Hello all and welcome to RAWRweekly……or RAWRnews….yea RAWRnews, I changed the name. After nearly half a year of RAWRweekly, I realised that I have almost never managed to hold a weekly schedule. But more over, ‘RAWRnews’ sounds less ridiculous and is less of a lie.
Normality
Now with that over with, here’s what has been happening. If you’ve been following this blog at all, you might remember a post from earlier this year where I was announcing a stop to all of my ambitious plans for RAWRtacular. I never really mentioned a reason for that, but much of it was due to me moving…yet again. Long story there, but in a nutshell, I’ve finished moving and a sense of normality has finally returned to my day-to-day life. So the good news here is: I can do more RAWRtacular stuff now. I can also have a healthy well-balanced life too…I guess that’s a bonus 
Artfully Devious
If you have been following my Google+, or Facebook pages, you may have noticed that it’s getting a lot busier there now. This is thanks to my desire to really push out regular new content, and my related frustration of the fact that I simply couldn’t deliver that. But then I realised: Hey! I’m drawing stuff for most of the week, and nearly every single day, I’m doing something with one of the comics. So, taking inspiration from my peers I have started posting Pages in Progress, nearly every other day.
So much leg-work!
So now, I’m ‘showing my work’. As well as filling my social media with potential interesting comic stuff, my other agenda was to finally put some content into my Deviant Art page. I started my DA page over a year ago…and it was completely empty. Until now that is. That page is now pretty active, and in the future I hope to be posting more complete works up there.
I’m Sorry in Japan!
This has been bugging me for along while now. Besides me doing Back Office and Bata Neart out of both duty and love for them, I’m Famous in Japan has been a joint-project I have been doing for the pure joy of it. But despite that, my pace at drawing that has seriously gone down a notch compared to a few months ago. Now this, was due to a few factors. Getting used to a 2 comic weekly schedule, combined with the moving and busy times at work, made it nearly impossible to draw pages for Famous Japan. There simply were not enough hours in the day. This has eaten away at me, because I have felt that I’ve been letting my friends at Black Snow Comics down for not producing pages at the same pace as I would for my RAWRtacular Comics.
And so, I’d like to publicly apologize to both Black Snow’s reader’s, and to the guys at Black Snow for all of this. However, as a means to trying to make amends, I am now making a promise, to both myself and everyone. I will produce at least one page (or material of some kind) for I’m Famous in Japan every 2 weeks until the series comes to a natural end. I really do believe that the very best of this story is yet to come. The ideas I’ve been having about Lone Wolf’s potential Japanese rival have been exciting me a bit and once they are fleshed out, I think everyone else is going to be excited too.
And so with that, I leave you with the latest pencil work of the current I’m Famous in Japan page. This will get inked and hopefully rendered this week!
Until next time!
-RAWR
Hello everyone, this is Rawr reporting from The Gathering 2012…..
Yea…erm…reporting…that doesn’t really sound right. It’s not like I’m a news network or anything…well either way, now that I have some minutes to spare, I thought I’d do a quick roundup of what’s happening so far.
Where is the bowl of petunias?!!
First off, great atmosphere all round. I took the image above just as they switched off the arena lights, leaving only the glow of screens to light the way. If you look towards the roof, you should notice the large whale. This year’s Gathering has a theme which is based heavily on the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and our large friend up there is a ‘subtle’ reference to it.
Just Chillout already!!
I’ve been working shifts with KANDU at the Chillout stand, and so far it’s been pretty cool. For the most part I’ve been talking with gamers, giving our coffee and freebies to them and just goofing about. Not a bad way to spend a few hours
Occasionally, this local construction worker would come by and visit.
There's gold in them ther Gathering!
He reeked of Kentucky Bourbon and kept going on about this mine he had somewhere. I tried to take a few snaps but that just seemed to piss him off.
Damn that's scary!
While he ran off to find his Pick-Axe and Kreeper buddy, I enrolled the help of a local Jedi to sort him out.
Strike me down now, and I shall become....more pickups for use later....
