Tuesday 26 September 2017

September Update – Delays, Set-Backs and Changes






The big announcement this month is not a new project or release but instead a little bit of bad news. My computer recently got hit with a hard drive problem that ultimately resulted in a complete system reset, losing all files saved on the PC.

Fortunately all of my creative work has been backed up, so no damage has been done to my progress on the John Paul Jones Comic, the novel that I'm working on, or any of my other smaller projects you'll be seeing in the coming months.

Most of what was lost was merely, 'stuff'. Some fan art, drawing references, reaction images and save files from older games that don't have cloud storage. Still, this has led to a lot of disruption, with a lot of time being spent on getting things reinstalled, getting my music library back up to date, and so forth. You can probably imagine.

So while no serious damage has been done to my creative output, it is both a physical and emotional setback, and as a result has led me to change some of my plans for this year.

  • Naturally, the John Paul Jones comic has been delayed again. While I don't anticipate it to be impacted too much, I'm not ready to put a hard deadline on myself at this point. More than ever it's status is 'when it's done'.
  • Further Convention appearances this year are now unlikely. Originally I was planning on going to York Geekfest in October, but it appears as though the convention itself has folded. I had a number of other alternatives planned as a fall back, but given current events I'm not sure I'll have time to wrangle anything before the year is through. I will still be heading to York in October with a friend anyway, if anyone is interested in saying hello.
  • The chance of getting an Obscure Comic of the Month column out in time is now unlikely, and this has led me to think about making some changes to the series as a whole. A few of the more recent columns I've worked on were written by the seat of my pants, and recently I've grown a little disinterested in the project. Since I don't want to subject readers to work that I feel is becoming sub-par, I'm putting the column on indefinite hold.
  • Instead I've thought about writing more articles on a variety of subjects in place of Obscure Comic of the Month. These would probably be longer and more infrequent, but certainly with more depth and a higher quality of writing, which I hope will draw a broader audience. I'll still come back to the obscure comics now and again, but more when I have something interesting to say, and less when I'm just trying to fill up a column for the month.

Other than those changes, however, there is still content on it's way. As previously mentioned I'll be appearing on three of next week's Batminute 89' Podcasts and I'll be posting the links right here. There should be a new illustrated short story out for your viewing pleasure before Christmas, and my Ebook series from Less Than Three is planed to continue into 2018.

In the meantime you can find all my usual updates, off-the-cuff thoughts and artwork over on my Twitter, Tumblr and Deviantart, and If you'd really like to give me a boost, consider checking out my book of Illustrated short stories and my Ebook fantasy series.

Thanks for reading.


Jack