When I was a kid, an adult told me that those little white blotches on your fingernails appeared every time you tell a lie. You might notice that Daniel has a few himself.
But anyway, do you know what blood looks like in black and white? Shadows. SHADOOOOOOWS.
the thing with the white spots on your nails being from dietary problems is a (very popular) myth. they are just little air pockets that happen during nail growth. i haven’t looked into this but i think the more you bite your nails, the more you get them (because you’re constantly damaging the area with your teeth).
also i think the pacing is just fine, people are so entitled, jeez.
Actually the white marks in your nails show that you were lacking something in your diet at the time it was made. 🙂 I forgot what it is, but I’m not looking it up because I don’t want to come off all text book like at the moment. 🙂 FYI, I don’t have any. 😀
BTW, just for my own two cents, once a week update is fine. You have a life. I’m just happy that you keep doing it. 🙂
I like making people happy, but unfortunately there’s only so much I can do! It’s gonna have to stay once a week for the foreseeable future, but maybe someday!
And I have a ton of those white spots, which may also be connected to the terrible terrible digestion issues I’ve been having…
I rarely comment but wow! Some of you are rude, and whiny. It’s a free comic and you have the nerve to complain about the damn pace.
Cody please work at your own pace and tell the story YOU want. Assholes.
It’s cool, I really like that people are invested enough to comment, even if it’s with a criticism! I appreciate the vote of confidence though. I have a plan for the story, I know how I want to tell it and that won’t change, but I certainly agree that a week can be a long time to wait for a single page. I’m a fan of plenty of comics with similar schedules, and it really can be tough! I’m going to try some experiments with balancing my workload in the coming weeks, and hopefully see if I can manage to start putting pages out a little quicker!
I have waited an entire week just for this? C’mon, dude!
Sorry man! I really wish I could update more often, but I have a really tricky schedule to work around. And I kind of obsess over pacing, which unfortunately leaves some slow spots like this. It’s all for a reason though, I promise!
I love this webcomic, but I got to agree with Gonshu: this is going very slow. I’m not talking about the update schedule, everyone is very busy these days, we recognise that, but the pacing of the story. I feel like I’m reading a single phrase per week.
Thanks for the input, I appreciate the honesty! I try to pride myself on my ability to take criticism, so let me see if I can field some of these concerns a little better.
Firstly, I would like to shed some light on my creative choices here, just so it doesn’t seem like I’m intentionally drawing things out to be a jerk! This moment represents Daniel’a final breaking point. The nailbiting is a physical representation of his anxiety, and the bleeding is the physical representation of him no longer being able to hold it in. I know it’s not much to look at, but I feel it’s an important setup for the next page, which will hopefully help to justify this one.
Can I ask you for your honest opinion though? Would the pacing be more palatable if I updated more frequently, or do you think that even taken as a whole, the pacing of the comic is too slow?
If you don’t mind me interjecting here — I believe the pacing issue, while a legitimate one, is because of the way the comic is being presented and updated. This can’t be helped, though — it’s a webcomic. I think that if you were to put the completed comic into a book then the pacing would be just fine. Slow? Sure but we’re following the story of a man who lives such a life.
I just found your comic and read them all in one go — and I thought the pacing was perfect for the character and atmosphere you’re creating. I can understand why, reading week to week, would be frustrating, though.
I’d say look at what you’re true intent is for this story: To stay a webcomic? Then pick is up. If you plan to make this into a graphic novel when it’s completed and sell it? Keep going like you are, picking up pace when appropriate, obviously.
Anyway, it’s a wonderful story and I’m happy to come back every week and see how it goes.
Ahh, sorry I didn’t respond to this sooner, for some reason this comment got marked as spam!
That’s kind of exactly where I’m at with this conversation. I think the pacing is as slow as the story needs it to be, but it can be tough to have to wait week after week for it to move along. As for the format issue, I guess even though I post it page-by-page, someday once I finish the story I’d like to see it all collected together in some form. I don’t think I’m going to mess with the pacing since I’m pretty happy with it myself, but the update schedule is definitely something that could use some work. Glad you’re enjoying, and thanks for weighing in!
Sorry for the delay, I just saw this comment today.
Just to be clear, the last of my intentions is to denigrate your work. On the contrary, I want to congratulate you, you’re doing a great work here!!
As for my personal opinion (and nothing more) the pacing of the comic as a whole is a little slow. The update frequency is great, we know you’ve got a busy life (we all do), and one comic per week is a very good update frequency. It’s a great story, but we’ve been on this “car scene” for about 6 weeks now.
Again, this is just my personal opinion. I love this work of yours, and I mean it as a “friendly tip”, definitely not a hateful conplain. I will continue to read and like this webcomic regardless if you take the tip or ignore it (we all are free to do so). Great work man!!
It’s all good man, I definitely didn’t take it as anything aggressive. Like I said, I appreciate feedback in all it’s forms and I’m glad you’re still enjoying the comic!
As I’ve been writing this series, I’ve been writing it with the thought process that it’s best taken as a whole, which is kind of unfair considering most people are reading it week to week! It sounds like a copout, but the only way I can really think to remedy this is to simply try to update more often. The story is somewhat slow by design, since it is mainly about people growing and learning to accept themselves and stuff like that, and that is of course no simple thing to do. But there is plenty more to it than that, plenty more that definitely makes for a more exciting read. Unfortunately though, there’s a lot that needs to be said and done before we can get to that stuff! If I could hurry it along any more I certainly would, because trust me, I’m just as excited to draw some of this stuff as I’m hoping people are to read it!
I hate when that happens >.< Why does Daniel care so much anyway? Does he have a thing for teachers?
Obligatory YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35sUdU7nwOE
As a chronic nailbiter, I too can confirm that this is one of the most painful/annoying things imaginable. We’re going to get into Daniel’s head a little more in the next page, and even more over the course of the chapter, which will hopefully shed a little light on where he’s coming from.
I’m digging these Ancient Astronaut fellows quite a bit. I also checked out Heart of the Future, which turned out to be a pretty rad Beastie Boys remix. I’ve been on kind of a punk kick lately, but I’m digging the new Pete Rock instrumentals album quite a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVs50kaQqdY
Well, at least he didn’t do what Nathalie Portman did in Black Swan; that was truly scream-inducing to the core.
Oh no, I haven’t seen that movie! But based on what I know about it, I think I can imagine how messed up the scene in question must be.