Other Endeavors

One of my many other projects is my hand-drawn webcomic, Just One More. I abandoned the strip because I just didn't have the time to draw it anymore. Of course, between now and then, I started Bitmap World. In some ways BMW takes as much time to do as JOM (though not always). One thing though, I am also more knowledgable about doing comics now, thanks to practice on BMW and hanging out on some webcomic sites with artists who have taught me a lot.

Anyhow...

I have wanted to restart Just One More for quite some time. I had hoped to have an artist come on to help. My dream was to find someone who would appreciate the concept and start without pay, but eventually would share in any success once the strip got big.

I have had a few people show interest in the project, but unfortunately they all dropped off eventually. I do realize that I'm either going to have to do the art myself again, or I'm gonna have to get some money together and pay an artist. Though, at this point in time, financially, that second option is pretty much out of the picture.

I slightly rebooted the look of the characters a while back, so this is how I originally drew them:



The most recent artist who considered taking up JOM was JM Brown. Here is some concept art he did:



Even though these exercises into getting my comic up again have proved to be unsuccessful, it is amazing to see how different artists depict different characters. It's something that I think gives a great deal of charm to guest comics--where the creator (and their fans) get to see how their beloved characters are rendered by a different talent. My kids got an absolute kick seeing the JOM characters drawn by Brown...I did too.

Of course, Bitmap World is smileys and you would think that there is really only one way to render them. I was about to write that (though I guess I already did), when I remembered this comic that was done as a "Secret Santa" gift for BMW by Jamie Sawatsky of 67th Avenue:



Even something that seems pretty cut and dry was given a new twist by an artist. That guest strip remains one of our favorites in the family.

For now, JustOneMore is on the backburner again. That's okay. I've been doing more actual hand-drawn art lately...oddly enough for guest strips for other artists. I may pick up the pen again and give JOM a shot. More likely, I'll wait another year and see what the future holds. I may end up with more time to hand-draw it (though that seems unlikely) or we may end up with money to pay someone (which also seems unlikely, but is probably more likely than the time issue). Until then, I'll keep on keepin.

Which will lead me to my next entry, whenever I get around to it: Re-inventing Sara.