What I will say is that I have re-aquainted myself with my old tablet, that I handed down to my dad (who uses it quite a lot actually) when I got my big shiny new one. The sensitivity is higher, but after a few days now it’s like I never stopped using it. So I might finally start inking some new strips soon. It’s hard to go back an draw that first comic when story-wise you’re already about half a year ahead. But there is some good material in there. I like to entertain the thought it’s already better than anything I’ve done with dinerdate before. But I guess you and I will have to wait and see.

In closing, here’s a piece I’ve been sitting on for a while. It’s a drawing of the new cafe.

If you’re wondering how the storyline would have progressed, I might share it with you some other time.

In closing, a look ahead:

The setting and the cast have been determined, and I have a month worth of strips written. But I want to have everything figured out before I put anything up.

The plan was to make the new cast all-human, but after I posted that on twitter I got a couple of reactions saying that the talking animals were, quote, “awesome sauce”.

I’ll keep you updated.

I’ll fill you in on those projects soon. One is for school and one is a little pet project that will hopefully be in print later this year. I’ve never really printed anything, so this is making me have to consider all sorts of things that I never had to think about, like page margins and having clearly legible fonts at any size. Very interesting.

The online video service Ustream has been catching on like wildfire in the webcomics community recently, so I’ve decided to try my hand at streaming the creation of my comic aswell. If you’re interested in watching me draw Dinerdate or whatever else I’m working on at the time, you can look me up at Ustream.tv.

I’ll post here, aswell as on my twitter, when I broadcast.

Keep an eye out.

I’ve been working my way through HTMW, and so far I hadn’t really read anything too new (just a lot of confirmation that I’ve been doing things right), until I got to Dave‘s chapter on Interacting with your audience. I don’t know if it had to do with the fact that I’ve been a bit of a superfan myself the past few weeks about another artist that I’ve mentioned previously (I met her! I met her! I met her!), but what Dave said really clicked with me.

He talks about the notion that what you represent in your work represents what kind of fans you’ll get. He says:

“The readership you build up over time will be a reflection of the work and the words and the sentiments you put out there. And after a few years of filtering out this type of reader and that type of reader, you inevitably end up with a reader that reflects your basic personality.”

That little nugget of wisdom really opened my eyes! He goes on to comment:

“Think about that next time you’re tempted to say “my readers are lazy” or “they don’t support me”. Are they a reflection of you?”

I’m inclined to say yes, haha!

So I’m going to put together some ideas to stimulate readers a little more, and I’ve recently become involved with a small group of very talented and passionate artists aswell. This is really the next step.

update:
Starting with the return of the advertising and linking page!
update 2:
And a new, easy to use, no-nonsense forum!

This is all about how to take your webcomic to the next level, so I can’t wait to start reading! Looks really good so far. This will surely reinvigorate my motivation. I’ve got a few other comic projects lined up, and I’ve been listening to the Art and Story podcast which offers some very concise advice and insights on the whole process of putting together a comic too.

Finished making a 12 second animation for a college assignment aswell yesterday, you can check that out here.

So good stuff all around.

And as you may have read, the update schedule changed to Monday and Thursday. I’m enjoying drawing the strip completely digitally with my tablet, but I’ll need the time to do so, so I’m going to try to have the weekly strips done in the weekend so I won’t have to rush it at the last minute.

Traffic also seems to be increasing again. There’s about 1500 people a month coming through here now, and my ranking on TWCL has gone up too. So thanks to everyone for dropping by, I hope you enjoy the comic and continue to do so! I certainly enjoy making it (most of the time ). Spread the word!

I DID plan out the storyline for the next month however. It came surprisingly easy once I sat down. And I think it’s pretty good stuff. It’s a bit of a direction I haven’t explored yet with DD, although Vendetta touched on it a little. For that, I AM excited.

It’s easy to get into a rut. I actually avoid doing one-shot gags nowadays because I find it a lot easier to write from inside a storyline — where the topic is self-propelling and I don’t need to come up with a new scenario each day.

-Kris Straub

I totally agree.

“The kickoff of the Dinerdate Vendetta storyline. This is gonna be a pretty long one.”

Wow.

I knew the Vendetta storyline was long, but I didn’t remember it was thát long!

Dinerdate is now completely powered by WordPress and Comicpress. The comic is front and center in the new design. In addition to that there are a bunch of new ways to enjoy Dinerdate:

• -If you register, you can enjoy email notifications when a new comic is posted.
• -Or if you prefer an rss feed, that’s possible too!
• -It is now possible to conveniently browse through the archive and search for posts or tags.
• -The commenting system has been improved. Now with Gravatar support!
• -See something you like? Why not share it right away on your social network of choice with ShareThis!
• -Many new and exciting features yet to come.

And another thing while we’re at it, the release dates will move to Monday and Wednesday. Over the last few weeks, the Sunday comic has often slipped to monday, so it makes more sense to move it permanently. Now you have something to look forward to on that dreaded monday morning.

I think that about covers it. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think!