Ramble On

The Dovecote News

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:11:36 GMT

So Dovecote Crest is all up and runnin'! I've been working quite a lot on the website, and my latest project was to fix up Hailey's and my news blogs all proper and pretty. We're updating the news from over at Google's Blogger - you can find mine at inkemu.blogspot.com.

Just wondering, for anyone who sees this journal anymore: would it be better to feed the website news from this account at Livejournal? I know on my old webcomic a few people friended this account to keep tabs on the news. I guess you can do the same from Blogger... But I'm indecisive and also don't know anyone who uses Blogger. So.

Zombie journal!

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:41:53 GMT

I resurrect this dead journal to post news, for any singular soul who may still see it. If you were a Fade to Black reader, I am very sorry for the long radio silence. I'm afraid it is (for the forseeable future) quite dead. It was a wonderful learning experience and I grew a lot as an artist and comic-writer while making it. I do find myself missing the characters sometimes. Maybe one day I will return to them in some other stage of their lives. But for now, a moment of silence for the dear departed.

But from the ashes arises a new project! A webcomic written by Hailey B and drawn by myself, featuring Civil War reenactors - a dandy piece of writing and hopefully a decent piece of art. The website is constructed, if still a bit bare, and the comic is set to launch next week. So go forth and see the Battle of Dovecote Crest!

I flamed amazement

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:24:01 GMT

In a miraculous turn of events, I've gotten into the fall play as Ariel in The Tempest. While I am SO VERY EXCITED to get to fly around on a trapeze and be spritely, this also means that the postponement of Fade to Black is definite.

But the return of said comic is also definite! I have so much going on this fall that I know I'd do the comic badly if I tried to do it. I miss it bunches, though. Come winter break, my college application (singular, ha, I need to get on those backup schools) will be in, the research paper over, Nanowrimo finished, and I'll have two weeks of sweet freedom in which to DRAW.

Come January, these beasties will return.

The Distant Future

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:39:41 GMT

This being my first day back at school, I feel I should probably at least attempt to do something about the situation with Fade to Black. Here's what I've got at the moment:

Having pretty much ignored the poor thing for the past two months, I have not prepared any scripts or done any writing. Unless I'm going to jump into it without any planning, as I have a number of times before (with mixed results), I'll need some time to get the storyline back into shape.

Normally, I'd set a two-week writing time and, in penance for my long absence, set to work, or at least procrastinate until I'm forced to work the night before the two weeks is up. This isn't quite normal, though.

I've just started senior year. This may sound self-contradictory, but because I'm planning on applying to art school, I'd like to spend time this year doing NOT-art, that is, theatre, which I suppose is a sort of art but not the sort that involves lots of locking yourself in a small room alone at night and drawing instead of doing homework. It's more the sort that involves locking yourself in a large dark space at night filled with lots of people and shouting instead of doing homework.

Anyways. While I love doing a comic about theatre, I also love actually doing theatre - and this, being my last year of high school, seems like my last chance to be involved, since theatre in real life is much less forgiving and offers fewer opportunities to random people.

What this blowzy rant comes down to is this:
Two weeks from today, I will post another entry here with my final decision as to whether or not to continue the comic. This doesn't mean forever, but it will mean an extension of my impromptu summer break from now into December. Once my winter break arrives with, hopefully, some respite from the madness, I'll delve back into doing this thing properly and will get things up and running for the start of the new year.

I'm quite sorry about my rather sudden and total implosion. I find that I'm starting to miss my characters, especially considering what I have in mind for them next. I definitely don't miss the 2am, night-before, panicky writing/drawing sessions. I don't want to ruin Fade to Black or my senior year, and I fear that doing both will ruin both. So for the moment I'll tackle things one at a time.

Again, sorry. The most eloquent thing I can come up with to sum up the situation is just... ^^;

i have no memory of the past two days

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:33:36 GMT

Well. I have conquered Livejournal. And now I swear never to ever mess with layouts again.

there is no understandment

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:52:47 GMT

So I've been messing around with the look of this journal. I'm pretty pleased so far, but I've reached a few sticking points and have some questions. How do you get your userpic to show by each entry in the Generator template? How do you get the text color for the entries to be different from the text color in the headers?

