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It's been a really long time coming, and I'm very happy to see it come to fruition. I hope you all like it!
- Mood:
excited
So enjoy AIAC on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alone-in-a-C
While we're here, John Peters of "Gypsy" (who provided us with this past Friday's awesome guest strip) is back again with a fanart of Hope and Faith! Check it out:
http://sketchbet.tumblr.com/post/1333549
I absolutely love seeing the girls in John's style. He really has knack for capturing their personalities extremely well. Thanks so much John!
Well everyone, enjoy this last week of the big AIAC "retcon." Next week, things should go back to normal around here .....aside from a very big announcement coming up ;)
Keep Hope alive and have Faith!
- Mood: cheerful
- Music:iTunes Shuffle
I'm a firm believer in moving forward as an artist. Let's say a cartoonist has been doing their strip for a length of time, and feels like they've greatly improved as an artist and a storyteller (as usually happens with continued practice). For some, the temptation is there to scrap their entire archive and completely redraw and rewrite it so it’s a better representation of their work as a whole. I have NEVER been a fan of this practice. To me you don't improve as an artist this way. If you spend all your time redoing one story over and over again, trying to polish it and make it absolutely perfect, you don't necessarily become a great storyteller. You just become great at telling that ONE story. By forcing yourself to keep moving forward, you're able to learn a lot more about the craft. I've learned a whole heck of a lot more from my failures than my successes.
Now, I'm not going to claim I know the secret to cartooning or pretend I'm in a position to give advice. I'm not. I'm still an up and comer, learning and cutting my teeth. I won't even claim that I came to these conclusions on my own. I received this advice from cartoonists much further along in their careers and more successful than me, and so far it's served me INCREDIBLY well. Not only that, but I was once a fan before I was a creator. I remember loving to look back in an artists archive and see how they grew and improved over time. It's incredibly fascinating, and I think many artists don't realize just how many readers are interested in seeing this. I've heard a great many comic fans echo this sentiment. Completely scrapping everything you've done so far and starting over robs them of this. So I've always said that I would never do that with "Alone in a Crowd."
With that being said... (and aren't those words always just so dramatic? Or sometimes damning? ;P)
For quite a while now, there has been one aspect of the "Alone in a Crowd" story that has bothered me a great deal. Not only on a personal level of "oh, I could have done that so much better now," but also in a way that I feel hinders the way I would write what's to come in the comic from here on out. And that storyline point is the fact that Marty did not know Desirae when she was first introduced. When this happened, Desirae was played out as a reveal to the readers, as we got to be introduced to her and learn a little of her backstory and what put her in the position she's in today. Marty and Kayla took the place of you, the reader, by meeting her for the first time and learning this all at once. In theory, it works. However, there's one huge glaring problem with this that has been eating away at me for some time now.
As it is currently written, Sara never told Marty or Kayla who her Aunt was because she was afraid of how they would react to it. Kayla, as we saw has strong feelings on the adult films industry, while Marty...well, let's just say Marty has seen a great many of Desi's movies. Now, here's the problem: Marty is Sara's absolute closest friend. The way I view and write their friendship is that they feel like they can count on and trust each other with anything. As has been alluded to, they've known each other since they were little kids and grew up together. There's a true bond between the two of them. I can't help but feel its absolutely ludicrous to portray them in such a fashion, but then say "oh, but this one thing? Yeah, she never told him about it and hid it for all these many years."
But it's not simply a matter of the level of friendship Marty and Sara share. It's also about the history Sara and Desirae have had. Though it's only been mentioned and not explicitly detailed as of yet in the comic, when Sara and Faith's parents passed away, Desirae became the girls' primary caregiver. She literally moved into their house with them and watched over them like any loving guardian would. Sara would have been around 14 years old at this time, and you can imagine Sara and Marty would be hanging out together quite regularly. So we're to believe Marty never knew who was taking care of them? That Sara made sure Desirae was never home when Marty came over? That Marty never had a problem with his closest being so secretive like that? It just doesn't add up. Certainly a friend as good as Marty would have been at her parent's funeral for support, and because he was probably close to Sara’s parents as well. Desirae would have been there too! The more and more you examine it, you see that it makes more sense for Marty to be "in on it."
Sure, at that age, Marty's hormones would have been kicking in, so Sara could have felt awkward letting Marty meet Desirae. But how do we know Marty and Sara even knew what Desirae did for a living? (well, I know the answer to that, but that's not for you all to know yet). To be as good friends as they were and are, Marty would have had to spend time with Sara's Aunt. To assume that whole time Sara only went over to Marty's house and never spoke of who was taking care of her to her best friend is ridiculous. Sara and Marty would have shared everything with each other, and this is no exception. To portray Marty and Sara as they have been all this time almost cheapens the tight friendship they're suppose to have (and are written as having!). To me, it feels like a bit of a plot hole...a plot whole I intend to rectify.
