Greetings Chroniclers!
Wow! We broke all the records last week! Over 700 page views on Thursday! Over 6000 page views for the month and we still have a week to go!
Thanks to everyone who stopped by and if you have come back for more thank you especially!
Of course, when Chronicle's biggest week ever happens, something has to happen to even that out. There has to be balance in the Force. So, my computer died. I've drawn Chronicle so far on an old HP tx2000 tablet PC. It never had a lot of power but it did have a Wacom Touchscreen and it worked great with Manga Studio. It was clunky and heavy, but so am I!
On Friday, the second power adapter in 3 months blew. I rushed a third power adapter (thanks Amazon Prime!) and plugged it only to discover that the Wacom screen was dead. I had been having a lot of trouble with it coming on after a power-off. So, I was keeping it in sleep mode when not using it. With the power adapter shot, the battery died and that was that. I spent an hour trying to get that screen to come back on. Nothing. The data was fine, no art lost (cloud backup, kids!). But I had no way to draw the comic and get it to you guys.
First (really) quick sketch of Autumn on the Surface Pro.
So, I got a new tablet. A Surface Pro 2 (I know the 3's are coming, but I couldn't wait). It's fantastic. I'm sure many of you have heard Mike Krahulik over at Penny Arcade rave about these things so I won't go into great detail about it. But, let me assure you, as a small time cartoonist who is not getting free hardware, Mike's on the level. It does everything he says it does. I couldn't afford the 8gb RAM models, but I have yet to notice any problems with the 4gb. This thing is much more responsive than the old HP, so I have to retrain my hand a bit. So bear with me if the art shifts around in quality for a bit.
The thing is this came at a tight time in my family's budget. It had to go on a credit card (with no interest for a year, but still). It was worth it to continue doing something I love and to bring something that clearly people seem to be enjoying (almost 200 direct visits last week!)
But, I have to put my hat out there again and ask that if you truly enjoy what I'm doing, then please consider clicking on the Tip Jar button or at least one of the Google Ads at the bottom of the page. Even better, let me learn this great new tool by drawing for you! Go buy a character sketch from the Artist's Shop. It's cheap and I would rather do that than launching a crowdfunding campaign (which I had planned to do in the second year).
Also, SHARE, SHARE, SHARE! Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook. Re-share those posts and let's recruit even more Chroniclers!
Again, thank you all so much for coming here and seeing what I do. It fills me with encouragement to see so many people from all over the world looking at my art. I wouldn't still be here if it weren't for that.
Thank you.
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