If you've been keeping score, you're aware that Out There is close to wrapping up its fifth year. The strip's actual "birthday" is June 12.
You're also most likely aware that an Out There anniverary means another book, and indeed, Book Five will soon be out soon. I'll write a separate post about that when I have more details (such as when it's available for order—it won't be long).
The upcoming week of strips (starting with tomorrow's—May 30) marks the end of Book Five. It also marks another end—it will be the last week that Out There runs six days a week.
It's been a goal of mine since the beginning to add a seventh strip on Sundays, like a "real" comic strip; alas, I'm not headed in that direction. Instead, I'm dropping the Saturday strip. Out There will now run five days a week, more like a typical webcomic.
The reason for this is, after five years, I've failed to hit one of my other goals: for the strip's popularity to reach the point where it becomes my sole source of income. Right now I seem to be in kind of a holding pattern. I'm not gaining any readers. I don't seem to be losing any, either, and that's a good thing—but I'm a long way from quitting my day job (it's a night job, actually, but that's not particularly relevant here).
So maybe Out There isn't going to be my ticket to the big time, after all. Well, damn. Reality does bite.
But I ain't licked yet. I have at first not suceeded, so I'm rarin' to try, try again. That means a second webcomic. It might, in time, even mean a third webcomic. I have ideas. I have inspiration. I have motivation. What I don't have is unlimited time. So something had to give, and it's the Saturday Out There strip.
I wish I could give you a firm date on when my next webcomic extravaganza will hit the Web, but I gotta confess here: it's a long way off. It's still essentially in the planning stages. But having reduced my six-strips-a-week burden by one, I'm hoping the extra time will be put to good use. We shall see. This is still my lazy ass we're talking about.
Thank you for supporting Out There. I hope you enjoy the sleek, stripped-down, no BS, five-days-a-week version. I know I will.
January 10, 2011
And Another One…
The webcomic-writin' machine known as T Campbell tagged me to do a guest shot for his techy-schmechy Widgetitis. Was I out of my element? And how! At square one I didn't know a Winklevoss from a Winkerbean, but an image search or two later I was up to speed, and T's sharp script did the rest.
December 22, 2010
Guest Strips
I did one for Wayward Sons awhile back (shoulda mentioned that then; I'm mentioning it now), and one for Penny and Aggie today. Check 'em out, it's free!
June 28, 2010
The Internet is all well and good, but wouldn’t you feel smarter reading a BOOK?
Even if it is just a book of the same stuff you read on the Internet?
Well, not exactly the same stuff. We here at Out There (we?) think that a printed collection of Web-type comics should contain more than just a bunch of stuff you can already read online for free. So once again, I'm including a never-before-published, 27-page bonus story in my latest book. (Oh, did I happen to mention I have another book coming out? No? I'm mentioning it now.)
As usual, this bonus story will NOT be available online, EVER. (Well, maybe one shouldn't say ever. Let's just say, it won't be online FOR A REAL LONG TIME, and QUITE POSSIBLY never. Good enough?)
Don’t delay! Order the 4th Out There collection, Applying the Rules on an As-Needed Basis TODAY!
Comic-Con International
Since we're being chatty here, I may as well bring up my appearance at the COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL in San Diego, CA, July 23–25. Keenspot booth. #1229. Same as it ever was. Yep, you can get the book there, too (all of my books, actually). Oh, and I've been asked to remind you that if you are going to the Comic-Con, you should check out the KEENSPOT PANEL Sunday at 2 pm, in Room 4. I'll be there, trying to come up with something interesting to say. Maybe you can help me by asking embarrassing questions or something.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The Wonder Of It All, Baby
Early tomorrow morn I'll be hoppin' that freight and headin' up to San Francisco for WONDERCON! You can find me at the Keenspot booth. I'll be the only guy there who looks like me. Buy a book! Stand around and chat! Walk right past and pretend you didn't see me! There's an overwhelmingly vast array of activities available to the discerning convention-goer.
