Thanks to the unbelieveable response Templar's readers have had to the new tip jar, the week coming up will feature the promised extra update.
Wow.
Seriously guys, this is way above and beyond. "Thank you" doesn't even begin to cover it.
The excess, of course, will roll over towards the next bonus update. The huge, huge excess.
Wow.
I've been thinking about this comic for a long time. Over a decade. I've run a lot of the scenes in my mind over and over. But once I actually get them drawn and uploaded, I pretty much stop thinking about them at all. It's a little like an exorcism.
Thing is, Templar takes up so much of my cerebral real estate that I'm not quite sure what to put in its place once pieces of it are gone. So I wind up sort of spacing out instead.
Weird.
On a mildly less stupid note, I have to say that the response you guys have had to the tip jar has been OVERWHELMING. Thank you, thank you, thank you. One day in, and it's already halfway to a three-page week. I'm amazed and humbled and very grateful.
How very Run, Lola, Run. The very last line of the movie, anyway.
Be patient. It's all coming to a head, now.
Also, make sure to take a look at the newest addition to the site: A tip jar.
I'm not offering you guys anything extra in exchange for tips. No desktops, no autobio strips on how I spent the donated money, nothing original or special. I'm just going to update the comic more often every time the tip-o-meter breaks three figures.
I get a hundred bucks, and Templar gets three pages that week instead of two. Them's the rules.
I figure if anyone donates at all, it's because they like the story, and want to read more of it. And I would much rather get on with the story than noodle up some donation incentives I'm skeptical anyone would be interested in. So, we both win.
Kind of.
Right?
Anyway, enjoy. More on Saturday.
The blog is currently being experimented with, largely in an attempt to wedge it in under Templar without making it look too bizarre. So, both sites are gonna be havin' their furniture rearranged for a bit. Stuff's gonna look kinda weird for about a week.
On a more positive note, though, now the Google Ads will have something to goddamn work with. So it shouldn't be nonstop Red Cross ads or whatever the hell.
Don't worry, I won't write a "con report." Mostly because I don't want to. That, and I think most con reports are torturously dull. So I'll keep this short.
In case you didn't hear the news, the Eye of Sauron turned towards Templar, Arizona sometime on Friday, and thanks to some very kind words from Tycho, the WCN servers got sledgehammered when Templar took six-figure pageviews. That was pretty much the best thing ever. Thank you, PA.
I also met up with Scott Kurtz, and we had a really good talk. More as the situation develops.
Overall, a positive experience.
To reward you guys for reading this far, a little news: Templar, Arizona will soon be updating more frequently, occasionally going thrice-weekly. But this will be conditional. I'll explain more when I'm less jet-lagged.
G'nite.
My plane for the San Diego Comic Con leaves in 10 hours, and I am not yet packed. So I'll keep this short.
Templar will update on Friday, so I managed not to slack off this week. So no worries if you just wanna get on with the story, already, because I've met my quota.
The fact that I've leveled myself to Journeyman of Photoshop and can now produce a fully-colored page in a little over 24 hours means Interesting Things for the update schedule. I won't elaborate beyond that yet, though. Wait until I'm home from the con. It's sort of cool, I promise. For me, anyway.
Also attending the con will be these gorgeous promo thingamajigs, courtesy of GotPrint. Unlike last year's Spinn Print clusterfuck, I can strongly recommend these guys. Beautiful work, delivered on time, for damn good prices. Hooray! (Although, to be fair, I was emailed a mea culpa-by-proxy a while back by Spinn Print's brand new management, so they might be better, now. So, y'know. Your mileage may vary.)
That's it. gotta go. See ya there if I see ya there.
An update! My goodness! Click here to see it.
Scipio sure is the chatty type.
I'm going to be at Comic Con starting Wednesday, but I'll try to get a new page put in the upload queue and ready-fied for gawking while I'm gone.
That is a failing grade.
If this were in a pop quiz in high school biology about cell mitosis, I would not pass. Nothing new there.
But this isn't a pop quiz. It's the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards. And Templar, Arizona won in the Outstanding Character Writing and Outstanding Character Design categories. You can see the full list of winners here.
Also, I found a whole bunch of torrents of BBC documentaries about ice mummies. So it's shaping up to be a really good day on all fronts.
For everyone who voted for me, thank you from the bottom of my blackened, shriveled heart. I was up against some killer competition on all fronts, I'm shocked I came away with anything at all. I have this really good, just-got-off-the-rollercoaster feeling in my stomach, and I'll probably have it for hours.
Then, back to telling myself no one reads my comic and everyone secretly hates it. You know, business as usual.
...
That page went unusually fast. Not sure why.
I think Ben's pretty good and suppressing sudden, violent surges of cold, suspicious panic, I really do. Don't you?
What would you do if you were sitting on the subway one afternoon, and you looked across the aisle, and there was a woman sitting there, and she was reading a NASCAR-themed Harlequin romance novel?
Because I know what I'd do. But I'd probably have to get off a few stops early after she noticed the camera flash.
That being said, next week is gonna be kinda bumpy. I've got a lot to do before SDCC, More than one comic-related horse to climb back on top of, and I'm desperately scrambling to build up a buffer so the comic updates while I'm in San Diego. So beg pardon if thigns get a little weird and/or irregular before the month's out. Kthnx.
That being said, I listened to Sleater-Kinney's "Faraway" like fifteen million times this afternoon before I actually figured out that song was about 9/11. King-sized DURR.
I have utterly squandered my generous lead on the week, dispensing with my attempt at three pages and uploading the second on Saturday. fee free to be disappointed in me. But read it anyway, okay?
I'll try to do better next week and not leave you guys in a lurch for Comic-Con.
Also, no one loves me. Anybody with a comic wanna do a link exchange? That might be a little awesome.
As promised, no more half-finished pages. So, this one went up a day late. Sorry, guys. But on the up side, maybe I'll manage to update three times this week. Wild, huh?
Yeah, I don't believe me, either.
Click here t'read the new page. And thanks for your patience. Don't think I don't appreciate it.
