Lunar Diaries Update-a-Tron

LD Progress Update #1

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:25:03 GMT

So right now I'm still in the state of gutting the old iStrip system from Lunar Diaries and replacing the backend. Unfortunately, iStrip didn't come with an uninstall script, so I just trashed the files and directories and the mySQL container probably doesn't have alot of data anyhow, so I'll leave those alone for now and just add new tables for my new system.

By the weekend I'll have the new system in place and then start working on some new graphics plus the next pages. First part though is that the site was badly in need of a overhaul in terms of design and tech. Now that I'm paying attention to my own traffic, SEO, current design rules, and advertising, I realize that I could turn LD into more han just a place to read the comic and grow it into a larger avenue as a portfolio and art experience for visitors as well.

I'm also starting to transition to WordPress to leverage its powerful blogging tools as well. I'm not giving up on LJ for while, so for now Wordpress will mirror this blog and connect directly into my new site structure. Keeping up one blog is hard enough! And I'll probably kick Blogger to the curb now too (I made a blog on there years ago, just nerdy rantings).

Anyways, back to work!

Upcoming Plans for 2008

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:27:28 GMT

So time is flying and I have somehow managed not to do a single new page in almost 8 months?!?! Well this won't stand. This weekend I plan to put up a curtain to do some tweaks on the site and hopefully install a new gallery system to handle images. I'm still probably going to stick with iStrip for serving up the pages as its served me pretty well and I don't see a need for a new system unless someone know of something cooler.

I'll have to peruse the web comics domain and see what's going on. Also in terms of other things going on in my online life. I'm pulling my Blogger account out of mothballs to use to discuss non comic-related material and general stuff. Plus there is updating my deviantart site as well.

Somehow I'll have to find a way to link between everything. My deviantart page is here Lunar Diaries deviantArt page.

Anyways once I get some tweaks and re-skinning done I will have a couple of pages to go with it and jump the story to a more interesting point that I think everyone has had enough of staring at that alleyway now.

Sorry guys, will keep everyone posted on timetables.

I need a vacation!

Tue, 08 May 2007 14:18:11 GMT

Awww man . . . . my job is kickin' my ass! No joke, 60+ hour weeks are not fun at all. Add that to an abusive management and totally retarded directives, and you get my day-to-day. I have about enough energy at the end of the day to curl up into a ball and pass out in front of my TV. Some nights I can devote about 30 minutes to art before my eyes feel like they're on fire and I need to lie down. Not fun at all.

Now, what does that mean for the comic? It means I can re-focus my little time into making some changes to the actual site itself (since that is my professional specialty), especially bumping up the gallery section with something more manageable and a cleaner interface. I really haven't setlled on a new look yet.

I am ahead on pages written, but with next to zero time to work on them currently, I'd have to say that at best I can be back with new content in June. Hope you guys stick around!

Page 21 Live!

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:10:54 GMT

Hey all,

It's been awhile since I updated the goings on at the site. So now page 21 is done and the alley story is winding down and I can kick into other things. I wish I had a faster way to do these pages, but unfortunately with my job and the color job I need to do for each page, it still takes me awhile to get through each one.

Maybe soon, with luck will come my way and I'll get a gig that doesn't suck the life out of me and allows me more time for illustration work. But in the meantime, I try to squeeze as much out as I can. I hope you guys are still enjoying the story, even though things are moving slowly :)

Page 18

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 05:32:05 GMT

Well I said I'd have a new page up, and it's finally ready. I'm trying to build up some materials so I don't fall behind. I'm already pencilling page 22 currently, so there won't be a lag. It took alot to get this going, because I had a hard time just getting the courage to come back to this. I completely lost confidence in my art ability, so I took some time to take classes and practice from books. The more I did it, the more I felt like an total retard when it came to drawing. So there was no way I was coming back to the story unless I could get right with myself. Finally after some months of self-doubt and some hard lessons, I'm finally ready to get back into the comic.

