Hey people, how's it hanging? Aside from a regular reminder that my comic isn't cancelled but simply on a long hiatus until I get my schoolwork back in order, I figured it'd be a good idea to add a little journal to discuss stuff;

For those wondering when and if I'll ever pick up the comic again, I can say with some certainty that I'm planning on starting it up at a regular tempo around the summer vacation, and by that time I should have rid myself of most tedious or time consuming tasks on the side, allowing me for extra focus without too many worries.

On another note, as some may or may not know, most of the earliest comics I've done were made without anything resembling a script at all, I just winged it and decided to just see where I could go with it; as I really had to write a comic for a while before I could really tell what I wanted to do with it.

Over the course of the first months of aptGG I came to a few conclusions:

1. Becoming a noticeable respectable "pixelart" comic, which was my first plan was surprisingly easy, when I first decided I wanted to do an actual pixelart comic I decided that my ambition should reach up to A Modest Destiny [my favourite pixelart comic] and not far beyond that, before my first concrete style change I slunked into a bit of a depression as I found my self-imposed goal almost too easy to obtain.

I gave myself a goal that I didn't only expect to obtain, but could obtain fairly easily, at least in my own eyes, AMD, although a perfectly good comic in it's own regard, worked more because it was one of the first to do it right, iconic in it's design and above all, good as an actual comic; (In some ways better than mine, in some ways worse, I'm sure).

I realised that I don't just want my comic to be noticeable and recognised as one of the better webcomics in terms of the pixelart section, which lacks real quality artists going all out, but in the webcomic section in general; This is a goal I set out for the future, and it's the big reason I suddenly went from quick semi-sloppy CG backgrounds to elaborate/detailed pixelart backgrounds.

But there's more;

2.

What I realised above my desire to really be a good artist, is my desire to not just tell a story, but tell a good story, not one that simply emulates a typical genre like fantasy and lifts on the familiar tropes, but something that's unique in it's own right, a world of it's own and engaging on several fronts.

I've made "basic" webcomics before that I never actively released to the public eye, and most of them were just typical fantasy stories with rather shonen-like "fight fight fight" stories, I was afraid of humour as I had no idea what to do with punchlines, I wasn't even thinking of more "advanced" genres like mystery or romance.

AptGG in a way started as a type of experiment, I just took the premise of three heroes and ran with it, surprising myself by somehow giving all three stories extremely different tastes in their own right, as I realised that if I amde all three too similar in base design, they'd be too easy to divide into "best, worse, worst."

The things I've realised over doing more than 200 pages in this general set-up is:

1. The stories, in some way, are still too similar; I've kind of given Noah the mystery type of appeal, Burk is more humorous/action based and Tobi is ..well, she's Tobi;

But thinking about it, I've written all three of them roughly the same way, and although I kept true to some basic aspects of the genre they "represent", I do realise that after just winging it for quite a while, all three of them are have been a "trial version" to what their comics could really be so far.

When I start my comic back up, aside from hoping to improve it art-wise, I've really gotten to the point in time where I realise that I don't just "want to do a comic"; but I honestly want to tell a story, I've been thinking long and hard about where to go with this, and I really hope that by the time I return from my hiatus I've really reworked what I honestly want to tell with each of the three stories, with each of the three protagonists.

Either way, I had a sudden urge to type all of this, pardon if anything sounds conceited, contradicting or in any other way strange, but I figured it'd be good to let it out.

For anyone interested in any sort of discussion, although the comic's still on hiatus, I still check the forums from time to time, so any advice, ideas or general feedback on what you liked most for each story, post it there.

Kind regards and wishes of Peace,
Guido Bos