I wish I could say it was easy like Sunday morning, but today's comic strip had some obstacles and almost didn't get delivered on time. Yikes! BUT ALL IS GOOD! Here it is!
I usually won't post this much text with a daily comic strip with exposition, but I ask you to please give me that liberty to do that today. Thanks!
As most of you know, I have a Monday through Friday day job working as a graphic designer. I work on my comic book and web comic projects "on my own time" in the evenings or weekends when I'm not in karate class or working on my stamp collection. However, I do get to multitask and listen to my records at home when I draw. That's a bingo!
I was very busy yesterday finishing up the last piece of artwork for a bonus story that I decided to throw into my forthcoming comic book issue of THRILL SEEKER COMICS ANTHOLOGY #2 at the last minute. If you are new to SEA SHANTY FUNNIES and didn't know this about me before, Thrill Seeker Comics is my independent super-hero/pulp comic book series that I've been doing on-and-off for nearly 25 years. The second issue clocking in at 40 pages is complete. There will be another new book called THRILL SEEKER COMICS OTHERWORDLY DETECTIVE STORIES featuring Ms. Tittenhurst: Finder of Lost Things (that I co-write with my wife) out a month or two just after that. I digress.
After a delay (my fault), my next issue of TSC is COMPLETE! (Finally! Yes!!!). I just uploaded the files to the printer and sent off to get physical proof copies to review. Again, I'm digressing but I hope you might check it out, too. I'll have news on the next issue forthcoming hopefully by New Year's Day. So, as you see, I'm juggling and have some other stuff going on, too...
But this ties in to SEA SHANTY FUNNIES.
With all that said, and back to the original point of this not being the easiest of Sunday mornings, I didn't get to work on today's artwork for SEA SHANTY FUNNIES until last night around 9:00 p.m.
Not too long after that, I fell asleep in my chair at my drawing board. I woke up startled not knowing where I was and then transitioned over to the bedroom to lay my head down at 11:00 p.m. where I immediately fell asleep. I was too dang tired to finish the comic strip last night. So I slept. Then, my puppies woke me up at 4:20 a.m. to take them out and I made time between 4:20 a.m. to 6:30 am to go color, letter, and finish today's comic strip up. Just 90 minutes before my self-imposed deadline to release each morning at 8:00 a.m. Central Time.
This was my closest to not meeting my self-imposed personal 8:00 a.m. deadline since I rebooted up doing these comic strips three weeks ago. When I restarted up SEA SHANTY FUNNIES just before Thanksgiving doing these "dailies", I honestly hadn't planned on beginning work on these webcomics until January 1st with the backlog of scripts that I had written and prepared over this past year.
Basically ALL of these comic strips for SEA SHANTY FUNNIES that you have been reading these last three week are brand new comic strips that I'm writing and drawing just a day or two before I release them. Coming up with the ideas, stories, and art "on the fly" as they say. In my mind, all of these comic strip this month are a "prequel" to where I'm heading and want to go with SEA SHANTY FUNNIES that is allowing me to transition. In other words, I just got an unexpected early jump. I feel like Tom Hanks in that moment kind of like in that scene win FORREST GUMP where he just got up out of his chair and started running without any forethought. And kept on run-nin'. I kind of did the same thing.
I'm writing these new stories to "meet" where I have my planned storylines for next year. I do have the rest of the stories for December plotted and culminating for a New Year's Eve/Day big event and cliffhanger. It is ambitious. This is all very impromptu and in the moment kind of stuff. I'm surprisingly enjoying this approach to weave in and out. I hope you are, too.
I think having a self-imposed deadline of releasing a new strip out each morning at 8:00 a.m. has been good for me and keeps me on task. However, my wife Jennifer McCullar knows me well and has strongly suggested that I take at least one day off a week moving forward if I am to continue doing these. Minimally. And I do plan on continuing doing this for the foreseeable future. While she is super supportive and my greatest cheerleader, she wants to be sure that I get my rest, take care of other things, don't burn out, etc. She remind me that this isn't my 'take home the bacon' job and that I'm doing these comics as a creative outlet/hobby/perhaps obsessive fixation.
I plan to collect these webcomics into a printed format for posterity into actual comic books you could buy. I would at least hope to have a tangible piece to hold in my hands to read and cherish. To put on my spinner rack in my living room next to my other comics. I might even have some other offerings that are SEA SHANTY FUNNIES related. He said teasingly.
Since this current storyline is tight leading up to the New Year's Eve countdown... I think beginning in 2026, I'm going to listen to Jennifer's suggestion and just release this comic strip six days a week basis. I will rest as commanded on the seventh day.
And just a head's up, I'm also going to take a break for about two weeks off from January 2 through 16 and come back in full swing on January 17th -- which is National Popeye Day. January 17th is the day Popeye debuted in 1929 and it will be one year exactly to the date when I released my first SEA SHANTY FUNNIES comic strip. During those first two weeks of January, I won't have any new comic strips. I think you'll understand that I need this to regroup.
I think taking a break for two weeks will work out because (spoiler) New Year's Day's strip will end on a cliffhanger and National Popeye Day is a celebratory day and sign from above that this would make a good day to relaunch into the next phase.
Taking these two weeks will allow me to "buffer" up and draw some new stories so that I've already written and have them ready to go. To have some breathing room so that I'm not always drawing just 24 hours in advance for the story for the next day and I don't feel pressured.
However, from time to time, whenever the creative mood strikes me... I may continue to "interrupt" a current storyline to throw in something impromptu that I came up "in the moment". Hopefully I can creatively work in this inserted comic strip in naturally so it isn't truly interrupting too much an ongoing storyline where you hopefully you don't even notice too much.
If that makes sense. I'm rambling. Lack of sleep will do that and I tend to ramble freestyle in thought. But thought I'd share this with you as you might like to know what is going on behind the scenes.
Thank you. Your positive support keeps me motivated and excited to continue writing and drawing new comic strips. Fellow comic creators Martheus Wade and his wife Janet Wade also say that perhaps one of the greatest things you can do to help your favorite comic creators keep up the steam is just to "like" their work with a "like" on the post and perhaps a repost or shout out. They are SO RIGHT! It helps you know that you're just not talking to yourself and to know that there is an actual audience getting the message and/or seeing the work.
I'm having fun with SEA SHANTY FUNNIES. I'm usually sitting here in my chair laughing as I'm drawing with the silly humor. Hoping you'll get a chuckle or chortle yourself, too. I will have enough stories (and some unpublished bonus material) to actually put together my first collection of SEA SHANTY FUNNIES into a souvenir comic book hopefully later in early February to be available.
More on that later after I figure out the logistics and make it happen. If I can make it happen. I should be able to make it happen.
Oh yeah, we will have some surprise guests coming soon.
Enough of the rambling. I think a Sunday nap is in order for today.
See you in the funny papers... or funny webcomics... or um... whatever.
See you all soon!
Scott
