Extra! Extra!
Tag Board and Paypal
July 5, 2006
Don't know what's up with Tagboard. The url doesn't exist anymore, hopefully it's temporary.
Also if you didn't notice the Paypal donation link above can you read it please? Thanks.
The Future of Alice
March 13 , 2006
As long time (and new) readers know, I have a difficult time maintaining a consistent update schedule. This is due to a number of factors. The two most prominent being time and inspiration. As a freelancer my time schedule can fluctuate wildly from day to day. Since Alice isn't much in the way of a money maker I have to do the projects that will bring cash into my home. Much as I wish it were different.
Second (which is tied in with the time issue) is inspiration. While I hate not updating I hate it even more when I do sub par work just to meet a deadline. I would rather you got the best out of me. You deserve it. So unless I'm inspired (e.g. not tired) Alice feels like a chore rather than a joy, which is what it should be.
So what does this mean? For awhile now I've been playing with the idea of producing Alice as a an e-comic in PDF format. While this wouldn't satisfy you daily fix for Alice (not that you're getting that now) it would mean top notch publications that you could read all in one sitting. No waiting for the next update. And this would all be free of course.
What I'm planning to do is finish this storyline and end the daily Alices. In a few months I would return with a new ebook. Details are very sketchy at the moment.
I would like to hear your ideas and comments on this. I think it's an exciting new way of delivering comics but I could be wrong. I know I would rather download someones archive rather than wade through a web archive. But that's me, what do you think?
Return of the Updates! Happy Halloween!
October 31, 2005
Well, I wasn't able to get the strip done yesterday but I did sketch this Frakenalice for you (wouldn't be Halloween without a made up Alice). I'll b spending the next couple days drawing so Be here Wednesday for sure with new updates!
And if you want to see what I was working on the last couple weeks head to my portfolio page and see for yourself.
Hiatus
October 17, 2005
Here's the situation. Recently I went to work for a large book store chain to make ends meet. The hours are irregular and random so I've been having difficulty juggling it and my family life so Alice has suffered. Now I have an opportunity to work for a company as a graphic designer but I need to show them more than my cartoon work as such I will be spending what little time I have to working on a portfolio for them this week. Hopefully I can finish up sooner than expected and work on a Monday return for Alice. Regardless I will have new Alice's by next week. I feel bad about this since I had hoped not to take too many breaks from the strip when I returned.
My apologies.
G-mail
October 6, 2005
I now have an account. Thanks to Jason, Kenny, Eric, Tamara, Thuisko, Daniel, Willow, Jose, Brian, Doug, Henrick, and LB for sending me invites. Gee, you guys are swell. :)
Donations, Delays and G-mail
October 3, 2005
First off a big thank you to all the donations and well wishes. I'm touched by your concern.
Sorry for the delays lately, I've started a new job that's throwing my schedule into chaos. Hopefully I'll get everything straightened out soon. Until then please bear with me.
Update: I now have a G-Mail account, Thanks!
New Place of Honour
September 1, 2005
I've been a fan of Phil Foglio's work since the early days of Dragon magazine (yes, I frittered away my High School friday nights playing D&D) and admired and envied his artwork and comic timing. Now he's put his comic Girl Genius online for all to see. It's a steam punk fantasy scifi story that has me riveted. If you're a fan of Alice (and if you're not why are you reading this?) then I'm sure you'll love Girl Genius.
Summer Schedule and RSS Beta
July 25, 2005
My stats have taken a nose dive since the beginning of July. I'm hoping this just due to a Summer lag and not because Alice sucks :) As such I've decided to go to a three day a week schedule until September. It'll give me a chance to build a buffer of strips again and so those who are away will be able to catch up more quickly.
I'm also playing with RSS syndication. (See the link under the navigation buttons.) It's very much in beta stage right now since I'm learning the finer details at the moment but it seems to work fine in Thunderbird. If you use an RSS reader let me know if it works. I'm not sure if it'll update everyday yet, as long as you run your reader everyday it'll fetch the latest comic. I'm working on whether I can get it to fetch all strips missed sine the last time the reader was launched.
