Holy Crap, did I seriously go all of 2021 without writing any kind of update on this page? I mean, yeah, there hasn’t really been that much to report, news-wise, but still. That’s a LONG time to leave my theoretical “homepage” sitting untouched. Well, it’s still only just barely 2022. Still plenty of time to do a news post, right?
…except, once again, there’s not a whole lot to actually say. Far Out There is finally fully re-posted, at least as far as main comics go, enough for me to start drawing new pages on a semi-regular basis. I’ve still got a metric ton of TWC Voting Incentive and Patreon comics left to re-post on the other half of that site, though, and it’s still pretty hard to balance going on a re-posting binge of old stuff and actually working on new stuff. With that in mind, none of the Far Out There book stuff I keep saying I’m working on has gone anywhere. I still want to at least re-draw the first arc specifically as a book, and also draw up a “Far Out There Abridged” plot summary both to serve as a quick intro for the site AND to be a new free giveaway at cons, but getting the rest of the website set up needs to take priority. So who knows?
Speaking of cons, that brings us to the REAL question mark right now: Conventional Wisdom. Site wise, I’m not QUITE done with the old comic re-posting, but it’s getting close. As I write this, there’s about a year’s worth of comics left before I’m all caught up with the main comics, so hopefully that’ll be done pretty soon. But of course, Conventional Wisdom also has its own backlog of Patreon comics I haven’t even started re-posting yet, never mind all those Digimon comics I’ve been throwing all over social media that still need to be collected on the main site. So yeah, as soon as I finally get the old con comics caught up, I’ll set up a secondary Conventional Wisdom page the same as Far Out There has for those other comics. Needless to say, I’ll still be good and busy with this for the rest of the year.
And if I’m REALLY lucky, I might even be able to get seriously started on Conventional Wisdom print projects, because I can get that ball rolling a LOT sooner than any Far Out There stuff. I’ve said this before, but I really REALLY want to get the old Pre-History book of my conventions before Otakon 2008 printed up as a real book with a spine and new commentary and possibly some new comics and all that jazz. Since MOST of the drawn content already exists, I think this project would be the best first try at formatting a real print job… but I’d still need to find the time to actually DO that formatting and writing of new commentary and all that. Oh, and also research options for GETTING a book printed, though I feel like there’s not much point in looking too hard at those options until after I have the project itself somewhat ready to do. Oh, and that’s not even the ONLY Conventional Wisdom print project I have in my brain right now. Eagle-eyed CW readers will remember that I’ve been trying to phase out references to Real World anime in favor of my own fictional franchises, and I’ve got some really wacky ideas for stuff to do with that backlog of fake show concepts. Nothing I would even be able to TRY to do until I got some serious experience at getting simpler print projects finished, mind you, but they’re on the To DO list, and they’re really dang weird! One day, I actually might even have enough stuff to start getting tables in Artist Alley again!
And that’s the big question: How does the future of Conventional Wisdom going to more cons look? …heck, your guess is as good as mine. See, this is one of the big reasons I haven’t been chomping at the bit to make more news updates and whatever. The past few years have REALLY taught me not plan too hard, and that kind of makes stuff like con trips a bit difficult. I did make my “grand return” to the convention scene last year at Queen City Anime Con, so I haven’t given up entirely. And you know what? For all the complaining I do about cons, I really did enjoy being back in the swing of things. I guess I was right about needing an extended break away from everything. But, of course, that break wasn’t exactly up to me, and it still really isn’t. As I write this on January second, I’m scheduled to head back to Charlotte for Ichibancon… and ALSO as I write this, I haven’t been told that it’s canceled or that anybody close to me is sick and I should quarantine or anything like that. But again, life has taught me not to take any of that for granted, so there’s every possibility that I might NOT be there, and that holds true for everything else that may or may not be scheduled for the rest of 2022. The way I feel right now, I’d certainly LIKE to go hard on returning to conventions again. I’m even more open to the possibility to heading back to out of state cons than I EVER thought I would be back in 2020. But I also don’t feel good at ALL about making announcements or even teasing things right now. The best I can say is to keep an eye on my social medias or the comments in whatever the latest Conventional Wisdom comic is and see if I announce anything there. For the foreseeable future, any new plans will only be announced at the VERY last minute, just to make sure they even happen.
Oh, and don’t forget Patreon! That’s probably the biggest success story for me personally in 2021, me FINALLY getting back into a regular groove of posting content on Patreon again. The rebooted Weekly Anime Comics have been going very well, and I’ve been pretty good about keeping a steady stream on blogs coming out, and I even got more Far Out There comics coming out semi-regularly! Of course, it’d be nice if more people were actually paying to SEE it when it all goes up, but you know how it is. If you wait until you’re successful to start getting busy with the work, you’ll never actually end up doing either. It’s just important for me to have the extra kick in the pants for getting content finished, and that endorphin rush of actually finishing ANYTHING is the single biggest motivator I have to get to work on other things.
Ah, and speaking of other things, I WILL tease one additional project I’m toying with: I’ve been awkwardly learning to edit videos over the past year, and it turns out I like it a lot more than I ever expected. If I can get enough website chores done to seriously start tackling my To Do list, I’ll seriously start experimenting with doing Conventional Wisdom in a video form. Nothing hugely elaborate, mind you, I don’t have designs on being the next YouTube celebrity or anything. But I do think it could be good to get more content out in as many mediums on as many platforms as possible, so this could be a good way of getting new eyes on my other stuff. You know, once I actually FINISH that other stuff.
Which brings us right back to the start of all this: I don’t really have much to report, New Year or no New Year. Just a lot of “I’m still working on the same crap I was last year and dealing with the same crap as everyone else.” But I’m still here, and I guess that’s as good as anybody can ask for, right?
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