#79, and a Convention Pamphlet Contest!

[insert obligatory link to the comic here]

Who wants to have a hand in crafting this year's convention pamphlet?

Hang on, what convention pamphlet? In previous years I've done several leaflets, which then get passed around at some of the various conventions I go to. Prior to now they've just been an easy way to show off my artistic skills, but since it's still a little early to start making huge books...

For quick examples, check out the bonus section. The one you'll be helping me with looks most like the four-by-four special!

Since we're nearing the end of the current storyline and I'm sure an awful lot of you have been itching to get some answers, I'm going to do the simplest thing I can think of and give you some. Specifically, for the week between the end of this storyline and the start of the new one, there's going to be daily updates of the bonus comic variety, where you can write to the contestants (and perhaps certain other characters) on the comic and hopefully get some useful responses back.

Yes, that's six special updates to help pad things out. I'm expecting at least 4-6 of those will consist of our contestants answering your questions . . .

. . . but of course, they can only answer them if you provide them.

Ways to Enter Your Questions:

1. On the Forums! If there's not a Contest Thread already started by the time you get there, go ahead and make one.
   
2. Email Me! No, seriously, this works. Just don't ask me anything regarding \/1@GR@ and you should escape the spam filters.
3. Blog Comments! Well, this IS a contest post, so it'll hold onto them just fine. If you choose this route though, please provide a way for me to contact you later in case I need your mailing address (see below)
   
4. Twitter! If you're going to go this route, PLEASE reply (so it starts with '@lastres0rt') or Direct Message so it doesn't get lost in the feed.
   

Winners not only get their questions answered, but they'll also receive a free copy of the otherwise print-exclusive pamphlet once they've been printed up as a token of my appreciation.

Non-winners can still get the pamphlet mailed to them as well, but they'll just have to pay a little cash for their copies in a quaint ritual known as "retail". :-p

Not all questions will be answered, obviously; some might take too long for a simple strip, others might spoil the plot, and a few might even just not be good questions . . . so the more entries I receive, the better the bonuses (both in terms of the strips themselves AND the final pamphlets) will be. Heck, the print version might even be in color if enough people enter -- let's say 50 entries total to guarantee print color.

Fame, fortune, and fandom-snark awaits! Enter today!

BONUS UPDATE - #76 up! (Oh, and Would You Kindly...)

So something's up, all right...

While I plan on having plenty of time to work on the comic, I want to make sure that everyone who reads the comic gets something worthwhile for their efforts... Thus, I'm asking you outright what you'd like to see.

You're welcome to suggest anything you can think of (no guarantees that it's doable, though...) but here are some ideas I've been kicking around lately;

• A "Encyclopedia Galactica" section of the site to help fill in some of the story gaps and little details that it'll just take too dang long to get to if I wait around to get them written in.
• New wallpapers (as donation incentives or otherwise)
• New Last Resort merchandise / commissionable items (Difficulty level - No t-shirts!)
  
• Faster Updates (this is my default, but be warned, I'd rather be on time once a week than falling behind with twice a week, so this won't be happening for a while if it's even possible.)

Comment below with suggestions. Oh, and worth note; this isn't a vote, but if enough people speak up... well, I know when to take a hint!

The After-Convention "Time to Work Again" List

MomoCon and Outerz0ne both went exceedingly well, so I'm about where I ought to be. The nearest conventions to even worry about won't be for a while yet . . . which means it's time to get back to freaking work, or at least what semblance of work I can accomplish while I get back to my freaking schoolwork.

To give you an idea of what I have to "do" (or more precisely, what I delayed in favor of focusing on the past two conventions), here's a short list:

• New links page with links to all those great comic folks I've been delaying linking back to (which includes Pearls of Mer, Suicide for Hire, the fellow whose name/site I can't quite remember except that he drew a caricature of me pre-haircut at the MomoCon Webcomics Forum Panel . . . and of course DMFA, heh)
  
• New ads and link banners to go on that links page, as well as to replace the ads currently sitting around on Project Wonderful because quite frankly some of those have been on PW since Dragon*Con and I'd like to update what I'm doing.
• Order new swag - MomoCon cleaned me out! While this certainly isn't a bad situation to be in, short of making lots of random merchandise I'm not going to get very far without ordering a few new things. And as long as I'm reordering stuff, that gives me time to think up new ideas...
  
• Finish those two commissions - Okay, at least one of them should give me a huge boost once I finish it, but in the meantime that still means it needs to get done... and that means more work to finish before I get too far ahead of myself again. (then again, it's not like my buffer is going to last too far into the summer if I keep giving y'all bonus updates...) At least the freebies have been completed, so that much is good. :)
  
• More cast pictures! I've got this great image of Quinn in my head that needs to put to paper, not to mention a few other cast photos I'm interested in drawing. Plus, if I don't get to drawing more of that soon, it's going to look like an unfinished section of the site as opposed to an in-progress one.
  
• Redesigning the Blog of Last Resort. It's not bad, I just think it could be tightened significantly. This is a lower priority only because it's just improving it and not adding anything new per se, but as the saying goes, "The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it's still on the list."
• Start considering some dead tree versions of the comic. This is another "back of the head" priority because I don't want to start getting visions of publishers in my head until I at least hit 80-100 pages on the website (which isn't going to happen until midsummer at the earliest) but at the same time I want to gauge what I need and more importantly who In want to do this. My instinct says to delay the first book or so as long as I can, but the number of folks asking if I had printed versions is making me wonder otherwise.
  

The list has shades of my rather haphazard list of 2008 resolutions, but unlike that list I have a better idea of what I'm after. And yes, this isn't a complete list, just the ones that stick out as stuff I ought to be working on.

This said... as far as cast pictures go, I need to decide who else deserves to have their pictures done next. Alice is a given, while Jason & White have already had their pictures completed, but not posted, but that's only three, and I'd like to update them four at a time. Any suggestions as to who the fourth player featured ought to be? Comments are always open...