Latest Comic: #97 – In The Break Room
Latest Blogs & News:
All,
The production of new Alex The Knight comics will be on hiatus until further notice. As for now, we’re looking at a return to new stuff later on in the fall. For those who like this comic as much as I do, this is actually really good news.
I’ve been drawing ATK for two years now, and anyone who has either clicked the “first” comic on this site can see that the art and overall style has changed with the times. In fact, over the past couple of months I’ve felt like I’ve had to purposefully hold myself back from making the kind of comics I want because I feel like it might be too big of an aesthetic jump for the casual viewer. It’s a tough thing for me to do. I want my comic to be the best I could do, and doing the opposite is hard to swallow.
Also, it’s obvious from following the hits that the first thing many new readers want to do is go back to the very beginning, and often the art style and poor craftsmanship is turning people off. I see it happen almost every day and I understand why it turns people off. I feel like I have a really good thing with ATK, and that the characters and the “world” are pretty special…and that if that world had a cleaner, more professional place to act as its window, others might feel the same way about the comic, too.
That said, I’m going to go back and “re-do” all of my past strips to reflect the new style, plus change web hosting providers (because the current one is slow and unreliable), and also, as if that weren’t enough, to remake the site. It’s a hell of an undertaking, which is why I’m expecting to be done in the fall, but it’s something that’s been on my mind for some time, and the last couple of months have been a tipping point for me.
The old site will still be up all the way until the switch occurs, so if you want something to read, there’s 97 of the things to go back and look at again if you like. Thanks everyone for your patience and understanding, and I’ll see you in September, like that old song that Bob is the only one who probably knows anything about.
WISHING YOU THE BEST IN 2012 FROM THE ALEX THE KNIGHT TEAM
In today’s comic (#80, “Piggyback Rides”), Bob states that some dudes would “strange a kitten” in order to “crap” twice a day. Due in part to caffeine withdrawal of the comic’s creator, the line should have initially read “STRANGLE a kitten”, which makes a lot more sense.
The mistake has been corrected. Smiley face. 
I’m posting this here because I forgot my Twitter password.
Actually the title of the post sums it up. I had to fight to get my scanner out of the closet in the spare bedroom. And I also can’t find my ruler. Do you have any idea how hard it is to draw a comic without a ruler? AND I had to go buy a new non-photo blue pencil because my last one ran out, and Utrecht didn’t have any in stock, so I had to go to Keith Coldsnow and buy this really waxy one that messed up my Sakura pens when I did the inks over it and DIDN’T ACTUALLY DO WHAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO DO and showed up anyway even after I scanned it in. I soldiered through, however. Imported that shit to vector. Don’t buy Prismacolor non-photo blue. You will regret this decision.
For real though, why can’t art supply stores stock non-photo blue pencils? Do they still not understand that there are tons of people in any particular metropolitan area that are going to want these pencils to do illustration for web? Yeah, there are the digital drawing tablets, but I’ve yet to find a stylus that isn’t shit, and I don’t want to shill out the money for a Wacom when I have really no indication yet that I’ll be making any money with doing these.
Oh well. Enough of the kvetching. I love everyone for reading. If you don’t read Alex The Knight, FUCK YOU.
Continue reading "We Moved and Everything and My Wife Thought I Quit Doing This" »
After a few hours of researching where more popular comics than Alex The Knight get their referrals from, and what methods they employ to get the sort of hits that they do, and then giving it a go for myself, I’ve decided that I REALLY DO HATE trying to make the sort of eye-catching banner ads that would interest a casual reader enough to point their mouse over it and click.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool that there are so many free services out there that help knit together a coherant webcomic community and I totally appreciate the time, effort, and almost certainly the money involved in making it happen, it’s just that I suck at making ads. To me, it feels impossible to capture the “je ne sais quoi” of Alex using such a limited amount of space.
I suppose I’ll get better with practice, right? It’s just that I’d rather have someone else do it for me, and save my time and energy for things I’d rather be doing…like, making the comics themselves.
There wouldn’t be anyone out there who would be willing to do that, is there? Right…I didn’t think so.
The other day my daughter and I were looking at what was eventually to be Alex The Knight #60, and I was pointing to various things on the screen, asking her what they were. She answered in the affirmative, which is really nice to have someone else verify that you can draw things that are sometimes recognizable AND NOT like something stuck to the bottom of the shoe.
I pointed to a Alex and asked her, “Okay, so who’s that?”
“Alex,” she said.
“Good job,” I said, and pointed to a drawing of Bob, “So who’s this?”
She thought about it for a minute. “Uhhh,” she said, “a doctor.”
I thought that was one of those cute and mildly funny things that kids say, but it still didn’t stop me from drawing a little “What If?” scenario…
Although, if nothing else, thoughts of Nurse Abby will keep me company when my wife is out of town.
It also doesn’t hurt that Mrs. Ouderkirk is currently re-watching THE ENTIRE run of ER.
And then, well, there was nothing stopping me from going a little further with that whole concept…
It's amazing what Google Image Search can do for your career
Make of it what you will…
Seriously. Enough is enough. I’m moving the hell out of this apartment. I’ve already made $0.02 from Project Wonderful…so it’s started. That is Alex The Knight-related money, people, and nothing else.
Anyway, welcome to, like, the launch of the website. You might think I’d make more of a show out of it all, but I prefer to let the work speak for itself. It isn’t the Louvre, nor will it ever be, but it beats a trip to the dentist. Unless you like going to the dentist, and/or perhaps are in severe need of major dental work, and are looking forward to eating solid foods again. Alex The Knight, at least as it stands now, probably doesn’t trump a tasty – and solid – meal.
p.s. It’s been awhile since I’ve made a new comic because I had to make this thing, that and my drinking.
It occurs to me that I know a lot less about computers than what I had originally thought. You know, in addition to doing Alex The Knight, I have a day job. And at said “day job”, people ask me to help them when they’re having computer problems.
If they only knew how much trouble I had putting this site up, and how much I still don’t understand what the hell I’m doing.
It took forever to do this, even with instructions.
Right now this site is raw as hell. I’m not even going to show my wife what this looks like. It’s a mess. A MESS.
Robert Chastain, if you’re reading this right now: HELP!
-
Comics I Read
Recent Comments