Hi everyone! I've noticed you guys ask a lot of questions in the comments section. Thanks! I've been kind of avoiding answering them because it seemed a little weird to clog up my comments section with my own comments. But hey… here's a forum!

So please ask questions here,and i'll do my best to answer them. When I have time I'll also answer questions from the comments section.

Thanks!

Jake

Ice 9 asked: Have there always been four snakes?

Yeah, there have, although I haven't always drawn all four of them. It's sometimes hard to find places for them to do, so sometimes I just assume they're hanging limp behind her back, asleep, or otherwise out of sight.

Erk asked: Is her name ever going to come up? I'm thinking Lamia would be a good name for her.

No idea. When the strip started I hadn't even considered that she would have a name. It's been pointed out a few times that Medusa might be her name, since “Medusa” is a given name and that she's actually a Gorgon. Who knows? Lamia is pretty good.

Erk also asked: I wonder if she can taste what her hair eats?

That's a damn good question.

Orin noted: her crying seems to be a common punchline about here.

Yeah. I did three strips in a row where she has the same reaction. I was hoping that each time it would build up and be a bit funnier, but I'm not sure if it worked.

That's it for now!

Did she go back to her home dimension or are the mermaids a flashback?

entropy0013
Did she go back to her home dimension or are the mermaids a flashback?

Flashback. The sequence was going to titled “Secret Origin Part 1”, but I forgot.

how is it that your monster in the closet turns out to be the cutest thing i ever saw in a closet? and what about the petrifying stare? or is that yet to come. it's cool he's not too greedy. i know people who would see cages, and dollar signs.

handyhippie65
how is it that your monster in the closet turns out to be the cutest thing i ever saw in a closet? and what about the petrifying stare? or is that yet to come. it's cool he's not too greedy. i know people who would see cages, and dollar signs.

I've been slowly cleaning out my closet since the flood happened and I've actually discovered quite a few cute things, including a stuffed animal from when I was a kid named “Love Puppy”. So yeah, maybe you just have an abnormally non-cute closet?

The petrifying stare is coming. Wait for it.

ok, i guess the mouse in my closet could be considered cute, but the tiny “chocodilles” it leaves behind aren't. when i went to the army, my mom moved and ditched my kid stuff. only memeories now.

Necrolichmon asked a few question by mail. I thought I'd post the answers here.

When did you learn that you could draw like this? I've been drawing for a long time, and working as a professional freelance artist in the rpg industry for the last 5 years. Whatever drawing skill I have comes from years and years of hard work. That being said, I have friends who draw better than I do who have only been doing it for a year or two, so…. I don't really know what to make of that!

What was it that got you started making comics like your medusa comic? What made you want to go in this direction? I've been wanting to make a webcomic for a long time. My first attempt, called Rivious Obscura, died after about 20 strips. I decided to start over on something easier and lighter. Specifically, I wanted to do a strip that I could complete 3 times a week without intruding on my day job! I also wanted to do a comic that combined some of my favorite stuff, like Yotsuba, Pokemon, Final Fantasy and the Zelda games.

What kind of tips do you have for someone starting out with drawing? Draw all the time. Never stop. The more you draw the better you'll get. Make sure you use good tools. Quality paper, a good pen and straight edge will really make a difference. Take some time to learn how to use Photoshop, Gimp or whatever your favorite program is. If you don't know how to do something, whether it's draw a hand or create a photoshop layer… ask. Someone out there knows and is willing to help you. Lastly, try new things. Challenge yourself to draw new stuff. Don't shy away from drawing backgrounds, complicated angles and difficult facial expressions. You'll get it wrong 5 times before you get it right, but it will be worth the effort.

wow, thanks for answering that for me, it helps to get a little info on the creators of my favorite comics and it also helps me understand the comic a bit more seeing where its coming from for me.

First, congratulations on doing an awesome comic. I can't wait to see how the whole thing spans out.

Second, my Q. Why is it that Jake (you?) are not amazed and completely freaked out by the appearance of a Gogon? Or are you just that awesome?

Your A?

