—————————————
General/Background Info:
—————————————
boozeathon4billion started in December of 2007 as an effort to avoid studying for finals. I had failed miserably at starting up two other webcomics earlier in college, but the idea came to me to try again since I was doing a weekly comic for my college’s paper and wanted someplace to host all the ideas that would never make it to press. So, I started doing the comic with a mouse, like I had done with my previous comics, and the results were… lackluster. In March ‘08 I had enough cash to pick up a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet and started using that and only that to do the comics and other artwork. Since then the style has changed quite a bit and become much more complex (although it is taking me less time than it originally did). I’ve upgraded again, in early August ‘08, to an Intuos3 9×12 tablet which is totally badass and has contributed to the continually improving style you see today (which was also the inspiration for the better characters and semi-fluid storylines).
——————————–
Why the weird name?
——————————–
I thought it was funny and the domain name wasn’t taken. Also, who doesn’t want to wear some merch that says “boozeathon4billion” on it?!
It’s also a sort of inside joke with me and friends, because the characters aren’t based as much on people I know, as they are my different moods or “personalities” (which tend to come out vividly in the phases of me being drunk/sober).
——————————————————————–
How long does it take to write/draw each strip?
——————————————————————–
I usually spend two days working on each comic. I’m generally try to stay a few days ahead of myself on the scripts, but as I draw each comic, ideas pop up which can change everything up, so nothing is concrete until you see it (and sometimes not even then). So, after I post the Monday strip, I read it over, read the current story arch again, and revise the next scripts accodingly.
Recently I’ve started drawing backgrounds on their own so I can reuse stuff and focus more on making the comic look more professional and cutting down the time it takes to draw everything by an hour at least. So, if I have a background drawn already, it takes a few hours to finalize the script, draw the characters, shade everything how I want, drop in text, fix mistakes, and post it with a quick blog. If I don’t have a background done… it could take twice the time it otherwise would (depending on how detailed the background needs to be).
I have a Ustream account, but since I never really pound out the strips in one sitting, I haven’t used it yet. Maybe I’ll change that soon…
———————————————————–
What the fuck is up with your schedule!?
———————————————————–
I’m on a Monday/Thursday schedule at the moment (working a fulltime job, doing a couple comics, and trying to have a life forced me to cut back from my 3 comics a week plan). That being said, I have generally been updating only one of those days so far in 2009. The reason being a huge family crisis in February ‘09, which led to spending all my weekends traveling between my place and my parents. And, as a side effect of that, I recently moved, and that involved a job search, training, etc. But, as of September ‘09, I appear to be back in my groove. Hooray…
—————————————-
When will Christmas end!?
—————————————-
I wish I could answer that… honestly, I do. Last spring, I thought it would be over by this summer, and then real-life shit got complicated and I had to cut back how often I updated. It also put me in a pseudo-writersblock where I wasn’t happy with anything I wrote… and, upon coming out of that I had the idea for George’s dream stuff, which gave me a breath of fresh air and has helped me write a lot more easily. Hopefully, by this winter Xmas will be over and their daily lives will pick up from there.
——————————————————
What is Sticky (aka the floating fish)?
——————————————————
Sticky (the Fishy from Outerspace City) is the “Hobbes” to George’s “Calvin.” He was a star of a childhood cartoon/obsession of George’s, and, as time goes on, you’ll find out more about Sticky as we delve deeper into George’s psyche.
——————————–
Future plans for B4B:
——————————–
I’m gonna make this comic for as long as I can. With the characters/storylines I’m juggling right now, I’m writing a lot more easily than ever before and am planning some more artistic updates, storyline expansions, new characters, etc. It’s fun, exciting, and I love feedback letting me know how the progress is going… so feel free to email or comment on the comics. I try to respond asap. Unless it’s bad. Then I push “delete” and repress it immediately. *twitch*
