12/32 – Epilogue Part Four
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12/32 – Epilogue Part Four

Oct06
by on October 6, 2021 at 3:00 pm
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Guess what Tnemrot fans, I’m finally updating the tumblr again. One page a day until all 24 chapters are loaded. Or, you can buy the books at Comixology or Indyplanet. And while there, why not check out what else I’ve got.

So, we’re finally here at the end. Originally, volume three wasn’t supposed to be the last one, I even had chapter thirteen written and was making plans for volume five, when a thought occurred to me a few months back when we started updating regularly again. Should I keep going? I wanted to, believe me, I still love making this series and if money was no option I’d give Fer whatever he asked for and would even bring in a colourist to help out. But, I realised that there was no way this comic was going to make its money back and maybe it was time to bow out. It’s not any one person’s fault, a combination of a lack of updates, site down times and lack of advertising chased off the small audience we were growing, and while I would never remove them, even I have to admit the early pages are not that great. And the webcomic game is very different from when I started this comic twelve years ago.

With this in mind, I messaged Fer about adding on a four page epilogue to the already longer than normal chapter and he agreed. I’ll go further into this in another blog post, but the epilogue is pretty much what volume four was meant to be (David and Molly’s conversation was actually the first page) and I thought tied a neat little bow on everything.

Will we come back? Maybe someday. After all, Treading Ground is coming back after a ten year hiatus. I’m still holding out hope of doing the second phase of Tnemrot that I had planned since the beginning, and I know how I’d bring back LWI if I could. But in the meantime, this is the end.

As for me, I’m working on some new projects. Fer is currently busy with freelance work but when he gets the chance, we’ll throw something together and maybe kickstart it. Also, my next project, I’m going to wait until I have at least a forty page buffer before I start uploading the comic online.

But before I go, I’d like to say thank you to everyone. To the people who read the comic with ad block disabled when we had ads, to the people who bought copies of the book either online or at cons, to the people who shared the comic around, and to the people who just read Living With Insanity and enjoyed it. And as always, I’m especially grateful to Paul Salvi and Fer Galicia for their tireless efforts to make this comic as great as it was.

Until next time, take care

David

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In an alternate world…

Oct12
by on October 12, 2021 at 3:01 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

So, as I mentioned on the final page, I had a plan for where the series would go after volume three. Volume Four is more solidly planned and volume five was more of a vague idea, but this is basically what was going to happen.

Chapter Thirteen

After Molly moves into her new office, Vanessa comes in to let David know her editor is ready for his pitch. David meets Emily, a middle-aged woman with no sense of playing nice. The pair butt heads but she accepts his pitch, and Molly becomes a comic artist. Meanwhile, Greg, Vanessa and Mike do some odd jobs here and there to pay off their immediate debts, but can’t seem to get ahead. Mike hints that he has a solution.

David heads home and lets Alice know the good news, that he got the book green lit and he got an advance. Alice starts talking about what they could use the money for, but David reveals he spent some of it. She’s about to ask on what when he gets down on one knee. The final page would be a splash of David proposing, and we finally learn Alice’s surname (It’s Tanner).

Chapter Fourteen

We find out that Mike’s plan was to ask Chloe for the cash to pay back the bank so Greg and Vanessa don’t lose their house in exchange for some cleaning jobs. Initially, Chloe isn’t willing due to how they treated Molly, but is convinced to on condition they apologise. The conversation then turns to David’s proposal and Chloe asks how it went. Since Comixology has a three page preview I wanted to wait until page four to say whether or not Alice accepted. She did. David and Alice are at the office, showing off the ring to Fer and Julia. Alice and Julia immediately start making wedding plans while David and Fer only have to get a cake and make invitations.

Meanwhile, Greg and Vanessa go to Molly to make their apology, while Molly is doing her best Gendo Ikari impression. I had a few ideas on what she was going to make them do, all of it humiliating, but in the end all is forgiven and Chloe is now in charge of all their debts. And Chloe has not forgiven them. Alice and Julia get some good service, but watch the price jack up every time they mention it’s for a wedding. When David and Alice compare notes, they wonder if Chloe would be willing to take the debt too, when their account gets a huge deposit as Greg and Vanessa finally pay them everything they owe David for his work on the movie and comic, which covers everything and then some. Being responsible adults, they use the excess to pay for a 75-inch OLED TV.