Time for Updates!

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 07:09:34 GMT

Yes friends, I have updated the site. First in a few months. Although it's just a Halloween picture, at least it's something to get things rolling. Time is just flying by and I've just been in practice hell, getting better yet not where I want to be, and my comics been suffering, along with any other images. Well I'm working on the new pages now, and re-writing a few things (I need to get my characters out of the alley before I have to rename the story).

Look forward to Page 17 next week, and hopefully I can make Tuesday the "magic" day! It's Peanut butter - Jelly time!!!

Where have I been?!

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 21:16:46 GMT

To hell and back, baby! Actually I've just been working my butt off, both at the job and at art lessons. Yes, sketches and doodles and scraps all to discover what I need to become better. So much so that I totally neglected the pages and went straight into the maelstrom of study. Between books, figure drawing, studying different arts, I've made some progress, but not enough.

But I can't expect to turn into Arthur Adams overnight, and my comic is lonely, so I'm getting back to it next week, and staying there. Another very cool online comic artist and buddy told me I forgot to have fun, I forgot about the journey. I started to become so single minded with just making great art, I just didn't pay attention to anything else. Well I gotta stop doing that because I broke the golden rule of online comics - consistency. And also I was just getting more and more frustrated with the pursuit of making great stuff I stopped having fun and it became homework.

So it's time to go back to my story and keep telling it, keep having fun with my comic and let it progress with me. So look forward to some new stuff next week, and every week after!

Where's the METAL?!

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 19:49:24 GMT

So you guys are probably wondering where the comic went? I'm not doing any crazy re-development or anything, just been super busy with other projects and private life that I haven't had a chance to continue. Very soon I should achieve a weekly schedule but for right now I need to focus my attention elsewhere for a few days.

I'm probably going to throw some fanart up on Wednesday and Saturday until I can get the new page done. I wish it was as easy to do a comic page as it is for me to do a pinup. Single images work sooooo well for me. Doing comics is a big pain, and if I didn't love this story and creating it, I'd have joined the circus long ago!

About Pittsburgh

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 16:33:10 GMT

For those that are curious, I won't be attending AC this year. The whole balance of sales/weekend/trip tipped by moving it to Pittsburgh and up a month. It was good the last couple of years but I'm bowing out this time. Maybe next year, but this year I'm taking it easy and focusing on my comic and practicing. I need WAY stronger art, and I'm just not happy with what I'm producing right now, so I can't expect to make others happy viewing it.

For those attending AC this year, the trip is already a hassle. Focus on getting some quality stuff this year. Pass by Jen Seng's table AKA.(spunkywulf) this year, she's always got excellent stuff and her sketches are second to none (and amazingly clean). Also check out her art show pieces, they're simply awesome.

Page 16, Finally!

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 17:34:14 GMT

So page 16 is finally up on the site, uploaded yesterday afternoon. I kind of skimped on the shine effects I usually use, but I thought the page layout came out fine so I went without them this time. I may adjust the page this week, but it's basically done.

So go and look, and leave me lots of e-mails and comments!!

Late with Page 16

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:00:04 GMT

So I thought with the holiday weekend I'd have enough time to finish page 16 and have it up on Memorial Day. Unfortunately, with the thousand other things I had going on, it didn't happen. The page is penciled, but that's as far as I got right now. I'm trying to do as much as possible after work, but I am drained at that point and only get in a couple of hours of art in before I'm completely zonked. Here's a sample of the page to wet your whistle until I get it done:

Freakin' Sweet!

Thu, 25 May 2006 20:58:08 GMT

Check out my new LJ Icon, a sweet gift from Jen "SpunkyWulf" Seng!! Most of you reading here know she's freakin' awesome, but if you don't know -- SHE'S FREAKIN' AWESOME. Go check out her site at http://www.toonapalooza.net.

