Daniel Of The Boustrophedonical Perspective ([info]maboo) wrote,
2003-08-13 04:57:00
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Goodbye Blotto Street

Whatever happens, I will NOT be carrying on with my comic when I go on to Winchester. Had things gone according to plan, it would have ended naturally and formally a month from now.

Instead, it ends today. Just as soon as I have finished writing up how this storyline ends, and putting together a "The End" image.


I'm sorry. It stopped being fun over a year ago. In fact, it stopped being fun when my scanner gave up the ghost. Occasionally, inspiration struck, and for a few wonderful days, I enjoyed creating with the mouse.

But then it became an ordeal. I struggled to regain the joy I felt, the pleasure in writing the stories, the sheer enjoyment in whooshing my pen across paper, and then slapping it in the scanner, instead of laboriously and uninspiringly redrawing the same black lines with my mouse again and again.

I really thought I could bring it back. But my scanner still shows no sign of being restored.

And when something stops being fun, it's got to stop - I need release. When I get an operational scanner again, I shall definitely do random drawings and cool stuff. But an online comic? Probably not. We will see however, I'm not full out denying that I'll ever do one ever again.

But this is driving me mad. The strain of thinking "I have a responsibility." The knowledge that what I'm doing simply isn't the best I could do. I can't handle putting out something second-rate. I don't enjoy this any more. I hardly ever hear from my readers. I have no presence in the webcomic community any more. I don't even believe in the webcomic community any more. I'm demoralised and pretty much disillusioned, and I only wanted to do something that was fun and not to be taken seriously. But Fate obviously doesn't want me to do this.

Or is it coincidence that the Blotto Street years have coincided with a TON of major life-suckage, including some pretty serious illness, and a rough time at University? I don't have nice associations with the comic. It kept me sane and gave me life focus during a time when I REALLY needed it. But now it has become like a crutch - something I don't need any more, which no longer gives me what I need to function, but which I have become emotionally dependent on in the sense that it is seriously inhibiting my ability to enjoy what's going on in my life right now. It is giving me guilt trips, and wearing me down.

That's why I need to stop doing it, formally, officially. To draw a line and say:

"Right. That's it. Thank you for reading. I appreciate all your support over the last three years. I hope to see many of you around and to cross paths with you in the future on a purely friendly basis.

At some point in the future, maybe I shall once again draw a bewildered spiky-haired boy and a blonde girl with a bolshie Siamese cat. I hope that some of you will be here when that happens again.

Goodbye, friends.

Daniel, aka Maboo"

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[info]the_kiggy

August 12 2003, 21:02:00 UTC 8 years ago

* I have been rendered speechless*

God, how I will miss Myra (unless I make an online shrine to her)

This hurts more than Dina's death on It's Walky....

[info]jesidres

August 12 2003, 21:07:16 UTC 8 years ago

I am both understanding and saddened by this development, but am glad you at least have the courage to explain.

Does this mean I still get to huggle you on occasion? because you are just so spiffy, drawing or not. May the next adventure be as fun as when you first began.

[info]maboo

August 14 2003, 19:48:31 UTC 8 years ago

Of course it does. Huggles are always welcome.

And I won't stop drawing. :) I can promise that.

[info]malver

August 12 2003, 21:37:01 UTC 8 years ago

And those are the best reasons for starting, for continuing, and for stopping. Hope to be there if you do take it up again, too.

[info]satyrix

August 12 2003, 21:40:26 UTC 8 years ago

...

Thank you. For creating that place, and for sharing it with us.

[info]vianegativa

August 12 2003, 21:44:43 UTC 8 years ago

Stories End, and the best of those do so naturally by their creator. It's good you're not confusing craft with duty and really mucking up a good tale.

[info]filmbuff

August 12 2003, 22:29:19 UTC 8 years ago

Still gonna read the archives on occasion. And still glad I found the strip and its creator.

I hope you find a creative outlet that brings you half as much joy as you have brought your readers.

[info]wulfsbane

August 12 2003, 22:34:56 UTC 8 years ago

you could always do guest strips. Those can be very fun. :)

*huggles the cute mab*

[info]theblackcupid

August 12 2003, 22:46:40 UTC 8 years ago

It was wonderful. *hugs*

[info]kitsune76

August 13 2003, 00:01:34 UTC 8 years ago

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I totally understand though hon, although I always lie to myself and say C.Ulture hocked will be ressurrected one day. And maybe it will, because I love those characters so much...

