Hibernation

So this is my silly way of saying that Girlbot is going on one more hiatus-y thing. I basically have to totally throw myself into A) filling Kickstarter orders as fast as I can and B) finishing Poorcraft before the end of the year. (The last one is an ABSOLUTE MUST.) With just those two things, I just don’t have time to draw Girlbot for now, even filler updates.

With any luck, this is the last time Girlbot will go on for-real hiatus. It will return some time in December. I’m planning on running some guest comics, as well as a winter special, but we’ll see. “Real” updates will probably pick up after the new year.

I hope everyone will understand. This is just very stressful, and something has to give. I’d rather do this than offer crappy, infrequent comic updates.

I’ll post about the books soon. They came out great!

I guess Girlbot ended up going on a more extended hiatus than I originally meant it to. I’m sorry about this! I’ve been hard at work trying to get this Poorcraft dealie done, and I have every intention of getting Girlbot revved back up as soon as I can. It’s just taking longer than I thought it would, as it always does…

The new projected start-up of Girlbot updates is March 6th, which is right after Girlbot’s 3-year anniversary, funnily enough. Just stick with me, folks.

A few items…

1. Girlbot is still on hiatus, and will be, I estimate, until around mid-December. I’m making plans.

2. Just because the comic is in hibernation, that doesn’t mean that I’m not still active online. I post on my Twitter and my Tumblr every day, so please feel free to check those out.

3. I’m making good progress on this work I’ve been doing. A good chunk of Poorcraft is being finished up right now, and I’m readying to send out a big wave of Kickstarter orders next week.

NOT DEAD!!!11!1!1

As some of you may have noticed, the Girlbot Kickstarter reached its goal amount over the weekend! This is great news, of course, and there are still almost two weeks left to raise more funds on top of that. Every little bit helps.

So I hope that everyone who would like a book but has been hesitant to order one will feel free to hop on now. I won’t be putting the books up for sale after this until November, at the earliest, so pledging to the Kickstarter is the best way to ensure that you get one soon after they’re ready. Kickstarter supporters also get free shipping within the U.S., which isn’t something that will be offered once they’re in the store.

All extra money I raise on top of the original amount will go toward making the fulfillment process a little easier on me. Less will have to come out of my own pocket, and I’ll be able to invest more in the future of my business.

So help keep Girlbot alive! Support small business! Give me money!

In what is hopefully good news for both my site and theirs, Girlbot will now be featured as a Sunday comic on the Nerdist blog, taking comic pages I run on this site and reformatting them for Nerdist readers. I’m going through my modest backlog at the moment, but soon I’ll catch up and keep both versions of Girlbot updated at the same pace. Anyway, here’s to a hopefully mutually beneficial arrangement with the possibility of future prosperity!

(I realize that the site may run slowly or unevenly while my server gets used to the new traffic, but I’ll get it worked out!)

I got notice earlier this week that my proposal to the Xeric Foundation was rejected, which is sad-making for sure, but it’s got me thinking about how I’m going to fund the first Girlbot book. I really want to make it happen this year, but the problem is that a bare minimum run of 1,000 books will run me $7,000 American, according to my current calculations.

Now, this is really important to me, and the way I see it, I’m going to need to take a chance on pre-orders if I want to make this happen. So right now, I’m mentioning the idea so that you guys won’t be surprised in a month or so when I start yelling at you about my new Kickstarter project. I’m pretty nervous about the whole proposition, but I think it will be exciting to watch it happen. That is, assuming I don’t just fall on my face in the attempt, which is a definite possibility.

Nevertheless, I’m not discouraged, and I’m going to give it my best shot. You lovely readers have been so supportive of me in the past, and I hope that trend will continue. Check ya later.

So this week, Girlbot will be starting up again after a nice break, but things will be different this time around. I think it will be a good thing!

