The Perks of a Strip

Sequential Art (also known as comics) has many forms, The 2 more popular today being Graphic Novels (can range from 50-300+ pages depending on the book), and another classic Comic Books (which usually range from 10-35 or so pages). I put Zines in another category because they tend to have a multitude of different shapes, sizes and lengths. (I love that the comics pictured below have all been made into films, as well as many others! It's a great time for comics!!)

The comic strip has been around for ages and traditionally runs in newspapers and magazines (usually a horizontal strip of 2 or more panels in either B&W or color). I have worked on a comic strip series before in Jr. High entitled "Daniel & Friends", which consisted of myself and 3 made-up friends (which now just seems kinda weird..haha)... but the stories weren't very funny... I didn't have any interesting ideas... I just wanted to make something. I made about 10 or so and then gave up... but doing that gave me an idea of what working on a comic strip was like.

Archie

There are many upsides to doing a series of comic strips as opposed to a short comic/full length or graphic novel... the first being that it doesn't require as much time (which is probably my main reason at the moment) Once you have decided on a small cast and location you are ready to go. You can't over think it... you just take a simple idea and go with it. That alone is nice, no need worrying too much about a plot... over working dialogue. You just simplify it all. Shorten it to the most basic idea, and there it is. Also, you don't have to worry so much about character development, that will happen over time, so the characters just need to have shticks and you need to shtick with them... *crickets*

Next, is the fact that in the digital age, most people don't want to spend more than a few minutes reading a story of some unknown artist/writer, unless maybe the images are so captivating it draws them in... that is unlikely if you want to save time (if you are still reading this, I commend you... you are either a close friend, bored, or really high).

Which finally brings us to FAT Fridaze. I have been working on a few strips for the past week (in hopes that I can get ahead and never fall behind...NEVER!!!! *sobs*) Tomorrow will be the official release of Strip # 001!! YIPPIE!! I'm excited to see how long I can keep up this series, I am also working on a Graphic Novel with the same characters that I would like to publish in a year or so (MARK MY WORDS!!)

Anywho... to wrap this post up... I don't... really have anything else to say... Hope you enjoy my first Strip!

Thanks! <3