Damn—I just noticed what day it is today. Now nobody's going to believe me. I REALLY WILL BE AT WONDERCON TOMORROW! I PROMISE!
January 12, 2010
Is It That Time Again Already?
Friend of mine was hassling me the other night about never updating the blog section of my website. Man, isn’t it enough that there’s a new comic everyday? Trust me, I’m not bursting at the seams with creativity—the comic strip takes every last ounce I have. Expecting me to churn out a daily strip and say something witty here more than three or four times a year is simply asking too damned much.
Oh, fine. I’ll say something. Happy New Year. There. (You happy now, David? Oh, look. Now you’re famous.)
September 23, 2009
Whimboy Strikes Again
See, I had a feeling something was wrong with embedding my Facebook page in this space from the get-go, but being a novice (even after three years) at the creating-and-maintaining-a-website game, I just couldn't quite put my finger on what. Two Safari users were kind enough to tell me they were going to stop reading my strip if I didn’t get that consarned Facebook page off the site; apparently it was slow to load and when it did it jerked the page down to the bottom while these poor souls were trying to read the strip. Now, I’m sure there’s a way to fix the jerking thing with esoteric coding (not that I’d have a clue how to do it), but the slow loading is probably unavoidable, and besides, none of the other webcomics guys and gals embed their Facebook pages on their sites, and they’re all a lot smarter than me, so there must be something intrinsically wrong with it.
Turns out Facebook has already figured out the “right” way to do what I was trying to do; the “Fanbox” you see on the right is their nifty solution. I think. Actually, I don’t know if it causes the same jerking problem as before, because it never happened on my browser (because I use Firefox; you know, LIKE A MAN). Anyway, I’m hoping everything’s hunky dory now, and that the two nice people who complained will let me know if there’s still an issue, assuming they haven’t dumped Out There for good after having their manhood publicly impugned (actually, one of them was a woman, and I’m just funnin’ ya, kids, I use Safari too sometimes).
September 17, 2009
I’m In
When I give in, I really give in. Having resisted the Facebook phenomenon for so long, you’d think that after all the kicking and screaming was done and I’d finally relented, I’d deign to use Facebook about as often as I use hairspray (those who know me know why I don’t use hairspray, and those who don’t can probably guess).
Instead, I’m buying the whole enchilada. From here on in (until I change my mind, which can happen on a whim), Facebook is my new blog. Look, here it is now.
September 12, 2009
Capitulation
Fine, I give up. If there has to be an Out There Facebook page, then I’m bloody well going to be the one who’s in charge of it. Please ignore the link I posted on September 2, and accept no imitations.
And prepare yourself mentally for the fact that I still consider Facebook to be a waste of my time, so the “official” page will probably have input from me only very rarely. Of course, that’s probably a good thing.
…for another blogging. Been awhile. Over a month. Aren’t you glad I don’t do this very often? I know I am. Can you imagine how lame my Twitter posts would be if I was lame enough to have a Twitter account? Possibly even lamer than everybody else’s Twitter posts, I’m guessing.
Speaking of, if you’re someone who knows me personally (poor you) as opposed to just someone who reads the comic strip, you’ve probably been privy to one of my whiney rants about how much I hate Twitter and Facebook and anything else that people under the age of 105 use and/or enjoy. I just can’t seem to get with the program on this kind of stuff. Well, that’s okay. Maybe someday I’ll see the light. In the meantime, be glad you don’t know me.
I Swear I Didn’t Do it
Well, hold the phone, what’s this then? If I hate Facebook so much, why did I create an Out There Facebook page?
I didn’t.
Someone else did. I don’t know who. I don’t even have a Facebook account. I’m not a hypocrite. I’m not. It’s not myOut There Facebook page. If you are one of my six “friends” who have signed up, I’m afraid you have been deceived—this is an impostor of a Facebook page.
