grOw/cinema, Ep. XVII, frame 31 completed!

I just completed frame 31 of grOw/cinema, Ep. XVII.  I know that's not a lot of frames since my last post, but the last 2 weeks were a nightmare — crushing "real life" work with urgent deadlines and high difficulty, finalizing my July Patreon work due before month's end, as well as a slew of other things.

Here are a few previews of this month's Patreon art — Commissions, illustrations, and sketches.
     

grOw/cinema, Ep. XVII, frame 22 completed!

I just finished the 22nd frame in the latest issue of grOw/cinema, "The Ever-Expanding Universe." That is 9 frames this week, a number on the lower end of my usual. This is partially due to huge amount of details required for each of these frames, and partially due to delays due to having to concentrate on some "real life" work (and it isn't enjoyable work) that popped up suddenly. Enjoy the preview!

grOw/cinema, Ep. XVII, frame 13 completed!

I made pretty good progress this week, especially considering a number of hurdles that got in the way. Real life and real life work took up some unplanned time. I also worked on the mOnthly grOw illustration for my Patreon page (preview here). And the last number of frames have a lot of details in them, which takes a lot more time — more characters, character overlap, and, of course, muscles. I have now completed up to frame 13 and made it halfway through frame 14.  

grOw/cinema, Ep. XVII, frame 5 completed!

In the last 2-1/2 days, I was able to complete 5 frames on the next Episode of grOw/cinema. (The first 2 days of the week was spent finalizing the script and the thumbnails, and I took a half day today for the upcoming US holiday weekend.)

Now, on to other musings: I have been asked a few times about how ling will grOw/cinema, "The Ever-Expanding Universe" will go on for, or when it will end.  My answer is that it's set up to go on for a long time (thus "Ever-Expanding" in the title). However, I also would say that I would go on to other projects from time to time, and come back to it. 

(Sorry this is so long. If it takes 5 minutes to read, know it took almost 2 hours to write.)

With over 3-1/4 years of this first grOw/cinema series behind us, I am looking into this "break" to go on to a new project.

I always touted grOw/cinema: “The Ever-Expanding Universe” as the succulent dessert to the main course of previous grOw/cOmics and grOw/stOries. (Note that cinema is a style, not the concept. Future projects will probably be done the in the cinema style, but not have the serial-what-happens-next-issue on-going aspect, but, instead, a finite storyline.)  

With a slow start in sales (probably due to it’s “new” and “unproven” idea), it soon became one of my most popular series. My readers and I couldn’t wait until the next release. (Tune in next week!)

grOw/cinema, series 1, was always meant to be like the old movie serials, when you “tuned in next week” to see what happened to our hero. I even used the scrolling text from the old Flash Gordon movies (and later done in Star Wars), to pay homage to this genre.

However, it dawned on me back in December 2019 that I was approaching the 3 year mark on this project, and DID start to contemplate working on something new. (Not the end “The Ever-Expanding Universe”, but to temporarily put it on hold.) I have had 3-5 basic storylines/concepts swirling in my head for a long time that all needed fleshing out. Coming up with basic concepts is easy. But the real work is in the details and the time it takes to build them up.

Creating the artwork takes time, thus the standard 2-4 months turnaround between issues. I can understand that, for many of you chomping at the bit for the next episode, this seems like a long time when waiting for the next project to come out, just like when we wait for the next movie in our favorite series to come out. On my end, it's nearly non-stop work, so it doesn't seem so long to me. So, my realization that it has been over 3 YEARS since cinema #1’s release truly shocked me. 

In general, most of the storylines I choose to make into grOw/cOmics or grOw/cinema have been in my mind anywhere from 2 to 5+ YEARS!  I come back to them in my head from time to time, adding details and reworking ideas when I’m not doing anything taxing, such as long, boring car drives. grOw/cinema’s idea, for example, came to me with all the calls for a continuation of the “Wishful Thinking” comics. THAT was a long time ago — maybe even 8 years since I started envisioning something similar to “Wishful Thinking”, but not simply re-doing it. grOw/stOry 15, “Succubus” was a rewriting of an old E.L. Pub book that I had acquired. I originally started the process with one writer in mid-2008. The stOry was finally completed by a different writer and illustrated by me, and published in late 2013!  grOw/cOmic 6, “Milking the Plot” started as an idea on a who-done-it, plot twisting narrative in Late 2012. I began conceptualizing the storyline in August 2014, and the first issue came out Nov 2016.

That said, I HAVE now begun putting one of the afore-mentioned 3-5 ideas to (digital) written word over letting it swirl in my cranial gray matter. I hope I can make it solid enough to begin to work on it. But this will take a little time. The current project (Ep. 17) is well underway, and will be continued to be worked on until completion. Episode 18 may follow as I have envisioned it as a “season ender” episode, completing the initial arc of Carl exploring his new powers. (Originally, I was going to make it an even 20 episodes.) During the time working on 17 and 18, I will spend a little extra time each day writing the new idea (and allowing it to “gel” when I am not working on it). Should I make great progress, I MAY even begin work on this before Ep 18.

At least, these are the current plans. Life, grOw, and other aspects may change this.