Garanos

Hello readers!  Welcome to 2009.

I have questions.

First:  If I created a Facebook group for Garanos, would anyone join it?

And:  If I were to do the occasional video blog a la Jennie, would anyone watch it?  (It would be gauche to think of myself as anywhere near as entertaining as she is, but I may do it if there is actually interest.)

Email or leave a comment.

Also, now that Buzzcomix is not dead anymore, please vote it up for me.  ^_^  Getting a higher ranking does draw in fresh traffic, and therefore gets my comic seen by more people!

And that’s that for 2008.  I completed 98 pages this year!  Not bad at all, considering the hiatus and various other breaks I’ve taken this year.

I’m trying yet another new trick with coloring that will, and already has, saved me a shit-ton of time with coloring.  I finished the shading for this page in about two and a half hours; it usually takes around twice as long.  I used this technique on Monday’s page, but did a weird thing and ended up making it look Barbara-Walters-soft.  I like the coloring on today’s page much better, so I’ll probably redo the shading on 307 at some point so it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.  (Like it does now.)

The next update will be on Monday, January 5th.  It’s not at all feasible for me to update this Friday, since I’ll be out of town yet again and haven’t had the time to get ahead on pages like I did for last week’s pages.  Everyone have a great New Year’s Eve, make with the merry, and I’ll see you on the other side.  I forsee 2009 being a good year for Garanos.  ^_^

Merry Christmas!

When I was looking for some old artwork this week, I came across some RELICS!  I’m surprised I still had these, so I thought I would share them with you in the spirit of the holiday.

Also, unearthing embarrassing old art seems to be popular with established webcomic artists.  Here we go!

This appears to be one of the last pictures I ever hand-colored.  It was around then that I switched over to CG.  I see this is also actually a colored pencil sketch, so I was starting to move away from inking.  Good times.

This was my first computer-colored picture of Garanos.  I think it dates around 2002, and I’m almost sure I did it in Paint Shop Pro.  This is actually a printout, and I’m pretty sure I don’t have the original file anymore.  I used to have the asymmetrical glove thing going on, along with some extra embellishments to the sword.  And look at that– I had not yet abandoned inking.

Hope you enjoyed these.  I will now be burning them.  (Okay… I’m mostly joking.)  Have a good one!

I smooshed my contact info onto the About page, along with adding a FAQ.  “But Alex,” you say, “How can there be frequently asked questions if, as you say, you never get any email?”  Well, there are some questions I’m sure some of you have, and thus I put up the answers to them.  (This would also be a non-issue if I got more emails, hint hint.)

Most importanly, I added how to pronounce “Garanos”.  It seems unless someone has heard me actually say it aloud, they pronounce it wrong, usually as “Guh-RAW-nos.”  The most humorous mangling so far has been “Garbanos”.  ^_^  If you’re curious about how it’s actually pronounced, or suspect you have been saying it wrong, I implore you to check the FAQ.  It’s even the first question!  How convenient!

I did a marathon of coloring over the weekend, and I’m happy to say that I’m completely done with this week’s pages.  Thus, there will be no interruptions as I leave town for Christmas.  And due to the magic of ComicPress, the new pages are already queued up, so I don’t even have to do anything!  Programming languages are MAGIC.  Just like DNA.

Have a good holiday, and drink lots of eggnog!  I know I will. ^_^

Wednesday’s page is up now.  Since I have not yet passed out from exhaustion, I’ll be working on another page for the rest of the night.  This weekend I’ll be working pretty much nonstop on comics to make sure that Christmas next week doesn’t delay my already delayed ass.  ^_^;;  I have such great timing!

It seems a better alternative to playing take-backsies: “Oh hey yeah, I’m not going to update on time again for another two more weeks, actually…”  Yeah, we’re having none of that.

OH YEAH!  And there are new voting incentives, finally, after a million years with the previous ones.  One is a close-up panel of el Capitan, and the other is a preview of Garanos on the next page.  Enjoy!  The new page will go up when it’s done, either very late tonight or tomorrow.