A Cool Thou
Onto something else. A couple of weeks ago the 1000th Out There strip appeared. I was going to make a big deal about this, but I forgot. I’m making a big deal about it now. Well, as big a deal as I make about these things.
Okay, I’m done.
Just One or Two Other Things and Then I’ll Let You Go
Hey, you know those Out There iPhone apps that I used to yak about all the time? Well, they’re still available, but I can’t tell you when the next one is coming out. Not because I haven’t put it together yet—actually I’ve done the next one and the next three or four after that, because R.C. Monroe cares about delivering the goods. But the ball is sadly not in my court—Apple has to approve these things, and Apple likes to take its time. Another thing I have no control over is Apple’s rating or labeling of these apps. iTunes rates Out There as being for ages 12 and up—which is fine— but it also says it contains “sexual content or nudity” and “profanity or crude humor.” That would be okay if Out There actually did have any of that stuff, but you and I both know it doesn’t. Oh well. Who am I to judge content for which I am solely responsible?
Recently I’ve had a few people inquire about purchasing original Out There artwork. I’ve been basically cutting and pasting the same response to all of them, so I figure I’ll post it here so I don't have to keep doing it. Here it is:
R.C. Monroe—Hack
What an artist can get away with in charging for their work obviously depends on how famous they are and how much in demand their work is, and in my case, I’m not very famous and my work isn’t in very much demand. That being said, I’m loath to just give away stuff I poured my soul into, so some sort of pricing system must be implemented. What I’ve arrived at is charging at the rate I used to charge back when I was a graphic artist— $40 an hour.
Original Out There Strip Artwork
I draw each strip on two 9" x 12" pieces of bristol board (2 panels on each sheet). The panel borders and text are done on the computer, so an “original” is just a sheet with two drawings on it… it doesn’t look like a finished strip at all. Often, if there’s a large area that’s supposed to be black, I fill it in digitally rather than on the original. Also, sometimes I’ll scan a drawing and while viewing it on the computer I’ll decide I don’t like somebody’s expression or I’ll notice that someone’s left foot looks like a right foot and I’ll make changes in Photoshop… again, the point is, the “original” is not the finished strip, but a step in the process of what becomes a finished strip.
Obviously, I don’t time how long it takes me to complete each individual strip but I know one typically takes me about two hours, so for an original strip, I ask $80.
Of course, if you’re thinking of buying a whole bunch of strips we can discuss knocking that price down a bit, and I’m probably even willing to haggle over the price of three or four strips.
There are options. If you want the original to look more like a finished strip I can print out the text and stick it on the page; that’s not a major investment of my time so I add that for free.
Full-size copies of Out There Strips
A much cheaper option would be for me to just run a finished digital strip (including the panel borders, text, and graphic revisions) out on my printer “life-size” (the size I draw it) on two sheets of paper. I charge $10 a strip for this, mostly because it takes time and because printer ink is absurdly expensive. Again, if you want to order multiple strips we can discuss a break in the price.
Commissions
Another possibly cheaper and more personalized option is a commissioned drawing—an original pen and ink drawing of one or more of the Out There characters. You tell me what you want, I figure out how long it’s going to take me, and I quote you a price. Typically a drawing like this takes less time than a whole strip (depending of course on how involved it is), so that could go for as little as $20. As far as content, the sky isn’t exactly the limit (i.e, no porn), but if it’s something I feel like I can competently draw, I will. Some people have asked for color work. I don’t really have any way to color my artwork “traditionally”—I do all my color work digitally—so if you want a drawing that’s in color, we’re talking about a color print, not an original, although I would send you the original black and white drawing as well as the color print. Obviously, coloring takes time, and then there’s the aforementioned absurdly expensive printer ink, so I have to charge for all that, too.
May 29, 2011
Not The End, But An End…
If you've been keeping score, you're aware that Out There is close to wrapping up its fifth year. The strip's actual "birthday" is June 12.
