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Feb update!
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Feb 08, 2023 at 11:25:47 PM

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a nice safe year so far. Things have been pretty quiet with me Just work, work, work as usual.

I've been making very good progress on the Modest Medusa books, but I've also hit an unexpected problem. Well... more than one problem. 

I was HOPING to have both books ready for the printer at the end of last month. I was well on my way to that goal when I hit my first problem... corrupted files! It turns out that in the years since creating these pages I'd lost some of the files. In fact, in total 17 pages had been corrupted! Thankfully I keep multiple backups. After going through my backups I was able to retrieve 15 of the lost pages. Meaning I'd have to recreate two of them.

The second problem: I hadn't realized how many pages in this season hadn't been colored. I'll sometimes post uncolored pages when I'm in a hurry and just don't have time to finish them. This happens most often when I'm sick. I don't remember exactly what was happening during season 5, but there are a LOT of uncolored pages! Worse, one of those pages is an enormous 36 panel strip! That's the equivalent of 9 pages just by itself!

The third problem: A few pages are missing, but for different reasons. These pages weren't corrupted, but instead were lost due to my own stupidity. Around the middle of season 5   I changed the way I name my files. As far as I can tell this resulted in me accidentally saving over some of my original files with the lower res versions I post online. So that's 3 more pages missing.

In total I have 5 pages I've needed to recreate and another 13 or so to re-color. That's a LOT of extra work I wasn't anticipating, and its slowed me down. I am getting through it though. Progress is steady. I'm hoping to be done with the books in a week or two, and certainly before the end of the month!

Another problem: The Season 5 book is going to be bigger than I anticipated. I had originally thought the book would be about 150 pages, including bonus content. It turns out Season 5 was longer than I remembered. About 160 pages. With the bonus content the book will end up being about 180 pages. That may not sound like  a huge difference, but it makes printing and shipping just a little more expensive. I was already on a tight budget, but right now I don't think this will be a problem. If I end up needing to raise a little extra money I might offer some original art for sale. We'll see!

The good news is that the Season 5 book is going to be pretty big. I think you'll be happy with it. And I'm really hoping to get it to you as soon as possible!

I'll be posting another update next week with a comparison between the "lost" pages and the recreations so you can compare them yourself.

- Jake

Mid- January update!
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 02:09:43 PM

Hi everyone. I hope you're having a nice new year so far. I don't have too much to share with you today, but I do think its time to admit that I won't be hitting the deadline for this project. I had hoped to deliver rewards this month, and while I don't think that was an impossible goal, it just didn't work out. I was sick several times late last year and had an unexpectedly busy November and December. As a result I haven't made the progress I expected at all, and meeting the deadline at this point will just be impossible.

That said, my plan is to wrap up this project as quickly as I can. I spoke with my printer this week and set a goal to deliver files to them by the end of the month. I think that's very possible. After that I'll be setting up Backerkit (or finalizing it, since its already mostly ready to go), working on book sketches and taking care of other odds and ends while I wait for books to arrive. I don't want to estimate a new delivery date yet, but I will keep you informed. My hope is it won't be TOO long. I'm eager to get books in hand in time for teh Spring con season!

This week I'm finishing up the big bonus story for the Season 5 book. Its called "Slumber Party", so you can guess what its about! . After I'm done with that I'll be moving on to the short Marah comic and the book commentary. I'm also organizing some extra bonus content for the digital version of the book.

I'll be back later this month with a progress report. Thanks so much for your patience!

- Jake

Happy Holidays! A new 24 Hour comic!
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 11:40:01 AM

I everyone! I hope you're having a warm and safe winter and you've been able to take some time off work and spend it with people you care about. 

I've been able to get a lot done since the last update, and although this project is taking longer than expected I'm making good progress. Part of that progress is one of the new "24 Hour Comics" for the 48 Hour Modest Medusa book. You can read the full comic right now on the Modest Medusa site. Its a big one, which means the new book will be bigger than expected! You all like big books, right?

