Life update! As it’s been a couple of months, I think it’s about time.
On the surface, not a whole lot has changed; I’m still unemployed, my car is still having troubles, and everything in general is still in doubt. Given the state of the world at large, I’m lucky that things are still relatively holding together, so I’m counting my blessings where I can take them.
Below the surface, on the other hand, I’ve been extra busy. I’ll admit, the past months have been slow; I let myself get too complacent, but I finally pulled finger and made the effort to head down to my local library to get my work done. The increase in productivity was such a sharp ascent, the graph would look almost like a 90 degree angle; I don’t know why I put this off for so long, but it’s amazing how much more I’m getting done in an office-like space with little to no distractions around. Combined with the Pomodoro method of time management, which has worked wonders for me in the past, I’m getting work done on multiple fronts of both art and writing. Not to mention I’m getting some exercise in with it, as the library is within walking distance from home.
The first issue of the extended Fifth Ace Comics universe is trucking along; I’m in the colour flatting stage right now, which I’m on track to finish soon. I’ve been hammering out the scripts for the next two issues, and I have a few dozen others in the pipeline behind those, so I’ve got a very clear roadmap as to where I’m going with this. In light of this productive explosion, and in the interest of keeping it booming, I’m putting forth a proper deadline that I’m now sure that I can reach, so here it is:
The official Fifth Ace Comics Ko-Fi subscription service will open on June 1st, and Exemplar #1 will be available to purchase by the end of June.
The Ko-Fi will have three tiers of memberships, with a fourth tier launching once Exemplar #1 is complete. The lowest tier will be a simple tip jar, while the second and third tiers will provide additional material such as early access to comic pages, exclusive WIP images and concept art, and monthly wallpapers. The future fourth tier will allow members to download full comic issues for free as they become available. If you’re not in a position to subscribe, the issues will be available through the Ko-Fi shop, and the pages will eventually be uploaded to this site at a more staggered rate.
It’s been a long time coming, with a lot of tinkering behind the scenes, but now that I’ve got my workflow figured out, future updates to this model will hopefully have quicker turnaround times. I didn’t expect this first issue to take five months, but considering how much quicker I’m pushing through the back part of production, I feel confident that the next ones will come much faster. I’m not going to put a definite timeframe on them just yet; I’ll just say that my techniques are constantly being refined and improved, and so in turn should everything else.
All that being said, I’d better get back to it; I’ll aim to get more blog posts out on Thursdays moving forward, and keep you all updated on my progress.
Ciao for now.