5 seconds. I estimate that is how long this page takes if it’s a movie. And you, dear reader, come back for your next 5 seconds as I feed it to you ever so slowly, one drop at a time like Chinese water torture. This is why you are a great audience and I must say thank you often. I must also thank Kailey who is always at the ready to color a page once I finally finish another one.
Part of it is just these action sequences. I get super picky during these scenes and I pencil and delete and re-pencil and rework these pages until I’m happy with the action. I want it to feel cinematic, and in a book I think it will. But read one page at a time it probably feels slow. Or at least choppy. It is like watching a movie on really bad dial up.
If you count the moment Gogs decides to punch that living bear in the face the beginning of this action sequence (and I do), then this action sequence is 29 pages long and it started in October of 2013. I point this out only to highlight two things. I like to spend time in action and I take my time drawing it. Not to mention the busy life I’ve led during that time, but I think if I was working on a less choreographed scene I would not be moving quite as slow. The angles, the backgrounds, the bears… Dickinson poses. There are days I will sit down and pencil out a page and go nope. Delete and try again next time. And the bummer is there won’t be a next time for a while.
But, that is why this comic remains my labor of love. I do it when I can, I do it exactly how I want it and I’m happy that way. Thanks for your patience, your input and your loyalty.
Ethan
great page!
Always worth the wait.
Crud?
he could’ve said “oh poop”
Woo! Another page!
I’m just really glad you haven’t given up on it yet! Too many webcomics say they’re going to reduce their publishing rate and then no one ever hears from them again.
Also, burning hair smells awful, I would imagine that burning dirty bear fur would be worse by an order of magnitude…
Horray for new page and bear pun!
I love this comic, but it’s difficult to remember what is going on when the narrative is updated very slowly and unevenly. I want to be a super fan, but I can only match your enthusiasm and interest in the project. Thanks for acknowledging the Chinese Water Torture aspect of being a fan of this comic. Hope you’re able to give it more time at some point in the future. I’d love to see where it goes.
Has Dickinson has been whittling those spears with his teeth in between pages? In the previous page, they were mostly white (or maybe he was foaming at the mouth?), but this time they are chocolate brown and slightly disturbing…
Anyway, huzzah for the update and many thanks for the comic!
Your talk about action scenes made me think about some of the restrictions of webcomics. I’m reading the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga right now, and the fights with some of the more detestable villains end with the heroes beating them down for multiple entire pages. In the book format it’s really entertaining (and cathartic), but it’s definitely not something I’d want to see in a webcomic. Having multiple weeks of updates doing essentially the same thing would just drag it out for too long.
I know it may seem tough for us, and I really do check every week, but it’s not torture to those of us who’ve been reading webcomics for years. Like was said previously, I’m just glad you’re still going and not leaving us hanging as other comics I’ve loved have (and sometimes it was hundreds of pages in and in the middle of a story arc!!). Anyway, thanks again for this, you’re the bes.
I had read all of Axe Cop and Chumble Spuzz but for whatever reason never thought of reading this. Read up to here in a couple hours and can’t wait for the next page! Keep up the kick ass work!
crud? for some reason I can’t let it go. this page was awesome but I can’t get passed the fact that with everything going on anyone would yell “Crud!”. I tried different ways of saying it and none sound right.
I love how Joel and Goggs are stepping up (and the rest of the gang, but these are the main protagonists). They are growing into men.
Whoa, wait, did they just jump down from the roof onto the car?
I won’t say that I wait patiently for new pages. But I can say I DO wait for new pages, and I doubt I, or many in this crowd, would do that for a lesser comic, right? And yeah… “crud” fell oddly on my ear, but then, I’m no editor. If Ethan says he said “crud”…