Gary the Alchemist

Author notes

18-2: How Does It Work?

Xiam

on Dec. 29, 2009

Uuugh, I'm so sorry you guys. Got it up JUST under the 15-minute mark for the day. EST.

I like that Gary actually seems to break his "Screw everything, ALCHEMY" character here. Some nice humor in that, I guess.

You guys… this is driving me nuts. I miss Melody & Macabre. I miss the "I'll update when I feel like it" option, I miss the motivation in fun characters and good storylines. I miss not having to FORCE myself into writing. I miss being excited about updates, and proud of my work.

This page sucks. I'll say that right now. Gary looks like crap - he's always looked like crap - and I can't get that stupid Imp to be the right size. With Mel&Mac, I had times where I actually sincerely loved how my art turned out, and it changed a lot in a very short amount of time. But here… I see no change, other than a spiraling decline into suck.

I don't even have planned breaks like I did with Mel&Mac. Gary the Alchemist is 3 a week for four years - at least, that's how I planned it. Now I'm regretting the concept, as I don't even have enough stories for every week, and I really really really want to take a break. Even though the first week of the new year has a back-to-school storyline and… ugh, I hate Dan.

I'm seriously considering boosting up the entry of a new character from NEXT spring, to THIS spring, just to make things more interesting.

And y'know what? There are two artists who wanted to do the Ace Black project. Would either of you rather do this? Because I'm getting sick of this. I'm not an artist, that's apparent from the very beginning. I'm a writer, a storyteller, and from the very beginning I only drew because nobody else would draw it for me.

I'm losing my frickin' mind trying to get these updated on time. I don't know what to do anymore. I'd put it on hiatus, but I've already done that with so many comics of mine, and this is a very personal comic, just like Mel&Mac, so I'd feel like a bastard for letting it go to waste.

What do you guys think I should do? I really do love this series, I don't want to trash it… I just don't think I can handle it all. I want to go back to the MM universe, I want to finally get into writing Ace Black scripts. But I can't because I have books to read, games to play, and these… stupid… comics to do.

At least with Melody & Macabre, I found myself drawing the characters even when I tried to take a break, but these guys… ugh… I hate them. The Imp's too small to accurately portray, Gary's hair is stupid and doesn't properly take into effect the fact that he's leaning on his hand too much… it's just some stupid swoopy bangs. It's all I could come up with, because I suck at original characters. I don't even know how I survived Mel&Mac sometimes.

Sorry for my rant, you guys. I'm just being twitchy.

(How do the professionals do this every day?)