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Jolson & Jones - The state of it!
5 years ago
I drew the last pages of my comic in late 2018 (November? I think?) and then work on "Jolson & Jones" came to a screeching halt. Whoops.
There are a couple of reasons why it happened. The work on "Pico" isn't entirely to blame here, although it played a large part in it. Even though the "Dave & Terrence" stories in the magazines are relatively short, they somehow take longer to do overall, possibly because of the start/stop nature. There isn't a flow in it like with the comic about the wolves where I could go straight from page to page. Here I am forced to take breaks so I can edit the books, as well as cut and staple every copy. And once an issue is done, I usually have to start working on the next one right away. In the meantime, I made it a point to finally finally finally finish the work on the second chapter for "The King's Dragons", which was overdue years ago. Overall, I gave myself very little time to even waste a thought on "Jolson & Jones". At least thoughts that were tied to actively working on it.
On the other hand, I must admit that there are sections in the comic that, with the increasing passing of time, really rub me the wrong way and just seem like very stupid (if not even bad) takes on a topic. I tried to "course-correct" them later on and reuploaded pages with revised dialogue sections to make them a little less "Eh.", but the result still wasn't anything that I was particularly proud of. Here's a lesson. folks! No matter how much you cut around the edges, the tone will remain the same! And since these sections in question were important for the comic's storyline and mythology, they were impossible to dispose of without making of the comic incomprehensible in the long run. Basically, the thought of them being out in the wild for everyone to discover phyisically hurt me.
Also there was the issue of where the themes and storylines were heading towards. I had most of them mapped out in my head years ago, and thus had set them all up across the first 90 pages or so - and then, you know, Trump happened. And a lot of things that seemed funny to me at the time suddenly weren't funny anymore, because they did indeed become reality, or at the very least threatening to become one. Continuing down that path would have really bummed me out, and probably would have taken a toll on my sanity.
(And then there was the instance of topical jokes. Boy, did some of them date quickly. Sometimes they did before the page in question was out, I kid you not. Here's my recommendation: Never make a comic with commentary on the topics of the day. It becomes incomprehensible to everyone in at least five years time, if not even earlier.)
So what followed was that I, some time in 2019, I simply took the site offline and removed the links to it on basically all of my accounts, basically burying it.
But soon I had to discover that this action bothered me quite a bit in the long run. It occupied a large chunk of the "unfinished business"-part of my brain. The thing wasn't just that I aborted the comic while it was right in the middle of a long ongoing storyline, there were also many jokes and events that I had set up that never were allowed to see a payoff. This was something that increasingly clouded my mind and distracted me whenever I was working on something else - and/or something new. I was mentally unable to move on. The few stray Jolson & Jones single strips that I put up here (removed from the continuity of the big story) sure were my methadone - but still they couldn't replace the real thing.
So dang it, whatever, I'm giving in after all - and finish the darn thing.
However!
I decided to cut the last third of the initially planned story that would have included lots of material that would only have depressed me. So instead of ending it on page #300something, I will be doing it now on #200something, providing an ending that is far more positive and much less cynical than the original one. Luckily it's something that the story can get away with without looking "false", because all the seeds for that new ending are already there. Heh. Clever Kaoru! It's almost as if you know what would happen... (Even though you really didn't.)
So there! The comic's site will finally be back online - and new pages will come.... soon...ish. Because, here's the thing. I am still working on "Pico" after all, and that magazine won't go anywhere anytime soon, so I can't devote my whole free time to do the last 60 to 70 Jolson & Jones pages even if I wanted to. Meaning, I'll be creating a fair amount of backlog until I begin to release them. I really don't want to have big breaks between pages again as it used to be the case in 2017 and 2018. I'd rather have an uninterrupted run as much as possible.
Nevertheless, if you are curious and really can't wait to see how things continue, I'll be putting them up on my Patreon whenever they're finished. And don't worry, I'm cheap. You can see them for as much as a Dollar per month. ;) (As well as all the Dave & Terrence stories that, so far, can only be read in print.) The link to it is on my profile.
Anyway, that would be it! The last word on "Jolson & Jones" wasn't spoken after all! Who would have thought?
