Category: Self Care

Me complaining about personal issues and inability to meet deadlines.

What a Short Strange Strip

Posted on December 25, 2023 by JJA

I’ve been away a long time, a reintroduction is in order.

This comic was the labor of my heart for a number of years, stretching between 2006 to 2014. There were a number of factors that led me to cease work on it, but from a storytelling perspective, the primary reason was that the plot was being sidetracked. I had a goal for the story that required certain things to happen, but I was not succeeding in getting these rendered and the work I needed to do so seemed daunting, and so I engaged instead in a certain amount of creative worldbuilding. This was fun but was not advancing the story where it needed to go. At a certain point, I felt I had written myself into a corner and was blocked on how best to continue, and once I stopped updating regularly my feelings of guilt and shame conspired to keep me from returning to it.

To give it the best chance of restarting successfully, I have rewound the story a bit while I consider the best path to take next. After almost ten years, it is a task akin to sifting through an archaeological site; when I stopped work on it I laid my tools down haphazardly and wandered off, and it is not always clear to my time-fogged brain what I intended to do with them. I still have all of the working files and notes I made, but they are a skeleton of what was going on in my mind at the time, and I need to do some work to reconstruct the flesh upon these bones.

I am also no longer the person I was ten years ago. I wish I had the ability to speak to him directly, not to tell him that everything would be all right (true in some ways but not others), but perhaps to give him some better way to face what he was going through, and help him to appreciate what he had while it still enriched his life.

For better or ill, I now take up his torch again. He had a power that I hope once more to make my own.

Botaram is returning.

2013 in Review…

Posted on February 13, 2014 by JJA

It wasn’t a very good year for me. I’ve been suffering the kind of health problem where it feels like you’re going to die, but it doesn’t actually kill you, and things have not gone nearly as well after the move as I’ve hoped.

Furthermore, I found that, at a time when my life seemed very bleak indeed, Botaram became bleak in my mind as well, to the point where I was seizing upon excuses not to work on it. I’ve found myself putting my creative effort into more trivial and light-hearted things, by way of escaping. Of course, one can only run from one’s dreams so far, if one is to retain any self-respect at all.

I am still working on improving my lot, but one way or another, I mean to return. I may have to back the story up a few pages should I find that I’ve hit a blind alley. To those who have been inquiring, I thank you for thinking of me. I will try not to disappoint you.

Further Progress

Posted on May 1, 2013 by JJA

The move is over, and I find myself hollowing pathways through a mass of cardboard boxes and trying to reassemble the positive parts of my former environment. I expect it to be a while longer before I have put a creative space back together, but when I do, Botaram will return.

To all who are still watching, thank you for not giving up.

Progress Report

Posted on March 11, 2013 by JJA

I’m in the middle of moving to a new apartment. I hope in the process to leave a bunch of problems behind and acquire not as many in exchange. Once I’m settled in and some of the stress is reduced, I expect to return to Botaram.

To all of my readers, thanks for your patience as I work through some troublesome times.

JJA

Feeling Aliver…

Posted on January 31, 2013 by JJA

I’ve been largely miserable for the past few months, but some things may be getting better now and not all was as bleak as I feared. Getting out into the fresh air helps a lot.

Since BiggerJ asked, I do have a Paypal account for donations, and there’s a yellow donate button at the bottom of each page. I’m not comfortable with the idea of asking for money at a time when I’m not producing any art, but if you’d like to show your support in this way, please feel free to do so. If you can’t stand Paypal, and many can’t, contact me via the email address in my profile (link also at page bottom) and we can work something else out.

I may not have to mention it, but kind words are always welcome. Thanks to all my readers for their encouraging comments, and to those who are still reading for sticking with me as I work some things out. Botaram will return.

[Also, some site functions (navigation button images and Archive script) are broken at the moment because one of my domains is down. This should be fixed soon.]