Chapter Fifteen

Con time. Molly is nervous because they’ll be selling the first issue of her and David’s comic, but Fer reassures her that everything will be fine. We find out that the comic has been selling well enough that Emily is asking for more issues beyond the initial miniseries. What ends up being more of a problem is that Greg and Vanessa have a TV with Ethereal High playing on repeat to try and advertise the movie, but don’t think to chase off anyone who just stands around watching without buying anything. Also, Julia is doing triple duty as a booth babe, changing outfits between Emerald Justice, Ethereal High, and the new comic. Finally, the day is over and it’s time to party. By which I mean it’s time for David and Alice’s Bachelor and Bachelorette parties respectively. I didn’t have anything firmly written down for these, but both parties meet up in the hospital at the end.

Chapter Sixteen

Back when I was hashing this out, it was when the updates were really slowing down, so I was planning on this being the ending, but still had ideas for the future in case I was able to do it. If we were able to keep going, I would have moved some of this stuff to volume five and had this chapter just be about the wedding.

David and Molly go to a book store, where their first trade is on display. She asks David if she can leave the series after the second arc ends so she can draw her own comic, which he agrees to. He and Fer decide it’s time to wrap up Emerald Justice and Fer takes over for the published series. David also goes to see his doctor and they discuss his car accident, which he is now completely recovered from. The weird shit that happened in the Paul strips is confirmed as being his brain damage from the accident, which was always meant to be the explanation. With a clean bill of health, it’s time for the wedding.

I was going to have every old character come back, maybe even bring Paul back and say that he just moved on after the newspaper shut down instead of being killed at the end of his tenure. There are some antics, but the big day goes off mostly without a hitch and the comic would end with David and Alice sitting down after the reception. If this was the ending, there would be a page where characters start joining them and someone would suggest taking a photo of everyone with a drone. The final page would be a two-page spread of everyone waving at the camera.

Volume Five

If this happened, chapter seventeen would be when Molly quit the comic and Fer became the artist. Julia would announce her trip overseas and leave. Also, Mike is the new manager for Ethereal High and moves back into the office. With the income from the new book, plus a new tenant moving in, Alice broaches the idea of quitting her job and becoming a writer like David. He agrees, on condition she has to treat it like a real job and not just goof off. She agrees and starts working at the office.

Chapter Eighteen or so would be when we’re finally introduced to Chloe and Molly’s mother, who is an older business woman who dotes on Chloe but sometimes forgets Molly is even in the room. She generally makes a nuisance of herself and causes problems as she decides to try and make up her neglect to her youngest daughter by forcing David to accept her as the newest occupant. Eventually, Molly convinces her to leave in chapter twenty.

Chapter nineteen or twenty would involve David pitching a new series, kind of like the pitches we included in LWI, and that would get accepted. Alice would shop her manuscript around before agreeing to let Mike be her agent, on condition he has no access to the finances. He comes through and the ending would involve Alice and David in the bookstore, holding up their new respective books.

Volume Six

Alice is pregnant. That’s about as far as I thought ahead.

So, yeah, that was the plan, at least that’s as far as I thought ahead. I hope one day we can tell those stories, properly. But if not, well now you guys know where it was going.

Until next time

David

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Film Made

May30
by on May 30, 2021 at 6:33 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

So, at long last, we finally have reached the end of this arc. Sorry it took so long but hey, we made it in the end.

When I started plotting out possible arcs, the idea of making a movie was one of the first that came to mind, though I knew it was not going to happen right away. It took many forms, Mike coming up with the idea to make an Emerald Justice movie to try and patch the holes while skimming off the top was one; another was for David and Fer to get hired onto a bigger project where even to laymen like them, it was clear the director had no idea what he was doing, and they ended up taking on more and more duties as more and more of the crew quit.

I also wanted to have some stories with the Ethereal High crew, but the original ideas I came up with worked better for one offs, like Fer taking a nap in the office. At one point I had an idea for them to hire David to write an Ethereal High novel, which would lead to creative difficulties, but I didn’t think that would come across very well. Eventually the idea of merging the two concepts came to me during a rewrite of chapter seven and I just went with it.