There are a couple of reasons why it happened. The work on "Pico" isn't entirely to blame here, although it played a large part in it. Even though the "Dave & Terrence" stories in the magazines are relatively short, they somehow take longer to do overall, possibly because of the start/stop nature. There isn't a flow in it like with the comic about the wolves where I could go straight from page to page. Here I am forced to take breaks so I can edit the books, as well as cut and staple every copy. And once an issue is done, I usually have to start working on the next one right away. In the meantime, I made it a point to finally finally finally finish the work on the second chapter for "The King's Dragons", which was overdue years ago. Overall, I gave myself very little time to even waste a thought on "Jolson & Jones". At least thoughts that were tied to actively working on it.
On the other hand, I must admit that there are sections in the comic that, with the increasing passing of time, really rub me the wrong way and just seem like very stupid (if not even bad) takes on a topic. I tried to "course-correct" them later on and reuploaded pages with revised dialogue sections to make them a little less "Eh.", but the result still wasn't anything that I was particularly proud of. Here's a lesson. folks! No matter how much you cut around the edges, the tone will remain the same! And since these sections in question were important for the comic's storyline and mythology, they were impossible to dispose of without making of the comic incomprehensible in the long run. Basically, the thought of them being out in the wild for everyone to discover phyisically hurt me.
Also there was the issue of where the themes and storylines were heading towards. I had most of them mapped out in my head years ago, and thus had set them all up across the first 90 pages or so - and then, you know, Trump happened. And a lot of things that seemed funny to me at the time suddenly weren't funny anymore, because they did indeed become reality, or at the very least threatening to become one. Continuing down that path would have really bummed me out, and probably would have taken a toll on my sanity.
(And then there was the instance of topical jokes. Boy, did some of them date quickly. Sometimes they did before the page in question was out, I kid you not. Here's my recommendation: Never make a comic with commentary on the topics of the day. It becomes incomprehensible to everyone in at least five years time, if not even earlier.)
So what followed was that I, some time in 2019, I simply took the site offline and removed the links to it on basically all of my accounts, basically burying it.
But soon I had to discover that this action bothered me quite a bit in the long run. It occupied a large chunk of the "unfinished business"-part of my brain. The thing wasn't just that I aborted the comic while it was right in the middle of a long ongoing storyline, there were also many jokes and events that I had set up that never were allowed to see a payoff. This was something that increasingly clouded my mind and distracted me whenever I was working on something else - and/or something new. I was mentally unable to move on. The few stray Jolson & Jones single strips that I put up here (removed from the continuity of the big story) sure were my methadone - but still they couldn't replace the real thing.
So dang it, whatever, I'm giving in after all - and finish the darn thing.
However!
I decided to cut the last third of the initially planned story that would have included lots of material that would only have depressed me. So instead of ending it on page #300something, I will be doing it now on #200something, providing an ending that is far more positive and much less cynical than the original one. Luckily it's something that the story can get away with without looking "false", because all the seeds for that new ending are already there. Heh. Clever Kaoru! It's almost as if you know what would happen... (Even though you really didn't.)
So there! The comic's site will finally be back online - and new pages will come.... soon...ish. Because, here's the thing. I am still working on "Pico" after all, and that magazine won't go anywhere anytime soon, so I can't devote my whole free time to do the last 60 to 70 Jolson & Jones pages even if I wanted to. Meaning, I'll be creating a fair amount of backlog until I begin to release them. I really don't want to have big breaks between pages again as it used to be the case in 2017 and 2018. I'd rather have an uninterrupted run as much as possible.
Nevertheless, if you are curious and really can't wait to see how things continue, I'll be putting them up on my Patreon whenever they're finished. And don't worry, I'm cheap. You can see them for as much as a Dollar per month. ;) (As well as all the Dave & Terrence stories that, so far, can only be read in print.) The link to it is on my profile.
Anyway, that would be it! The last word on "Jolson & Jones" wasn't spoken after all! Who would have thought?
...now that you mention that, I could notice the Trump stuff in your comics, what wi the parodies of Milo and Marie le Pen. Jolson and Jones being a stealth satire was omething that I did not ice.
...then again, that is an easy task to me.
Myself, I know that problem. Though I have a problem with actually finishing stuff, they always occupy my mind...
...including commenting on this comic.