Different drummer?

[scarfman]

Many webcartoonists for whom it isn't their day job, maybe most, maybe all but me, feel the best way to emulate professionalism is to put out the best installment each time they can, even if it means missing a scheduled update. But I feel differently. The reason I've gone nearly my first thousand daily updates without missing one - indirectly the reason I developed a working process that incidentally includes elements it turns out most webcartoonists and many webcomics readers sneer at -

(I get some guff from potential readers about the MSPaint and the Comic Sans. But I remember a comment I once read before the world went online from a newpaper feature editor, that no reader ever wrote in to complain that a comic strip's art had declined.)

- is that I feel the best way to emulate professionalism (and I articulated this while I was watching Studio 60 last night) is to put out the best installment each time I can, without missing a scheduled update. It's always at the top of every commentator's best practices lists for webcomics to pick a schedule you can stick to and then stick to it. (Plus, part of my motivation in creating AKOTAS was to bring the Arthurian characters into people's lives on a daily basis so that people might, as do I, know and love, and live with, them as Captain Kirk and Harry Potter are loved and lived with.) Updating to schedule's always been my top priority. I always genuinely work to write a good joke and draw it well, and I do contend that every strip I've updated with has been the best work I could have done that day; but updating every day with something is my top priority.

Am I the only one who feels this way, rather than the other?

Crossposted to webcomics and snarkoleptics.

Comments

[justbeast.livejournal.com]

Nope, definitely not the only one.
I completely agree with you that schedule should come first, and whatever perception of quality, a distant second. And I admire that you've chosen that route.

I often want to grab my favorite webcomic cartoonists by the lapels and shake them, and say "I don't care if it's filler, I don't care if you've scribbled some stick figures on a napkin and then took a cellphone snapshot of it and uploaded it, just give me something on schedule!"

[fisher-queen.livejournal.com]

Plus, part of my motivation in creating AKOTAS was to bring the Arthurian characters into people's lives on a daily basis so that people might, as do I, know and love, and live with, them as Captain Kirk and Harry Potter are loved and lived with.

I'd say you do that, I've shown the strip to friends with a vague Arthurian interes and they've all really loved it. That said, as someone who knew and loved them before, I've found the strip helps me to love them even more and I find it an encouragement to read when my own novel inspiration has gone flat, especially in the case of Mordred...I adore your Mordred and he makes me want to get to know my own better through that process.

[scarfman]

Wow. Naturally one hopes one inspires others, but being notfied that it happens is still a rush. Thanks for reading.

[axonite.livejournal.com]

I've updated daily since July 2003, so I think I agree with you. :)

[qtrhorserider.livejournal.com]

It's a discipline thing.

Did I ever tell you that I admire that in you?

(spare me the B&D jokes....)