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The Creative Process

It’s been brought up from time to time that Aric and I just wing this strip, what with how random it feels. And while I can say ‘we planned it all along’, it just really doesn’t hold water when there’s nothing to back it up.

While working on the comic tonight, I stumbled upon the original mockup for the website, which included a header graphic sporting some content that hadn’t been put in the strip yet. Since everything in this picture has made its appearance in some form, I thought I’d share it:

The original banner image!

Lemmo and Aric are there, but so is the cookie guy (noticably different), and he’s holding the shovel. There’s also the imposter robot behind Aric, also fairly different. Plus, the fox was more of a person, or ewok or something, instead of the Socks you know of today. Lastly there’s Lemmo’s pet rat, which was scrapped altogether.

This image predates the comic launch by about two months. That makes it about 14 months old now. You just now met the cookie guy. Shows how ’spontaneous’ we really are.

Talkin’ Business

I don’t generally like talking about things before they happen, because it’s all vaporous. It’s not concrete. So, just know that we’re talking in theoreticals here. But Aric and I have some merchandise in the works, either based on year-one events from Blank It, or things we thought were funny otherwise. We have a few curveballs, so hopefully we’ll delight you when we get a shop online. Start counting your pennies.

The shop will be critical when we make good on the Threat, since the comic already takes up a lot of our time even at twice a week. So once it goes to three, the show has to start growing into its own and compensating for its costs. We have faith it’ll all work out, or else we wouldn’t pursue it. How’s that for optimism!

Speaking of the Threat, Aric and I looked over the last two months of numbers, and even by the most conservative accounts, we’ve definitely cleared the 1,500 reader mark. There’s a degree of anticipation and anxiety that’s coming with all this. It’ll be interesting to see Blank It grow. Let’s hope I don’t lose my drawing hand in a freak shovel beam accident.

Sometimes Reality is Hard

I’m not really one to gripe. We got it good around here. A crisp, clean website, a solid show. And my life in general isn’t too bad to boot. But I just want to share with you a snapshot real quick. Tonight I got home from my day job, and after a pretty long commute, cooked dinner for my family, fed the baby and did my fatherly dues like dishes washing, car repair and hedge trimming. And when my wife went to bed and baby didn’t, I got to do the parenting solo and deal with what we in the biz call a “present from below”. Finally get baby to sleep, dog needs walking. Cat needs feeding. Yadda yadda.

Somewhere in there, this strip still managed to get drawn, just like it does every three to four days.

Folks, we don’t make money off this site. We don’t have any wares for sale (yet) and all the ad revenue goes right back into promoting the comic. This site is a hobby, and it’s one that people, not just me and Aric, make some sacrifices to keep going.

Anyways, that’s just a raw truth. I’m not asking for alms, but I’ll ask you this. Tell someone about the comic today. Someone who might not already be reading it. Pass along the URL. Share the fruits of our labor. That makes it all worth it in my book.

CONvergence

Dear nerds, I will be on a few panels at CONvergence this year. Here is a link for my schedule.

The price of entry is $70, so if you’re not already going, don’t pay $70 just to see me. But if you’re already on your way, stop by one of the panels and say “hi.” I will be wearing a fake mustache during one of them. Do not be alarmed.

BlankItWiki

It’s here! For everyone who needs facts that only a wiki can provide, the BlankItWiki is open for business. Ready for your edits and contributions.

Help fill in the history of Blank It, and discover things you may not have noticed before. Much like the strip, it’s currently a blank slate waiting to be filled in. So hop to it already. The confused masses are waiting for your insight and theories.

Just RSS It

Blank It updates Mondays and Thursdays, and I admit that is a little weird. But, you know what? We’re in the future. And in the future, there are RSS feeds for everything. RSS feeds to remind you when comics are updated, and to read them.

The RSS feed for Blank It is RIGHT HERE for your ease of use.

What’s that? You don’t have an RSS reader? Well, they’re free and super easy to use. I non-recommend Google and highly recommend Netvibes as your RSS reader. It is great and I use it all day every day.

Now you can get news, blog updates, and comic updates all in one place. How easy is that?