You're also most likely aware that an Out There anniverary means another book, and indeed, Book Five will soon be out soon. I'll write a separate post about that when I have more details (such as when it's available for order—it won't be long).
The upcoming week of strips (starting with tomorrow's—May 30) marks the end of Book Five. It also marks another end—it will be the last week that Out There runs six days a week.
It's been a goal of mine since the beginning to add a seventh strip on Sundays, like a "real" comic strip; alas, I'm not headed in that direction. Instead, I'm dropping the Saturday strip. Out There will now run five days a week, more like a typical webcomic.
The reason for this is, after five years, I've failed to hit one of my other goals: for the strip's popularity to reach the point where it becomes my sole source of income. Right now I seem to be in kind of a holding pattern. I'm not gaining any readers. I don't seem to be losing any, either, and that's a good thing—but I'm a long way from quitting my day job (it's a night job, actually, but that's not particularly relevant here).
So maybe Out There isn't going to be my ticket to the big time, after all. Well, damn. Reality does bite.
But I ain't licked yet. I have at first not suceeded, so I'm rarin' to try, try again. That means a second webcomic. It might, in time, even mean a third webcomic. I have ideas. I have inspiration. I have motivation. What I don't have is unlimited time. So something had to give, and it's the Saturday Out There strip.
I wish I could give you a firm date on when my next webcomic extravaganza will hit the Web, but I gotta confess here: it's a long way off. It's still essentially in the planning stages. But having reduced my six-strips-a-week burden by one, I'm hoping the extra time will be put to good use. We shall see. This is still my lazy ass we're talking about.
Thank you for supporting Out There. I hope you enjoy the sleek, stripped-down, no BS, five-days-a-week version. I know I will.
January 10, 2011
And Another One…
The webcomic-writin' machine known as T Campbell tagged me to do a guest shot for his techy-schmechy Widgetitis. Was I out of my element? And how! At square one I didn't know a Winklevoss from a Winkerbean, but an image search or two later I was up to speed, and T's sharp script did the rest.
December 22, 2010
Guest Strips
I did one for Wayward Sons awhile back (shoulda mentioned that then; I'm mentioning it now), and one for Penny and Aggie today. Check 'em out, it's free!
June 28, 2010
The Internet is all well and good, but wouldn’t you feel smarter reading a BOOK?
Even if it is just a book of the same stuff you read on the Internet?
Well, not exactly the same stuff. We here at Out There (we?) think that a printed collection of Web-type comics should contain more than just a bunch of stuff you can already read online for free. So once again, I'm including a never-before-published, 27-page bonus story in my latest book. (Oh, did I happen to mention I have another book coming out? No? I'm mentioning it now.)
As usual, this bonus story will NOT be available online, EVER. (Well, maybe one shouldn't say ever. Let's just say, it won't be online FOR A REAL LONG TIME, and QUITE POSSIBLY never. Good enough?)
Don’t delay! Order the 4th Out There collection, Applying the Rules on an As-Needed Basis TODAY!
Comic-Con International
Since we're being chatty here, I may as well bring up my appearance at the COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL in San Diego, CA, July 23–25. Keenspot booth. #1229. Same as it ever was. Yep, you can get the book there, too (all of my books, actually). Oh, and I've been asked to remind you that if you are going to the Comic-Con, you should check out the KEENSPOT PANEL Sunday at 2 pm, in Room 4. I'll be there, trying to come up with something interesting to say. Maybe you can help me by asking embarrassing questions or something.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The Wonder Of It All, Baby
Early tomorrow morn I'll be hoppin' that freight and headin' up to San Francisco for WONDERCON! You can find me at the Keenspot booth. I'll be the only guy there who looks like me. Buy a book! Stand around and chat! Walk right past and pretend you didn't see me! There's an overwhelmingly vast array of activities available to the discerning convention-goer.
