Muskrat Ramblings
“REPEATS,” I repeat, are necessary evil. Let me REPEAT that…
posted by John
Argh! Argh! Nearly two months since I blogged about anything? Bloody hell.
OK. Life’s been busy. VERY busy. But I’m working hard to get things back under control.
Part of “Getting things back under control” means getting ahead on Dork Tower. Which I’m doing. Which is ALSO why there was a repeat (“classic”) strip on Wednesday and why there’s a repeat strip today, and why there will be repeat strips next week.
I try to run repeats only as a second-to-last resort. The LAST resort is, of course, putting nothing up, at all. But for the last few months, work has been so busy that I’ve been drawing Dork Towers virtually the night before they get posted. And sometimes writing them, then, as well. This is not a smart way of working.
So I’ve been building this backlog. And these repeats help, as well. Indeed, this is a nice series to repeat, as:
(a) I figure five-year-old strips are probably “new” to quite a few readers here, and…
(b) Sonia is a character I’ve wanted to reintroduce for a while now. So before I do any new strips with Sonia, running the old ones should bring everybody up to speed. And…
(c) It’s fascinating to me, seeing just how much my style has changed in five years.
There’s lots of new stuff happening in life, and big changes in how I approach my work, be it on the games, in the comics, or on other fronts. And there are several other fronts happening, right now. Good fronts.
Yet the other day, while working on this organizational front, I realized that come January 2012, Dork Tower will be fifteen years old.
FIFTEEN!
In other words, my little web strip will be old enough to start sneaking cigarettes, and Dad’s vodka.
How did that happen? I’m not entirely sure. But there are a few things going on that will (with luck) be completed long before the 15th anniversary of Dork Tower.
The most important one being, a renewed commitment from me, to the strip. Getting ahead of the game, working up new story lines, and tying up old plot threads. Once the comic books start coming out again, the timeline between what happens in the strip and what happens in the comic books should also tie together more consistently.
Another important change is a total redesign of the Dork Tower.com, Kovalic.com and Dr. Blink.com sites. A very, very past due redesign. Complete with ARCHIVES THAT DON’T SUCK. You know, ones that are fully indexed and tagged, with older material being as searchable as the new stuff. With dates that are consistent. With organization that makes sense. WITH BUTTONS THAT WORK.
So, yes…changes are coming. I’ll go into specifics soon. Probably next week. And I’ll introduce some of the folks who are helping to make the changes become a reality. It’ll be hard work, but hard work towards a goal you believe in is fun.
And I’m having fun. Exhausted, sleepless fun. Nervous fun. Uncertain, self-doubt-riddled fun. But fun, nevertheless. I’m excited.
ANYHOO, this was meant to be just a short note, to be expanded upon later. Next week, say. Once I get my act back in gear and keep everyone updated a bit (read: “a LOT”) better.
So, in brief: still alive. Work’s grand. Need to organize. Busy. Deadlines. Treading water. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But – AND THIS IS RATHER IMPORTANT – I’d like YOU to be involved, if you wish. If you have any suggestions as t other ways DorkTower.com could be improved, I’d love to hear them (“Learn how to draw muskrats, dummy” possibly unhelpful. “Get rid of those full-page ads before we can get to the cartoon” very helpful. I hate those, too).
I sure hope you like some of the stuff that’s gonna be coming down the pipeline.
Muskrat out,
PS.Since there are repeats this and next week, here’s a NEW strip I did for the Madison Mallards, whose season began last week, and in whose FINE 2011 program THIS VERY CARTOON MAY BE FOUND. This one. GO MALLARDS!
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