[info]maboo

August 14 2003, 19:43:42 UTC 8 years ago

I love them too.... yours, and mine.

Francis and Myra and Letty and Nimbus and Bea will never really leave me. And oddly, some of the original "supporting" characters created especially for the Blottiverse will stick around too, I think...

[info]himi

August 13 2003, 00:49:59 UTC 8 years ago

It was good . . .

. . . but if you aren't enjoying it, then you should definitely stop.

Don't drive yourself insane just because other people want you to do something.

Good luck finding other ways to enjoy yourself!

himi

[info]govindaduck

August 13 2003, 01:17:02 UTC 8 years ago

Absolutely right. Drawing shouldn't be a chore. You weren't getting paid to draw Blotto Street, you presumably started it because you wanted to do it. You don't owe people that chunk of your time and energy, and if it's bringing you down, stop.

It'll be sad to see it go, but there's no point making yourself miserable just for the sake of it.

[info]maboo

August 14 2003, 19:40:26 UTC 8 years ago

Also - please don't feel responsible in any way. Your post just made me realise what I had been trying to deny for a long time. I'd been trying to answer comic-related rants or debates, but had been shrugging off my lack to formulate decent answers as merely a sign that I was "out of touch with the communities". And then I found myself trying to defend my comic, and I realised that I couldn't even do that - my creation wasn't inspiring paternal defensiveness. I had actually ceased to care.

I don't plan to stop drawing though. Or creating.

[info]govindaduck

8 years ago

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[info]damonk13

August 13 2003, 03:09:54 UTC 8 years ago

Bummer.

But understandable, Daniel.

I hope that the comics bug bites you again in the future, though. Somehow, I suspect that this may not be the last time we see sequential art from you.

In the meantime, please enjoy yourself and the life around you.

(oh, and as a small goodbye token, I've been told that the doll would be sent in the post toda, so you shold be receiving it soon)

[info]maboo

August 14 2003, 19:34:32 UTC 8 years ago

I won't promise anything, but you're probably not far wrong, Frank. :)

I don't know where or how, but I certainly don't plan to stop drawing.

[info]the_phred

August 13 2003, 04:11:16 UTC 8 years ago

I have to admit, I haven't even seen it since it restarted: Keen consistently refused to show me the image to the point where I just gave up.

I hope, one day, I'll be able to read it again...

[info]drbombay

August 13 2003, 08:34:07 UTC 8 years ago

Tegan: 'My aunt Vanessa said, when I became an air stewardess, if you stop enjoying it, give it up.'
Doctor: 'Tegan.'
Tegan: 'It's stopped being fun, Doctor.'

Here's to three years of fun, and knowing when it's time to move on.

[info]maboo

August 14 2003, 19:32:39 UTC 8 years ago

Thank you.

[info]luchito

August 13 2003, 14:21:30 UTC 8 years ago

Heh. It sucks when things have to end. But it's for the best.

*hugs* It was fun while it lasted.

[info]p_toadstool

August 13 2003, 21:00:42 UTC 8 years ago

Here's to new good times, Mab. It's still the best strip I've gotten my hands on. :)

[info]smilodon

August 14 2003, 07:58:40 UTC 8 years ago

You have to do what you have to do Mab. I really liked Blott street btw :) It was a very cool comic. Good Luck Mab.

Anonymous

August 14 2003, 10:49:39 UTC 8 years ago

Thanks for the good times!

Dang, I will miss it Mab. I hope to run into your work again some day. I think I will leave it in my bookmarks for a while though. I hope whatever you do you enjoy.

in the Dark

[info]looniewolf

August 14 2003, 11:41:32 UTC 8 years ago

No more Blotto?

Oh Mab... *sigh*

I know how you feel. Tangents became a chore. It still is, and it's been on hiatus and I insist on restarting it. And I've gone through three scanners, it's a bloody nuisance.

You don't need feel you have to do the strip.

I will miss you. I will miss your comic a lot. But mostly I will miss you. *sigh*

You take care of yourself. Pop onto #crfh from time to time, okay? Or on the forums. No need to read old stuff to get up to date, never saw why people would want to do that anyway.

