There’s been a lot going on since my last blog post, most of it positive.
I have established a routine for the “Remastering.” Alternate open fonts have been selected and as I repost older strips I am outputting them at higher resolution. I also committed to regenerating an older strip at the same time that I repost a newer one, so that the remastery would proceed slowly at both ends of the story. (This bogged down at strip 22 for technical reasons, but I hope to resume it soon.) I am also taking the opportunity to correct old mistakes and try to put the earlier strips into a better arrangement for being published in print format.
After several experiments, I decided not to move to SVG, but to use PNG and upgrade the resolution to 1200 pixels across. This shows as 800 in the site layout but you can see the full resolution by opening the image in a new tab. I am also adding transcripts to each comic. These are for general accessibility, but if you are confused by what I was getting at in any strip in particular, the transcript may also offer clues to what I was thinking. : )
I mentioned three projects that I needed to accomplish to get the story back on track. The first one was to complete the Kollen set artwork so I could rework a significant section of the story; this is now done. The next project is the completion of the Station set where Aun and Chax are going next. The third is for an upcoming destination that will be revealed later.
About twelve years ago, I had run into some trouble in producing the story graphically and I got around this by writing a number of text entries. This did keep things going but I always regarded these entries as a hack that I needed to update and correct. All the text entries are now converted into proper comic pages and the story is now ready for me to continue it from the point where I left off.
To do this without losing the old comment history, I wound up inserting and integrating the new pages with the older pages by using older timestamps on the new material. This has the side effect of making it seem that the comic is not currently updating, but I am almost at the end of the interwoven old and new material that I have to repost and this issue will soon be resolved.
This is where I stand on the cusp of a new year. To new readers, welcome, and to old readers returning, I’m really pleased to see you again. I wish you all the best. I am ready now to tell this tale until its end.