Jety Lefr
First, congratulations on doing an awesome comic. I can't wait to see how the whole thing spans out.

Second, my Q. Why is it that Jake (you?) are not amazed and completely freaked out by the appearance of a Gogon? Or are you just that awesome?

Your A?

Thanks!

I think if I came across a monster in my closet in real life I would do what comic me did in the third strip, hide in the bathroom! After that, I think it's pretty easy to adjust to strangeness.

Comic me is probably more awesome than normal me though. Normal me probably would have hit the medusa with a baseball bat.

And then flushed her remains down the toilet.

Jake Richmond
And then flushed her remains down the toilet.

If I ran into one of those things I probably sell it to science. I don't think it would flush anyway. Your toilet would be clogged for weeks. Then what would the plumber say?

Oh my god, you should meet my plumber! he's great. After the toilet flooded he came and replaced it and told me a story about this time he had to fight 100 cats. I won't spoil it though, because I want to put it in the comic.

On the day that MM hit the #1 spot on Drunk Duck Adrian asked: I can't believe how fast you climbed the later..
either you're really good with advertising your work or the cuteness of your Medusa is ALL CONSUMING!

I've given this some thought and here's what I came up with.

- I started big. I originally posted MM over at Webcomicsnation.com (and still do). It was recommended to me that I should try Drunk Duck as well, so when I finally showed up I had 7 or 8 pages done that I could post in one day. I think having so many pages ready to read right at the go made the comic easy to get into. Plus…

- I updated regularly and often. I was posting twice a week at WCN, but immediately upped my output to 3 days a week here at DD. QA lot of people have told me that it seems like every time they check there's one or two new strips. That's key, I think. People will come back if they think you'll have something new.

- I switched to color early on. I have no idea if this helped or not, and I think some people didn't even notice. I suspect that color, at least for my series, makes the story a bit easier to read and richer. It also helps identify the character outside the story. I had someone buy a t-shirt at con this last Saturday because they recognized the medusa on the display t-shirt from across the hall, even though it was mostly just a green blob from that distance.

- I use facebook, twitter, deviant art, live journal, digg and readit to promote my work. Every time I release a new page I make use of each of those resources. I've also included a tweet button and a facebook “like” button right below each comic and encouraged readers to use them. Prior to getting featured on the Drunk Duck home page the most hits I ever received were on the day that I put up those buttons. My traffic doubled, and continued to stay at similar levels because my readers were actively liking and tweeting my strips!

- I also made an effort to be active on this site. I introduced myself on the forum, asked some questions and participated in a few threads. By doing this I learned about the site, and people who read the forums got used to seeing my medusa. I also spent a whole weekend reading comics and commenting on the ones I liked. Besides being a fun weekend I confirmed my suspicion that if you comment on someones comic they are very likely to comment on yours.

- Readers liked Modest Medusa. I think this has been the biggest factor. My readers have been very enthusiastic about the comic from day one, sharing it with their friends and passing it around their parts of the internet. Despite everything else on this list I don't think half of you would have ever heard about the comic if a friend hadn't mentioned it to you, either in person, on facebook, on their favorites list here or by tweeting about it.

Okay, so that's the good news. Here's the bad:

- I designed Modest Medusa to be cute and likable because I know cute and likable sell. Right now you're either saying “Well, duh!” or “How dare you manipulate me!”. Okay, probably not. The point is that I purposely set out too do a comic that I knew (or suspected) would be well received (that I than filled it with pee jokes is beside the point). In contrast, my last comic was a fantasy adventure comic about academics and explorers lost on an expedition to find a new continent. It was a labor of love that appealed to almost no one except myself, and found very, very few readers. The cynical part of myself said "This time do something that people will actually like'. And so I did…

This doesn't mean that catering to what you think readers want is the best way to find an audience. Drunk Duck is full of excellent comics that do the exact opposite and get tons of readers. I just took a shortcut.

- I advertised. I spent $20 on a week of Project Wonderful ads. The results were… mixed. The ads didn't generate nearly as much traffic as I thought they might, but clearly some new readers found the comic, and my page count per day did go up (and stay up) a bit.

