And I don’t and didn’t want minimize the injury. I was merely wondering if anyone knew if he had given any public updates on it. I have no idea what else he does for income.
Thanks for the discussion!
I think it has settled into a level of permanent injury. And I think the strips take longer to draw than they did in the early days (more complicated art). But mostly, I think it takes as long as it does between updates because there’s so much history and background (and stuff that happens between now and the end) that it makes for a lot of pressure and that pressure doesn’t always play nice with the muse.
Maybe if the originally intended end looks near he doesn’t really want to get to it?
I think you guys are really underestimating how much longer strips take to make in the more highly detailed art style.
This particular strip however rather belies that, as the background is a simple wall of grey cinder blocks, which on a computer can easily be reused over and over, resized and tilted and such as needed. It took him 6 weeks to draw THIS strip? I was fully expecting a multicolor 2-3 page extravaganza of some sort.
Again, yes, injury, fully get it. Buuutttt…
As someone who also has been working on a long-term project, I know full well what burnout is like, the periods of furious work in between long stretches of doing nothing, and, with my own experience in mind, my intuition here definitely leans towards this smacking more of burnout than it does of a physical disability (tho as just one fan out of multitudes I cannot be sure of course). If it is indeed the latter then the strip may indeed take another decade, or more, of real-time to finally wrap up.
I’m sure they interact. It’s harder to push through burnout if the process of drawing is painful or challenging.
Fwiw, in his most recent q&a, someone asked him about the book series “A song of fire and Ice” (not to be confused with the TV series) and his reply was
I will say that I have a great deal of sympathy for George R.R. Martin’s situation with regard to finishing his series. I can’t imagine a more difficult position to be in as an author than for the story you’ve been developing in your head for decades to be put out there in a rushed inferior version that was then poorly received. I think that would really suck any remaining joy out of writing, as well as providing a nearly impossible conundrum. You need to faithfully pay off all of the foreshadowing and build-up but somehow also do something new and nebulously “better” than what everyone has already watched. It sounds like an impossible task to me, and I’m not surprised he’s having trouble with it.
which is certainly compatible with him feeling burnout.
and he says he uses Adobe illustrator, fwiw
No new strip but for those that backed the Kickstarter, there is a new 18 page story just released about Elan’s time before joining OOTS. Check your inbox.
Huh, i don’t have it yet. Looking forward to it, though.
Yep, was just coming here to say I’ve received the link to the “Sir Francois and the Dragon” story. I haven’t opened it yet, but it may explain what Rich has been busy doing.
“18-page color prequel story”.
Okay, i didn’t get an email. So i logged onto Kickstarter, which didn’t list oots among the list of things I’ve backed. But when i searched for the campaign, i was able to open it up, and there it correctly recognized that i was a backer, and let me download the zip file. I glanced at it, but didn’t read it, yet. Lots of colorful pages. Many panels.
Yeah, this chewed up a lot of his time.
Called it.
Had anyone kept track? Are there more lurking out there?
I was going through the Workometer and the last time it appeared was in Update #82 which was in 2018 and update 83 was just a check-in with no news. Dim Sum is update 84, and Sir Francois and the Dragon is update 85.
That puts the current remaining work
- CPPD pdf story
- Julio Scoundrel pdf story
- Crayon drawing
- Patience drawings
- Patience crayon drawings
- Mystery Prize #9*
Some of that may have been released to specific individuals. Hard to say since the Workometer is 8 years old. But there is at least two more pdf stories to be released.
What is CPPD?
Somehow, i thought he’d already released Julio Scoundrel.
Also, thanks! I’d never have known this was out there if you hadn’t brought it up.
Cliffport Police Department
Thanks
How could you forget them? It’s not like they haven’t appeared in a strip in about 20 years!
Surprisingly, no posts in the GITP forums. I did see that Dim Sum was put on sale on Gumroad (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?697120-Dim-Sun-An-original-OOTS-parody-story-now-on-sale-at-Gumroad) so there’s a good chance that those that weren’t able to be a backer can still legally get Sir Francois and the Dragon eventually.
The story is quite…appropriate for the times.
Pretty sure there was a Julio Scoundrel story, though maybe not the specific one that was promised.
Curse of the Mummy Queen, in Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales.