Mini-Comics, A Personal History of Failure

Every so often I get the urge to do a mini-version of my webcomic.  I'll draw up designs that are a little cuter and toonier and have the grand idea to do it on the side, but for some reason it never works out.

Or I'll get an idea for a new strip entirely.

I'll get really excited about it...

Do a bunch of work on it...

Then realize it's pretty much the same strip with different character names.

I get one done, or half of one done, and I realize that I don't have time to even do my main one weekly anymore.  So my computer is full of half-finished mini-strips and cartoonier character redesigns.

Ali: Now with 50% more emo hair

Last Monday I was rolling it around again as a way to try to kick the drawing slump I've been in.  The idea was to do Ali and Naomi as the two main characters and do shorter joke strips.  I thought I'd use Curt in the first to establish things and then go off from there.

Of course, that never took off, I struggled with really having anything to say with it.  I've just had writer's block AND artist's block to the point of wanting to just give up for a while.

I actually do kind of like this latest batch of designs, though.  They're cute and goofy looking but still recognizable.  Well, except Ali there, on the left, I gave her a total makeover, because drawing her weird hair straight on before was impossible.

I'll almost certainly revisit the idea again, but looking at all my aborted attempts in the past for this post is sort of sobering.  I did do about twenty at one point years ago, but the art was rushed and half-assed, and I don't want to fall into that again.