This made my day as I was iconless and dealing with a semi-hectic work day. It's a great pic of one of the characters from Lunar Diaries, Connor Sullivan.

The full pic is going up in my Fan Art gallery with Timmy's pic tonight plus on LJ galleries. You rock Jen!!!

Upcoming Stuff

Thu, 25 May 2006 13:34:48 GMT

So I'm getting underway with page 16 after a weekend of focusing real hard on shaping a final design for my characters in Lunar Diaries that don't stray far from what I've already presented. I've nailed Connor Sullivan and Jenny "NightWolf" so far, I just need to get the rest of the cast going, I figure since at most right now with my work schedule I can get 1 pg. / wk. done, I can bang out two character sheets in that time as well. So by mid June I should have all the main characters planned out so when they're introduced they'll be consistent.

I had planned to upload a couple of guest images into the page area to showcase some of the fine work from the few fans I have so far, but I had no internet for awhile yesterday and I forgot to do it later on.

I love getting fan mail (the few I do get I appreciate) and especially if someone takes the time to make something for me that is especially awesome. The best so far has come from by buddy Tim who did an awesome ink pic of my characters. It'll be on the front tonight plus in both my main gallery and LJ gallery.

Expect the next page on Sunday, just in time for Memorial Day!

Progress

Sat, 20 May 2006 01:39:10 GMT

Well right now I'm in the middle of a design phase, basically finalizing a look for the characters and making myself character sheets to get some form of consistency with the comic, which has been sorely lacking through the pages so far. Even though these pages span a year's time (because of my previous lack of updates, which will not happen again), I still should have had some sort of model to work off of instead of developing the look with each new page.

Anyway, in the interim I'm going to post a couple of pinups and guest pieces in the main area until I finalize the sheets, which should only be another few days. Then we get back to the finale of the Alley fight.

Page 15 Up - Still experimenting

Fri, 12 May 2006 16:42:06 GMT

Ok, so Page 15 [Link] is live on the site now. As always, art is a learning experience and I will experiment with different things also on LD. Thing here is I messed around with doing heavier inking. I got inspired after reading a couple of comics (I've been collecting GL lately because Geoff Johns is awesome). Saw the blacks in there and started thinking to move things to a more western look.

Like I said, still playing with ideas, but I definitely want to get a "Marvel" looking style developed that I can switch between that and my manga work. It'll be so useful especially trying to get into publishing to have a foot in both art styles.

With storytelling, I don't have a manga vibe or pace, probably because I didn't grow up in Japan. In America, things are solved within 30 minutes on a TV series (that's why those two-parters were gems!). And 90-minutes in movies. Basically, with our ADD culture, you need to get to the point and keep it exciting. At least, that's how I like to see it done. Some of my characters are in High school, but they won't be in "sailor" uniforms or hanging on the roof of the school, that's not how we roll in the states.

So that's why the rush to wrap up this alley scene and move onto more character development stuff. If anyone has comments or questions on the story, post away! Hope you are enjoying the works so far!

New Day - Dear Blog . . .

Wed, 10 May 2006 15:05:17 GMT

Just got an LJ account setup now to post my site updates, news and info. This solves a bunch of problems at once, because I can have an integrated update section with comments (so no need to rush into getting a forum up on my site). Although if LD ever grows that big, a forum in addition to this would be a good thing.

Secondly, I can update this anytime and put up seperate images or whatever w/o disturbing my site quota, stats, or the fact that I can only post new information currently when I upload a new comic page.

So page 15 is coming along nicely, the inks are about 95% done with just some tweaks needed. Coloring and lettering usually takes me about one good night to do then I can pop this puppy on the interweb.

Right now in the story I'm trying to write myself out of the alley scene. I originally wanted to have the fight grow into a crescendo of action, but I realize that I better start bring more characters and story into play before I get to wrapped up in insane action scenes. So that last new demon that pops up with be the last challenge so I can pull out of the alley and have the characters move into new scenes to get the story rolling again.