Robert "Tangent" Howard

[info]maboo

August 14 2003, 19:30:55 UTC 8 years ago

Re: No more Blotto?

I'll see - I don't know if I'll ever feel part of the fanbases any more, but I hope to get back into reading comics for their own sake at some point in the future.

Trust me on this - when you reach the point where you can't defend your work - because you honestly don't feel anything - then you need to think seriously about what it's all about. And I should have done this a long time ago, instead of saying "oh, when I get the scanner back, it'll be terrific again."

[info]aeire

August 14 2003, 19:07:01 UTC 8 years ago

Y'know...I loved that strip. I really did. But not half as much as I enjoy hearing from it's creator and having him as a friend. So don't go dissapearing!

[info]maboo

August 14 2003, 19:26:25 UTC 8 years ago

Don't worry. I'll stick around. And I'll try and keep drawing and stuff. :)

However I realised recently that I could no longer defend my work - I didn't have the urge to FIGHT and ARGUE for its own sake, to say "look, I'm not doing crap". And that's when I realised that I had simply ceased to care. That, even though I loved my characters, I felt as if my energy was being drained dry by struggling to tell their story with very limiting resources.

While drawing with a mouse is excellent exercise for paring down your style and discovering the truly essential lines, it is also DAMN limiting... you may discover how to draw something in five lines, but ultimately, you wish you could have a REAL pen in your hand, not a hand-sized grey lump of plastic and lines that appear 18 inches away from your hand that is drawing. And pictures that you can hold, and look at, and place on a scanner. And click, and scan, and then edit them, knowing that your drawing has miraculously become pixels.

I learned a lot, from you, and from Maritza and Damonk and from many, many other webcartoonists, about how to draw, and got a lot of inspiration. I hope - no, I know that I still will.

And somewhere, there are three week's worth of drawings for short stories and some storyboarding for when I got my scanner back, and was going to start drawing properly, with pen and paper.

I don't plan on wasting those. So it's not really THE end. There is still SOME bonus material waiting to come out. I may well save it for "flashback" sequences in the Next Project - 'cos Frank and Myra and Bea and a couple of others aren't going to just disappear, now and forever, no way.

They'll be back. Don't know when and I don't know exactly how yet, but they'll be back.

Anonymous

August 17 2003, 19:07:07 UTC 8 years ago

Sorry to see it go, but I can understand how it had run its course with you. I was attracted to Blotto Street because of your absurd sense of humor, and was also touched by some of the more serious moments. Some of my favorites: when they all turned into animals and Frank had the goofy French accent, the Informant, Barbara Cartland, Tiger Tiger week, and Frank's confessional when he burned his papers. Thanks for sharing them; Blotto Street will not be forgotten. I wish you the best of success in all of your future endeavors.
Thanks again, Suzanne Ferrenberg.

Anonymous

September 10 2003, 14:45:12 UTC 8 years ago

A new reader finds the end

I just discovered Blotto Street a few days ago, and I knew from the beginning it was over. It took me the two days at work to read back over the archives, and now I am sorry it is over. So many unfulfilled plot threads, and characters that seemed so alive that I have grown to care about them... I hope, one day to see a glimpse, here or there of these characters again, but I do understand your reasons for stopping... I just wish I had discovered Blotto back in the days when I could have given you a little encouragement...

Sam

Anonymous

September 21 2003, 21:07:48 UTC 8 years ago

Thanks so much!

I've only found Blotto Street a few days ago and have really enjoyed it. I spent hours at a time reading (yes, I *am* a slow reader, thank you very much) and still have a ways to go. Looking forward to whatever you care to do next.
- Trevor

Anonymous

September 25 2003, 14:55:14 UTC 8 years ago

TTFN

Hi Daniel--

If I had known it was only the lack of a scanner, I would have packed mine up and shipped it off to you, if only so you could put the strip gently to bed. Thank you for the charm, the wit, and the wonderful cast of characters. Next time I am in a Happy Bar, I will raise my drink in toast to you and yours.

Some Random Yank
syntonica@yahoo.com

Anonymous

October 4 2003, 12:47:43 UTC 8 years ago

I can dig that.

Hey Maboo,

Sad to hear the news. I know exactly how you feel. Best wishes with whatever you aim to do now. Have fun, man!

Paul Roustan
untitled again
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