———– (grrr, image broke!) Thanks for stickin' around while I try to tell this story! I know my update output has been lousy, but I'm fixin' to improve that this year. I have the next page done, and now that you know that, it'll put the pressure on me to get a page after that done because I'm going to attempt to make a buffer!!! I dunno if the mega-long pages have made up for the slow trickle of updating, but all I know is when I look and see a page that was like, 3 year ago is only a handful of pages back in the archive I get mad at myself. Should be MORE!!
Thank you Xade! I had that panel drawn, then had an insomnia-induced train of thought to get up and redraw it to make his change back more visually interesting! Glad it was the right choice! XD
Happy 19th anniversary, glad to see the comic still going strong. In regards to update's, for the quality of each page if we could get one or two a month that'd be more than great, so long as it doesn't interfere with your lively hood.
Thank you so much!
Haha there's not much to interfere with, only me getting in my own head and having trouble with the art once in a while. I'm getting so picky/perfectionist to the point that I get discouraged easily when stuff I was excited to draw isn't turning out like I wanted. But, I do have some "good" art days, and try to capitalize on those as much as I can! :)
Believe it or not, that was an afterthought because initially I was just going to do the usual glow effect to imply he switched back to normal, but then I was having trouble sleeping and my brain said "hey, get up now and do this, it'll look nice" so I re-drew the art. I'm very glad that you liked it. :)
Thank you! I've been working on it for 21 years even, but I like to count the web version as the "official" version. Crazy thing is, I still haven't done all the stories in the old version yet... I could draw a lot faster when I drew a lot worse! XD
Congratulations on 19 years of Charby the Vampirate! And remember: Your health and sanity come first! If it's a choice between your health and the comic, it's ALWAYS your health that comes first.
Thank you! Haha, well the comic doesn't impact my health that much it's more being stuck indoors while it's cold that's got my anxiety up. I never tend to experience the art burnout thing, just more frustration that I can't get pages to look the way they do in my head!
Stuff I found out part 2: The length of pages curiously doesn't matter as much as it seems, at least it has never done to me. Yes, they're much more work and generally took me a month or two if I was really fast, but switching back to shorter gags has never really sped things up in the long run. I just drew less in the same time. In the end I did the short ones mainly to relax in between the longer ones. Anyway, it might not work for everyone, because my pages are self-contained episodes rather than part of a big story. One thing, though: I found that keeping one scene in one page can not only do wonders for pacing and comic timing, it also stopped me worrying about whether I could manage to draw the follow-up page fast enough for the main gag to work, and that made the whole thing less stressful. As a reader, I should mention your XXL-size pages have always made up for the wait, but of course I'm biased. ;)
Oh my gosh thank you Paul! Thank you tons for the support and the kind words (and the advice especially!) I'm really touched to hear I inspired ya to get into webcomics, I read that and go "who, me?" because it's such an honor to hear something like that! It really makes all this work worth the effort y'know! I'm very pleased to hear the big pages are well liked too, if I could just do them faster it'd be perfect. I really felt constrained trying to keep things to a uniform size and even though it takes longer, I'm happier just doing as many panels as I feel the need for.
Stuff I found out over the years part 1: Working yourself up by worrying about your update speed leads to a downward spiral of being stressed out that only makes things worse. In fact, doing pages slowly isn't bad at all, because it actually just means you don't want to sacrifice quality for frequency - it's plain to see you'd never do that. It's why I and people like me love this comic. I remember Brösel, a bestselling professional comic artist over here, stating in his autobiography how he is immensely proud that it takes him much, much longer to draw a panel than when he started because he has learned so many cool things about doing art over the years. And that doesn't even include colouring, because he hires someone to to that. I don't know about you, but reading this lifted me up a great deal.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! 19 years is amazing - back then some people still thought the entire internet wouldn't go on for half that long. ;) I know this enervating feeling you describe all too well, because I've been feeling it myself for many years, wearing myself down by going "I'm too slow, I'm to slow...", wondering whether quitting my own habit of producing real mouse wheel wreckers might help things, and being dissatisfied with the increasingly smaller amounts of spare time my day jobs leave me. I'm currently down to posting an "I aien't ded (yet)" drawing a year if anything at all and feeling bad about it, so I might not be an ideal advisor, but while trying to drag myself out of that hole I think I found out a few things that I hope will eventually get me back on track and may be comforting/interesting for you. You see, Amy, I admire the way you keep going no matter what. Charby inspired me to get into webcomics in the first place and continues to inspire me never to give up.
