Blitz the Comic Guy

Holy Cats, are we seriously coming up on the One Year Anniversary of me getting my own dot com? And after all that time, I’m STILL not finished re-posting all the old content? I mean, yeah, it’s thousands upon thousands of pages of content, but still, WOW. Don’t worry, this post isn’t to complain about that, I’ve complained enough about it elsewhere. Rather, let’s focus on what stuff I HAVE been doing (because Lord knows providing regular behind the scenes news wasn’t one of them) and what the forecast for the near future holds.

First off, let’s talk Conventional Wisdom, because that’s the biggest question mark. Obviously, there’s still lots of uncertainty about what anime conventions will even look like in 2021, so trying to make plans around the future is a bit… questionable. But in all honesty, that isn’t even the part that’s weighing the heaviest on me. I’ve said this many times in other posts and the Historical Notes on old Conventional Wisdom stuff, but the longer I’m been away from cons, the more I don’t miss it. Like, I guess I do miss it a LITTLE bit, but way less than 2008 Me ever would have thought possible. I miss going to conventions with about the same intensity as I miss that one novelty cereal I used to like when I was 8, mildly and infrequently. The way I feel right now, even if the con scene completely sprang back to life tomorrow, I still wouldn’t want to invest the time or money into actually traveling to something out of town. And I DEFINITELY don’t feel like expending energy on panels or photoshoots any time soon.

So, what? Is the Conventional Wisdom guy finally swearing off conventions? No, I don’t think so. I still say it’s a fascinating spectacle to witness first hand, and a fertile source from which to mine comic material. A train wreck is a fascinating spectacle too, but I would want to go to one every month, or sleep in one for a whole weekend. Basically, the past year has solidified my desire to focus more on original ConCONcon material over the Real Life Journal Comic stuff that was originally Conventional Wisdom’s focus. When cons do come back, I’ll probably visit two a year, maybe three if there’s enough local stuff going on. “Classic” Conventional Wisdom updates about those conventions will still happen, but much shorter than before; probably no more than ten pages. My new focus will be soaking up material for ConCONcon, using the Real Life events as inspiration for the fictional comics, with the Journal Comics being sort of a bonus. Basically, the distinction between “Filler Comics” and “Real Comics” will be flipped around… eventually. Obviously, we still have to have cons to GO to first. If North America just decides cons are over… well, that’s all the more reason to keep drawing ConCONcon!

But that’s all in the vague, fuzzy future. Let’s talk about right now. At the moment, Conventional Wisdom still has the kinda-sorta-almost-weekly ConCONcon 2020 comics, those Digimon comics I’ve posting abroad, Patreon blog posts, and the re-posts of old Conventional Wisdom… the later of which have slowed down considerably. That’s partially because I’ve needed to focus on other things, but largely because it was just getting depressing. It’s honestly one of the things that turned me against going back to conventions again, revisiting all these old memories and realizing how many of them aren’t actually that happy. Don’t worry, though, I’m still gonna finish re-posting everything, with all the proper re-edits and extra commentary and what have you. I just needed a break from it all. The current plan is to do a few more pages of ConCONcon 2020, then wrap that up by mid-December. I mean, I’m obviously not going to post anything else to that series in 2021. This convention may be fictional, but we still respect the Gregorian Calendar, dang it! I’ll probably focus entirely on re-posting old stuff once that (and other things) gets wrapped up, then kick off ConCONcon 2021 sometime afterwards. I have no timetable on WHEN, mind you, partially because I still don’t know what (if any) Real Life convention coverage I’ll have to work around, and partially because of my OTHER project.

REALLY AWKWARD EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: I just realized at the last minute that I forgot to mention Conventional Wisdom on Patreon… which is fitting. If you’ve been a Patron at any point over the past year, you know that Weekly Anime Comics haven’t been a thing for waaaay longer than the past year, and with all the Patreon Exclusive comics from past cons used up, the only Conventional Wisdom material has been blogs. I really AM working on a new model for doing extra comics, though, since those Digimon comics prove I really CAN still do it. The old “Patrons Choose Whatever” model will almost certainly be replaced by some model where I’m the one picking the show, though. Maybe I’ll make a list and let Patrons choose from that? The point is, I’m just not that good at faking it, so it’ll need to be a show I already have some kind of interest in. Whatever the case, I won’t be instituting any major changes until after my OTHER big project is done (Oh yeah, look at me fit back into that pre-written segue!)

