It’s been a while since I checked in on progress for Moon Racket Season 2. My original deadline for this season has shifted somewhat, but my plan was somewhat flawed in that I thought I could finish off the art the same year that Zane (my son) was born - I am that hopelessly optimistic. That was never going to really happen. The good news is that I made incredible progress while I was on holiday and thankfully I am still riding that momentum. When I left in December I had 6 strips fully completed. Now a little over a month later I have over 20 strips that are in varying degrees of completness. In addition to that I was able to work through the thumbnails for the remaining 10 strips. That’s right, unlike the first season (which was 20 strips in total), Season 2 will be expanded to 30 strips.

Frictionless Creation

I attribute the fact that I’ve been able to create anything at all to the fact that I’ve made a concerted effort in trying to remove as much friction in the creation process as possible.

1. Make sure that each script has the thumbnails worked out for the entire page. Doodle, change the script if necessary.
2. Do all the lettering. I use Sketch for this as it’s my Freehand alternative. This gives me the word placement so that I can taylor the art accordingly (make sure the character’s head isn’t covered by a balloon).
3. As I’m drawing all the artwork on A3 board, I need to cut them down the middle. I then also drew all the panels in, so that I have one less excuse to actually getting started on the art (ie doing something without actually doing anything).

Hopes & Aspirations

One of my desires for this strip, is that as I continue to draw it in the future, I’ll always be able to look back and see a progression from the previous year. It means that I’m trying to make the strip better and make myself better at the creation process. What I didn’t anticipate was seeing a fluidity in the characters between the very first strip I drew and the recent strips.

This poses the question of whether I should go back and rework the original drawings to meet that fluidity or leave them as they currently are as a marker. My initial reaction is to leave them as they are. This is an ongoing strip, rather than a finite graphic novel. Things don’t actually have to look consistent (nor do they, when you compare the very first season even).

Deadlines

I know I shouldn’t really tempt fate and declare a deadline, but I want to be able to start publishing the newest season in the spring some time and feel that this goal is completely within my reach. The next massive hurdle that I have to start considering is how I promote the hell out of this series once I’m finally ready to actually publish. More on that in future posts.