It all started as a way to use the weird and unpublishable ideas I had for comics while putting off the ones I was doing for my school’s weekly newspaper (it was a small college). Every Thursday night I had to turn in a comic, something fairly small and simple, for the school paper to put in their Friday paper. I would usually start working on it the day it was due, if not as late as within a few hours of when it was due to go out to print… but I would be looking for material all week. The one catch was that it had to be related to the school, so, of course, the best ideas I had each week had nothing to do with the school (or at least nothing that was publishable). My friends at the time enjoyed the off-topic ones I’d done while procrastinating and so I thought, “why not try the wonderful world of webcomics again?” And from December 24th, 2007 until September 1st, 2008, I used the comicgenesis site and simple, gag-a-day format to pump out regular comics.

Those comics aren’t hosted here because, in September 2008, I moved to the story/character based comic style you see now and even wandered on over to my own server so I could use WordPress/ComicPress and have full domain integration… but I’ve been working on the old site some, to make it into an archive of that 9 month period I like to refer to as B4B’s incubation period (and what would end up being the true pre-cursor to Gleeful Nihilism). It’s not fully revamped yet, but it’s at least navigatable again… so feel free to check it out at the above “comicgenesis site” links in this blog… or via the link below:

http://boozeathon4billion.comicgenesis.com

And, as always, thanks for reading!

I’ve basically jammed out a new working schedule that will give me a bit more freetime to play videogames, sleep, and maybe socialize a bit, and I think all of those things will be good for not just myself, but for the comics as well. The new schedule will basically take what I’ve been frantically doing in two or three days, and spreading it out over 5 or 6. This way I can write and sketch the next comic Tuesday. Resketch elements and start inking Wednesday. Spend my sweet time getting the linework the way I want it… and then color, shade, and drop in the text and bubbles late in the week, or even over the weekend.

This should mean a few really awesome things for you: first, that Gleeful Nihilism is up earlier in the morning. Second, that B4B will actually update on time. Third, that I’ll have some time to work on some secret projects I’ve been writing for a while now. And fourth, maybe I’ll finally have time to work on some decent merch and stuff to sell at conventions I have my eye on for 2010.

Thought I’d give you the heads up on all this while it was fresh in my brains, and I’ll add it to the header later this week. Thanks for reading, and hopefully I’ll have the comic up tonight or early tomorrow.

(It didn’t help that my one-off comic idea for Monday’s Gleeful Nihilism snowballed into a weeklong story arc either… when the inspiration bug bites,  you just go with it. So most of my Sunday was spent writing and sketching a weeks worth of comics for that.)

So, I’ve decided to skip the Monday, November 2nd update for the sake of my sanity. I’ll have it posted on Thursday instead, which works better actually, because it will give me time to start on next week’s comics before the Anime Nebraskon this Fri/Sat/Sun in Omaha. I’m not gonna have a table at it (because I have nothing to sell anyway), but I will be there and will have some business cards for the comics. It’s more of a meet and greet sorta thing for me… and no, I’m not gonna be targeting the main group of attendees, cause if I wanted to do that, I shoulda got merch ready and gotten a table. Instead, my focus will be on meeting and hopefully networking with the other artist/webcomic types in attendance.

I apologize for the skipped update, I’ve been trying to be timely and not skip stuff for whatever reason, but hopefully you understand and don’t hate me. I’ll see ya Thursday. And I’ll bring a comic with me. Promise.

UPDATE (11/5/09): my little brother is in the hospital again. He started to make cyanide in the apartment on the 4th, around 1am while I was at work, stopped and checked into the local mental ward place. He’s doing alright but the parents came back up that night, I was back and forth between the hospital all Wednesday, and didn’t get any real good sleep until Thursday afternoon. So, Thursdays comic was delayed too. Both should be up next week, since I’m already shading the one that shoulda been up Thursday. Hopefully in my downtime at the con this weekend I can sketch/ink next Thursdays and stay on track. Anyway, sorry but once again, its all sorta out of my control.