This. This right here is why I've always been fond of Zerlocke as a character. Yeah okay I like me some cheesy over-the-top romantic angst and obsession, but also DESPITE that being a major part of what can take over his senses sometimes, he's still very smart, and VERY clever.
He saw immediately the problem she was in, helped give her the out she needed, considered all angles- like teleportation being a bad idea- and still did it all while using it as an excuse to pretend to be her lover for a few minutes. He's so much more than I think most any other characters in the comic give him credit for; most only seem to see one side of him or another, or refuse to reconcile that they're ALL part of the same man.
Also, Mye, that's some prime real estate on display right there. :))))
Ahhhh! Comment like this is like a blood transfusion, this gives me life! Thank you Lorelai! (And yesss he's one of my favorites to draw for the stated reasons hah hah!) My guy sometimes acts like a ditz and he honestly is kinda, but he is always thinking about things. :3
Agreed. Zerlocke has done some pretty stupid things, usually connected to an obcession or to protect some he cares about. But while those flaws are glaring, his standard actions are clever if not downright brilliant.
Xade at 2:07AM, Jan. 22, 2023
I really like the half changed panel
Amelius at 1:20PM, Jan. 25, 2023
Thank you Xade! I had that panel drawn, then had an insomnia-induced train of thought to get up and redraw it to make his change back more visually interesting! Glad it was the right choice! XD
Vanster X at 11:35PM, Jan. 21, 2023
Happy 19th anniversary, glad to see the comic still going strong. In regards to update's, for the quality of each page if we could get one or two a month that'd be more than great, so long as it doesn't interfere with your lively hood.
Amelius at 1:23PM, Jan. 25, 2023
Thank you so much! Haha there's not much to interfere with, only me getting in my own head and having trouble with the art once in a while. I'm getting so picky/perfectionist to the point that I get discouraged easily when stuff I was excited to draw isn't turning out like I wanted. But, I do have some "good" art days, and try to capitalize on those as much as I can! :)
hariman at 3:04PM, Jan. 14, 2023
Also I really like the "dropping the disguise" effect in panel 5.
Amelius at 1:19PM, Jan. 25, 2023
Believe it or not, that was an afterthought because initially I was just going to do the usual glow effect to imply he switched back to normal, but then I was having trouble sleeping and my brain said "hey, get up now and do this, it'll look nice" so I re-drew the art. I'm very glad that you liked it. :)
Deno85 at 11:58PM, Jan. 11, 2023
Congrats! 19 years, wow!
Amelius at 1:11PM, Jan. 25, 2023
Thank you! I've been working on it for 21 years even, but I like to count the web version as the "official" version. Crazy thing is, I still haven't done all the stories in the old version yet... I could draw a lot faster when I drew a lot worse! XD
hariman at 5:20PM, Jan. 9, 2023
Congratulations on 19 years of Charby the Vampirate! And remember: Your health and sanity come first! If it's a choice between your health and the comic, it's ALWAYS your health that comes first.
Amelius at 1:16PM, Jan. 25, 2023
Thank you! Haha, well the comic doesn't impact my health that much it's more being stuck indoors while it's cold that's got my anxiety up. I never tend to experience the art burnout thing, just more frustration that I can't get pages to look the way they do in my head!
MorbidHex at 6:32PM, Jan. 7, 2023
Congrats on 19 years of an amazing story that's worth sticking around for! Hex is still my favorite character!!!
Amelius at 1:25PM, Jan. 25, 2023
AW thank you!! We need to get back to him, we'll see him very soon though. Not exact very next page but he's "next" in the rotation so to speak!