For one, this is the start of volume two of the story, so the character set-up stage is finally done. I’ll be spending more time doing silly comedy, as well as getting on with exploring the ideas I have for Girlbot, story-wise and world-wise. Girlbot started out as more of an odd gag strip and then grew into something with a story and a continuity, which actually bring me to my second point…

Girlbot will no longer be a comic strip, per se. With the new updates, I’ll be switching to a page format. It will still preserve the same sort of sensibility as the original strips, but it will allow me to do what I want to do more naturally. As Girlbot grew more story-focused, I had more and more trouble fitting a complete idea into a single update. Instead, I settled a lot of the time for chopping an idea up into two or three updates, which caused issues with pacing, and I also think it made it harder for people new to the comic to get interested. With the new page format, the comic will have better story pacing, and I’ll feel less constrained. I also hope that it will cause newcomers to pick Girlbot up that much more easily. Oh, AND the new pages will be drawn at a bigger size than the original strips, which will translate to nicer art!

Now, due to the demands of a page versus a strip, Girlbot will no longer be updating Monday-Wednesday-Friday, as it always has. I’ll be scaling the update schedule back to Tuesdays and Fridays. However, despite the comic having fewer updates, you’ll still be getting almost twice as much material each week as you did before because each page is roughly the equivalent of three strips. I hope that will encourage readers to check back every update to see what’s up.

I’ve been doing my best this past year to keep the comic updated reliably with fresh story, putting a new strip up and sticking as closely to the three-a-week schedule as humanly possible, even to the detriment of my other projects. I kept my promise of a 6-month-long, unbroken update streak, and I’m quite proud of that fact. It wasn’t easy, but I think I proved that I can be trusted to stick with this thing through thick and thin. In light of that, I’m giving myself license to put up filler or miss an update if it becomes necessary. Two pages a week is a large order, and when it comes down to it, Girlbot just doesn’t make me a living. I have to do a lot of work on top of it to pay my bills, despite all the kind people who have helped me out through this comic with their donations and support. Spike and I are getting close to finishing Poorcraft, and there are other comics projects on the horizon for later this year, meaning I won’t always be able to devote as much time to Girlbot as it deserves.

I promise that I’ll do my very best to keep Girlbot up and running, but I may drop the ball every now and then due to there just not being enough hours in the day. Unlike Girlbot, I’m human, and I screw up. So please bear with me, y’all.

All-in-all, this will be a good thing for Girlbot. It means that the story will flow better and actually go faster. It means that it’ll be easier and, I think, more fun to read. And it also means I’ll be able to manage my work load without going bonkers.

I know this was a long-winded post, so thanks to you who actually read through to the end. You’re a peach. See you on Tuesday!

This week, I’ll be moving to a new apartment — FINALLY — and I’ll be posting some very stupid and easy-to-draw comics so keep the site updated. The week after that, I’ll either begin updating the Girlbot story again or I’ll draw more stupid comics, depending on how long it takes me to settle into the new place and start producing new comics.

I’ll keep you guys posted.

Looks like I won’t be able to make SDCC this year, after all. Plans fell through with Poorcraft being out by then, and so there’s just not much reason to go since I won’t have my own book by then, either. Maybe I can make it next year.

So it looks like this summer is going to be pretty much con-free for me, unless something pops up. I’m a little sad, but at least I can use the spare time and brain energy to devote to making more comics, which is the most important thing, of course.

As much as I hate to do it, I can’t make it to SpringCon, the local two-day convention coming up this weekend. I’m tight on one of my final Poorcraft deadlines, and I’m also moving to a new apartment in about a week-and-a-half. Oh, AND I got sick earlier this week.

Suffice to say, I’m just not up to it this year, so sorry to any of you who may have been looking forward to seeing me there. I’ll still be going to FallCon and MIX later this year, though, for you local folks. Also, I guess you could stalk me or whatever??? Actually, no, please don’t do that.

Just a notice that my convention schedule for the summer has changed.

I will no longer be attending Kids Read Comics! due to my own screwy schedule. It’s a fun show, and I hope to be able to go next year. But I WILL be going to San Diego Comic-Con, to help out at the Blank Label booth and just generally bum around. It will be much fun.

Seeya there!