I’m sorry to report that I missed an important personal deadline I had set a few weeks ago. That is, finishing all the foregrounds on all pages of Volume I prior to starting work. sadly, I’m still a few pages away.

Part of the problem was that I planned all along to have an 80 page comic. Well, it’s going to be closer to 100 pages.

As both the artist and writer, I’ve often been adding frames that provide a little more depth to the characters. Plus, as I’m yet to learn, fight scenes never go as smoothly as you plan them.

For instance, Sigmund Freud is smashing someone in the face with a chair on page 86. That wasn’t planned, but I thought it was important during a major point of growth for one of the characters.

But the lead up to this actually takes a page worth of frames… Otherwise you wouldn’t have the foggiest clue as to what’s going on.

It’s really a positive thing if you think about it though. Being both artist and writer, I can make sure the comic book is done right and expresses everything I want to convey on both the surface and below the surface.

I still plan on releasing The MSPaint Comic before Christmas. All missing this deadline means is that I’m going to be losing my weekends until it’s done.

Thankfully, it’s a pixellated labor of love.

Okay, so I spent a week building the MSPaint Comic website in HTML 5 and it looked pretty good.  So what the hell?

Ultimately, I decided that I didn’t like the static website for the MSPaint Comic.  The truth is that this is an ongoing project and all five volumes won’t likely be finished for at least another six or seven years.  In the meantime, any fans of the comic are going to want updates about what progress is being made, what conventions we’re attending, and up-to-date details about pricing projections and the many different projects I’m working on.

For example, I’ve reached an agreement with a Chicago printer and a Kentucky company to print a short 22 page comic in 3D and provide glasses with the comics.  The project is going to be called The Battle of Whiskey Skies 3D and will serve as a bit of a prequel to Volume I: Institution.  There was no good way to share that information with you on the HTML5 based website.  On a site with a properly functioning blog however, it becomes much easier.

Another benefit of the WordPress system is that I can design the MSPaintComic.com website to more closely mimic the KTracy.com design.  Of course, there are major design differences, but the layout is almost exactly the same… just different colors.  This helps me with a long term goal of establishing a KTracy.com Network of websites.  If you’re a long term fan of the comic, you’ll know that the MSPaint Comic has been an important part of KTracy.com since it’s inception in 2005.  You’ve also probably recognized how much I’ve struggled maintaining the balance between the serious topics I discuss at KTracy.com and the comedic stuff I do with the comic.  Placing these two websites on the same network like this will go a long way in reaching that right balance.

While I’m writing this, I also want to alert you to two additional comic projects I’m working on.  I’ve started a script for a very serious, very dark, and very graphic story about terrorism in Chechnya.  The overwhelming majority of the story will be in the English language, although I may decide to translate it into Russian for that market.  I have already found an incredibly talented artist (Dana Williams) to illustrate the story; which will run about 48 pages.  That project should hopefully be completed by 2013.

The second project, which is in a much earlier stage of development, is a comic that follows a more traditional strip-format.  I can’t discuss the details too much yet, but it will be a very sexy, fun project about relationships.  So much fun that I hope to hand draw the entire thing when I get more content for the book.  This is still in its beginning stages, but I also hope to have it finished by 2013.

You see, I couldn’t do this with the static website.  Be happy.