David was supposed to be more involved as the voice of reason, trying to reel them back from spending too much or having to interpret nonsensical directions so the actors knew what they were supposed to do. It felt too Mary Sue-ish so I cut that. I also went back and forth on the ending, whether or not the film would ever actually get finished and whether or not Greg and Vanessa would actually break up. But that felt too cynical so I went bittersweet. They got it done and patched things up, but now they’re in debt and trying to sell a movie not many people enjoyed.

If I could go back and make changes? I probably wouldn’t have spent so long on the pre-production. We don’t really see much of the filming, which is kind of the point. Imagination is a much stronger tool than if I had written out a script for a bad movie and just thrown the scenes together. Maybe I should have added an extra chapter to the arc, stretched out the scene of David and Vanessa writing a little, had Alice being roped into being a line producer or assistant director, and done more shooting scenes, but I think that might have dragged it out too much and the arc had already taken time away from the entire comic’s premise of the main characters trying to make a comic.

But, overall, I’m happy with the final result.

Let me know what you think

Until next time
David

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A Girl Named Molly

Aug13
by on August 13, 2016 at 7:33 pm
Posted In: Blog, Uncategorized

So I thought about making this post earlier but thought I should wait until today’s page.

Since the soft reboot that started with Fer coming on board, every character has been, in some way, inspired or based on a person I knew. Fer and David, obviously on us with some key differences, Alice was originally introduced because I had a girlfriend at the time I started the strip, and then kept her around for the dynamic. Mike was a combination of two editors I’ve worked with. Julia is a PG version of a writer friend who has a wealth of model stories and a mouth so dirty Tarantino would be shocked. Chloe was inspired by a weird first date I felt I had to put in the strip. Greg and Vanessa are multiple people I’ve known, both personally and through industry gossip, who had too much ambition with too little resources and no one to say no.

Molly is also a combination of people. Me, some people I knew, and a bunch of horror stories I’ve heard online. She’s someone who just gets shit on constantly. For some reason people ignore her or put her second, but it’s always unconsciously and never meant with malice. Because she’s meek and rarely stands up for herself, people always assume she’s willing to go with whatever and when she does reach her limit, she’s brushed aside because she’s gotten to a point where she’s so used to being disregarded she takes it as inevitable.

Her flinching whenever someone calls out to her was from a friend of an ex who acted like that any time he heard his name. He used to get yelled at by his teachers and parents for any odd behaviours caused by his autism. Her skills with art and props come from stories of people fighting depression by just burying themselves in their work. And her mother favouring Chloe comes from an ex I’m glad didn’t last long who played favourites with her nephews very openly. Not being outright hostile, just showering one in presents and junk food while the other got his basic needs and proper discipline.

I think she’s someone we can all recognise and empathise with, either because we’ve known someone like her or just from watching Meg get shit on constantly on Family Guy. Or maybe you are her, in which case I’m sorry to hear that.

I’m glad she’s been getting a good response and I hope that positive outlook continues later on.

David

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Volume 2

May01
by on May 1, 2016 at 10:26 am
Posted In: Blog, Uncategorized

Hmm, I should talk about the story we just finished.

Back in 2013 just as Fer was wrapping up chapter four, he let me know that he’d be too busy to get started on the next chapter right away so I just wrote an outline for chapter five and left it at that. We uploaded Paul’s stuff and then when that got near the end, I realised I needed to get back to work.

After seven pages, I hit a major writing block. Even though I had the next bit planned out I couldn’t get it to work.

Originally the lack of money wasn’t supposed to come out into the open until later, around chapter six or seven. Instead I wanted to give the ladies of LWI a bit more screen time so I had planned for them to have a girls night out with a few hints that the honeymoon was over for Mike and Chloe. But I couldn’t make that work and I was running out of time, so I decided to cheat and threw in Ethereal High.

That ended up changing everything.

With nothing else feeling right, I brought forward Mike’s shady dealings and had the crew realise he was dooming them. The cast was also expanded to feature Greg and Vanessa, wanting to do some stories with a more successful comic since I had some stories in mind that required a bigger property. That was also altered, since originally the movie project would have been Mike encouraging the cast to translate Emerald Justice to the screen, hoping to skim the budget to pay back everyone they owed without David knowing.