That seemed to quiet him down (Disclaimer: Those events may not have happened…pictures are real though….)
Alright. Got another shift starting soon, so I’m going to finish this RAWRgathering installment here. Things are going pretty fast, so at this rate the next RAWRgathering will probably be a summing up of the remaining two days.
Also! In the last few hours, I have the honor of judging a Comic Competition here at KANDU. We already got one entry in that was funny as hell. A good sign I’ll report on that next time.
Until then!
-RAWR!
Hello all,
I just wanted to post a quick RAWRweekly while I still had the chance. Things are going to be very busy next week, while I join KANDU’s Chillout at The Gathering 2012.
For those who are not aware, The Gathering is a massive 5-day long gaming tournament held every year at Hamar, Norway. I’ve joined up with the volunteer group KANDU (who operate the event), to work at the Chillout. KANDU’s Chillout is a special section at the event which is intended as a way to get gamers away from their PCs for a while, so that they can join in on fun games, competitions or just to….chill out.
The Gathering: That's a LOT of gamers!!
If there are any RAWRtacular readers attending The Gathering this year, please feel free to seek me out. I’ll be at the Chillout at many an odd hour, and during my off-time I hope to work on some comic pages. So if you’re curious on how a Back Office or Bata Neart page is made, please feel free to sit in. I’m always pleased to show people the inner workings of the RAWRtacular comic-works!
As a result of The Gathering, my updates next week will unfortunately be limited. Next Monday’s Back Office will be a Gathering themed filler page, and there will be no Bata Neart update.
Everything should return to normal on Easter Monday, with a normal Back Office update that day.
Until next time!
-RAWR
Hello all and welcome to yet another monthly RAWRweekly.
First off, I have finally spoken in person with Michael Balistreri via Skype. This is the first time I had actually talked with Black Snow’s artist since the beginning of work on I’m Famous in Japan. It really is surprising how much we’ve managed to get done so far on email and chat windows alone! We shared some stories, talked a little shop (webcomic artists share very similar challenges), and threw together some ideas for future I’m Famous in Japan pages. I hope to reach himself and Black Snow’s writer Alex in the near future for some brain storming. That’s going to be fun!
Bata Neart
A sneak-peak at Bata Neart's next cover page!
Following on from last RAWRweekly, I am still re-mastering Chapter 2 of Bata Neart. I’m going to try and get more information regarding the whole process of doing this up on my Deviant Art page soon (that place is ghost town at the moment.) Please remember to check in tomorrow (Friday) for the first page of Chapter 2. In the distant past of 2006, the beginning of that chapter was a very big deal for me since it was the very first time I had completed a chapter of a comic, and then moved onto it’s second installment. Releasing this remastered chapter nearly has the same effect on me as that one did. I’m excited to re-introduce the world to Ashling and her friends.
The Gathering
It's the Final Countdown!
KANDU is working hard to get ready for The Gathering 2012 in Hamar, Norway. I’m going to push out a special ‘The Gathering’ Back Office strip for that week to act as filler (since I’ll be working there, I won’t have time for a proper update that Monday.) I hope to report back on that event afterwards. Again, it should be lots of fun, and if you are attending please head over to KANDU’s Chillout where there will be fun, games and even prizes.
That’s all for now!
RAWR
Hello all, and welcome to yet another unusually named RAWRweekly!
Not a awful lot to say this time round, except that I’m feeling pretty good regarding Bata Neart right now. I’ve actually started pushing my ‘manga’ out to various sites, and that is in lue of my pending ‘live-launch’ of the comic.
You probably wonder what I mean by ‘live-launch’. Well…Chapter 1 of Bata Neart wasn’t supposed to have been released as a once-a-week web-comic. I had originally intended to publish all 25 pages of that Chapter all at once as introduction special, while I supplied Chapter 2 in weekly doses. But alas, due to time restrictions and my need to launch Bata Neart in 2011, I had to launch Chapter 1 in weekly updates.