Can anyone save me from my conundrum?

the small beeping thing i found in a drawer

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 06:38:43 GMT

CANNOT BELIEVE STOP EIGHTEEN NEXT THURSDAY STOP GUILTY AND UNFULFILLED STOP PLEASE REPLY PROMPTLY STOP
STOP

codiiiiiine

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 01:41:28 GMT

$5300.00

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

Oh, painkillers. You are made from opium. Wisdom teeth = liquidated.

sunburn #4, and abandon

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 06:56:54 GMT

Here's the deal: apparently, I'm functioning at a rate of about 1 comic per week this summer. I would normally promise to get back onto a normal schedule next week, but next week I'm having my wisdom teeth out and other fun things like that. So! I'm going to keep going at this slow and steady pace. One comic per week is guaranteed. I won't ever do less. I might do more. But there will always at least be one, and I think I might try to have it up on Sundays.

Ratatouille: beautiful. So beautiful. Wet hair? YEAH. Wet fur? YES. Rain that changes in density with flurries of wind? YUM. Really excellent, expressive character designs? ABSOLUTELY. Good music? You BETCHA.

Sometimes Pixar just kicks ass. I still need to go see Paprika, though. Should be a good way to offset the CG cuteness of Ratatouille. Traditionally animated insane surreal dream worlds come to life.

seizure

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:18:51 GMT

CG won't let me log in to trigger an early update. Must wait until one in the morning. Comic is finished. Should be up on Saturday or Sunday.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABRAKFSJLKJHDGJH>

trying

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:57:02 GMT

Trying to get a comic up sometime during the day for Friday. CG is having more issues. Hopefully will be able to post by noon-ish.

oh, the struggles

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 21:49:26 GMT

I've uploaded the comic that was supposed to go up on Monday. If CG has decided to behave, it should automatically update tonight, and there will be a comic up on Wednesday as usual. If not, drastic measures will be taken. i.e. I will go cry in the corner and wonder aloud why the internet is so cruel.

sigh

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:26:27 GMT

Comicgenesis makes me die.
DIE.

The updates will happen. Eventually.

Now I'll go console myself with Horatio Hornblower DVDs.

Goodbye.

This has been a long time coming

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:05:54 GMT

Wow. I just don't know. I had every intention of making a comic for Monday. Except... I got back from Ashland on Sunday afternoon, and suddenly... I NEEDED to go to the fabric store because the world would END if I did not make myself some knee breeches. IMMEDIATELY. What could I do? I followed the siren call of my half-mad anachronistic tendencies, and didn't stop sewing until mid-morning today.

I am now richer by an old-fashioned shirt and pair of breeches. I am poorer by two comics.

If I haven't posted a comic on Friday, permission granted to flog me.

Yes.

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:34:27 GMT

There is a comic for today. There is a comic for Friday.
And there are 4000 uploads waiting on a backed-up server.

COMICGENESIS. YOU ARE THE DEVIL.

vs.

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:40:03 GMT

School vs. Job
Job vs. Comic
Comic vs. School
Life vs. All of the Above

It's going to be a bloody fight... And the results are in. Comic trumps School and Life except during finals week when Life trumps Comic; Job trumps School, Comic, and Life; School goes and cries in the corner like a little baby after having been beaten up by Comic, Job, and Life.

The meaning of this horrendous display of blood and guts? No comic during finals. Sorry! Fade to Black will be back on Monday.

comicgenesis = not as good as an orange jumpsuit

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:37:31 GMT

I had a comic ready, uploaded and everything. And then Comicgenesis decided to have a backed-up server with 3,000 people on a waiting list for updates. Hopefully today's comic will go up sometime tomorrow.

issa burfdee!