Damn—I just noticed what day it is today. Now nobody's going to believe me. I REALLY WILL BE AT WONDERCON TOMORROW! I PROMISE!
January 12, 2010
Is It That Time Again Already?
Friend of mine was hassling me the other night about never updating the blog section of my website. Man, isn’t it enough that there’s a new comic everyday? Trust me, I’m not bursting at the seams with creativity—the comic strip takes every last ounce I have. Expecting me to churn out a daily strip and say something witty here more than three or four times a year is simply asking too damned much.
Oh, fine. I’ll say something. Happy New Year. There. (You happy now, David? Oh, look. Now you’re famous.)
September 23, 2009
Whimboy Strikes Again
See, I had a feeling something was wrong with embedding my Facebook page in this space from the get-go, but being a novice (even after three years) at the creating-and-maintaining-a-website game, I just couldn't quite put my finger on what. Two Safari users were kind enough to tell me they were going to stop reading my strip if I didn’t get that consarned Facebook page off the site; apparently it was slow to load and when it did it jerked the page down to the bottom while these poor souls were trying to read the strip. Now, I’m sure there’s a way to fix the jerking thing with esoteric coding (not that I’d have a clue how to do it), but the slow loading is probably unavoidable, and besides, none of the other webcomics guys and gals embed their Facebook pages on their sites, and they’re all a lot smarter than me, so there must be something intrinsically wrong with it.
Turns out Facebook has already figured out the “right” way to do what I was trying to do; the “Fanbox” you see on the right is their nifty solution. I think. Actually, I don’t know if it causes the same jerking problem as before, because it never happened on my browser (because I use Firefox; you know, LIKE A MAN). Anyway, I’m hoping everything’s hunky dory now, and that the two nice people who complained will let me know if there’s still an issue, assuming they haven’t dumped Out There for good after having their manhood publicly impugned (actually, one of them was a woman, and I’m just funnin’ ya, kids, I use Safari too sometimes).
September 17, 2009
I’m In
When I give in, I really give in. Having resisted the Facebook phenomenon for so long, you’d think that after all the kicking and screaming was done and I’d finally relented, I’d deign to use Facebook about as often as I use hairspray (those who know me know why I don’t use hairspray, and those who don’t can probably guess).
Instead, I’m buying the whole enchilada. From here on in (until I change my mind, which can happen on a whim), Facebook is my new blog. Look, here it is now.
September 12, 2009
Capitulation
Fine, I give up. If there has to be an Out There Facebook page, then I’m bloody well going to be the one who’s in charge of it. Please ignore the link I posted on September 2, and accept no imitations.
And prepare yourself mentally for the fact that I still consider Facebook to be a waste of my time, so the “official” page will probably have input from me only very rarely. Of course, that’s probably a good thing.
By the way, have I mentioned lately buy my book? I thought not. Buy my book. Thanks.
September 2, 2009
I Guess It’s Time…
…for another blogging. Been awhile. Over a month. Aren’t you glad I don’t do this very often? I know I am. Can you imagine how lame my Twitter posts would be if I was lame enough to have a Twitter account? Possibly even lamer than everybody else’s Twitter posts, I’m guessing.
Speaking of, if you’re someone who knows me personally (poor you) as opposed to just someone who reads the comic strip, you’ve probably been privy to one of my whiney rants about how much I hate Twitter and Facebook and anything else that people under the age of 105 use and/or enjoy. I just can’t seem to get with the program on this kind of stuff. Well, that’s okay. Maybe someday I’ll see the light. In the meantime, be glad you don’t know me.
I Swear I Didn’t Do it
Well, hold the phone, what’s this then? If I hate Facebook so much, why did I create an Out There Facebook page?
I didn’t.
Someone else did. I don’t know who. I don’t even have a Facebook account. I’m not a hypocrite. I’m not. It’s not my Out There Facebook page. If you are one of my six “friends” who have signed up, I’m afraid you have been deceived—this is an impostor of a Facebook page.
