Exiern

Well Boom is sick. He can’t draw right now. Let’s all wish him a speedy recovery.

To put the illness in a more global context, you all might have noticed we have been having a hard time keeping up with the updates. I wanted to speak for a moment about what is being done about that.

As I have said in the past at this point Boom is Exiern. He really is a wonderful artist to work with and despite the interruptions we are experience right now quite reliable. So for right now on that front the updates on Exiern are going to be erratic until Boom’s life gets less toxic.

However I have to take responsibility for the effect this has the readership. Now there are Exiern has two type of readers the readers who read the free comic and the one s who pay for the exclusive content.

For the free content readers it would easy enough to say “well it’s a free comic you get what you pay for”. However I believe that this statement is fundamentally wrong. Readers invest their time in comic when they read it. They contributing material to the comic by talking about it one the web and generally integral to the success of a comic. Even if an online reader is not giving you money they are “paying” for the comic and deserve to be treated with the respect you give any other customer.

That being said there is not much good news for the public reader. I have been scrambling around to get extra material and everything gone south. There seems to be a global curse of illness chaos and death that is plaguing the artist community. I thought I would personally pay for a few more pages of Dark Reflection but Kraken has been bogged down as well so no luck there. My normal filler artist pool is completely backed up. And I have burned through all my back up art. For this month we’re screwed unless an artist suddenly appears who can crank out pages overnight.

Long term I have been working on getting a sister comic to up and running. Not Dark Reflections, because of the some nebulousness in the ownership of that property it’s never going to be more than an online comic. The new comic, like Exiern, would have a transformation theme but the setting would be different. This comic would update once a week like Exiern as well and share a member’s area Exiern. The problem is I can’t find a bloody artist for it. I have had 3 artists agree to it and then just disappear. And it’s not like I am asking them to do it for free. I am offering a competitive commission rate for the comic and every artist I find for the project seems to disintegrate into the ether the moment I send the contract. So the upshot is that is going to take some time to get online you probably won’t see it till August.

For the paying members the situation similarly bleak for this month, but it gets better faster. I’ve commissioned 5 new donation comics to be placed in the members area. Unfortunately remember the global artist plague/curse. It seems to be troubling the donation comic artists as well. I have been having the darnest time getting people to do any commission work for me at all.

Basically what I am saying is that I know there is a problem and I am trying to fix it. But with out an artist willing to take Government back legal tender in exchange for goods and services (which honestly is the problem I am running into here) the solution is going to be delayed.

• Boom is going to try and get the remaining comics in for this month.
• In April I have a filler artist coming in (I hope).
• By May we should have built up a little buffer to carry us through to July.
• Also in May a new donation comic should be posted and a new one every month after.
• In July-August a new Exiern style comic should be launching.
• In October Jessica Alba will beg me to take her as my devoted love-slave because frankly just because I plan for something to happen doesn’t mean it will happen. I just personally feel that you the readers should know what I am trying to do to fix this problem.

I would like to take a moment to talk about this special time of year. This perfect time from Febuary 15 to October 30. The no holiday time of year. That right folks we are free! For 257 blissful days we don’t have to have good will for anyone or pretend to like our families or be in love with anyone. We are final free to live our lives.

Now I know what you’re saying. “What about Easter. That’s still coming up.” And, yes, Easter is still on the calendar. But despite the best efforts of the retailers (bless there little money grubbing hearts) Easter has remained a religious holiday. If anyone every says to you “where’s your Easter spirit” you can just look at them with a puzzled expression on your face and say “Sorry I’m not a Jesus freak” to end the conversation. All you have to do to opt out of easter is play the religious persecution card.

No the only power that Easter has over our lives is that we can buy Cadbury Cream Eggs in the stores. And I generally like Cadbury Cream Eggs

The holidays on the calendar between February and October are weak tea, lacking the bullying might to completely take over ever facet of your life in a coordinated social, media, and governmental blitz. For 257 days we have been liberated. You can be crabby, greedy, selfish or just in a plain old rotten mood with no one citing a holiday as to why you don’t have a right to feel the way you feel. You don’t have to interact with anyone unless you actually choose to interact with that person. No one can say to you “How can you be alone on April 27” because it’s just a day.

I for one would like to take a moment to give thanks that there are no more holidays that require me to give thanks for anything. I am quite merry to see you gone Christmas! Thanksgiving you have been gutted! Halloween I fear you no more!  New Years your time has passed! I am filled with hatred for you Valitines day! Holidays, for 257 days I am free from your tyranny and you’re powerless to do a thing about it!

And you know what when holiday seasons rolls around again, if any of use happen to see a couple of precocious children on a quest to save something. Let’s agree to take a baseball bat to their kneecaps. Because if this unspecial time could last year round, just once, that would be very… well not nice, not wonderful, not joyous… It would be very restful. And a good rest would be the greatest gift of all don’t you think?