There’s a problem with this, which readers of Bata Neart may already have noticed. Chapter 1 contains no narrative. It’s just one long action sequence, and seeing such a thing in weekly bursts doesn’t really work. It was supposed to be read in one go, and until that was possible I didn’t want even try to advertise the comic.
But Chapter 1 is very nearly finished! And with that, I have finally begun my re-draw of Chapter 2!
I’m going to supply more details on that in the next (and hopefully final) ‘Bata Neart Begins’. In summery, most of the Chapter 2 and 3 pages are really old work from 2005, and some contain serious continuity errors. For example Aoife, a major main-cast character in the series, had a completely different design in Chapters 2 and 3, than I had intended for her. Eventually, I remembered the design I had wanted for her, and used it in Chapters 4, 5 and 6. Now that I’m redrawing, I’m going to fix that problem, but also clean up a lot of the scene work.
It’s a very rewarding feeling to see a lot of my scenes coming to life again. Here’s a few examples:
Here is the Chapter 2's Original Page 2
And here is the 2012 remake
You’ll notice that a few things have changed over the years. First off, I no longer draw the speech bubbles and frames by hand. I learned later on that it was much better to do that work on computer.
The Original Page 3
The 2012 remade Page 3
In page 3 you’ll clearly notice the problem I have with Aoife. She’s got black hair, a pig-tail and a massive bow on her head. I had originally intended for her to have long flowing ‘dark’ hair and a ‘head-band’ wrapped around her forehead. During my original draw of Chapter 2, I forgot this design, and opted for the design you see here. Ultimately, I could never make this design work, so I scrapped it in favor of a re-design what was more faithful to my original intention.
Alas, by the time I decided to redesign Aoife, I had drawn her in 2 complete chapters. So this meant, if I want to keep her design consistent I would have to redraw all of Chapter 2 and 3. That is what I’m doing now, and I’m glad for it. Now I can breath some new life into this very old comic of mine.
In the final part of Bata Neart Begins, I will cover the far trickier task of re-mastering Chapter 1, which is 50/50 new and old material spliced together (often on the same page).
Chapter 2 of Bata Neart will be here sometime over the next month, so look forward to that!
Have a great week!
RAWR
Hello and welcome to another traditionally late installment of RAWRweekly.
I’ve been having a busy January folks, some of which is due to bad stuff while the rest is down to me knuckling down to some hard work here on RAWRtacular, and elsewhere.
Deconstructing Lone Wolf
First off, January had a milestone for me, in the form of a pod-cast review. I’ve never had one of these done before (it’s been either a written review or nothing at all so far), and it was an interesting sensation to listen to 2 people talk about something I had done.
Here’s the link the original podcast.
The review was really for Black Snow Comics, and while covering the site’s flagship comics (Two Drink Minimum and I’m Famous), they also had a look at our collaboration comic: I’m Famous in Japan.
It was a bit of a mixed bag. They did offer my artwork some praise, and they did even call me ‘ruler-savvy’ (which sounded like a good thing), but what took me back was how they managed to catch some of my bad-habits and shortcuts. They even noticed something on Page 6 which I didn’t think anyone would catch.
How friendly are those girls? Really?
When I was drawing the two female reporters hugging in the final panel, I wasn’t sure if I would go for a cutesy embrace of shared relief, or if instead I would do something a little more ‘adult’. They seemed to notice that, and that impressed me. They even caught onto my use of wire-frame buildings, which has solidified my decision to not use them anymore. At very least not until my line-work becomes ‘tighter’.
Despite several fair-cops on my artwork and failings, they claimed to recommend I’m Famous in Japan over the other comics there. But they did this in a way that was a little jarring. They essentially said that all of the comics at Black Snow were crap, and that I’m Famous in Japan was merely less-crap. They would not recommend any of the comics there. I didn’t really like that.