The first chapter is small, and I just titled it “welcome” because each strip is a stand-alone comic, and although I was pretty sure of the characters personalities and whatnot, I hadn’t started in on real storylines. The second chapter is titled “daily life” because it was the start of some small storylines related to what happens when 4 guys live together; this section not only see’s the development of storylines and the birth of the characters we now know, but it also has the first jump in details via backgrounds, hair, facial hair, and some more detailed shading. The third chapter is “thanksgiving aftermath” and it plays just beyond that and into the beginning of the xmas storyline we’re still in. And, finally, we have the biggest storyline so far, “xmas forever,” which features the actual xmas morning stuff, the intro of Sara, a major change to the character’s looks, and the introduction of Sticky and, of course, George’s weird dream sequence. This last storyline is still in progress, but it starting to wrap up. I should probably break it up some, but since it’s all happening in one day, I won’t (so there).

Clicking on one of the storylines on the side (or any of the links in this post) will take you to a preview view of all of them, but it should be organized from first to newest, so you can just click on the first comic you see and jump into the full comic layout from there. And, as you read, you can look just below the titles of the comic (at the bottom of the page) to see which category the strip you are reading is in, if you ever want to know.

Thanks for reading the comic and this boring blog; hope this made sense (if not comment and I’ll clarify). See you tomorrow (when I get todays comic actually posted!).

In other news, you probably noticed that it’s still Xmas in this comic. I know that you’re all probably waiting for a new day since this one has been drug out and out bc of schedule changes, lack of updates, etc… but I’m getting shit back on schedule and xmas should be over by the time this years xmas hits. When I started in on this version of B4B, I really got into detail on the first storyline bc I wanted to really establish the characters who have been living and fighting in my head for a while now. Once this story is over, it should move a bit more briskly and smoothly though (and yes, I’ve already been writing stuff for beyond the xmas storyline for some time now).

I think that was it, so, I’m gonna get back to drawing. Thanks for reading and I’ll see ya soon. Tomorrow maybe? Good. Cause there will be an update! Promise.

To sum it up: my cousin got married in mid-May, so I spent a week in Texas for that. While in Texas, I got food poisoning, missed the wedding and reception, and was still recovering upon my return home. On my first day or two back at work, I burned the side of my hand and my thumb, and thus couldn’t draw b/c holding a pen hurt like a sonofabitch. And I’m moving 3 hours north in late June… so I’ve been interviewing for new jobs, checking out places to live, and trying to still work 40 hours a week. With all of that stuff on top of my brothers attempted suicide in February, I literally haven’t had a weekend to myself since January.

New stuff is on the way though… I’ve just had very little time to draw and my creative juices are flowing much less in my downtime due to stress levels. I’ve just about worked through my B4B writers block which I hit in mid-April and have some new GN’s ready for upload once I get home from work. Sorry for the delays and lack of updates, but I hope you understand the situation and stick with the comic once I get my life together eventually.

As you’ve probably noticed, even doing two comics a week has proven difficult the past few weeks… that’s not because of more complications with the family situation, but because my move this fall has become pretty much official; so, I need to start the job and apartment search, asap. It has also taken a lot longer to do the newer artwork than I originally anticipated and keep needing to tweak stuff along the way… and since that adds to the time factor, I just can’t do 3 strips a week as efficiently (but it’s totally worth it, I think).

The new schedule will consist of Monday/Thursday updates (monday’s for sure, thursdays hopefully) and will probably hold steady until after I’m moved up there and settled in, at which point I’ll decide whether its permanent or whether a move to the M-W-F schedule would be doable again. Thanks for your patience and sorry for the delays. I’ll hopefully get a small buffer built up soon and then everything will be on time again.

UPDATE:  I forgot to mention in this post that I was killing the Friday posts for a few weeks while I get my shit together. Life is hectic with some family issues and my dad’s retirement coming up. So, I’m spending the extra time drawing some new backgrounds, going back and forth between my place and the parents, and am still working 40 hour weeks. If two updates a week is more managable, you’ll see the schedule change from M-W-F to M-Th in March or April.

I’ll be back after this week but I just wanted to let you know that I’m alive and will be updating GN as often as usual (although maybe just 5 days a week for a while). I love doing these comics and I thank you for stopping in as often as you do. Hopefully this week-long break will be good for both of us.

http://zazzle.com/boozeathon