All the other comics have been moved to the Rejects page, which I really should rename because “rejects” has bad connotations. The Warded Masquerade is on the Short Stories page as before, and all future comics will now be displayed on the front page like any normal site. I will be updating Monday-Wednesday-Friday from now on, as that is the optimum schedule that I can manage and keep up the quality.

Also, I think this is a good time to introduce myself, which is something I really haven’t done properly yet.

I’m not the most photogenic person . . .

My name is Matthew Dawson, I am 23 and live in Midlothian, Virginia. It is just outside of Richmond city limits, so it is far enough away to be quieter than the city and to make you have to put up with a car if you want to go anywhere.

I was never really all that into comics growing up. That is possibly because the major publishers ruled at the time (DC and Marvel) and almost all of the material they were making was ultra-gritty, violent superhero stuff designed for people who were a couple of decades older than I was at the time. After playing around with making a very rough webcomic in high school, I began to despair because all of the successes back then (this was about 2003) seemed to be video game-based strips that were already several years old. Even then, I knew that I couldn’t beat those guys at their own game, and if I even wanted to come close it would take five to six years of constant work. And in high school, five years is forever.

After abandoning webcomics for a couple of years, I decided to give it a go once again in the fall of 2008. That was when my family finally ditched the 56k modem and went straight to a high-speed connection. Suddenly, I was exposed to a wild array of webcomics that not only were successful, but had nothing to do with video games at all. Not only that, but some of them were making great headway on only their third year or so of regular updates. I felt like I could actually make this work for me and my first comic went up on my old Webcomics Nation account on Christmas Eve 2008. Although I have really bumbled through my first year – changing anything and everything – I have yet to ditch the comic-making life since then and hope to continue on indefinitely.

Having really botched to first year, though I learned a lot, I am really beginning again and wiping the slate clean as far as continuity is concerned. Though, if you’re a new reader it might still be beneficial to skim through the old comics because many of those characters and ideas might make a return in the future. It isn’t essential, but it might give you a little insight on how I come up with some of my ideas. And now I will off and let you enjoy all the silly nonsense I’ve managed to collect over the many months on this site as well as the comics to come.

Not got much to show for myself, because my rotten scanner has been giving me heck. It started tossing errors my way after scanning these couple of pictures, so this is all you get for now. I am very interested in doing everything by hand holding pencil for the next comic, so I need to get this all sorted out if I’m going to give it a go.

It might be a week. It might be a month or more. I don’t know, because it will take as long as it needs to take.

This past week I have been preparing for a relaunch of this comic and the date of the big restart was to have been Monday. Yet after making a couple of comics and a number of sketches in preparation, I have become more and more convinced that I would not be ready in time. And also that something is missing from this comic in total.

And what is missing is my love for it.

If I didn’t care about these characters and this little world, then I’d toss them aside and move on with my life. But I can’t stop drawing them. I can stop thinking of new adventures and different angles for new stories. I can see this vibrant little world in my mind’s eye and I know that all I have to do is put it out there and people will like it. Because I love it.

The problem stems from the execution of it. My inner Brad Guigar tells me that I can make this huge if only I can put it out there in a way that is well-made and appeals to readers. That’s why over the past year I have tried so many formats and sizes and art styles and ways of telling the story. Because I know it can take off, if only I can let it do so.

And I hate doing this. This thing where I keep changing stuff. Where I go on hiatus, only to come back prematurely and then go away again. Yet, each time I do this more of the pieces fall into place in my mind. And this time I can almost taste it.

I just need more time to train myself, to make better art, to learn to write better. I know that patience does not exist in great quantity among those who read comics on the web, but it is what I must ask of you if you want a comic that can live up to what I promise

Also, I’m relaunching the comic.

Next Monday, the 22nd of February, I am effectively starting the comic over. Pretty much. More or less.

As I’ve elaborated entirely too much in the past, this comic started out without any overarching theme or story whatsoever. After establishing a few characters, which are now the stars of the comic, I lept headlong into an unplanned story only to have it fall apart shortly afterward. During the first year I bounced from one schedule to another, starting and stopping stories with alarming rapidity. I refused to commit to a single, solid continuity and ended up trying anything and everything to chase after every kind of reader and in doing so managed to capture the attention of almost none. And in the process even I lost interest in it.

And then, each night, after posting a newly-made comic to the site at midnight I would get into bed with the intent of sleeping only to stay up for another hour.

In that hour I can do nothing but think about what I’m going to do next with the comic and get excited. The driving question that keeps bringing fans back to a story again and again is what kept me awake. And that question is: “What happens next?”

Only there is no “next” in this comic. Just as there is no “previous”. Because without a strict timeline there can only be a series of unrelated events in which locations, characters and circumstances are just shuffled about like set pieces without purpose or meaning. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past year. It’s why I have so few readers and why I cannot capture new ones even when visitors flood the site. It’s why it seems like I’ve been going in circles for the past year.

And it all ends on the 22nd. On that day and henceforth, the comic will update Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There will be the usual cast, plus new characters and even some old ones that haven’t been seen in a while. Humor will become as important to the comic as the drama has been in the past. The comic will be presented in a shorter, wider format and will make a return to the front page of the site. The current archive will be placed with the other first year comics on the “Rejects” page, and The Warded Masquerade and any other future stand-alone stories will have a home on the “Short Stories” page. Once the comic is relaunched, it will form a continual story though said story has no definite end. It will act more like a traditional webcomic and string together a number of story arcs through which the characters and the town in which they live will be explored and developed. If I happen to do something that I later regret, I’ll suck it up and take it like a man because it will be final. I’ll be forced to learn how to prewrite better and thumbnail more before getting to the final comic.

I want to succeed with this. Not just for ego stroking, but because I want to make a truly good comic which is the same thing I’ve wanted since the beginning. I want to build something I can be proud of and the only way I can do that is if I lay the strongest foundation I can.

So, I’m off to bed now.

But I know I won’t get to sleep right away.

Also, seeing as it is my birthday, I feel that I have free-reign to goof off most of today.