2722 Balanced Sexfest.

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Okay, so, my sleep schedule got so out of whack that I started having my painless headaches again. Which cause these bouts of dizziness. I think I finally got it back under control, but that and all the weird little things that kept disrupting my sleep are what led to me getting really out of sync with posting. You guys are always quite kind to me about not posting when I say I will, which I appreciate. That said, this isn’t just me farting around on the internet for funsies. This comic and the art work I do outside of it are my entire job. Not everyone pays me to make the comic, but enough do that I have the extreme privilege of being a cartoonist all day every day. So even though I present the work free of charge I am being paid to do it and it’s important that I take that seriously. When I fail to have the comic ready when I say it will go up that’s me not doing the job I agreed to do. I don’t think I’ve ever missed a posting time by more than a few hours in the many years I’ve been doing it. That’s because I hold myself to my schedule. It’s very important for a creative to hold themself to their schedule because once you start slacking that’s when things start to fall apart. I get of track from time to time but I always try to go back to the schedule to make sure I never get too comfortable with people just giving me money to draw. It’s important to have some fear behind you to drive you when you make your own rules. So, TLDR I’m very pleased that you forgive me when I slip up, but I’m always going to look at not having my comic up at 12AM Eastern time as me failing to uphold my end of this casual bargain. There are thousands of webcomics that couldn’t commit to having things done on time littering the graveyard of failed comics. I don’t want Between Failures to end up there.

I’ve never been the best, I’ve never been the most successful, but when other people were off dicking around I’ve been here, like I said I would be. That’s probably the thing that has kept me going in spite of all my other shortcomings. I did everything I needed to do for Friday earlier today right when I woke up. Admittedly it wasn’t super taxing. I kept the page very simple since I’m still kind of off kilter and having some issues. I got it done ahead of time though so I could make sure this didn’t become a streak.

Way back in the mists of time I started out with a 2 week buffer. Over the years that got eaten away until it was one week. Then a few days. Until eventually there was no buffer at all. Once you lose that lead it’s extremely hard to get it back. I’ve learned to work faster and cut corners to the point where my work may as well be perfectly circular. When you aren’t super talented you have to learn to make up for it in other ways so you can get by.

I wonder sometimes if I’ll ever reach a point where I’m fast enough to rebuild my buffer. Or skilled enough to have a little time to find someone who can love me and be loved in return. My guess is no. I’ve worked within the confines of no for a long time though, and people underestimate what you can do inside of no.

Then again why say no when you can say yes to supporting the comic via the links above? Become a patron of the arts like the idle rich of of the 17th century. Or like a suspiciously wealthy furry. I’m not here to judge. I’m here to make comics and go to sleep & I’ve made my comic for the day. I’ll have another one ready for you on Monday. Come and enjoy it, shall you?

33 Comments

You used to do guest comics didn’t you?

I made 3 or four over the years. The only one that’s still online, that I know of, is the one for Questionable Content. I no longer remember the page number or link without searching.

Jackie, I’ve read all your commentaries under your comics, and I have to say that you are one of my heroes. Never underestimate the value of dogged persistence, stubbornness, and sheer cussedness as needed. Thank you for making my world better.

You are welcome & correct to praise me. I am the goodest boy!

Are you a super smart dog? ;)

I’m asking, as your comment reminded me of a start of a Dresden Files short story – the protagonist of that one is Mouse, essentially a supernatural dog, who can’t talk (in a manner humans can understand, anyway), but is supposed to be as smart as a human, if not more:
“My name is Mouse, and I am a very Good Boy. Everybody says so.”

Sex in the shower is one of those things that sounds incredible and sexy, and then 5 minutes in, it just becomes an awkward exercise in trying to stay in the warm water while also avoiding slipping, and with a sinking feeling you realize that water is not a lubricant and in fact makes things more difficult.

I think we’re all happy to cut you slack when it’s needed, especially since you don’t ask for it any more often than necessary. Your work ethic is all the reason anyone really needs to let things go when they need to.

Yeah, I certainly dumped webcomics due to being unable to post on a reasonable schedule, resulting in glacial pacing. Or they’d fill their posts with filler pages (like a chapter introduction page, and then another one at the end of each chapter). I actually wrote to one of them to explain why I wasn’t going to bother reading anymore, because I had previous written fan mail over how much I loved the artwork, and the response was basically “Well, I have to put off the comic so I can do commissions.” Okay, that’s an amazing example of pursuing short-term gains at the cost of long-term success, because no one’s going to bother with commissions if no one reads your dead comic.

It can be a tricky balancing act. If the artist makes most of their money from commissions, it’s hard to blame them for making that a priority. Long-term planning is well and good, but when you’ve got bills to pay sometimes you have to worry about surviving the short term before you can get to the long term.

That’s true on it’s own, except then I think we have a bigger problem; why did you make “webcomic” your job if you weren’t actually to a point of making enough money from the comic to pay the bills? Like with YouTube, you need to make sure you’re actually financially viable FIRST before you truly quit the day job. And if she needed to just take a week or two off to knock out a stack of commissions, that would have been fine; just say so. But instead the comics were getting smaller, with filler pages thrown in, dragging the comic to a crawl where single conversations took weeks or even months, and her response was just “Yeah, well, commissions pay me better, so whatever.” And this was for a long time. I wish her well, but I’m not sure stopping your comic to draw twink smut for cash is the best strategy (she posted the commissions, and yeah, that’s what it was).

Jackie, while I admire your dedication to your work, I really don’t think anyone would hold it against you if you were to take a week or two off once or twice a year to build up a buffer or just to catch your breath. Several otherwise respectably regular webcomics do so without it apparently being resented by the readers.

I think some time off once in a while to adjust the buffer—especially during a time when you’re overwhelmed and clearly need it—is worth while. Especially because, as you mentioned, this is your job. If a job doesn’t give you time off when needed, then it’d be both an OSHA violation and a frankly terrible job.

How long do you think you’d be able to rebuild a two week buffer in between your other obligations? Maybe add 50% to that time, post little one off sketches—or try to post fan art or guest comics if you can—and take that time off to rebuild your buffer and reorient yourself on the treadmill.

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