I can’t wait for Toy Story 3. This past week my family re-watched Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2, which are such wonderful stories. It seems as though Pixar is the only company who can really get a sequel right. In some ways Toy Story 2 is a better movie than the original. There are so many great moments in the film, and the concept of Woody’s Roundup Gang is just genius. How fun must it have been to design all those old time toys and merchandise?

Jessie’s song always gets my wife to cry. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the “Our Town” song in Cars. Speaking of which, I can’t wait for Cars 2 either. I know some people weren’t as fond of Cars as other Pixar movies, but it’s one of my favorites.

It was seeing Toy Story that originally got my creative juices flowing again after not even thinking about art for years. I even decided at one point I would train myself as an animator. If only I could write like the guys at Pixar, my comic would be a lot better.

The Great Marooned Refresh
I hinted at this awhile ago, but in the last week or so I have been working on refreshing the complete Marooned archive. I’ve talked about the new style of the strip, which is here to stay. Well, the archive has problems. Not only does the style change every so often, but the early artwork was really awful (at least to me). You have to understand I was very new to drawing the characters and hadn’t really had it figured out yet.

Aside from art issues, there are character design and story issues. For example, you might remember Ugo as a floating dude with antennae. That had to go. Captain John alternated between kind of fat and too thin. Colors were inconsistent. Story wise, there were a couple of mistakes in continuity since I had began to solidify the Marooned universe (such as calling the NFF the “agency”), and frankly a couple of really bad jokes (like the second “pickle” joke). So I’m fixing those types of things.

Example of Refresh

On the above you can see that I had forgotten to include the ship Asimov was working on, so that is included, plus Ugo is fixed to be his normal self, and the colors are fixed to the new palette.

I realize many of you may not really care, but I’m trying to grow the strip and I want new readers to have a consistent experience. If you are interested, I essentially started twice. I redid the first two strips before I got to my final style, so those will have to be redone a third time, but they are much better than the originals. From #3 on I have gotten about 11 or so strips redone, so the archive is almost a third completed. I’ll be working on another one today.

At some point in the coming months I will catch up to where the strips are “correct” in my mind and then the whole archive will be consistent from both an art and story point of view. So check out the early strips if you are interested.

Limited Edition Print News
The limited edition print order has gone in and I should be getting a proof back next week. I chose the “what else” comic for this (and did a refresh on it first) for the subject. It will be printed on acid-free rag paper using high quality archival inks, a giclee print - so it will be nice.

There will only be 9 available (#1 goes to me). I will hand number and sign each one. I’ve adjusted the price down, it will be less than $20 although I am not sure how much less, I have to figure out my cost first. Once I get the proof, I will probably post the final information.

Story News
Monday John finally will bit into that Nusnor… I wonder what will happen? In any event, that will effectively end this current story arc. We’ll be moving into some other interesting areas… like who are the Geborga and what is Ugo’s relationship with them? And we’re going to see Ril again pretty soon too.

Doll?
Lastly, I think I’m going to try and work out a Ugo prototype doll this weekend. If I get it done I will post pictures.

I just opened the proof package of the Giclee print, it looks fantastic. The rag paper is really nice and the colors look great. To me it looks better than it looks online. I’d scan it in, but it really won’t do it justice. When I get the actual prints I will photograph one of the full size ones. I think I’m going to price them at $18 + media mail shipping, which I think is more than fair. I won’t make much on them but it will be a nice piece to have if you are a fan. I’ll post the full details when I get the actual prints.

The limited edition “What Else” giclee prints arrived on Friday, so I put a store page and if you’re interested, you can now buy one. As I mentioned before there are only 9 of these available, and I won’t be ever reprinting this strip like this again, so it’s a pretty original thing to have.

A giclee print is the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. It’s a high quality fine art print made on acid-free rag paper. I numbered each one and signed it as well. If you like, I can add a little personalization on it as well.

Here is my version framed (note print does NOT come framed!) - Click for full size hi-res image.

A shot of them sitting loose on my art table:

I wrestled with the price quite a bit. I think $17.50 is a pretty fair price for a signed and numbered piece of this quality. I did some checking around, some other artists offer color prints for $10. These are basically a print like you’d get at Cosco and not full size, nor on archival paper.

Possibly people would prefer that instead of this, so if you would let me know. I will ship them flat protected in cardboard via priority mail, so the rate would be based on where you live, but I’m thinking it would be like 5-6 bucks. I can ship media mail if you prefer.

You can order them with the button right below or on the store page.

Price:
$17.50 + shipping via Priority Mail - includes hand numbered and signed limited edition giclee print, 1 of 10. I will gladly add a little personalization on the print if desired.

Personalization

Happy Friday everyone! Got a few things for you for this weeks Friday Fandom. Firstly, I did a guest strip for Jump Leads and it is running today. Go check it out and let me know what you think. I had a lot of fun doing it for Ben, I love the strip. It was challenging to draw the characters and I’m no match for Jjar, but I’m happy with how it came out.

Speaking of guest strips, David Reddick blew me away and asked me to do a guest strip for Legend of Bill. How cool is that! I got inspired last night and I already have the pencils done. I’ll be inking it today - can’t wait to color it. It will run sometime around Nov. 9th, I’ll keep you all posted.

And further speaking of guest strips, take my wife… please! (A little Henny Youngman for ya). Seriously folks, my wife thinks I’m a nutbag always scribbling away on these strips. She’s always making fun of me and asking me why I don’t marry my computer instead of her. But then….oh HO THEN she did a little guest strip of her own and found out how much fun it was! She was giggling like a schoolgirl when I colored for her, which she insisted I do right when I got home from work! Yeah, NOW who’s hooked on cartooning, hmm? Hmm!? Here’s her strip:

Lastly, I wanted to tell you guys about the wonderful strip Xylia Tales by Barb Jacobs. Barb has more artistic talent in a shaving of her clipped off finger nail than I have in my whole thumb! Seriously, she is an amazing talent. Her pages are visually stunning, from the drawings and the staging all the way through to the detailed color work. I don’t know how she does it. Her writing is wonderful as well, she really knows how to carry a story. The strip is in the fantasy genre. Even if you don’t normally read fantasy, you should still check it out - you very well may find yourself hooked! I know I did. Barb is also a great person, a boon to the webcomic community.

Edit: See, then Barb goes out and proves how awesome she is… check this out! I love it! (Captain John should be so lucky)

Milestone: 50th Strip!

Ok, so Monday’s strip will be #50! Wow, that seemed to go by pretty fast. I didn’t know if I would ever get past 20, to be honest. I don’t know how many of you have been around since day one, but the strip has morphed a bit from a gag strip to a serial with humor. I kind of always wanted it to be that way. I’m happy with the way it’s progressing so I’m hoping you’re all enjoying it too.

I hope to have something pretty special for Monday’s strip. The script is done - there will be some major happenings, so don’t miss it! I’ll also be giving away one of the limited edition “What Else?” prints on Monday to celebrate #50. All you have to do is comment on the strip. I’ll remind everyone on Monday. See you then!