The emails were all printed out and placed in a hat (well, actually a Glad plastic container). A hush fell over the room (it was very late). The air was thick with suspense as my hand reached in and stirred the contents of the ‘hat’. Who’s email would I pull out? Who would win the drawing? My hand pulled the small piece of paper out of the throng of hopefuls each one crackling in protest at not being chosen. All eyes unblinking, anticipating, waiting as I unfolded the tiny chit that held the name of one whose destiny will be forever altered! And that email belonged to Daniel Lafrance of Toronto, ON, Canada! YAY! It really was that dramatic, people. I was alone but you’ll have to take my word that it was INTENSE!

Daniel, I’m prepping the drawing for shipping and I’ll send it out early next week. Now, for the rest of you email subscribers out there, I have a small consolation prize…desktop wallpaper! It’s a small thank you for your support of this project and with it comes a promise that there will be more giveaways in the coming months. Who knows, maybe it will be YOU next time!

Your link to the wallpaper will be in your email.

Once again, thank you to everyone who participated and helped make this a success. I’ll have updates coming soon, I promise.

Joe

Well, things went well at the big convention this past weekend. I met lots of people, made a few connections and I believe I have started to plant some seeds for future endeavors. There’s nothing to report as yet but I’ll keep you up to date as things develop.

One of the highlights for me was the only panel that I attended, the Act-i-vate Webcomics Panel. In it, members of the Act-i-vate collective talked about the genesis of the group and how working online has changed the way comics are being created and delivered to their audience. It was great to see some of webcomics’ finest talking about the medium in an insightful way; in many ways crystallizing my amorphous thoughts and feelings. All in all it was a very inspirational panel and I left feeling energized and proud to be a part of this webcomics movement.

Some of the key points that really resonated with me revolved around the discussion of monetizing free online content. Many creators cited examples of publishing and selling books through esteemed publishers of content still available online for free! How great is that!? It was also interesting to hear Paul Maybury talk about reworking past pages (something that I am guilty of). In my mind it’s an example of how this malleable medium of the internet allows for artists to let their work develop organically while presenting it to its audience. Comicbooks are static but online comics evolve. Of course, this idea is central to the Process so it’s easy to see why I was so jazzed that other webcomics creators are exploiting the medium in much the same way. Speaking of jazz, Dean Haspiel talked about how, for his strips, he doesn’t necessarily know how they are going to end! Fluidity and openness to improvisation like this are keys to creativity. More and more, these webcomickers are capitalizing on the advantages of the internet to simultaneously deliver content and keep it alive and evolving.

It’s also helped them evolve as creators; propelling their art and storytelling to new levels. They maintain regular schedules of updates that force them to constantly focus and push their stories from week to week. This sort of comics pressure-cooker has so many benefits to an artist. As the old addage says, ‘Practice makes perfect.’ But that’s not all! They actively comment and critique each other’s work as soon as it’s live. Their responses alongside readers’ feedback is almost like opening your studio to the world and having the world tell you what works and what doesn’t! For these reasons, there’s little question in my mind why Act-i-vate is the internet’s premier webcomics collective. Click the link to see what I mean.

Now from the sublime to the mundane, the other piece of news is that I have updated the way comments are handled on the blog. You can now reply to specific comments and receive emails when somebody replies to yours. This is going to be really good for creating the discussions that I hope to have happen here. Lastly, you’ll notice a link to email each post/page. Clicking this will allow you to send content to anyone’s email address. So please take advantage of these new features and participate in this content.

Thanks to the wonders of DivvaFlip technology, Chapter 1 can now be ‘read’ as a virtual book. That means you can digitally flip each page and take in how they work as spreads instead of as single pages. Enjoy!

Yes, I know. I hate to disappoint and I worry that my silence and lack of updates may result in losing people’s attention. Please take heart that my reasons are good and are beyond my control. As some of you already know, I was hit with a major setback thanks to some herniated discs in my neck. The good news is that I’m feeling much better and am now mostly out of pain and have gotten sensation back in all my fingers. Hooray! My plans are to be fully operational in two weeks. Once I get healthy again, it’s time I start taking measures to improve my regularity with updates. It also means the resumption of a severely delayed project, Borrowed Time 3.

Borrowed Time 3 will get cranking again after NYCC but in the interim, I’m working on a short story that will appear later this year. This one’s tuns o’ fun and has been good to help me get back into action. For a hint as to what this may be about, I’ll direct you this way. I’ll have more to say about this as we get closer to show time.

Once that’s in the can and BT3 is in full swing, I’ll resume duties on cardboard theater construction for page 33. The plan is to do double duty on BT3 and this project. Once Chapter 2 closes with page 34, I’ll take a short break during which time, I’ll plot out Chapter 3 and construct a majority of the remaining projected set pieces. With those things in place, I expect to be able to update on a more regular basis. Every two weeks will likely be the schedule but that’s still negotiable.

Something else I am considering is implementing some blogging about the actual nuts and bolts of my thinking behind each page and the overarching themes and motifs of this story. I have been reluctant up to now for fear of spoiling the mystery and discouraging participation. If I reveal too much of my own intended meanings, readers might be content to settle on my ideas and not explore their own. On the other hand, it might inspire some more comments! These have been hard to drum up so maybe if I let you in on my thoughts, you’ll share yours. Does that make sense? If I told you some of the things that have informed my decisions and cast a light on some of the big ideas, would you be more encouraged to tell me your interpretations? I’m curious to know. I always wanted this blog to create conversation and an exchange of ideas so let’s see if we can make that happen.

As April comes to a close, I’ll be shaking the bushes a little to generate more attention for this original art drawing I am having. I expect that there will be some media coverage to help make this happen. We’ll see how that goes but either way, come May 1st some lucky reader will be getting a fine piece of art.

How does all of this sound? Can you hang on for two weeks? I sure hope you do and I’ll reward your patience with tons of intriguing art and mysterious adventure. At the very least, there’ll be some studio shots, perhaps some coverage of NYCC and other fun stuff to boot.

Thanks for being such a loyal fan and reader. You are an integral part of this and I am very appreciative of your valuable time. We’ll be seeing more of each other very soon!

Joe

Oh boy! Just what everybody wants to see more of, eh? Ads! Yup, that’s right, the Process now has ad space available for bidding through Project Wonderful! Project Wonderful is this great idea where anyone wanting to shed some light on their own little corner of the internet can purchase inexpensive advertising by bidding on available space. If you look to the right, in the sidebar, you’ll notice a fresh new graphic and under it you’ll read something like,”Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0.02″. And that is exactly all that it costs for you to start advertising! Isn’t that amazing!? Got a hip blog, flickr gallery or even a burgeoning webcomic of your own? I have banner space available on the page browsers for chapter 1 and 2 as well as what you see here on the blog. The chapter banners are larger and your ad will appear whenever somebody looks at any of the pages (hint: this is where the real traffic is at) making this space the most economical. No matter where you choose to post an ad, they are a perfect opportunity to increase your exposure by hitching a ride on my (ahem) immense digital following! God help you if you need to do that (my following is not so immense after all) but far be it from me to turn away your money! Two cents is two cents! Thanks for your support, folks, and have fun bidding!

Not interested in purchasing advertising? Well that’s just fine, too. You can do your part by simply clicking on any of the ads. Thanks!