Ask me something

[rcmonroe]

Thank you, SAGG. No, I haven't considered pitching it to a studio. I consider myself a cartoonist, not a script writer. Of course if someone were to approach me with a pile of money, I might look into it.

[diddledop]

Just curious - how many languages is your strip translated into on a daily basis?

[SAGG]

Okay, then, how about approaching somebody about a short piece of animation about your comic? I've seen other webcomics resort to this.

[rcmonroe]

Just curious - how many languages is your strip translated into on a daily basis?

Ingl

[SAGG]

Thanks for answering that question. Here's some new ones: Why does Miriam's hair look like it could be blonde, for some reason? It seems difficult for me to envision it as red, as opposed to Sherry's, since her hair is dark, which I could easily see as red in color. Was there a reason you portrayed it like that? By the way, what color is Sherry's hair?

[SAGG]

Just curious - how many languages is your strip translated into on a daily basis?

Ingl

[rcmonroe]

[quote="SAGG"][quote="rcmonroe"]Ingl

[SAGG]

Thanks yet again for your answers. I have one more question to pester you (for now ): What does "Out There" mean? I'm thinking it refers to Miriam's somewhat unstable personality (as in "way out there"), or perhaps the distance she's travelled to start a new life going west to east. Interestingly, as an east coast guy, I've thought of the west as "out there", as opposed to the other way around...

[SAGG]

Well, I think I've answered one of my newest questions. (No offense):

http://outtherecomic.com/d/20060901.html

[rcmonroe]

As you guessed, "Out There" basically refers to Miriam being a bit "out there" and also to the setting (the open road) of the early strips, which as you can see, we return to now and again.

I'm from the West Coast, but I don't think of the East Coast as being "out there" as much as I think of everything in between the coasts being "out there." On the other hand, sometimes I can walk out my front door and look across the street and it seems like it's "out there."

[KAM]

So how long has the orange been gone? I just noticed it's now brown.

[rcmonroe]

Been about a week.

[KAM]

Okay. Guess I didn't notice earlier because of lack of sleep.

Looks nice.

[rcmonroe]

Thank you. Get some sleep.

[KAM]

I have. I just had a screwed up schedule for a while there.

[diddledop]

When will you start selling T-shirts?

[rcmonroe]

I dunno, probably not real soon. Some webcomics people have done pretty well selling T-shirts, but generally the T-shirts have little or nothing to do with their comic strips; they're usually just funny/hip sayings or plays on words, or parodies of pop culture. I have no interest in doing that. I like to think that I would never produce something that I myself wouldn't want to buy. (I have nothing against those kinds of T-shirts, by the way, I just wouldn't be interested in owning one, hence I have no interest in producing one either).

If the strip was really popular, I could see making shirts, I'd just want them to be about the comic strip, promoting the comic strip in some way. I don't think at this point I'd be able to sell enough of them to make it worth my while. If Keenspot approached me and said, "the world desperately needs a Miriam T-shirt" I'd say go ahead and make one, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

[biev]

I always wonder, would anyone actually wear a plain white or grey t-shirt with a comic character in the front? I mean, that's like... joining the same rank as the wolf and dog breed shirts, isn't it? You know what I'm talking about, right?

Come to think of it, have you ever seen somebody wear a wolf shirt? Why do tourist shops even sell those anymore? Do people buy it as souvenirs for people they hate? o.O

[rcmonroe]

If somebody suggests I draw Miriam as a wolf I'm quitting this whole thing right now.

[diddledop]

Thank you. Please please please - add a wolf woman to your strip. Please. I'm begging you to. I'm serious - that's what I've been waiting for but didn't realize it.

Think about it seriously for a moment. You always hear about the "Wolf-Man," but never about the "Wolf-Woman." Why not fill that void?

(Could you also throw in Big Foot? *He could be her boyfriend!")

Please! You will have massive global success if you do this. I am not kidding!!

[Carlos]

C'mon, you already asked for a zombie, and he put in Chuck. That should be enough.

[rcmonroe]

Thanks for having my back, Carlos.

[SAGG]

Hello, it's me again. Out of curiosity, how far ahead do you write and draw your comic, R.C.? With all due respect to any other webcomic artists who might be reading this, and nothing against them, (really, since they have Real Life Personal Stuff to deal with on occasion) you seem to be on the ball in providing updates, which is beyond incredible! Where do you get the time?!

[rcmonroe]

On average, I'm about six weeks ahead on drawing the strips. But I'm not consistent about it, because things happen. A few months ago I was eight weeks ahead, a month ago I had fallen back to four weeks ahead, now I'm back up to six weeks, and I'm trying to get back to eight.

As far as writing goes, it varies wildly too. Sometimes I have to scramble to get strips written so I'll have something to draw, other times I'm well ahead on the writing. Right now I have a pretty good jump on the writing end.

Providing a strip six days a week without fail is a very high priority for me, and I budget my time so that I maintain a sizeable buffer and am never in any danger of missing an update.

People who don't have a buffer are basically conceding that they're occasionally going to miss updates. The unexpected happens; there's nothing you can do about it. But since all but a small handful of webcartoonists don't make a living doing their comics, readers are generally forgiving about it, and missed updates are seen as part of the deal. I understand that, and I don't begrudge anyone for missing updates.

[rcmonroe]

But I do think if that if you're dedicated to maintaining a consistent update schedule, you can do it. All it takes is a reasonable assessment of how often you're able to update, and the determination to set aside enough time for it. You have to make your comic a priority.

(The above was supposed to be part of the previous post, but I kept getting a "permission denied" message when I hit "submit" , so I had to split it into two posts. Ah, the joys of the Internet.)