Johnny Saturn

Hi, Folks!

Benita and I have made big plans for selling T-shirts. We’ll be selling funny shirts, inspirational shirts, fantasy art shirts, and (of course) Johnny Saturn shirts. To this end I’m looking at some new store plugins, and I think I’ve found what we want. I should even be able to sell digital versions of the comic again off this site, which is great because anything you buy from us earns us more money.

EvilSupahFly has pointed out that we need to update our character listing, as well as guides for Spire City itself and a new readers section. I’m combining this task with finally filling out our media kit, and quite possibly a printed reader’s guide to “Johnny Saturn.”

For those who don’t know, we are fast closing in on the end of issues 11, which concludes the first part of the second story arc called “Homeland Insecurity.” Finishing this story arc is a pretty momentous occasion for Benita and me. I’m very proud of it, because this is when Benita and I really worked out the plot lines, and we finally learned how to write something that reads well as a web comic. We’ve both been writing for years (mostly prose stuff, but occasionally magazine articles too), but learning how to maximize our writing for sequential art was still a challenge.

On a personal note, I’m pretty pleased with myself this evening because I adapted my Belkin game controller, which I use in Photoshop, to change brush/pencil size, opacity, and mode all in a very fast, efficient way. I endorse the use of a game controller (whatever brand you buy) to make your coloring easier.

This week, I’ve got several things on my “To Do” list. I’m contributing “Johnny Saturn” pages to the Indy Webcomic Group’s forthcoming sampler. I’m formatting our comics for the Amazon Kindle. I’ve got some code to install on the website from the Webcomic Planet Collective and Palace in the Sky. And, I’m going to wrap up the media kit I mentioned before. This media kit will also go nicely on numerous wikis and websites, so I’m pretty excited about it.

In addition to this, I’ll be creating two more episodes of “Johnny Saturn” for next week. Once, a few years back, I had a buffer of comic pages that were pre-loaded and ready to go. That day has come and gone, and now I’m on a weekly cycle to make new episodes every week. This arrangement has worked out pretty well, to be honest.

“But,” you interject, “Two penciled, inked, colored, and lettered episodes a week, the equivalent of a single comic page, is that all you can do?” Well, no. Running the publishing side of Story Studios takes a good chunk of my time, as does promotion, and other less common elements like interviews, art for this site or that, and interaction. When we were doing three episodes a week then all the extra stuff was neglected, and that’s why I had to cut back. That worked out well, and our audience has grown since then.

Scott.

            

Hi, Folks!

Earlier this week, I began the long and laborious task of re-arranging and refurbishing my studio. At one time, this working space had been the model of clever arrangement and neatness, but that day was long past. Things (some large, like an eight-harness loom of Benita’s) had come and gone in the studio, and now its hybrid arrangement had outlived its effectiveness. (That’s a polite way of saying the studio was a terrible mess, and almost unworkable.)

Before I began rearranging, I made my plans. I drew a floor plan of what I thought the studio should look like. This map would come to be useful in the dark, frustrating days that followed.

As I conceived it, this studio is going to become a workshop, a place where work can get done. Much of the clutter, made up of props and tools, I can move off the floor and onto the walls. I put up pegboard and bought a variety of hooks. I put pegboard above both computers and the drawing board. Computer desks have a way of accumulating discs and tools and various cables, so all that is going onto the wall. No more clutter!

For the portfolios and art carrying cases, I put a clothes rod in my closet/store room. This clears up a fair amount of shelves, and makes getting to my assorted carrying cases that much easier.

At this point, all this is still a work in progress, and I don’t really expect to get it wrapped up till late next week. When I‘ve got it done, I’ll post pictures.

Scott.

            

Hello, Folks!

Story Studios (aka Scott and Benita) are thrilled to announce that “Johnny Saturn” is available for download on iTunes! I repeat, you can get “Johnny Saturn” on iTunes! All our titles are available in the Panelfly store, and just searching for “Johnny Saturn” on iTunes apparently doesn’t get you anywhere. So far we’ve got issues 1 through 9 available, all at their standard download price of .99.

Is “Johnny Saturn” available on the Kindle yet? Nope. It’s going to happen very soon, but technical issues led me to ordering a book on formatting comics for Kindle. Honestly, I’m pretty excited about this, and we’ll soon thereafter move to make our books available on other hand-held devices. I believe we’ve entered the age of the digital comic, and we always want to keep “Johnny Saturn” at the forefront!

I’m reorganizing and remaking my studio. I’d like to say that it has “exceeded its effectiveness,” but all that means is that it looks like a bombed out city. All those months remodeling the downstairs of our house meant I neglected the studio, and now is time to put that right! I strongly believe that your environment mirrors the state of your mind, and that recently the good ol’ brain has been unfocused, leading to a refuse strewn maze of paths. Well, I need all my facilities functional, because 2010 is going to be a great year for Story Studios!

Scott.