Oh wait. That’s how I started my last post (and that was almost 2 years ago…)
It’s been a very, very, very, long while ^^;
Anyways, MitM is back with 4 new pages(!). They’re up (right now!!) if you wanna go check ’em out, and I’m planning on writing the usual blog entries for each page shortly.
If you’re asking, “Why revive your dead webcomic? and why now?”
Well…for starters, I don’t think I’ll ever truly label MitM “dead” or “done” (or at least for quite awhile). I suppose my reasoning would be that I’ve always wanted MitM to be a project that challenges and pushes me, allowing me to experiment with different art and writing. You could argue it’s something of a loose idea sketchbook (that I just happen to post online and spend several hours on each page…)
As for the “why now” part, well, why not? I can’t really think of a reason to hold off. Sure, I’m still kinda, super busy with other general life stuff at the moment, but just holding off till there’s a calm point doesn’t seem particularly helpful (or likely). Going ahead and just posting all I have at the moment incentivizes me to go and make more ^^
Speaking of making more, once again this chapter is (finally) wrapping up here shortly. So hold on to your pants.
So as this year is wrapping up, I’ve been reflecting a bit on not only this last year, but also the whole decade that is coming to a close. Since it’s been awhile since I’ve literally posted…well…anything, I wanted to post a little (big) update; even if for no other reason than to write things down for my own sake to remember later on.
When 2010 kicked off the decade, I was a naive, scrappy little 15yr old. Now at the end of 2019, I am a sad, dull 25yr old.
That’s about it. Yup, the end.
technically the lyric is “…with A dead dreams…” :\
Alright jokes aside, I initially felt like not much had changed in my life. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, 10 years really ain’t a long time, even if these ten landed during a big transitional part of my life. My hobbies shifted from playing baseball, video games, snowboarding, and bible quizzing (yeah, I did that); to drinking beer and liquor, smoking weed, doing drugs, and-
Okay, okay. I’ll cut back on the depressing jokes and try to take this more seriously.
Just within this decade I…
…graduated from homeschool (if that means anything)
…survived college and escaped with a Bachelors degree of art
…moved from rural Montana, to Idaho, and eventually to Seattle
…spent almost a month in another country where I didn’t really speak the native language (which is something I totally recommend by the way)
…made my first online account (FurAffinity, for better or worse)
…discovered webcomics and started my own (and a few other short-lived comic strip series)
…went from seeing my first major concert to becoming a regular concert goer
…juggled a mixture of jobs ranging from cleaning toilets, traveling for tech support, doing construction, selling anime, to woodworking
…transitioned from hating coffee and beer to consuming each quite regularly
…shifted my obsessive interests from video games to music
…and that’s just the first 10 things from these 10 years I can think of off the top of my head.
Mutt in the Middle has obviously been one of the decade’s biggest surprises for me. Sure, it’s not really grown into anything special, but I only had a passing interests in comics before tackling the project. While I’ve read comics for about as long as I can remember, I actually would not have considered comics a big part of my life. When I first discovered webcomics I was intrigued though. Here was a vast array of comics that incorporated a range of styles, genres, and could literally be about anything. You could read one that was total trash, but then turn around and find one of your favorite stories of all time. The fact that these were largely made by ordinary people with sometimes only the bare minimum amount of art and writing skills instilled a dream in me that anyone could make something great if they were willing to invest the time.
I was in high school, I had loads of time.
My arrival to college may have taken away from my available time, but now I was really learning how to improve my artistic abilities. While I didn’t really learn about comics from my graphic design department (and they didn’t seem to have a terribly fond opinion of illustration), I did learn elements of good design that I was able to incorporate into my artwork.
As I moved on from college life to the average adult life, my time and motivation as an artist began to take a dive though. While I currently have a job I find enjoyment in, it does tend to leave me tired and drained after the normal 40hr work week. If any of you have been following MitM, you will already know that there really hasn’t been much to follow recently (the last page was like what? September?). What free time I have had recently has been more and more focused on my interests in music…
…and well beer. No seriously.
I have made several good friends in the craft beer (and cider!) industry, several of which are also big music fans. We meet up at breweries and share the weird, obscure (or mainstream) music that we most recently have been geeking out about. My music tastes (which were, mind you, already extremely broad in college) have probably doubled or tripled (if not more!). My extensive love for music and sharing it with others is the primary push for me to get off my sorry butt and start this whole YouTube channel dedicated to discovering music.
[Eclectic Fidelity] *logo WIP
Alright, so I’ve only created the channel and I have yet to actually post a video, but I am still very serious about kicking production for this into high gear. I have a few scripts already finished, some recorded bits started, and even artwork done to incorporate to the project.
Of course this does kinda place Mutt in the Middle in…well…sort of a pickle (ha, puns). Currently it lies in limbo in the middle of an action scene that I’d argue is really important (at least to the story). I have had the next few pages sketched (and half forgotten) within my sketchbook for awhile now, so I really should…well…”just do it!” Theoretically, I would like to finish the chapter and then “officially” take a break from MitM to focus on this potential YouTube project.
