Spiky-Haired Dragon, Worthless Knight

ak-ryuu · Author Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 1779 Location: Finland

So ... the comic is (or would be) 9 years old today. And I owe you all an update.

I'm still determined to continue the comic.

I still don't know when.

The last few months have been difficult, but worth it. I have a three week old baby at home now, and she is (as should be) taking pretty much all of my free time. In addition to that, I'm trying to run a household and trying to somehow earn some extra money (as my financial situation worsened this year), leaving no time for me to get the comic back up and running again. Even though it's on my mind every single day, and I feel guilty about it.

As I find a new rhythm (pretty much a new life now, I guess), I hope I can make time to first finish writing the comic, and then drawing all of that, as was my original plan. I'll probably update irregularly for a while before settling into an update schedule again. But it's still not happening any time soon. Hopefully when winter is over (and it's a long winter up here in the North); no promises though.

I hope you can be happy for me, even if it means the wait is longer.

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Do you mind? I'm trying to learn about the Okapi.

Muttifer · Joined: 27 Nov 2012 Posts: 1 Location: left coast usa

Congratulations on the little one! You will never sleep again. HAHAHA

Seriously though I'm really happy for all three of you. This will be difficult and, eventually, fun.

I'm a little disappointed that you didn't say anything to us about it until now. That would have been rather exciting to anticipate.

I fully understand any delays in the comic. Although maybe some sort of fundraiser? Diapers and such aren't cheap. Thoughts by others here?

Good luck to the both of you with the baby and again: Congratulations.

MaxDZ8 · Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 91

Yes, I am indeed very happy to know you're fine! Best wishes to all your beloved ones! I will easily wait now I know the reason.
Thank you very much for sharing this with us!

Shargmike · Joined: 03 Jan 2009 Posts: 21 Location: Texas USA

Thank you for the update, you have loyal fans that i'm sure were getting worried. Gratz on your little one. I am sure many of us can wait for your fine comic to return, no mater how long it takes.....just don't forget about us here....in the forums.

Michael

Rose · Joined: 13 Nov 2012 Posts: 3 Location: United States

D'awww, a new daughter! Enjoy her, we grow up fast. ^^ MORE than understandable that things are taking time then, and all we can do is wish ya luck and look forward to an eventual return.

fauvem · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 11:25 pm Post subject:

Congratulation for the mini ak-ryuuette.

ak-ryuu · Author Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 1779 Location: Finland

Thanks all! The kid is 3 months old now, and I don't know where all the days went -- it's really hard right now to find time for anything else. Every night I lie in bed and think about the comic and how best get on track, and then a new day starts and is over again in an instant ... I hope it doesn't take until she goes to school before that changes again ;)

When I finally get around to updating again, I suppose the comic will look different (i.e., probably worse) ... I haven't drawn anything in months, I don't really have a work space for drawing anymore (my home office is now the baby room), and my arthritis has been getting worse as well, making it hard to hold a pen. Sometimes I wonder if I should switch to a text-only format, but it just wouldn't be the same ...

In any case, the plan is still to do a whole lot of script writing first before I even think of drawing again, and so far, I haven't gotten anywhere with that because all my time is going elsewhere. I haven't forgotten though :)
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Do you mind? I'm trying to learn about the Okapi.

Asylumsway · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Posts: 27 Location: USA

I'm interested enough in the story that I'd be fine with a text only.
Also, you may get fan art.
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Really not fair. Age is linear, work is exponential.

ak-ryuu · Author Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 1779 Location: Finland

It's been 6 months and the kid still doesn't leave me with a lot of free time (or with a lot of sleep), but here's the plan:

The comic will update very irregularly (for the time being, that means very rarely) on Tuesdays. (I'll draw when I can and update the following Tuesday if/when I have something finished.) The update runs automatically on midnight my time, but these days I'm sleeping at that time, so I won't post the forum thread until the following morning. Eventually I hope to be able to update every Tuesday, but that's a long time away.

I'm still planning to concentrate more on writing first (and even that can be difficult, even if it doesn't need as much space or uninterrupted time -- it's not easy to get into the right mindset). I know the whole progress will remain unbearably slow for quite some time still, but at least there will be progress.

In any case, expect an update tonight ;)
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Do you mind? I'm trying to learn about the Okapi.

Parou · Joined: 06 May 2013 Posts: 1

No worries, getting back to any schedule when you have a new rugrat in the house is a near impossibility so it's great that you have got it to a point where even intermittent updates can happen.
Best of Luck with getting the ball rolling again and we'll keep an eye out for the new strips.
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Somewhere on a track less travelled......

Nocturne · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 248 Location: UK - England

Updates, eh?

Excellent!
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"It is a clichÈ that most clichÈs are true, but then, like most clichÈs, that clichÈ is untrue."

Shazbot · Joined: 01 Jan 2010 Posts: 134

If you want to change the format, that would probably be fine, but it would be a big mistake to go to a text-only. You are just fine at creating scenes and using visuals.. just trouble with drawing them.

Shargmike · Joined: 03 Jan 2009 Posts: 21 Location: Texas USA

Really good to see you back and a update, I bet the little one is a handful.

Mike

ak-ryuu · Author Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 1779 Location: Finland

I'm still around, currently trying to work on scripts and then hopefully drawing some more some day soon. The little one is more like three handfuls now, as she's pretty mobile and pretty fast already, making it rather impossible to get anything done while she's around.

Going through all my old notes, I realise that maybe I took too long a break, and my notes weren't as good as they should be -- I think I'm having a hard time piecing together again what used to be a pretty solid plan for the upcoming storylines. This makes working on the scripts a whole lot slower than I thought it would be.

But I'll manage, I'll just likely get annoyed at some point down the road that I forgot something that I meant to include, stuff like that. That's the problem when writing anything sequential -- you can't really go back later and edit and polish stuff, once it's out there, it's out there.

So yeah, sometimes I get worried that I won't manage to weave all the loose threads together into a satisfactory end. (I know, right now I should be worried that I'll ever get to an end in the first place, or even to the next update ...). Anyway, just letting you know that I'm still around, still sleep deprived, and still trying to get another update out eventually :)

P.S.: I think the RSS feed for the comic is broken, so updates won't come through on that. Don't have time to look into that right now either, but it's on my list ...
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Do you mind? I'm trying to learn about the Okapi.