crossroads

hmm.

next year will be interesting, because for the first time in years i will no longer be catching up with long term projects, or working on any how-the-hell-did-someone-pick-me-for-this projects. i will have the time (relatively) to turn my attention to some long neglected work. the thing is, there are so many completely different things i could do. it's paralyzing!

first off, i will be returning to the award-losing dare detectives. i've worked out a plan, and i've actually done a lot of the scripting for the second dare case, as well as a bit of thumbnailing. the story is much more complex than "the snowpea plot", and compared to almost all of my previous work, it will be a lot less compressed. certainly not decompressed, but a little more space for the characters to breathe, a little less hectic (at times) than the last story. also a lot more room to show little corners of the dare world, from the racism maria faces in a swanky resort to the ruins of the ancient giant civilizations to the return of dare's first foe, red dingo! and yes, this story also has kissing (which apparently offends a lot of people), but then it has tiki zombies too, so make of it what you will.

pictured: not a tiki zombie

there are also a bunch of "manga" stories i've been meaning to tackle. now, i understand that the rest of the world has some sort of rulebook about what is and is not officially manga, i just don't really care. unfortunately, publishers do. so i'm trying to figure out if it's just easier to do my own stuff online and make a living digging ditches or something.

in light of my surprisingly controversial post last month (well, it surprised the hell out of me) several people have asked me about my more female-centric work, which led me to the shocking realization that pretty much all my work is female-centric. at least compared to a lot of what's out there, i guess. maria dare and ann-marie and dolly and alex faraday and WW and the list goes on. i don't know how it happened. i blame masamune shirow. also, women.

blue haired, alien hunting women

but i'm wondering if i shouldn't go with that, and focus on one of my stories that is more... well, not like WW, what's the point of almost doing something? but something along the same lines, in terms of larger than life superheroines and crazy international intrigue and fantasy and all that jazz. the fact is that most of my stories are drenched in that stuff anyway, even most "dare" stories. just in different combinations. anyway, most of my manga projects fit somewhere in this category, so we'll see. there was even one i posted doodles from last year, although i'm afraid that story isn't crazy enough. you know, time-traveling cyber-crocodile jetbike crazy. (one of the things i loved about WW was the sense that jesus, anything could totally happen so you better just smile and go with it. i want more of that.)

you can't tell, but he just punched 1,000 space ninjas

anyway, i'm gearing up to tackle at least some of these projects in the new year. one thing you may have noticed is that a lot of my new art has been very loosely drawn and inked. it's a faster way to work, and right now i want to spend less time finessing each panel, and really crank out a ton of stories. in the end, all people* want is to be entertained, and all i want is to entertain them!

*and by people, i mean small children, mimes, professional convicts, and myself.**

** mostly myself.