You see, it is my intention to perform what has been called in this business a "retcon." As of this coming Tuesday, I will be going back into the "Alone in a Crowd" archive and changing this one aspect of the story. I intend to re-write and (if need be) re-draw any past comics that reflect Marty having never known Desirae. Yes, I'm altering the past and saying from here on out, Marty always knew who Sara’s Aunt was. Now, it may seem like I'm committing the ultimate sin here and going against my principles I mentioned earlier. In a way, I am. This is honestly a decision I've been struggling over for quite some time now. I've tried to say "well, past is past. Just gotta move forward and make what's to come better." My attitude is that even if the start of your comic isn't what you ultimately want the comic to be, over time you use creative writing and character development to alter it into the comic you WANT it to be. After all, how many comics have you read where the first year or so is completely different from the later years? So I kept trying to find a way I would be comfortable doing this. But in the end, I just keep coming back to the feeling that Sara hiding who her Aunt was from her closest friend since childhood takes away from the strength of their friendship. This isn’t just something I can blow off. The friendship Sara and Marty share is a VERY important aspect of AIAC, and it needs to be portrayed right.
Am I thrilled with the idea of going back and changing a bunch of comics in my archive and telling everyone “part of the story you’ve read so far is no longer the case.” No, I’m honestly not. Will I feel incredibly better about the future of AIAC’s story and more comfortable with how I write for Sara and Marty. Absolutely. In the end, this just feels like the proper thing to do. Conveniently, this all is going down as a new “Alone in a Crowd” website is being constructed. Why’s that a good thing? Well, let me explain exactly what’s going to be happening here over the next few weeks.
On each day AIAC updates, I will be posting a new “revised” comic from the archive. Sometimes it will be the same exact looking strip that’s always been there, but with different dialogue. Sometimes it may be a completely re-drawn and re-written version of a strip that’s already in the archive. Finally, sometimes I may even post a completely new comic that will be added into the past archive to make the changes to the current strips flow better. This will continue every Tuesday and Friday until all references of Marty never having known Desirae are completely removed and altered from the archive. I can’t say exactly how long this will take, because I’m not 100% sure how many strips need to be fixed just yet. My hope is that this project will continue up until the launch of the brand new “Alone in a Crowd” website. Once the new site is live, the newer version of these old strips will go back into the archive and replace the original ones in their respected places, and no longer appear in the tail end of the 2011 section.
Now I know this isn’t going to be perfect. After all, when this is all said and done there will be instances in the archive where the art jumps from one style to another rather jarringly. It’s not ideal, but it’s something I’m willing to accept to be sure the quality of Sara and Marty’s friendship is preserved. Also, for the completists out there (love you guys!), I do intend on creating a page on the new website where the original strips are showcased with an explanation for why they were changed. That way anyone who’s still interested can still see them. Another advantage to doing all this is that it will give me some extra time to work on some things that need to be put together for the launch of the new site. These things MUST be completed, so it all sort of works out without me having to go on a hiatus or something like that.
I’m sure not everyone’s going to be happy about this. To those of you that aren’t, all I can say is that I understand how you feel and I apologize. It’s hard for me to accept doing something like this, when I have such strong feelings about the practice. Still, the fact that in reality it’s such a small change makes it easier for me. This change doesn’t necessarily affect how someone would read “Alone in a Crowd” as it now stands. Everything about the strip we have come to know and understand stays the same, with the exception of just this one thing. It doesn’t alter the rest of the story as some “retcons” do, so I personally feel it’s a lot easier to accept than a complete revamp or something like that. Hopefully you all will too.
"Alone in a Crowd," like any piece of art, but most specifically a comic started by an amateur trying to build his or her career, is not perfect. There's things about the way I introduced the comic/ characters, or set up the world of the story that, given the chance to do again, I'd probably do a bit differently. In fact, diving into the past and messing around like this brings the temptation to the forefront. I can see quite a few other things I wish kind of wish I could alter and change. After all, Kayla is an incredibly great friend to Sara as well. By all accounts, she probably should have already known about her before this point too. But for the story to work as it does, SOMEONE has to be in the dark, and it can’t be Hope. Obviously Desirae wouldn’t tell a girl her age the torrid details of her past. Besides, (once again) though it hasn’t been explicitly detail in the strip yet, Marty and Kayla have only known Kayla since some point in high school. So it’s a bit more realistic that they could have kept the secret from her.
But anyway, I don’t want to go and keep changing every little nag I have about my past work. I’m not George Lucas. I’m not going to keep going back every so often and changing this or that on a whim. I still feel like artists who do that are doing themselves a bit of a disservice. This should be the only time you ever see me do this with AIAC (with the exception of possibly redrawing the first seven strips for the first book collection, only because I’m afraid the way the strips were created wont transfer very well to print. We’ll see on that one).
So there you have it. That’s what you can come to expect from “Alone in a Crowd” for the next so many weeks. When I have a concrete date for the return of actual new strips, I’ll be sure to let you know. Hopefully it’ll be close to when I can announce the launch of the new website. All I can say is that I’ve received a few progress reports and previews from the kind gentleman building the new site for me, and it looks absolutely awesome! I think you all will be pleased. Sorry this post was so long, but there really was a lot to unpack here. For those who read through the whole thing, and who have continuously read AIAC for some time now, AND who will continue to read over from here on out...from the bottom of my heart, I thank you :)
Now, let’s keep Hope alive and have Faith, shall we?
- Mood:
determined - Music:Jordan Reyne
Now, granted, most of the comics involved in the book are giving out an offer code for 7.5% off the book as well, so it's not COMPLETELY just for you guys. But hey, let's show the webcomic community that the AIAC readership is all about charity and helping out!
Copies of the book can be ordered at: http://webcomiccookbook.org/order/
Keep Hope alive and have Faith!
- Mood:
hungry - Music:Daft Punk