They were also very harsh on the writing of Alex, and artwork of Michael. They didn’t seem to get the humor of Black Snow, and were very nit-picky on many aspects of Michael’s art. They also didn’t seem to check any of his later work to see if there was improvement, which isn’t all that fair. Michael’s art is always maturing and becoming more and more complex. They miss out a lot by only checking out the beginning. Also Alex’s writing is gold. It takes a certain kind of humor to enjoy some of it, and I know that there are a lot of people out there who enjoy it.
It’s encouraging to see the that guy’s response to this critique has been a series of even more atmospheric pages in Black Snow: Two Drink Minimum. I will also re-double my efforts in I’m Famous in Japan, in the hope that I can improve my art there.
Can you KANDU?
January saw my first meeting with KANDU, a volunteer group here in Norway who focus on encouraging digital creativity. I hope to be joining them at this year’s ‘The Gathering’ at Hamar, as a fellow volunteer.
The Gathering: That's a LOT of gamers!!
It’s been a long time since I volunteered for anything, and it’s an interesting, yet familiar feeling . I’m hoping to get more in touch with my peers, potential readers and just the whole realm of digital nerd-dom that the past decade has sort of stolen from me. Expect to hear more about these guys in future RAWRlogs.
Plans on hold?!
Hit the breaks!
There’s been a bit of a change in the scope of RAWRtacular’s plans for this year. I thought that 2012 would become a stable year, and it appears that will not be the case anymore. It’s a long story, which I won’t go into here on RAWRlog, but pressure on time will result in me only managing to update Bata Neart and Back Office as per usual (and Famous Japan whenever I can). Please bear with me while this rather jam-packed time. This doesn’t mean that all of the crazy stuff I promised at New Years won’t happen, it just won’t happen straightaway. I hope that’s fine.
That’s all for this RAWRlog. I’ll try to release these weekly blogs mid-week in future, since Friday is jam-packed anyways. (Although, lets see how long that lasts)
All the best!
RAWR!
Hello all and welcome to 2012′s first RAWRweekly.
An outstanding surprise presented itself this week, in the form of a package from my friend and partner in crime Michael Balisteri. For those who don’t know (or haven’t been paying attention), Michael is the artistic maniac who runs Black Snow Comics together with comic genius Alex Siquig. I’ve had the pleasure of working with these guys for nearly a year now on collaboration work and it has been a lot of fun, as many readers might have already realized while reading I’m Famous in Japan (the comic I draw with them).
An original Balisteri Lone Wolf sketch!
So this week, a package from Michael arrived choc full of Black Snow goodies. I’d like to share with you what I found inside;
First and foremost, a very flattering personally penned letter from Michael himself, with an original sketch of The Lone Wolf. This treasured item goes into the RAWRtacular Vault (as soon as such a thing exists), as this will be of interest to future students of Black Snow lore. Also, it really is nice in this day and age to have a piece of physical art from the original artist. The whole digital age of webcomics has sort of removed that, and it’s nice to be reminded for where it all really comes from.
With the letter, I also received the full-colour Volumn 1 of ‘I’m Famous!’ the comic from which I’m Famous in Japan is sung off from. Nothing beats reading a physical comic, and although I was having fun with the original on-line version, this paper copy just feels better. I recommend ‘I’m Famous’ it to anyone with a twisted sense of humor like myself.
Nail-biting I'm Famous drama!
I also received a hefty copy of ‘Black Snow – The Complete Original Series’. I tried to read through the whole thing, but as time passed I began to feel dizzy, and the following somehow happened.
Intoxicating stuff!
Poorly shot Intoxication jokes aside, this monolithic volume includes some insane, yet very dark drama and makes for an engaging read. If you already like Black Snow: Two Drink Minimum, then this comic is for you. You’ll really get feel of where Two Drink Minimum comes from…and possibly where it’s going (that’s not a spoiler-alert, mostly guess-work from me).
With the comics, I also received a rare treat! The very stylish Black Snow Comics cap! Not currently available online (to my knowledge), this cap can only be obtained from the guys themselves when they are on convention tours. So if you want one too, check out the site and look out for their next appearance! (living on the US West Coast may be necessary for this…).
