 last night so it could go out to subscribers at midnight.
This is the danger of being only one day ahead on drawing the strip, but I plan to change that after the play and calendar are done. At least doing the play and researching the calendar are both lots of fun.
Interestingly, one involves working with about sixty other people, and the other involves working alone, yet I love both. I can't imagine drawing a comic strip with sixty people, and doing a one-man show would be nerve-racking. If those sixty people worked well together, the cartoon process would go really fast, though.
Anyway, this is the type of week one often refers to as Hell Week, but I think/hope it'll be Heaven and Hell Week. Next week will be Catch Up and Nap Week.
*I may ask people to suggest holidays for the few days that feature, as far as I can tell, no existing holiday or celebration, to be listed on the 2011 calendar.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Size matters
I did an escalator cartoon on Sunday that was hard to see. [For those who read it and couldn't make out what was happening, the woman rides the escalator down, but instead of getting off at the bottom, disappears into the escalator, then reappears at the top, presumably riding down and up as long as she wants. I liked the idea as a whimsical reverie on what might happen if one didn't get off at the bottom.]
Actually, I drew it several years ago. I've been so busy lately that I hauled it out of the files, scanned it, touched it up and uploaded it to the site. Then, after all that work (sometimes using an old cartoon takes longer than just drawing a new one from scratch!), I realized that it might be hard to make out the details, but it was too late to do another one, so I left it as is and hoped for the best. I was looking at it on a 24" screen and it was a little small to me, so I could imagine what it'd be like on a small laptop--or, worse yet, a cell phone. Sure enough, some people mentioned that they couldn't make it out and one person thought the woman was male. It's making me rethink the whole approach to doing cartoons. Some of them, I figure they'll be easy to read when they come out in a book, but that doesn't help now, when they're only appearing online. I still have the goal of getting the strip into newspapers, but that'll always be secondary to appearing on the internet, I expect. So cartoons with nice little details may be a bad idea.
I also realized that I sometimes draw the characters smaller than I should in the space I'm using, even as I grumble to myself that I need a bigger area in which to draw, so I'm trying to adjust the way I've always drawn. I'm still grappling with the square vs. strip format, too---doesn't it make more sense to use a square if a lot of readers will be viewing it on a cell phone? As far as T shirts go, I'm not sure. A square can fit nicely on the pocket area of a polo shirt and be relatively discreet, but do most people who wear cartoons on their clothes care about subtlety anyway?
One cartoonist told me, "Do whatever feels natural for the strip. If you tend to do one-panel comics, use a square. Strips tend to be more linear storytelling, with several panels in a strip." I think my natural inclination was always to do a square panel, but my gut has always said, "Do a strip. There are more opportunities in newspapers for strips." So my guts are fighting with my brain, which is bad during flu season.
Anyway, my hope is that all future QlownTown cartoons will be clear enough that you can see everything if you're viewing them on your computer. On iPhones, it may occasionally be an issue, but when that happens, you can check it out at home. Maybe I should offer a special QlownTown magnifying glass in the store...
Actually, I drew it several years ago. I've been so busy lately that I hauled it out of the files, scanned it, touched it up and uploaded it to the site. Then, after all that work (sometimes using an old cartoon takes longer than just drawing a new one from scratch!), I realized that it might be hard to make out the details, but it was too late to do another one, so I left it as is and hoped for the best. I was looking at it on a 24" screen and it was a little small to me, so I could imagine what it'd be like on a small laptop--or, worse yet, a cell phone. Sure enough, some people mentioned that they couldn't make it out and one person thought the woman was male. It's making me rethink the whole approach to doing cartoons. Some of them, I figure they'll be easy to read when they come out in a book, but that doesn't help now, when they're only appearing online. I still have the goal of getting the strip into newspapers, but that'll always be secondary to appearing on the internet, I expect. So cartoons with nice little details may be a bad idea.
I also realized that I sometimes draw the characters smaller than I should in the space I'm using, even as I grumble to myself that I need a bigger area in which to draw, so I'm trying to adjust the way I've always drawn. I'm still grappling with the square vs. strip format, too---doesn't it make more sense to use a square if a lot of readers will be viewing it on a cell phone? As far as T shirts go, I'm not sure. A square can fit nicely on the pocket area of a polo shirt and be relatively discreet, but do most people who wear cartoons on their clothes care about subtlety anyway?
One cartoonist told me, "Do whatever feels natural for the strip. If you tend to do one-panel comics, use a square. Strips tend to be more linear storytelling, with several panels in a strip." I think my natural inclination was always to do a square panel, but my gut has always said, "Do a strip. There are more opportunities in newspapers for strips." So my guts are fighting with my brain, which is bad during flu season.
Anyway, my hope is that all future QlownTown cartoons will be clear enough that you can see everything if you're viewing them on your computer. On iPhones, it may occasionally be an issue, but when that happens, you can check it out at home. Maybe I should offer a special QlownTown magnifying glass in the store...
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