April 9, 2010

How Friends in Fire Came About (Part 3)

To recap, I decided to make a comic that fit the tone of my loss of faith in humanity, by making a comic that was about the regular, everyday, human beings who make the world a worse place. I wanted to make a comic that gets a laugh out of the terrible things and people in this world.

Many of the actions that I take in this comic: the violence, the racism, the emotional abuse, and so on are things that I do not find funny. The violence in episode 161, “Protector In Justice”, isn’t funny to me, but I still use it to derive the “punchline” in the comic. (Hahaha… err… yeah.) If I didn’t make light or have fun with all the things that I hate about this world then it would only depress me. I don’t do it to be edgy or offensive. The only thing that offends me is what’s real. In the first Toxic Avenger movie all of the violence is gratuitous, absurd, and funny. But violence in the real world unnerves me. I have a hard time watching the news due to this. Heck, even the Daily Show saddens me as it cracks me up.

That’s enough of being serious for me, so I’m going to end this here. I can’t think of any other major points that I’ve left off. If you have any questions or comments then email me or write something on a  comic page. Thank you for your time, and always make sure to laugh.

January 29, 2010

How Friends in Fire Came About (Part 2)

The Second Part to the blog from about a week ago…

To recap, I was going to make a comic that was much like ‘Friends in Fire’ that I hoped would somehow make the world a better place. I abandoned it. And around the same time as I started hashing out ‘Friends in Fire’, I realized I had no faith in humanity.

Not really sure why I gave up on people, aside from the obvious answer that most are at least one of the following: stupid, self-centered, lack any type of common courtesy, close minded, racist, etc, etc, etc. As much as I loved the intro to Mike Judge’s ‘Idiocracy’, it’s too realistic and damning to consider merely a joke. If you haven’t seen it, you should at least watch the intro.

Then, I realized after reading a ridiculous amount of webcomics that none of the ones I saw displayed the regular, everyday douchebags as main characters. Even my favorite webcomic, “Something Positive”, has main characters who display various negative aspects, but they’re still good people. They’re someone most people would like to hang out with.

That’s where one of the key parts in making ‘Friends in Fire’ came from. I wanted to make a comic about people, while they might be somewhat likable and funny, they weren’t exactly good people. They had parts about them that I hate in people- Ignorance, racism, cowardice, homophobia, sexism, apathy (coming from the guy who has no faith in humanity), violent, close mindedness, hatred, etc, etc, and etc.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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January 21, 2010

How Friends in Fire Came About (Part 1)

Huh. Normally it takes me much longer to make a blog. Dah well.

Recently, I happened upon a website that had a bunch of dudes who had nothing better to do than bash my comic. Not that me or my comic don’t have it coming at times- It was more of a surprise that a bunch of people thought my comic was worth wasting that much time over. Normally stuff I don’t like, I ignore and move on with my life. But to each their own. It did make me think however.

First off, I thought to myself why I was making this comic. Mainly because I love comics and I had been wanting to make one years before I finally started working on this. But, more than that, I thought about, why this? Why all of this subject matter? Racism, homophobia, drug use, sexual and emotional abuse, and whatever else I can think about. I put a great deal of thought into the comic I was going to make before this one. I was planning on wielding it into a tool to attempt to make the world a better place. That fell through.

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December 29, 2009

On Episode 124, And Me Being An Asshole

For some reason I’ve been keeping track of my blogs. I don’t know why, but I’m sure there was a good reason. So, this makes four.

Warning: May contain some spoilers up to episode 124.

I’m about halfway through Season 3 now. Doing three strips in a week is really helping out the pace, but unfortunately once Season 3 is over with, I will be going back to 2 updates per week. For what I have planned for Season 4, it’s going to take much more time to do each comic. It’ll probably take me more time to do those than the Laser Gun fight in Season 2, and those took me about 8 hours each, at least.

I know some may consider the sexual abuse in episode 124 as a little heavy to put out for an online comic. Baines’ personality is probably the most like myself out of all of my characters, though all of them have parts of me in them. I like Baines alot, but life sucks. More than likely, things for Baines will get worse before they get better. Same with John. The subject matter that all of my characters deal with would not be funny in reality, but I try and find the humor in the bad moments in life for my comic. It’s one of the main aspects I shoot for in ‘Friends in Fire.’ I just want you guys to know what I’ve done, and what I’m going to do, are things I don’t take lightly.

With all of that going on, I understand that I’m opening myself up to criticism. I’ve had less than my fair share so far for my comic, and I know much more is heading my way. Most of it has been constructive, even if it’s a reader telling me I suck at spelling. I know I do. A few compliments along with telling me which parts of my comic suck would be nicer, but I don’t feel the need to have it. I enjoy doing this comic too much and I have more of these characters’ story to tell.

When I am met with criticism, I try and take it in stride, but also have a little fun with the comment. I do enough of the, “Oh, I’m so sorry” or “I’ll do whatever I can to make you happy” bullcrap at work. This may make me sound like an asshole, but this is a place for me above anyone else. I do want massive amounts of people to love my comic, but I’m not going to bend my will to try and make it happen. I will consider opinons of readers, and eventually change any spelling errors pointed out to me. (It may take a few months for me to get around to it, however.) I just want you guys to know that if I come across too strong when criticized that it’s not my intention, and you can tell me if I do. I’m just trying to have a little fun with the situation, and still keep my dignity.

I wish you happy reading! (More for my sake than yours.) :p

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June 28, 2009

Trucking Along

And now blog number tha-ree.

It’s been over half a year now, working on ‘Friends in Fire’, and I have over a dozen comics into Season 2. I’ve really been enjoying it so far, and I’m making a little bit of head way into what I plan on doing with it. Still have alot of thought I could stand to put into it, though. (Especially if I plan on keeping each ‘Season’ 50 comics each… which I do.)  I’ve even plotted out ideas up until the end of next year, but only very specific things, and nothing’s written in stone.

I had forgotten that I had mentioned that I am hoping to make my own comic book. I have been putting thought into making a limited series, probably around 10 books to put on the internet at some time, but that could easily be a year away until I start working on that. I’ve also decided that I would rather draw it myself. Obviously my drawing skills are not fantastic, so that’s the main thing I need to work on for that.

In the mean time, aside from that, I think I may work on getting a short story or two published. I have a few I’ve been sitting on for quite some time, and it maybe time to see if they don’t suck incredibly.

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March 17, 2009

Second, Beyond Random

Finally getting around to my second blog. Whoo!

So, 4 months now. I’m very happy with ‘Friends in Fire’ so far. I can’t complain about the readership either. Mainly because I have no idea how many readers I actually have, but all things take time. I’ll go on another advertising campaign later this month or early next month.

November 11, 2008

Day 1

Here we go!

I’ve been wanting to make my own comic for a long time. I’ve toyed with many different ideas, but I finally decided on “Friends in Fire.” I admit the idea is pretty basic- A group of friends who see the world completely different. It mostly just came down to the tone of the story and how far I was going to go for a laugh. I have no pride, so it’s pretty far.

I’ll be putting up new comics every Tuesday and Thursday, and hopefully after a month or two I can add Sunday strips to the week. As of now, the website pretty much sucks. I’d love it if it was flashy, but I think it fills the basic requirements at the moment. I plan on adding to it and making it more… not lame as soon as possible… logo anyone?