Sorry to anyone who may have seen some not-kid-friendly ads in the sidebar below in the last day or so. I’ve changed my settings on Project Wonderful to approve each ad that displays, so it won’t happen again in the future.

I want SnoogleZoo to be a safe place for kids to visit, so I am absolutely ruthless about comment approval, and my blogroll lists only comics that I think I could show my young cousins without their mom kicking my butt. And I now realize that I need to extend that responsibility to the approval of ads, because the ostensible rating of this site apparently doesn’t dictate for other people the rating of their ads.

Hi Guys! Long time, no comics, huh? I don’t know if everybody goes through this moment of doubt after 40-100 strips, but mine obviously took me away for far too long.

I’m picking up more or less where I left off, but the format is changing and the update schedule is going to be somewhat looser than it was when I was working on it regularly. The comics are bigger (rather than a newspaper-style strip with three-ish panels they are closer to 8×10 and six-ish panels), and they are penciled and inked by hand. I’ll still be doing colors and lettering on the computer.

I’m shifting my focus to quality over quantity. Back when I started I wanted to meet the update schedule no matter what, and I ended up writing lame jokes and making hasty drawings that I wasn’t proud of. I’m not entirely sure how often I’ll be updating just yet, as I’m still working on the first comic, but it might be as frequent as once a week. What I do know is that I’m working on it every day, and pages will go up when they’re done.

I can tell you that even though it has been over a year since I posted a new comic, I never stopped thinking about these characters and this world. Things have grown and changed somewhat, and the world and the gang’s place in it is more solid than it was before. I’m so excited to get you guys reacquainted.

All right! We made it to 25 comics with only a few hiccups. I’m operating with no buffer right now, which I mean to change- life got in the way and the comic had to take a backseat to things like my sisters wedding, a cold, the election, and a bedroom remodel. But y’know, I’m encouraged to learn that even some highly respected pros operate without a buffer, and as this is more of an experiment than a stab at so-called professional cartoondom, I don’t feel too bad.

So what have we learned here? I considered dropping color because I’d be able to focus on linework and get the comics out faster, but I’ve gotten a lot of unsolicited feedback about how people are enjoying my color. So it stays. I have a pretty steady supply of visits to the site, and as such I feel obligated to meet even a self-imposed deadline. That’s great news. I’m feeling pretty free about the format and subject matter right now, and I kind of want to wander away from my five main characters for a while and explore the world I’m building. I’m still not sure how best to do that, so expect some discontinuity in the next couple of weeks.

Well!

Let me share a little secret with you – I start a lot of projects and very few of them see Launch Day, let alone a sucessful first week. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a week and a half in the hopper right now, and I hope to make that even bigger this week! That’s how I know this project is going to stick- we’re still here!

That said, I’m trying to get a good sized buffer in front of me to keep that momentum going in spite of whatever life may throw at me. I’m going out of town from the 9th to the 13th- all those comics are done, but I want to make sure I come back to at least an extra week in the hopper so I don’t have to panic right after my trip.

So how do you like it so far? I know it’s hard to make a judgement on only three comics, and it’s hard not to want to just throw everything I’ve got up right now to get the feedback, but that’s a bad idea for the above reasons. Oh well, I’ll just have to learn to be patient. I’ve got a bunch of fun story ideas that’ll just have to wait for their time.

Have you seen the cute wallpapers yet? I’m taking a little break on creating new wallpapers while I get the hang of working on the strips during the week, but all the vector ones from the old website are there, and maybe also some you haven’t seen yet!

‘Til next time!

-Veroncia

Technorati Tags: cute wallpapers, new comic

Hi everybody. As you can see, things have changed a little around here! We’re preparing for the launch of SZ as a webcomic starting Monday, September 22nd. So all your SnoogleZoo friends are still here, and they’re going to be easier to get to know!

Right now it’s a little chilly in here- all this grey is very un-snoogly. But we’re working on that. I want to be able to say that the design will be finished on launch day, but I’m not making any guarantees- our first priority is to get the comic going!

Anyway, for now just sit tight, and be here on Monday when we get started. We’re going to update on an MWF schedule, and all the cute wallpapers and character introductions will be back, too. See you then!

Technorati Tags: comic launch, snooglezoo, webcomic