I'm still alive, folks
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that shit has been hitting the fan. In a very short of time we went from “eh, this is not going to be a big deal, everything will be fixed” to a grand Fallout simulator without the radiation fields.
And I really doubt someone reading this was/is not impacted in a large or small way for this situation.
Therefore, I want to make it very clear that when I’m describing my situation this is not a “woe is me, poor me, feel sorry for me” rant, because I know people that had lost family members for this, I know people who have partners working 24/7 in hospitals, I know people who are doctors themselves, and I know that there are people who are in a worse scenario than any of these described.
In short terms, I’m not saying “oh mah gosh, the world is gonna end, someone save me“, because I know that everyone has their problems.
Anyway, let’s get to it.
I haven’t posted anything three weeks back to this week yet, no fanart, no comic strips, no updates, nothing. Until this point I’ve done nothing but stay in radio silence and I have content ready to be uploaded. I’ve got two comics ready to be uploaded, and one fanart ready to be uploaded. So why the long silence?
I took a break. But I didn’t say anything to anyone about it, which is my fuckup and I’ve should’ve stated before. So why was that? Did I decide to leave everything temporarily to improve, or just to play games for a while?
I’m taking some courses that a friend recommended me to learn a particular set of skills. So far it’s going good, but it’s very time-consuming. This, and only this paragraph is what I’m allowed to say related to this topic.
Then the problems start to happen, I’m drawing less, I’m sleeping less, and it’s definitely taking a toll on me unless I take breaks that sacrifice my comics a little. I decided to take a break from drawing because the schedule is very accumulated.
Worry not, I’ll come back posting this week. Instead of posting 3 times per week I’ll post 2 times per week, and this week I will post 4 times. I know that for some this is not going to compensate my radio silence and think that my break was unjustified, it’s just the least I can do.
Lastly, if you are currently creating content (videos, comics, fanart, anything…) in this period of time, there is something to take into consideration deeply: be careful with the exhaustion and burnout and similar elements. You need to take a break from time to time and if you leave those unchecked you can have serious consequences, mentally and physically.
Wash your hands and stay safe,
-AF
I’m talking about one of these videos today.
While I’ve done a few videos in my channel about gaming I mention frequently a video made by a user named Raging Golden Eagle, which is also my favorite Youtube video of all time, and it’s titled “There is no compromise in the culture war”. The video in summary explains the topics of the culture war, the free market and censorship in this political climate centered in products of entertainment. While it was released in October of 2018, I was asking myself how could I do a better job than him, but instead of trying to make it better than the explanation he did in the video, I thought in contributing by being more elaborated and setting more well-known or mainstream examples and detailed explanations for people who are not familiar in the deep problems with censorship in gaming. That and adding my personal experiences.
A week off
Greetings, guys, girls, and sexual helicopters. This will be a short update.
This week’s comic strip of Alias from Purity won’t be updated, and nothing from my comics will be updated in next week.
I’m taking next week to update -and add- some of the things in my website and my other sites.
Take care!
-AF
Health affairs and plans for this week
Before you panic. Not cancer, not a disease or anything like that. It’s just I was told that because I sleep 4 hours per night I have to sleep more. I don’t agree with it but I was forced to make a choice. I won’t go with the details, but let’s just say that it’s similar to the situation with the sandwich case Poland had to deal with the Soviet Union and the Third Reich.
Yes. The comparison I just did is an exaggeration, but I’m not the sort of guy that wants to filtrate his words to form an opinion. Besides, this is not even an opinion on politics.
So basically instead of waking up at 2:30AM I have to wake up at 4:00AM (and yes, I’m using the words “have to”). And fortunately I was able to be even more productive by uploading three comics in my social media sites (and this site of mine) with their respective rewards in Subscribestar.
Sure, the morning was productive, but not the afternoon, when I try to get things done and I get called “Daniel, do this”, “Daniel, do that”, I might become a little stressed (specially when I’m the only one with Word skills to write and put format to documents, to put an example). Not good. But it’s been one day, and I don’t know what’s going to happen the rest of the afternoons, so things can happen.
