In readying the new site for launch, I want to eventually add a FAQ for the series. I realize it's still relatively young, but I wanted to poll you guys for any questions you want answered about the story, the characters, the process of drawing the pages, or whatever! I'll compile the questions into a list and answer as many of them as I can!

Just wanted to give you all a bit of a peek at the new site design I'm working on, and to get a bit of feedback before it gets finalized.

The biggest change is that, as the update schedule for the comic has become less frequent but more substantial, I'll be reducing the space on the homepage for the latest comic to just one or two panels and a link to the full page in the archive. The homepage will be primarily for actual News: updates to the comic, upcoming appearances, new merchandise in the store, etc.

Another change has to do with rearranging the advertising slots - getting rid of the square ads in favor of a larger leaderboard ad across the top, and having more skyscraper ads (not visible in the thumbnail). We'll see what happens with that.

So, I'm curious what problems anybody might see with this tiny thumbnail of a site design. Once I get the actual templates finished I'll see if I can find a way to let people preview it before making it live, just to drive it around the block and see how it purrs.

And here is the final colored version of the Sweet Peaches design! Click through for a larger version.

I'll have prints available for pre-order sometime in early July (need to wait until the bankruptcy is over and done with before I add any new merchandise to my inventory). I had more fun than I'd expected making this piece, and I'd like to try to do more similar work later this year, possibly as a seasonal thing. Who knows.

As promised, here are the completed inks for the upcoming Mucha-inspired "Sweet Peaches" print. Enjoy! And click through for a larger view.

I've been wanting to do some Ellie prints for a while now, and this design seemed as good a place as any to start. I'll post inks and finally colors when I get them done. In the meantime, I've got to finish coloring this page of Eye of the Vortex.

One thing I do have planned is a Reader's Page, which would act as a sort of letters column. Each month I'd take questions or comments from readers and I'd reply to some, and post them all for people to read. I'd also have a couple secondary things there, like wallpapers, coloring and activity pages, reader polls, that sort of thing. It'd be like a monthly newsletter, and all the previous ones would be archived as well. I think it's going to take a little longer than I'd expected to roll that out, though.

Above everything, though, my priority is the comic, and the extra stuff on the site will always be secondary to that. At any rate, I'm hoping to have the basic site revamp up and running next month, and will add the Reader's Page over the summer. What are your suggestions for the site redesign? What should I keep? What should I change, or add?

As part of the site redesign, I'll be adding a 'Fan Art' section for things like this, so feel free to send things my way! And thanks again to Greg & Davan for making it a great weekend for me!

If you're subscribed to the RSS or Email feeds, you should automatically get the full page in your feed. I've also gone back and reformatted all the previous comic updates to match this new format. The archive pages have also been redesigned to show a single page at a time.

I'm also doing away with the M-W-F update schedule, since I quite simply can't keep up with that kind of schedule doing full-page updates. I'll try for once-weekly updates, but will more likely be posting a new page every other week. I know it's disappointing, but that's where I'm at right now.

In the coming months I'll be rolling out a two-step site redesign for Ellie as well, which will focus a bit more on periodical content and regular page updates. Step one will be simply applying a facelift to the existing site, and removing extraneous pages. Step two will introduce the new monthly content and hopefully allow for better interaction here on the site. Keep an eye out!

Indy's Artcast
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