PaulEberhardt at 8:54AM, Jan. 7, 2023
Stuff I found out part 2: The length of pages curiously doesn't matter as much as it seems, at least it has never done to me. Yes, they're much more work and generally took me a month or two if I was really fast, but switching back to shorter gags has never really sped things up in the long run. I just drew less in the same time. In the end I did the short ones mainly to relax in between the longer ones. Anyway, it might not work for everyone, because my pages are self-contained episodes rather than part of a big story. One thing, though: I found that keeping one scene in one page can not only do wonders for pacing and comic timing, it also stopped me worrying about whether I could manage to draw the follow-up page fast enough for the main gag to work, and that made the whole thing less stressful. As a reader, I should mention your XXL-size pages have always made up for the wait, but of course I'm biased. ;)
Amelius at 1:51PM, Jan. 25, 2023
Oh my gosh thank you Paul! Thank you tons for the support and the kind words (and the advice especially!) I'm really touched to hear I inspired ya to get into webcomics, I read that and go "who, me?" because it's such an honor to hear something like that! It really makes all this work worth the effort y'know! I'm very pleased to hear the big pages are well liked too, if I could just do them faster it'd be perfect. I really felt constrained trying to keep things to a uniform size and even though it takes longer, I'm happier just doing as many panels as I feel the need for.
PaulEberhardt at 8:33AM, Jan. 7, 2023
Stuff I found out over the years part 1: Working yourself up by worrying about your update speed leads to a downward spiral of being stressed out that only makes things worse. In fact, doing pages slowly isn't bad at all, because it actually just means you don't want to sacrifice quality for frequency - it's plain to see you'd never do that. It's why I and people like me love this comic. I remember Brösel, a bestselling professional comic artist over here, stating in his autobiography how he is immensely proud that it takes him much, much longer to draw a panel than when he started because he has learned so many cool things about doing art over the years. And that doesn't even include colouring, because he hires someone to to that. I don't know about you, but reading this lifted me up a great deal.
PaulEberhardt at 7:43AM, Jan. 7, 2023
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! 19 years is amazing - back then some people still thought the entire internet wouldn't go on for half that long. ;) I know this enervating feeling you describe all too well, because I've been feeling it myself for many years, wearing myself down by going "I'm too slow, I'm to slow...", wondering whether quitting my own habit of producing real mouse wheel wreckers might help things, and being dissatisfied with the increasingly smaller amounts of spare time my day jobs leave me. I'm currently down to posting an "I aien't ded (yet)" drawing a year if anything at all and feeling bad about it, so I might not be an ideal advisor, but while trying to drag myself out of that hole I think I found out a few things that I hope will eventually get me back on track and may be comforting/interesting for you. You see, Amy, I admire the way you keep going no matter what. Charby inspired me to get into webcomics in the first place and continues to inspire me never to give up.
MagickLorelai at 4:54PM, Jan. 6, 2023
This. This right here is why I've always been fond of Zerlocke as a character. Yeah okay I like me some cheesy over-the-top romantic angst and obsession, but also DESPITE that being a major part of what can take over his senses sometimes, he's still very smart, and VERY clever. He saw immediately the problem she was in, helped give her the out she needed, considered all angles- like teleportation being a bad idea- and still did it all while using it as an excuse to pretend to be her lover for a few minutes. He's so much more than I think most any other characters in the comic give him credit for; most only seem to see one side of him or another, or refuse to reconcile that they're ALL part of the same man. Also, Mye, that's some prime real estate on display right there. :))))
Amelius at 1:33PM, Jan. 25, 2023
Ahhhh! Comment like this is like a blood transfusion, this gives me life! Thank you Lorelai! (And yesss he's one of my favorites to draw for the stated reasons hah hah!) My guy sometimes acts like a ditz and he honestly is kinda, but he is always thinking about things. :3
ecchi_kitty at 1:46PM, Jan. 7, 2023
Agreed. Zerlocke has done some pretty stupid things, usually connected to an obcession or to protect some he cares about. But while those flaws are glaring, his standard actions are clever if not downright brilliant.
Dragonfire10503 at 2:09PM, Jan. 6, 2023
0.0
Amelius at 1:05PM, Jan. 25, 2023
^_^
HawkandFloAdventures at 11:27AM, Jan. 6, 2023
You changed your thumbnail again it looks awesome :D
HawkandFloAdventures at 10:24AM, Jan. 26, 2023
I like the approach I might try updating mine a bit more often ^^
Amelius at 9:42AM, Jan. 26, 2023
oopf my original reply didn't send, said thanks! I change it every time I update, I always like it to be current!