I’ve been away a long time, a reintroduction is in order.
This comic was the labor of my heart for a number of years, stretching between 2006 to 2014. There were a number of factors that led me to cease work on it, but from a storytelling perspective, the primary reason was that the plot was being sidetracked. I had a goal for the story that required certain things to happen, but I was not succeeding in getting these rendered and the work I needed to do so seemed daunting, and so I engaged instead in a certain amount of creative worldbuilding. This was fun but was not advancing the story where it needed to go. At a certain point, I felt I had written myself into a corner and was blocked on how best to continue, and once I stopped updating regularly my feelings of guilt and shame conspired to keep me from returning to it.
To give it the best chance of restarting successfully, I have rewound the story a bit while I consider the best path to take next. After almost ten years, it is a task akin to sifting through an archaeological site; when I stopped work on it I laid my tools down haphazardly and wandered off, and it is not always clear to my time-fogged brain what I intended to do with them. I still have all of the working files and notes I made, but they are a skeleton of what was going on in my mind at the time, and I need to do some work to reconstruct the flesh upon these bones.
I am also no longer the person I was ten years ago. I wish I had the ability to speak to him directly, not to tell him that everything would be all right (true in some ways but not others), but perhaps to give him some better way to face what he was going through, and help him to appreciate what he had while it still enriched his life.
For better or ill, I now take up his torch again. He had a power that I hope once more to make my own.
Botaram is returning.
Title: Night Flyers
(Aun sees before him a terrifying creature in the air, with spiky wings and sharp teeth and a baleful stare. It wears some unknown device upon its head like a helmet. Aun recognizes it from his brief battle back in the Rediversification Center. He raises his frenting rod, ready to defend himself.)
Aun: Night Flyers!
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#30. Filling Up Halfway
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#29. A Faceful
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#28. Attuning to the Chimmer
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What a Short Strange Strip
Abstracting Out
Missed Entry and Question.
I’d like to get some feedback on the following: When I do a text entry, I do seem to move the story along a bit faster than I do in graphic mode. The text is also somewhat easier for me to prepare. Thus, I have considered making Botaram a text novel with occasional illustrations.
There are some arguments against it. I personally find that when I read a graphic novel and it switches to blocks of text, I don’t care for this and wind up skimming the text to get back to the word pictures. I don’t have this problem when I read a regular novel. What’s true for me may be true for others as well.
So, should I seriously consider reinventing Botaram as a text story?
Maintenance and Composition
I still have to review the story and my notes to prepare for the next arc. One reason the story came to a halt originally is because I was having trouble preparing this next section. I expect to do better this time, but it may take a while to get back to my old pacing. Story updates may come more slowly in this period, but I will continue to post content and status updates regularly.
Thanks for sticking with me.
How many A-holes can dance on a pinhead?
But wait…
Got home too late to work on the next entry. I’ll have a go tomorrow.
Diversion
Aun and Chax stared at the scattered fragments, each lost in his own thoughts.
“Let’s go,” said Aun.
“We can’t,” said Chax.
“Why not?”
“…You know who we’re waiting for.” Chax spat irritably.
Aun slowly tapped his frenting rod against the ground, harder and harder, until at last he slammed it down and stood straight up.
“That’s it, I’ve had it. If he can’t be bothered to drag his ass down here and get things moving, we’ve just got to go after him.”
Chax smiled grimly. “I’m with you. Lead the way.”
Upon the top of a high shelf they stood, Aun pacing anxiously nearby as Chax scouted with his superior vision at a figure huddled over a laptop at a computer desk.
“What’s he doing?” muttered Aun.
Chax shook his great head, peered again for a time, then scowled. “He’s writing fiction, Aun.”
Aun sighed. “Why can’t we move, then? He’s gone to text mode before!”
Chax gritted his fanged teeth. “It’s… It’s not fiction about us, Aun.”
Aun stopped pacing. “Whuh?”
“Near as I can make out, it’s fanfic.”
Aun flung his frenting rod down. “Fanfic! Botaram redeem us! What kind of fanfic?”
Chax growled. “It appears to be fanfic of a show about tiny polychromatic hippos.”
The solemn pair gazed at each other.
“Nai, Nai…” said Aun at last. “That’s the show that ruins everything, isn’t it? It taints every creative mind it touches.”
“I fear that you’re right. It’s like a candy-coated virus. Once it enters an artist’s mind, the artist draws little else henceforth.” Chax shuddered.
Aun slumped his shoulders. “Then… There’s little to be done, isn’t there. Botaram… We shall never reach Botaram.” A great tear formed in his eye.
Chax reached out a gentle claw and lifted Aun’s chin.
“There was a time, Aun, when I would have seized upon any means to stop a Strasmin from defiling that noble summit. But caught with you as I am on your mad journey, I shall not fail in my resolve. I shall see you to Botaram, or die in the attempt. No matter how thick the skull we must pierce to make it happen!”
Aun took up his frenting rod with renewed hope, as Chax flexed his jumping leg. He grinned a cocky little grin.
“Aun,” he said, “grab my pointy-ear thing.”
Aun leapt on Chax’s back and seized hold as instructed.
Chax leapt strongly from the shelf, pouring his intensity and resolve into one dramatically extended claw as they flew through the air towards the back of the author’s head…
“ADVENTURE!”
Am I ready to resume? I’m not sure. But if I wait until I’m ready, I may never be.
New comic on Thursday.
2013 in Review…
Furthermore, I found that, at a time when my life seemed very bleak indeed, Botaram became bleak in my mind as well, to the point where I was seizing upon excuses not to work on it. I’ve found myself putting my creative effort into more trivial and light-hearted things, by way of escaping. Of course, one can only run from one’s dreams so far, if one is to retain any self-respect at all.
I am still working on improving my lot, but one way or another, I mean to return. I may have to back the story up a few pages should I find that I’ve hit a blind alley. To those who have been inquiring, I thank you for thinking of me. I will try not to disappoint you.
Further Progress
To all who are still watching, thank you for not giving up.
Progress Report
To all of my readers, thanks for your patience as I work through some troublesome times.
JJA
One thought on “Night Flyers”
JJA
Sorry for running late on this one, but the reveal for these creatures has been waiting since strip 22, back in 2006.