What's next? I'm currently working through my checklist to get the Season 4 and 5 books ready for the printer. I still have some new commentary to write, some editing to do and a whole bunch of word balloons to fix. Oh, I have to draw a cover too! Once these books are with the printer I'll be turning my attention to Backerkit and rewards like the Custom Book Sketches and Guest Appearances.

I'll have another update for you in a few weeks. until then have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

- Jake

December update!
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 05:07:21 AM

Hi everyone! Happy December. I hope you're month has been nice and warm so far. Here in Portland its been rotating between mild sweatshirt weather and miserable near-freezing rain and wind! I've been skipping the walk to work and taking the bus more often than normal!

I only have a little bit of news to share this week.

Backerkit: I've decided to go ahead and hold off on making Backerkit available until the new year. We won't need it until then and putting it on the back burner is allowing me to focus on other stuff. So expect Backerkit to be live in the first week on 2023. You'll be able to update your address and add stuff to your pledges at that point. I'll be charging for shipping and finalizing any additional purchases when the books are ready to ship. Hopefully still in February!

Books: I've been working on the bonus comics for the Season 5 book and I'm hoping to have the book ready for teh printer before Christmas. At this point i don't expect the printer to even look at the files until after new Year, but I'm trying to finish this as fast as I can. I've also decided to go ahead and redo all the word balloons in books 4 and 5 to match the modern Modest Medusa lettering style. Several of you encoruaged me to do this, so I'm going to. I've also completed the first of the new 24 Hour Comics for 72 Hour Modest Medusa. I'll be sharing the strip on Christmas and of course the full book will be available to all backers as a PDF next year.

PDF Books: Speaking of PDFs I won't be working on these until after the beginning of the eyar. Gotta get the books out the door first. My plan is to add extra content to the PDFs and this will take some extra time and effort. I think it will be worth it.

That's it for now. As always, thank you all for your patience and support. I'll have an update for your later this month! Happy Holidays!

- Jake

Weekly Update
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 30, 2022 at 09:37:05 PM

Hi everyone! I missed the weekly update last week (and the week before?), but I wanted to let you know what I've been up to and how the project is going. The answer is that its going slow. 

Sooooo slow.

The last 4 weeks have been unexpectedly busy, and I've only been able to get a fraction of the work done that I hoped to. I thought I'd be delivering the files for the Season 4 and 5 books to the printer by today, but I I'm nowhere near that goal. So what is happening?

Books: Layout for the Season 4 book is done (of course, since I've already published that book!) and layout for Season 5 is in progress. I'm also making progress on the bonus comics for the Season 5 book. I'm currently trying to decide if I want to re-do the word balloons in both books. I switched to a new style of word balloon sometime in... Season 6? Maybe Season 7? I think it looks much better, so if I can find the time I want to go back and re-do all the word balloons in the both books. 

I've also made some progress on the 24 Hour and 48 Hour books. The 24 Hour book is of course done, but I've gone back and fixed some typos. The new 48 Hour book includes "Lets Clean Jake's Room" and the 2 part "Keymas" comic, as well as two new stories that I've already written. So its already going to be bigger than the first book. But... I also have an idea for a 3rd new story and I'm trying to decide if I have time to finish it. I may end up saving the idea and using it later. In any case 48 Hour Modest Medusa will be bigger than expected!

Backerkit: I was hoping to have Backerkit ready to go in early November, but there have been some communication problems and misunderstandings on my part. Basiclly I forgot how Backerkit works and sat up the whole thing wrong. Sigh. I don't think this will effect anything at all, except it will probably be a bit before you'll actually be able to access Backerkit. Luckily this doesn't really matter. I won't be shipping this project till next year and I because of the holiday postal price hike I don't want to bill you for shipping until then anyway. Right now I think Backerkit will probably be set up by the middle of December and you'll be able to review your order, add on extra items (like the 24 and 48 Hour books) and change your shipping address at that time. 

I think that's it for now. I'll post again in a week or two or whenever I have more news to share. If you have any questions please send me a message here, on Discord or to [email protected].

Thanks,

Jake