Government Warning: Incorrect cap usage may lead to hair-stress
And last, but certainly not least at all. Just as rare as the Cap, I found a Legendary Black Snow Bottle Opener. Why so Legendary? Well first…it’s a bottle..that opens bigger bottles…and if that doesn’t blow your head open…it is the most effective bottle opener I have ever owned. No kidding, it is really damned good at opening stuff. Thus I declare this bottle opener to be Truly RAWRtacular…oh yes…it is that good.
Just like the cap, if you want one too, you’ll probably need to see them at a convention (which in itself, is a really good idea).
Truly RAWRtacular!
And so that mostly wraps up the Black Snow package and this week’s RAWRweekly. I’d like to again thank Michael and Alex for their continued friendship and awesome team-work, as well as sending out this outstanding gift. I look forward to an awesome 2012 working with you guys!
If you too, would like to own a copy of I’m Famous! or the Complete Black Snow collection. Click here! Go on! You know you want to!
Until next time!
-RAWR
Yea, I know what you’re probably thinking. Not another bloody year in review piece, just like the other 9 million similar articles that’ll be made this week. But don’t worry, I’ll try not to make a habit of this. 2011 is an important year for RAWRtacular I feel, and I’d like to mark it’s ending with a few words.
2011 has been the first full year of RAWRtacular’s existence (the site started up half way into 2010), and although some things had stayed the same a lot of important things had happened.
Back Office had gone from a joke-a-day strip to a year-long story arc involving a high-tech villain and a large ensemble cast of characters. Reader-favorite ’Magnu’ made his first appearance at the very beginning of 2011 (although really very late 2010), and continues to be character I get the most feedback on.
My networking efforts increased over 2011, listing Back Office on Comicracy.com, INKoutscape, Comic Hovel, but to name a few.. Mentioing Comicracy, something happened thanks to that site, that I didn’t expect to happen this early on in my web-comic ‘career’. I entered into a collaborative comic project.
In 2011, I befriended fellow web-comic maniacs Alex and Michael of Black Snow Comics. I felt that I could relate with these guys straight away, since they seemed to face the same challenges of our shared pseudo-industry, and I also felt that they had the same hopes for the future. Together we began a spin-off of their hit-comedy ‘I’m Famous!‘, and used my manga/anime drawing style to help make I’m Famous in Japan! This has been very rewarding work, I really look forward to continue working with the guys in the future.
2011 also saw the launch of my much delayed (and nearly 10-year-old) manga Bata Neart. It had always bugged me that this had not been a part of RAWRtacular from day one, and if I had planned things better it would have been. I had a promise to myself and to all of you to launch this comic this year, and thankfully upheld that promise. RAWRtacular.com seems a bit more complete with 2 comics now running in rotation.
This year has also been a year of ups and downs. When it came to RAWRtacular, I had challenges of low personal morale due mostly to failure in my attempts to market the site. The analytics I had running on Back Office showed me having little more than 30 readers, and barely more that 100-200 unique hits per day. Although I lived in hope, I had serious doubts about where I was going with this website. If you had read the previous RAWRweekly, you will know that I was right to be hopeful. Some small tweaking in my advertising resulted in an explosion of hits and new readers. Although I have toned down my advert campaign since (due to high costs), a steady stream of new readers arrive on RAWRtacular every single day.
Back Office now has over 100 readers and counting.
RAWRtacular’s Google + page has 12o members and counting.
My personal RAWRtacular Circle on Google+ has over 800 members…and counting.
2011 was not an easy year. There were challenges both at work and at home, and all the while Back Office’s update schedule continued to take a share of very limited time. Many I know, will be glad to see the end of this year, and I can’t blame them, but I will still have a couple of fond memories of the good stuff (some of which is listed above). This year I officially moved in with my girlfriend Anna, without whom RAWRtacular and Back Office may of never happened. We spent a whole year renovating her family home (and we’re still not done yet), but the result will hopefully be a home where we can also work on our respective enterprises, which are my RAWRtacular Productions and her Funky Baby Design (more on Funky Baby in the New Year).