A Cool Thou
Onto something else. A couple of weeks ago the 1000th Out There strip appeared. I was going to make a big deal about this, but I forgot. I’m making a big deal about it now. Well, as big a deal as I make about these things.
Okay, I’m done.
Just One or Two Other Things and Then I’ll Let You Go
Hey, you know those Out There iPhone apps that I used to yak about all the time? Well, they’re still available, but I can’t tell you when the next one is coming out. Not because I haven’t put it together yet—actually I’ve done the next one and the next three or four after that, because R.C. Monroe cares about delivering the goods. But the ball is sadly not in my court—Apple has to approve these things, and Apple likes to take its time. Another thing I have no control over is Apple’s rating or labeling of these apps. iTunes rates Out There as being for ages 12 and up—which is fine— but it also says it contains “sexual content or nudity” and “profanity or crude humor.” That would be okay if Out There actually did have any of that stuff, but you and I both know it doesn’t. Oh well. Who am I to judge content for which I am solely responsible?
Recently I’ve had a few people inquire about purchasing original Out There artwork. I’ve been basically cutting and pasting the same response to all of them, so I figure I’ll post it here so I don't have to keep doing it. Here it is:
R.C. Monroe—Hack
What an artist can get away with in charging for their work obviously depends on how famous they are and how much in demand their work is, and in my case, I’m not very famous and my work isn’t in very much demand. That being said, I’m loath to just give away stuff I poured my soul into, so some sort of pricing system must be implemented. What I’ve arrived at is charging at the rate I used to charge back when I was a graphic artist— $40 an hour.
Original Out There Strip Artwork
I draw each strip on two 9" x 12" pieces of bristol board (2 panels on each sheet). The panel borders and text are done on the computer, so an “original” is just a sheet with two drawings on it… it doesn’t look like a finished strip at all. Often, if there’s a large area that’s supposed to be black, I fill it in digitally rather than on the original. Also, sometimes I’ll scan a drawing and while viewing it on the computer I’ll decide I don’t like somebody’s expression or I’ll notice that someone’s left foot looks like a right foot and I’ll make changes in Photoshop… again, the point is, the “original” is not the finished strip, but a step in the process of what becomes a finished strip.
Obviously, I don’t time how long it takes me to complete each individual strip but I know one typically takes me about two hours, so for an original strip, I ask $80.
Of course, if you’re thinking of buying a whole bunch of strips we can discuss knocking that price down a bit, and I’m probably even willing to haggle over the price of three or four strips.
There are options. If you want the original to look more like a finished strip I can print out the text and stick it on the page; that’s not a major investment of my time so I add that for free.
Full-size copies of Out There Strips
A much cheaper option would be for me to just run a finished digital strip (including the panel borders, text, and graphic revisions) out on my printer “life-size” (the size I draw it) on two sheets of paper. I charge $10 a strip for this, mostly because it takes time and because printer ink is absurdly expensive. Again, if you want to order multiple strips we can discuss a break in the price.
Commissions
Another possibly cheaper and more personalized option is a commissioned drawing—an original pen and ink drawing of one or more of the Out There characters. You tell me what you want, I figure out how long it’s going to take me, and I quote you a price. Typically a drawing like this takes less time than a whole strip (depending of course on how involved it is), so that could go for as little as $20. As far as content, the sky isn’t exactly the limit (i.e, no porn), but if it’s something I feel like I can competently draw, I will. Some people have asked for color work. I don’t really have any way to color my artwork “traditionally”—I do all my color work digitally—so if you want a drawing that’s in color, we’re talking about a color print, not an original, although I would send you the original black and white drawing as well as the color print. Obviously, coloring takes time, and then there’s the aforementioned absurdly expensive printer ink, so I have to charge for all that, too.
E-mail me if you’re interested. Thank you.
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