Mike breaking up with Chloe was always planned, though she would be less sympathetic. I was dating someone at the time who had grown up in a rich household (Well, rich compared to most people I knew) and had a hard time understanding my lack of funds or that I couldn’t just take time off work to go on a holiday on a whim. It was near the end of our relationship and I was just getting more and more frustrated with her. I’m glad I cut out that stuff, it wasn’t fair to her or Chloe. Painted her in a much worse light than what had actually happened.

Something also changed? Molly was supposed to come in around chapter six. Her bit with redrawing the pages was in my head since chapter four. But with the different direction there was no real way to include her in the story until later on. When I got to the break up I realised the perfect way to bring her in by making her Chloe’s sister instead of some random art student Mike pulled off the street.

Am I happy with how things turned out? Yeah, I think this will work out better than my original plan that kind of stayed similar to book 1. And now book 3 will have more focus on the newer characters in a different situation. It was always planned to be the movie book but this time with a fresher take than the same old, same old.

I hope you enjoy it. And that you liked the previous comics.

Until next time.

David

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Blip TV

Sep19
by on September 19, 2015 at 10:26 pm
Posted In: Blog

I probably should have done this a month ago when Blip shut down but it wasn’t until this page came up that I remembered this (I write the scripts way in advance and sometimes forget them).

Back in early February 2009 I was linked to a top 10 list of dirty jokes in Animaniacs by a guy calling himself the Nostalgia Critic. I decided to check out his website, That Guy With The Glasses, and found a host of other critics like the Nostalgia Chick, the Spoony One, Linkara, Marzgurl and plenty others. The idea of reviewing didn’t really appeal to me since I felt all potential topics were taken but I couldn’t help but wonder just how they made their money since most of them were doing their shows full time. Eventually I learned that they had ads that sometimes didn’t play on my PC for some reason.

In 2010 I noticed a lot of the comments had obviously watched the whole video but were commenting as soon as it went up. I was trying to get myself known as a fan in hopes of spreading LWI to a larger crowd, though mostly failed at that. Trying to get in an edge, I went to blip.tv in search of early episodes and found that you could do more than reviews. You could do original programming (I knew of Red vs Blue’s existence but was not aware of how big it was).

Because I had just finished a course to enter a field that was not hiring, I felt bad about asking my parents for money to learn film, so I figured much like photoshop and writing I could teach myself the basics. My sister had a digital camera that could film so I reckoned I could borrow that when needed. And I assumed I could find actors for free since most of the shows I watched had a volunteer cast. And I was unemployed at the time so there was no need to worry about a schedule. But, with all this, I never filmed a second aside from some vlogs floating around Youtube.

The problem? I couldn’t work out a premise to write that I could feasibly shoot.

I suffered from an overly grand imagination back then. Every comic had to be an epic long runner. Every novel had to span eight hundred pages. And every idea for a show had to require a budget beyond what a Sydney kid living on Centrelink could afford. Elves, vampires, zombies, ghosts, magic. Nothing sounded good to me unless they had one of those elements and I could not reign in my ambition.

Eventually I came up with an idea that could work, but it was years later so I was too little too late. The window had closed and Blip was reportedly paying much less than it had been. I made a go of reviewing comics to get on TGWTG but they closed submissions and my new PC could not handle rendering the files. A few folks on the Misfile forums and I got it in our heads that we should do an animated fan series. I wrote the first two episodes, we were getting ready to record some voices for it, but then we discovered no quality animator was going to give us the time of day on the meager budget we had scraped together.

When I look back, I feel like I screwed up the perfect chance. It was the heyday of ad supported video content and I should have grabbed it while I had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Even though I know I would have sucked as a director and had no clue how to edit a video together, I sometimes look at these people earning their living by creating reviews or original shows and I kick myself a little. Even though I stopped going to That Guy With the Glasses after so many people I liked left and I know many of them had to give up the shows and get day jobs. Even though I know so many people are now screwed because they relied on Blip because their videos get content ID strikes on Youtube.

I know I wouldn’t have been that good. And I always had more interest in making comics than anything else. But I still regret not going for it.

Oh well, at least Living With Insanity is finally on Comixology. And my other comics are going to be there soon too.

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