Welcome to the first installment of the hpkomics.com mailbag. This has become a way for me to share some updates here and there when stuff is going on, in addition to allowing me to interact with readers and supporters of my work.
Bloggery
Welcome to the blog portion of the mailbag post, I may start doing some blogging more regularly as a way to keep up when I can’t post any of my stories or columns. on that note, though, you may be asking what’s up? Why have updates fallen behind?
Well, let’s get into some news.
New Class
A surprising development that hit me in mid-March was the sudden passing of a colleague of mine. I am not sure about the details, but suffice to say, her passing created a bit of a crisis and there was a need for someone to take over one of her classes. I was asked to do so. Normally, I am limited to two classes a semester, but I was given this third class with about half of the semester remaining. I had a backlog of material to grade in addition to planning out the rest of the semester for a new batch of students.
With that said, I handled it well and I have fallen into the rhythm of handling three classes, but that came at the cost of production time on my other work. I don’t mind that so much because I am helping out some students in a moment of uncertainty, though.
Regardless, that’s been a bit of a schedule crunch for me. I at least have some Cosmic Dash pages coming out. But everything else has fallen by the wayside, largely. Hence lacking updates in any of my fiction or writing any new articles for the website. My apologies.
Production Uncertainty
Another recent discovery has me worried about the production schedule through the summer. For the past few years I have been able to reliably pick up summer classes to teach. Unfortunately, I have no classes scheduled for this summer which means I’ll be job hunting and freelancing to make up the difference.
There is always a chance the college may open up more sections if the demand is there for summer classes, but I am not optimistic. I am hopeful, but not optimistic. Considering my partner has yet to find a job in a year of searching, summer is looking a little scary for us. I’ll be busting my hump just to keep a roof over our heads, and that is going to inevitably leave less time for comics and stories.
So, while I have you here in the mailbag, I’ll just casually remind everyone that I take commissions. I’ve had a good number come through recently, but anything I can pull in from this work and save for the months ahead is essential. I may even run a commission special later this month.
I also take subscriptions on Ko-Fi, even at $1 a month. It helps cover material I am already producing.
Mailbag Questions
We have three questions in the mailbag to kick us off this week. Let’s dive in.
First off, we have Lenora:
What are your favorite narrative devices/tropes, and what are some stories (any medium), that utilize these best in your opinion and why?
I have always been partial to in medias res., though I prefer it when it is done a little more simply, though, like a title card that takes us back to the beginning of a story instead of narrated forms of dealing with it. I am positive we’ve all heard that joke of “*record scratch* You may be wondering how I got here…” It can be fun, but the best modern example of the narrated version I can recall from recently is the Deadpool movies, particularly because they lean on the cliche.
I love Rashomon plots and I am surprised I have not dove into them myself as a writer. I don’t think I’ve quite found a story to approach for that just yet. Seeing the same events from multiple perspectives and the truth being some element of the three or more perspectives is very exciting to me.
I am sure there are others I could write about. I may do that as a separate post one day.
Next, we have Allybear:
What do you do to get yourself in the mood to create? I struggle with motivation so anytime I make something it’s a spur-of-the-moment decision.
My feeling is that I am always thinking about things I want to do and conceptualizing stuff, but it is a lack of time to put it into action. I get a lot of ideas for stories and scenes. There’s no struggle there.
However, given my work schedule, day-to-day life, and just feeling older and more tired year after year, there are times when I lack motivation to work when a window arrives. Usually what gets me going is tremendous levels of guilt. I do not recommend that. Pressure motivates me but I am sure it is probably eating me alive.
Something I have been doing off and on is scheduling work time. Find about an hour each day to work toward something. Having that hour consistently has been gearing me up to at least work on something creative, even for a bit. I found that in the moment that hour becomes two or three hours organically.
Lastly, we have Nick Wright:
How long have you been doing comics, and how did you get into doing them?
I started drawing comics as a kid but only got serious about them in high school. I was drawing comics for my friends and decided to try to put them online. It was kind of in the zeitgeist at the time as a bunch of those types of comics were beginning to emerge on the back of Penny Arcade.
So I got a cracked version of Photoshop, scanned a bunch of my pencil art, and then colored it all. It was kind of a crash course I threw myself into back when I had more motivation and time.
This would have been around 2004. I began posting comics on a GeoCities website in addition to what was then Drunk Duck. Some of those old comics are still available online. I eventually started Cosmic Dash around 2007, of which I have little remaining art, but did a reboot in 2010.
That’s basically it.
Also, be sure to read Nick’s webcomic.
Have Questions?
Thank you for checking out this first installment of the mailbag. As an old-school internet guy, I have a lot of fond memories of mailbags on websites and it’s nice to live out that thing again. I would like to make this a monthly thing, so please feel free to ask me questions you have, even if they’re just for fun.
I’ll answer just about anything, but I might be best suited to questions related to the kind of subjects and material I cover regularly. I have no issue diving into other areas, I have a take on everything. Hell, I’ll even answer questions about academia and writing if they come up.
If you want to ask questions, you can comment on this post, hit up my contact page, or check my socials for posts on Bluesky and Mastodon where I call for questions.
Otherwise, thank you for checking out the mailbag. We’ll do this again in May, hopefully.