My plan is to continue to explore interesting advertising opportunities, but as far s I can tell making use of social media has been much, much more effective for me. The boost from the twitter and facebook buttons was a much, much more effective bump.

- I already have a following. I've been working as an illustrator and game designer for a few years, and I already have a lot of people that follow what I do. Many of these people are professional or semi-professional creative people themselves, and they spend A LOT of time writing about what they like on twitter, live journal, facebook and other places where the people that follow THEM can see it. So I started Modest Mesdua with a fairly large built in readership already.


Was that helpful? Maybe?

I'm trying to work out if Charles has bags under his eyes, half-moon glasses, or a strangely high and thin handlebar moustache. Help? :)

Glasses. I can see how that might not be obvious, and bags under the eyes are a pretty good guess. The mustache would be hilarious.

Marah has glasses as well, in case you were wondering. I guess I added the nose-bridge thing (whatever that's called) for hers, which makes them more identifiable.

Are you ever going to move pass the pee jokes? Because when I see that adorable little gorgon stick her head out of the john, it kind of turns me off. I want to say aww, and eww, and snirk while I hold bile at the back of my throat. And I really can't do both.

In short, my opinion is cuteness and toilet humour do not mix well.

I did a string of pee jokes because the opportunity came up. Once this story arc is over there probably won't be as many.

Damn you for making me love this comic, you manipulative bastard!

Exactly how much of the crazy-ass stories you tell my kids is true? We actually call them Crazy-Ass Jake Stories. If you don't illustrate them, Josie will.

BTW that was prompted by your remark about your plumber and the 100 cats. :)

Did you make a DD account just for this post?

Anyway, I only speak truths. The plumber story is, as far as I know, 100% true. The guys seems super honest, and it has a tone of believability about it. My goal is to work it into the comic at some point.

Ok since she is a Medusa and all, does she know how to turn people to stone or did she never attend that part of monster class?

We don't know yet. It just hasn't come up. I'm actually saving it for a story later on, so this question will get answered eventually.

And yes, she did go to monster school. We'll be covering that eventually too.

Hey, question! I vote for several of my favorite webcomics on TopWebComics.com every day. Like, religiously. I even vote twice some days, when I remember to vote from my cell phone (completely allowed, by the way :)

Modest Medusa actually DOES have a voting gateway set up for it, here:

http://topwebcomics.com/members/votefavorite.aspx?id=12150

About 1000 votes (total for the month) would get you on the first page (Top 100) easily, and probably ranked up in the 50s.

Would you consider asking readers to vote on TWC, maybe starting in April, and see how it goes? Seems to be a no-brainer: free advertising, possible influx of new readers. And with how ferociously supportive your current readers seem to be with MM, I think it could work out really well for ya!

Whether you decide to try the TWC thing or not, I wish you continued success, and I can't wait to see what happens next!

That's a good idea. I think I'll take you advice and try that out for April.

UBER QUESTION! Does Medusa's hair have minds of their own? Cause it seems that way. But it would make more since if the hair was linked to her brain like a hive mind or some shit like that.

Also when we first see the mermaids like the art before the flashback their holding hands so i gotta ask are they lesbians?

goldlegos
UBER QUESTION! Does Medusa's hair have minds of their own? Cause it seems that way. But it would make more since if the hair was linked to her brain like a hive mind or some shit like that.

Also when we first see the mermaids like the art before the flashback their holding hands so i gotta ask are they lesbians?

IT's not clear what's going on with the snakes, is it? Do they have their own minds? Are they an extension of her will and intelligence? It kind of seems like they work against her more than anything. I'll get a round to explaining it eventually, but not before strip 100.

The mermaids? They could be lesbians. Whatever their sexual preference, I think they just like to hold hands.

So that's a “Maybe” on Q#1 and also a “Maybe” and Q#2. You people from Portland aren't very specific. We people form Indianapolis are much more specific. =3

goldlegos
So that's a “Maybe” on Q#1 and also a “Maybe” and Q#2. You people from Portland aren't very specific. We people form Indianapolis are much more specific. =3

We prefer to think of it as being clever.