So…yup, that’s about it I suppose. If you managed to make it all the way through this lengthy, arguably unimportant blurb…well…good for you (I guess?). I do want to wish you a Happy New Year and the best of luck for the upcoming decade.
I will now leave you with a song.
A song released earlier this year that I love dearly, and one that instills me with hope.
Really pleased with how Inktober came out this year. I was a little stumped some days what to draw and other days I wouldn’t be finished until late into the night, but overall I really enjoyed it.
All the MitM related Inktober sketches are compiled here. If you want to view the entire month’s works, you can check out my folder on my FurAffinity Account, or scroll through my Twitter Account
Now I’d like to get back to MitM with updates resuming in Sundays; ALTHOUGH, I have been putting more time into starting that YouTube channel I teased during Inktober and have been talking about for awhile. So I’ll see how I can manage my time, but both MitM and Eclectic Fidelity (the YouTube channel) are things I want to get some serious work done with.
We’ll just have to wait and see how they turn out ^^;
So for the few of you that have been wondering where’s last week’s MitM page, I thought I’d do a quick update blog.
I’ve been traveling around like crazy recently, both for work and personal. I just got back from Denver last week, now I’m in New York, then I’m heading to Chicago at the end of the week, and next week I’ll be in Portland. Needless to say, it’s been a little hard to find some time to just sit down and draw.
I have been able to get some rough sketches of the next few pages on my long flights though. This last week I did actually have a little extra time and I probably could have finished a page if I really pushed for it, but the next page may or may not end on a much more serious cliffhanger than the last page. Since I will definitely not have any free time in the coming weeks, I figured it would be best to break where the current page is rather than do the next one.
Also…my markers are dead and need to be replaced… 🙁
(you can kinda notice it if you look closely at the last two pages)
And to top everything off, I’m trying to prepare for my first ever art dealer table at a local Boise Anime Con in late November. Trying to get everything in place for this is going to be pretty hectic and time consuming. While most of my work related travels will be done by October, this art table is what I’m worried may keep MitM on the back-burner longer than I would like to keep it there…
I personally feel like this chapter is a slight cut above my previous work, so I will do my best to get back to it as soon as I can ^^;
Well…it has been awhile I suppose – almost 5 months to be exact -.-;
Well I’m excited to say it’s coming back! (YAY!!)
After my first turntable broke and I stopped updating LP Mondays, my parents let me have their old turntable and speakers. Those were great, but the speakers were a little fuzzy and it would have been hard to accurately capture the music without a nice microphone. I recently got a brand new turntable that I can burn music to my computer with, allowing me to get back to this fun side project.
My vinyl collection has quite radically changed over that long time period, so expect to see a nice variety of stuff. Since I was kinda between jobs last time I was updating most of the vinyls came from record store discount bins and thrift stores. Needless to say, I have a good bit more of new vinyl in my collection now, which should provide some nice variety to those sick of 60s and 70s stuff ^^;
Music is really a big part of my life and even though LP Mondays came to a halt for awhile, my interest in pursuing new music and records never waned. I’m thrilled to get back to sharing (what I believe is) some amazing vinyl records with you as early as this upcoming Monday.
P.S. More of a note for myself, but I need to probably go back and rerecord those last few LP Mondays where my record player was dying and really harming the sound of the music…
So this sketch has been sitting in my sketchbook at least since the last chapter ^^;
Anyways, it was something that I had wanted to do for awhile now. Not sure if I’ll work it into the main part of the site, or just leave it here on the blog…
lol looking at it now, the only thing it might be missing is my signature and date… -_-
Trying to get everything MitM transferred over to this site right now.
I just got done reposting all of my author’s comments on all the pages from Chapter 1 and I plan to tackle the rest in stages. Also getting the first entry in Monday LPs finalized and ready for tomorrow.
As for even more exciting news, I plan to finish the Chapter 5 header for this Thursday. I want to make it out to be something of a Thanksgiving gift to the few readers who have been bearing with me over this break ^^
Whoo!! The website is live, the blog is up and running, and there are only a few bugs/unfinished segments left! (yeah, please ignore the cast segment on the main site for now…)
This has been a long process and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Anyways hang in there everybody, Mutt in the Middle is almost completely back 😀
Hooray!! We have reached the official “One Year” mark for this comic!! My very first page was uploaded on May 23, 2013!
One whole year has gone by?! Wow! There’s like what, 52 weeks in a year, and since this webcomic updates each week we should be at page……oh……dang……
Anyways, technically I began work on this webcomic 2 years ago. One day I just sat down and started to think of a cool story idea and eventually ended up drawing 5 rough pages of a comic book to help get me started. These 5 first pages were later heavily revised almost a year later to what you see posted here.
When I realized that Mutt in the Middle’s 1 year anniversary was approaching, I was all like, “I should totally post a new page every day for that week!!!” As awesome as that would have been, I didn’t take into consideration that my two 4 week summer college courses were beginning this week and I needed to finish my last week of my two summer jobs…
To make a long story short, I didn’t even get around to finishing the very next page that was supposed to be posted today…
So to celebrate my failure, I posted a short little doddle for fun! Enjoy!
A BIG shout out and thank you to everyone who has followed me this far! THANK YOU!!! Here’s to another year!
