About Weekly Anime Comics...

Okay, so I already posted a big, general ramble about the state of everything over on blitzthecomicguy.com, but I wanted to give a more detailed update specifically about Patreon stuff, Conventional Wisdom in particular.

Obviously, CW is getting the short end of the stick right now, compared to Far Out There. The Jenna comics are finally coming out again, there’s a big batch of MadLib comics in the works, AND I’m not running out of those Character Soundtrack blogs any time soon. Poor Conventional Wisdom, on the other hand, hasn’t had anything but those Japanese CD blogs for a while now. I haven’t had any bonus convention comics since, well, I haven’t had any conventions to go to, and Weekly Anime Comics haven’t been a thing in a loooooong time. I can’t do much about the conventions right now, but we CAN talk about Weekly Anime Comics.

At this point, it’s entirely possible for somebody to be a Patron and not even know what that was supposed to be. Back when I started this Patreon, Weekly Anime Comics were one of the flagship features. I’d have a list of shows and watch through ‘em, drawing comics as I did so. Everybody who’d pledged anything got to read the comics, and anyone giving more than five dollars a month got to add a show of their choice to the list. It sounded like a cool idea, and for a WHILE it seemed to work out pretty well… but then the burn out started to set in. It took me longer and longer to get through the shows, finding comic-worthy material got tougher and tougher, and new comics took more and more time to do. Eventually, “Weekly Anime Comics” was more of a joke name than anything, we were lucky to get more than one per month. Of course, then when EVERYTHING started going on hold, Weekly Anime Comics just stopped being a thing, and I had to go re-think what I was doing.

But here’s the thing: I KNOW I could still crank out anime-based comics on a regular basis. I did more than one Digimon challenge thing where I posted a comic EVERY DAY, and I’ve managed to get a comic out of every single episode of the new Digimon Adventure since it started airing. It’s a demonstrable fact that I CAN get extra weekly content done… so why did Weekly Anime Comics wither up and die? The only thing I can figure is, well, I actually LIKE Digimon. Not to dump on anybody else’s tastes or anything, but most of the shows picked for me by Patrons were shows I never would have watched of my own volition, and I think that just wore me down. There may have been a time in my life, back when I was a young weeb, when I could get excited about watching ANYTHING drawn by a Japanese person, but these days it clearly takes something more specific to get me engaged. What’s more, these days it’s a MUCH more draining experience to sit through something that DOESN’T engage me, and that just made the burn out worse.

But I still want to draw comics, ya know? Especially for people who actually PAY ME MONEY. It’s the literal least I can do, right? So I’ve been chewing on ways to bring the concept back, just in a less exhausting manner, and I keep coming back to the part about taking requests. I know people love interactivity and all, but it’s become abundantly clear that I’m just not good at making with the funny on command. If I bring back Weekly Anime Comics, it has to be limited to anime that I’VE picked, and am fairly sure I can get material out of.

So here’s what I’m thinking: I’ll compile a list of anime I’m in the mood to watch, either stuff I’ve wanted to watch but haven’t gotten around to, or stuff I haven’t seen in a while and want to revisit. I’ll put it out as a poll to you Patrons, and everybody above a certain level (and I’m toying with the idea of lowering that level, too) votes for one from that list. That way, we still get SOME degree of interactivity, but I still know I’m dealing with material I can work with. I know it’s not ideal, but if it means we actually start getting fresh Conventional Wisdom comics around here again, isn’t that better than nothing?

Honestly, I AM still toying with the possibility of allowing direct requests from especially high-level patrons, just with stricter requirements. Like, I’d only take a request at a specific time, I’d limit myself to a set number of pages ahead of time, the anime has to be below a set number of episodes or has to be an OVA or movie, stuff like that. Like I said, I’m still chewing on the possibilities.

Also, I’ll need to institute a new policy regarding how these Patreon comics get released to the general public. Time was that I would just leave them as Patreon exclusives for a few months, then re-post them all on the SmackJeeves archive… but that just won’t work now for SEVERAL reasons. Obviously, SmackJeeves isn’t my primary host anymore, but it’ll be a LONG time before I even get the rest of the old convention comics re-posted to CWComic.com, let alone getting started on a secondary archive of Patreon re-posts. What’s more, the longer I go without conventions to do promotions at, the more I really need to start putting out more material to the public. I can’t afford to keep comics lurking behind a paywall as long as I used to. In the new Weekly Anime Comic model, comics will still go up here first, but after just a week or two, I’ll need to post them out on all the various social medias to HOPEFULLY draw in a few more readers. I really hate to take away any specialness from being a Patron, but I’ve also got to start being more careful about I spend my limited time/energy and be better about getting my work in front of more people. I dunno, if I can get into enough of a productive groove, maybe I can start doing a few special little projects JUST for Patreon. We’ll see how things go.

Well, we’ll see eventually, because one way or another, this stuff wouldn’t happen until at least the start of next year. I still need to get all this Far Out There stuff finished before Christmas, never mind all the website stuff I still haven’t had time to take care of yet. So, sometime in January, at the earliest. In the meantime, what do you guys think? Is choosing from a predetermined list good enough? Are there any anime you’ve heard me talk about in the past that you think I could get some good comics out of? Do you know any better ways I could be doing this? It’s plainly established that I don’t know what I’m doing, so clearly I could use the feedback.

And, of course, above all else, thanks for even being Patrons at all!  Even just a buck or two a month really does help me out!