Yes, Far Out There still needs to finish re-posting it’s old archive too. In fact, Far Out There needs it WORSE, since I haven’t been doing any new material other than holiday pages and Patreon stuff all year. As I’ve said many times, I DESPERATELY needed the break that this past year forced upon me, but we’re well past the point where I need to start putting new content out again. I HAD hoped to get all the old stuff re-edited and re-posted by the end of this year, then have Far Out There come roaring back to life with another full month of Christmas comics before returning to a regular update schedule. Sadly, it looks like I won’t be able to do ALL of those things. If I really, REALLY focused and did absolutely nothing but re-edit Far Out There pages, I could probably get everything restored by the end of December… but then there wouldn’t be any Christmas pages at all, and you don’t want that. I mean, seriously, even if you aren’t the holiday junkie I am, you do NOT want to miss out on the batch of comics I’m currently working on for this December. Christmas theming aside, there’s some fairly important plot stuff lurking in these pages, and after re-editing old stuff for so long, I’m VERY excited to actually add something new to the world of Far Out There again. So that’s why Far Out There re-posting has slowed down recently, I’ve been working more and more on the Christmas stuff. Aside from the obvious deadlines, I just kind of want to already have everything done BEFORE the Christmas season kicks in, rather than scrambling to finish each page the night before the way previous Decembers always went. Yeah, I know it’s a bit funny to try and carve out more free time to do stuff over a holiday season where going out and doing stuff is gonna be toned down anyway, but it’s the principle of the matter. This is the ONE time I’ll have the option to just not worry about doing regular comic updates and ONLY focus on the holiday stuff, so I’m gonna make full use of this opportunity!

So, long story short, the rest of November will be spent working on these Christmas pages, then I’ll get back to re-editing old comics after that’s done. To avoid any confusion (both for readers and myself) I’ll post the new stuff on all the social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and tumblr) and only put them on FarOutThere.com after I’ve fully caught up on all the old stuff. And when will that be? Well, if the start of December is off the table, then my new target date is February 13^th, Far Out There’s thirteenth birthday. How’s THAT for a lucky date? Ideally we’ll have a special anniversary/”We’re back” page, then regular comics will resume the following week. I know that mid-February sounds a ways off when I say it, but when I look at the number of pages I still have left to re-post (around 400 pages) it honestly feels right around the corner.

And that’s just talking about the MAIN comic, too. I’ll still need to re-post years and years of Top WebComics Voting Incentives and Patreon comics AFTER the main stuff is all restored, which brings me to another bit of lame news. I haven’t decided for certain yet, but when new comics DO start, I’m strongly considering limiting Far Out There to One Page A Week, at least for a while. Like, long enough to do all the other re-posting and get brand new character bios for everybody and all that jazz. If there’s one thing this year has taught me, it’s the importance of avoiding burn out, so I don’t wanna add too much to my plate all over again. In the meantime, I HAVE finally restarted that Jenna comic over on Patreon, and there’s also a pretty sizable Far Out There MadLib comic in the works as well. If I can get enough of the Christmas comics finished ahead of time, I might even manage to get THAT done in time for actual Christmas! Man, for a comic that’s officially on hiatus, Far Out There sure is keeping me busy.

So that’s where things stand at the moment. Sorry again being so bad at keeping everyone apprised of the situation, but this just isn’t the sort of thing I’m very good at. I greatly prefer to just put out content and let it speak for itself… then ramble on in the Author’s Comments afterwards. But yes, stuff is still coming out, more is in the works, and I’m not currently dead yet! Thanks to everyone who still actually supports me over on Patreon, it’s wildly appreciated! And no, I still don’t have any idea why the Edit Comments feature isn’t working over on Far Out There! (Seriously, if anybody out there knows more about WordPress plugins than me, I could REALLY use some advice on that, it’s driving me up the wall.)