Well, here we are. The end of Chapter One. Holy crap, I can’t believe I managed to complete a sixty page story without missing a single update. I mean it helped that the first half of the story was drawn two frickin’ years ago, and it was touch and go there at the end a bit, but still! Woo! I finally started Team D.U.D.E., and kept it running for nearly seven months with no missed deadlines or calamities or anything! It’s a hell of an accomplishment for me and I’m feeling more than a little pleased with myself, if I may be so bold. I already hate a lot of it, all the ancient art and writing and many mistakes I made along the way, right to the end, but there are parts I’m fond of and I’m glad I did it, and you can really see the progress from start to finish! And not just in the two year art-jump!

And now, the announcement part. I’m doing things a bit differently from now on. The main point: I am no longer updating TD on a fixed weekly schedule.

Wait, don’t leave! I’m not done yet!

TD won’t be on a fixed schedule anymore, but neither will it be one page at a time. See, it all comes down to the fact that Team D.U.D.E. is a long-format comic with big story arcs divided into specific chapters. Regular 3-4 panel strips, which also tend to be B&W, they’re a whole lot easier to bang out on a schedule. But full-color, full-page comics written with the big picture in mind? Especially when the artist in question is a bit of an obsessive perfectionist and kinda slow? Those take a hell of a lot of time, and the twice-a-week schedule was really starting to reveal itself as damaging to the comic. It got to be where all I was thinking of was the deadline, rushing through things with no joy to make sure there was something online on some arbitrary date. Is that any way to enjoy making art? Not really. Not to mention the fact that long-format doesn’t read too well one-page-at-a-time, for the most part.

So here’s what I’m going to do! TD is continuing, but there won’t be anymore Tue/Thu updates. I will be updating at my own pace, putting up multiple pages at a time (no less than four) as I finish them. This way I won’t feel stressed and like I’m speeding through my work and I can put more effort into the comic, and there’ll be multiple pages to read at once to give the story a better flow and hopefully come off better to you the reader! There’s several great webcomics out there that operate in this fashion, and they’re none the worse for it. It’ll be better for us all around!

There won’t be just big long chapters, either. No matter what my progress on writing/drawing each one, between every chapter will be several one-off comics, maybe even several-page shorts. These’ll be B&W, little for-fun things, a chance to enjoy the characters and maybe get in some development that wouldn’t fit right in a normal story. Maybe I’ll even throw in some illustrations, too. Just because I’m no longer on a specific schedule doesn’t mean I’m giving up on the comic, far from it! There’s multiple options for following the comic too, from this site’s RSS feed to my Twitter account!

To summarize:

• Team D.U.D.E. is no longer on a set update schedule. It will update in 4-8 page chunks as I complete them.
• There will be B&W one-offs and/or mini-comics between every chapter, also updated with no schedule.
• Team D.U.D.E. is far from dead or dying, don’t worry. This is only the beginning!
• You can subscribe to the RSS or watch me on Twitter to keep on top of updates.

I love TD, and it isn’t going anywhere. I’ve got so many more characters I want you to meet and stories I want to tell! If all goes well, this comic will keep me busy for years (and yes, TD will end one day)! This is all to benefit me as a growing writer/artist, and to benefit you the reader with superior product! Chapter Two is already fully outlined and half-written, and it’s already light years ahead of Chapter One in quality.

Do stick around. It’s going to be fun!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Live From T.D. Headquarters!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.