Just a quick post today. Sorry it’s late and if you couldn’t see the strip — Comic Genesis sometimes decides to not work, and when that happens there’s nothing I can do. Here’s something really cool which makes me feel like I’m a real web cartoonist. Behold!
Hope you liked Friday’s extravaganza of a strip. Eight panels long with zombies and ducks. Not only do you get to read a bit of Jack’s work but you also get to see what Michael’s ducks look like. You may be confused now but everything will be clear. Trust me.
I’ve gotten even more feedback about the design of some of the characters, which leads me to this announcement: I am going to redesign Charlotte and Amy. Not beyond recognition, just a tweak here and there. I hope you’ll like it. The way things are playing out now, you should get to see it some time around Christmas.
I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. I really like today’s strip because it’s really getting at the core of what I want Life on the Fourth Floor to be about: the differences between men and women. And toasters with broadband. Well, this is a comic strip after all, not a soap opera. If you think you can guess what’s going to happen next in the story arc, you’re wrong. So very, very wrong.
I’m writing more of my book today. It needed a prologue, so I’m writing a prologue. Time will tell if it will make it to the final draft. If not, I’ll probably put it on the book’s website should it ever have one. Take care out there in the real world!
Before I tell you about all the good things I’ve been doing just for you, I’d like to take a moment to complain about something nobody else cares about. It really annoys me when people use the phrase ‘on accident’. I come across it from time to time when I read blog posts and articles, so I can only assume it’s one of those phrases like “hold down the fort”, “irregardless”, “normalcy” and “acclimate” that have fallen into common usage despite being incorrect English. Allow me to clarify.
You cannot do something ‘on accident’. That is impossible. You can do something on purpose. You can do something by mistake or by accident but combinations such as ‘on accident’ or ‘by purpose’ are nonsense. Whew! That feels better.
Anyway, like I said, I am always improving. I have fixed the wallpapers page and I’m working on a news post archive. That’s not all, however. A big improvement I’m making is to go back and turn all of the comics into .png files rather than jpegs. I realised today that the new format will take up less space but will be have higher quality and to be honest, the time and detail I have lavished on these comics was too great for some of that detail to not be seen.
Let’s see how it goes. Again, early days, under construction, etc. Have patience with anything crazy. Isn’t it nice that I’m doing these things just for you? I love you just the way you are. Why don’t you make the site your homepage? Then we can be bestest friends forever! What’s more, you will become irresistible to the opposite sex. As if on magic.
I am going to Leeds Festival this weekend but I have Monday off because it is a bank holiday and I work for a bank. I will probably be at least hung-over on Monday but I will be able to improve the site and post another rant anyway. The festival is going to rock. Prepare to throw up the horns, my friends.
I hope, as I write this, that there are four new comics available.
Okay, I am now officially a web cartoonist because I fell behind in my schedule to the disappointment of my readers for the first time. I apologise to fans of Life on the Fourth Floor and each and every one of you. In fact, I’m pretty sure there is just one of you left.
It is no coincidence that the last post on this page, which has not been updated for the past week and a half, discussed my first day of work and the very next day, I stopped updating. My first ever job has hit me like a tonne of bricks. Bricks with grudges. Urgh. I’m getting into the routine of getting up at 6:45 in the morning, catching the bus into the city centre, working until 4:30, getting home and crashing. It’s been nothing but exhausting and intensive training for the past two weeks. I am tired. Anyway, here’s what happened.
I realised as I began to upload the storyline regarding Amy’s virginity that I had left it unresolved. There needed to be more. I drew another strip, inked, scanned and got it onto the site the day before work started. I still needed to draw another strip to resolve the storyline. I considered leaving it and returning to it later but that would have sucked. I assumed, however, that within the next two days I would be able to draw, ink, scan, colour and upload that final comic. Well, working is harder than I thought it would be and my meals have taken up more time than I expected, so I was actually unable to do this.
So then I thought I could catch up over the weekend and humbly apologise on the Monday. However, I forgot about my parents’ silver wedding anniversary on the Saturday, at which I would have to deliver a speech. I ended up writing the speech on the Thursday night and editting it on the train.
After that, I was kidnapped by goblins. They took me to the heart of their mountain kingdom, to the sacred stone which dwelt there. The stone asked me a series of complex riddles and set me three tasks. The first was to retrieve the skin of the serpent of Na’el. The second was to climb to the top of Mount Frightening and steal from its peak the Eyes of Jik. The third was to find a date for the grotesque Beast of Bras’kal. When I answered the riddles and finished my tasks, the goblins led me to a forgotten kingdom within the Forest of Steel. This was the kingdom of the trolls, from which no mortal man had returned. The trolls, seeing that I had proven myself worthy, entrusted me with the magical sword Flameblight, which only hurts evil people. Before I could use it, however, I would have to pass a final test: a test of virtue. To prove that I was pure of heart, I would have to fall on the blade. If I failed the test, I would die. If I passed the test, I would have to take the sword far into the North and slay the frost dragon Grixip.
I can’t remember what happened after that. To cut a long story short, I beheaded the king’s vizier, the kingdom was saved, the trolls’ plot was thwarted and I finally finished the strip. All of the strips which follow it, a buffer of about thirty strips, will now be updated on time. I promise. When the buffer runs out… well, let’s not think about that right now. I need some sleep. I hope you enjoy the writer’s block story arc. If you do, send me an e-mail. If you don’t, send me an e-mail. I feel I will have made it as a cartoonist when I receive my first e-mail giving me feedback for my work. Will you be the sender of that e-mail?