Mon, 28 May 2007 03:38:05 GMT

Mmmmm. Virtual cake.
A non-comic today in celebration of two years of Fade to Black. (Sorry about the enormous size...) Thanks, everyone, for reading, for letting me mess up, and for putting up with this whole experiment. Here's to the summer, and here's to the storyline! May it eventually become somewhat clear!

Really, I'm sure there was something...

Wed, 23 May 2007 05:01:18 GMT

... but I have no idea what it was. So here's some random occurences for you to chew on:
- There was a SWAT team convention in the hotel I stayed in for my cousin's wedding
- Fade to Black's two-year anniversary is on Sunday the 27th
- My bamboo plant should be more alive than it is
- I'm sure I had something to say
- Gaaaah
- I will stop writing now

crunch

Mon, 14 May 2007 03:47:06 GMT

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. I got a comic ready on time and everything, and now the Comicgenesis server is down. Maybe by some freak accident the comic will update. If not, I'll see if it's working tomorrow morning and try again before school.

Employment Cookies

Wed, 09 May 2007 01:03:27 GMT

As you've probably noticed, the comic is back! Knock on wood, but I am dead set on not missing any more updates. At least for a while.

As of now, I have also checked out of school completely. Another five weeks? Psh, no. I am employed at a restaurant! The sun is out! I'm done with AP Studio Art! One Acts are over! The sun! The employment! The sky! The sun! Employment! Sun! Etc.!

Heck no, I am never going back to school. Especially not for the AP U.S. History exam this Friday. No siree.

Will Work for Squash

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:51:19 GMT

I am on the job warpath. I am so going to get employed, even if it's the last thing I do this summer. I'm going for a bunch of different interviews (which hopefully be different from the one in which the main question was, "Are you a smart-ass?"). I desperately want to work at Pastini Pasteria, which serves the best sqash pasta I've ever eaten.

I actually tried to upload a sketch during school, but failed. Instead, I've taken the daemon quiz over at the Golden Compass website! That book is love. And apparently my daemon is an ocelot. Check it out, you can critique it and everything:
http://goldencompassmovie.com/?7924

Spartaaaaa!

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 04:44:57 GMT

As I should have known, there is totally no comic for today. Tomorrow. This week. Whatever. It's coming back, it just may take some time. The way things are working: Friday after next, my one-act performs. With rehearsals over, AP art done with, and AP history nearly done, I'll have time to get a good start again. In the meantime, I'll post some sketchies and such to this journal. Or something like that.

Also?
300?
Amazing.
Spartans, Greeks, Persians, people... Just in general, that movie was a testament to the human body in all its forms, from the most grotesque to the godly. Such a sense of the physical animal that a human is... Clothing becomes adornment, superficial. It's just bone, muscle, fat, skin, organs; whole or broken, living or dead; just an animal, but one that can THINK.

Between-times

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 04:27:28 GMT

As you may have noticed, the crossover has ended! I hope no one was too confused. Whatever anyone thought, I had lots of fun working on it with Erin, and am a bit sad it's over. It's been a while now since I've worked on the regular storyline, so it will definitely take a few days to write some scripts and get back into the swing of things. I'm thinking about starting back in next week with a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday schedule, just for the sake of some other art projects I need to finish. I'll post another journal on Monday to let you know where I'm at with that. Basically, it'd be nice to have comics next week... But it might not happen.

Random things:
- I was reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night, and was suddenly seized by a surge of ohmyGODiHATEtheseCHARACTERS and I just couldn't read any more Harry Potter ever in my life or I would die.
- Wolf's Rain is a beautiful, gorgeous anime. I think it's from the same studio that did Cowboy Bebop, which is also amazing.
- Take public transportation, turn off the lights, save a polar bear.
- I love the one-act play I'm in. We rehearsed in the school's creepy four-foot high cement-lined wood room and pretended it was a bomb shelter.

Hope?

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:45:44 GMT

Well, I've attempted a re-upload of the comic that didn't go up last week. If the Comicgenesis server doesn't fail (again), there should be a strip up on Monday and updates will follow every day for the rest of the week. Phew! Hope this works... It's been a rocky two weeks for the comic. Don't give up quite yet!