Rant done.
On the other hand, this week I won’t be uploading any comics, not even A Yurist Closet. However, the reason for that is because I’m planning to update the site. I have so much work to do, and due of the things I commented above. But I also have to be realistic and say that at least some of the all new features will come to the site. Features like making accessibility so much better and more links. And comic covers!
If I can’t make everything at the time, I’ll do it little by little while updating the comics.
If I can make another exaggeration, allow me to present the question: “Would you rather be killed by stress or by exhaustion?”
Since stress makes me feel worse, I prefer to be killed by exhaustion. Some of you may be surprised, but I prefer to be killed while doing something I love than to be killed while not doing something I love.
I have no idea which first words should go on this entry, but I can tell you that I’ve been planning (and writing) for several months.
In August 27 in 2018, I wrote this in Deviantart, Minds and Gab, but I’ll link it on DA because it’s easier to find. Long story short: I stopped making Purity R because it’s only half of the story, making things complicated and causing readers to not be interested on PR; and I stopped making Metal Girls Galaxy because I was way too ambitious with a specialized wiki with planets, factions… even the description of the nebulae and the average temperature of each planets (crazy, huh?), and because I attracted more readers in the Beta Comics (comic strips I made for practice) than in the later ones that focused more in the story.
The last point could be countered if I provide some statistics. Keep in mind that these stats are from last month, July 2019. The top numbers in the center (see pic below) almost reached 125 page visits with almost 25 visitors.
As I keep updating my other comics, that are A Yurist Closet, Geek Roommates and The Yuri Paradise, these numbers on Metal Girls Galaxy rise up.
I know it was a whole year ago since I left these projects, but I kept watching out for the possibility of giving Metal Girls Galaxy a comeback and continue -particularly since I started to draw the anime style on the eyes.
What about Purity R?
Given that the story is a complete mess without the infamous visual novel I made in 2012, people won’t care if I continue the project because they won’t know what’s happening if knowledge about the story of the VN is required. So continuing with this webcomic is pretty much useless and a waste of time. But I’m blessed that at least it was the comic that helped me develop my drawing style with human anatomy and draw more than stick-men and also be willing to get in new territory for learning.
Even if took me nearly a decade, I managed to get my shit together and be actively willing to improve. And after receiving feedback in 2018 with the suggestion of making the anime eyes without sacrificing the human anatomy I always use for tracing (hell, even I made a video on tracing with 3D models and despite it’s having dislikes only, I got to wonder how dislikes equals “I don’t have any counter-arguments about your numerous points, but you are wrong so there’s a dislike for you because why the dialogue” and which of these actually watched the whole video or simply gave up before reaching the minute 2:00 and hit dislike).
I’m digressing again. Like I said before, I tend to do it lately.
But anyway, some people might assume that I prefer putting anime eyes because I received that feedback and because I like anime. Although these reasons are valid, the main reason I decided to draw anime eyes was because they were more expressive than the previous times I’ve drawn these smaller eyes. Sure, the smaller eyes can express on their own, but the anime eyes can display a wider range of emotions than the ones I’ve drawn previously. That’s the point.
So, if Purity R can’t continue, what I’m going to do about it? Well it’s simple. I’m going to start over again from the very beginning under a different title and under many changes. Many of these changes include changes on the main story (because I’m aware that there are things that are ridiculous even if it’s on fiction), a larger storyline, the constant exchange between 4-koma and traditional panels, and new characters.
In a nutshell, I’ll continue Metal Girls Galaxy and I’ll restart Purity.
Keep in mind that some of these characters have the design slightly changed and drastically changed. And honestly I’m using these pics I’ve drawn with the anime style as an excuse just to test the WordPress feature of uploading several pics at once.
First here you have the ones of Metal Girls Galaxy:
And then the ones of Purity, or the name I’m going to change:
And on a final thing I have before I log off, here you go, characters I’m planning for something else:
“And who are these people?” you might ask. Well, that’s going to have to wait.
Take care!
-AF