That's it. Hope everyone's having a great summer.
Guest Week
July 11, 2005
Due to a great many reasons I've fallen a little behind on my Alice work. In order to get ahead again I've asked some of my esteemed colleagues to fill in for me for the next week.
Enjoy!
Help in New Design
June 24, 2005
Hey everyone! I've been redesigning the site so it'll be leaner, quicker (but never meaner) using CSS. Can I get everyone to go to the new site and tell me of any problems, how fast it's loading in comparison to the usual site, and any other comments.
Thanks!
Tagged!
May 13, 2005
Ask and you shall receive. We now have a new tag board courtesy of Tag-Board.com. It allows me to ban ip's, restrict post length, and much more. As well the board will only appear on the front page. If you wish to make a comment on a specific strip just do it here :)
Promotion, Newspapers and Changes! Oh,
my!
April 8, 2005
One of the goals I committed myself to when re-starting Alice was to promote it as best I could. I think Alice is a great comic and I want as many people to experience Alice's world as is possible. But I need your help to do that. Phase one has begun. To the left you will see an area called "Share Your Imagination". This is a collection of webcomic sites where you can go and make comments about Alice. Or add her to your favourites list (which boosts my ratings). I'll be asking for your help more in the future. Don't feel you have to do this but if you love Alice than let people know.
Alice is going to be appearing (along with several other Keenspot titles) in a handful of newspapers starting April 9! The papers so far are "The Turlock Journal" in Turlock, CA; "The Bulletin" in Emporia, KS; and "The Pacer" in Martin, TN. This is very exciting and if you live in these areas be sure to pick up a copy or twenty and let the editor know how much you like the comics. If you don't live in these areas you can have your editor contact Keenspot at keenspot@keenspot.com or have them go to keensydicate.com
And with this newspaper deal I may go to a six (possibly seven) day a week schedule. I'll let you know.
Concerns
March 24, 2005
Many of you have expressed concerns about what some people have said in the tag board. The reason I haven't done anything is because even though Alice is a G/PG rated strip Keenspot itself is NR (no rating) a click away and you're in a site with much worse than the word "boob". But I am concerned as well, I know I have young readers. I'm planning on setting up a kid friendly version of the site for parents and kids. This new site will have no outside links.
I'm reminded of what Jan Eliot, the creator of Stone Soup, told me about her second book collection "You Can't Say Boobs on Sunday". She had a Sunday strip where one of the characters says "boobs". The editor balked. It was okay to use "boobs" in the Monday to Saturday strips but not in the Sunday colour ones. Weird. :)
Welcome!
March 7, 2005
To all new and seasoned readers! Lot's of surprises coming your way so tune in every day this week.
Today's surprise Alice and the girls start grade 8. I know it's March but what are you gonna do? :)
Annnnnd We're Back!
February 21, 2005
And It's great to be back. I've missed it terribly.So enjoy the strips and we'll see you here regularly on March 7th.
New Alices!
Date: February 17, 2005
As promised the last four pages of the current Alice storyline will be online next week. So be sure to be here Monday through Thursday for all new Alices. Then the official relaunch on March 7.
Update
Date: January 7, 2005
I'm sure most of you are wondering what's happening with
our girls.Well, the wait is over Alice will return March 7th, 2005!
Woo Hoo!
There will be some changes in the gang but I'm not saying what just yet. The current story will be completed before that, probably by the end of this month. We will be returning to a daily black and white strip format on the re-launch.
In other news there been a slight site re-design. Some of the links aren't complete yet so please let me know of any problems. You will also not some new features and changes with the new site. First off the other comics (The Shadows and Delta Venture) are no longer here. The Shadows will be moving to a new site some time in the future. I'm not sure what if anything I'll be doing with Delta Venture.
Secondly you'll now see the archives have larger comics. With the majority of people using larger resolution settings it seemed best. I'm still working on some of the colour comics that needed to be re-coloured for various reasons so they'll still be smaller for a while.You can also comment on individual comics as well. Or order a print of your favourite comic.
There's much more in store but I'll wait until March for the details.
It's good to be back!