It’s now time to look forward to 2012. Big things are planned.
Back Office will finish with the Q-Matic arc, forming it’s first complete volume, which I will attempt to print for sale. I will also begin presenting translated Back Office strips to Norwegian national print media for consideration.
Bata Neart will also complete it’s first chapter, while I start to draw new pages for it, following a 2 year hiatus. I will also begin to fully market this comic (much in the same way as Back Office)
I’m Famous in Japan! will hopefully be made in a more regular pace (right now it’s a bit random).
The RAWRtacular Store will be expanded to include more products and will be promoted more.
The RAWRlog (this place) will become a video log…once I actually have desk to do that.
I hope to be joining up with KANDU at their stand at The Gathering 2012 in Hamar, Norway. If you are in the area at the time, seek out KANDU’s Hangout, you might even see me there.
And finally…thanks in no small way to some books Anna gave to me as Christmas gifts…I will begin work into developing RAWRtacular Animation. This is why I call my ‘company’ RAWRtacular Productions, and not just RAWRtacular Comics. One of my long term goals for this site, is to build up a micro-studio around it and produce animated shorts and shows. This is a very long-term plan, and 2012 may only see the mere bones of what will eventually come, but it will begin.
And so finally we reach the end of 2011, thank you for reading this far,and also thank you for sticking with RAWRtacular over the past year. 2012 promise some exciting times ahead, both for myself and my friends at Black Snow Comics. Please join us in the new year for more comic fun.
Wishing you all a RAWRtacular New Year!
-RAWR
Welcome back to this week’s late-as-usual RAWRweekly.
When I first started writing this article, I was going to go on about my efforts to market RAWRtacular, and how they were failing. It was a very negative piece, and I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. In a nut-shell, I was disheartened that my readership hadn’t increased, despite my aggressive advert campaigning.
But this week, something changed.
Up until now, my main advert had been my standard exchange banner (what I use to share links with other sites). Frankly, it’s kind of lazy and doesn’t say much about the comic. So, I finally decided to put some effort in, and make a funny advert that could attract readers. I took some imagery from next week’s Back Office, and built the skyscraper advert you now see below.
Keep it up Karen! You're winning us 1000's of readers!
I’ve always been confident that there was a market for Back Office, and frankly the thing that prevented it from gaining a decent readership was me. I needed to put the time, effort and thought into what I was doing, and in my early adverts I just wasn’t doing that. But now I am, and it’s paying off big time. Just get a load of these Back Office statistics from Project Wonderful:
If you can read that chart, you’ll see a huge jump in views from 12/11. That was the day I launched the new Back Office advert. Before, I was getting about 200-500 pages views per day on Back Office, with about 40-80 unique visitors. But now, that has jumped to an incredible 2000 – 3200 page views per day, with 700-900 unique visitors.
I’m blown away. I had always hoped that I’d get to this level of readership, and it’s shocking to think that a simple advert change was all I needed. I’m going into 2012 with a new-found sense of hope for RAWRtacular. Also, a big welcome to all the new Back Office readers. I hope you’ll enjoy it!
-RAWR
Hello and welcome another page of I’m Famous in Japan!
I *had* a good system in place a while ago to get one of these pages out at roughly the same rate as Back Office pages, but the time I’ve needed for that has been in short supply lately. I’m going to be bringing a stricter drawing schedule in the new year, and with any luck more regular I’m Famous in Japan pages.
So this time round, we’re visiting a sushi restaurant. Yet again, I’m trying out one of Manga Studio’s building models to depict the restaurant. Usually in a professional Manga setup, you’d have at least one other person to take on the backgrounds, and I suppose I could just do the line-work here myself (I think these are mostly traced street photos), but with little time to play with I went with preloaded buildings for I’m Famous in Japan!
Later on, I hope to do some more of the building work myself (some interesting stuff to draw in Tokyo). We’re now fast approaching one of my favorite pages in the script. I hope you won’t have to wait too long to see it!
-RAWR
