The official "What's up with Avalon?" thread

[LightPhoenix]

Josh, you can't finish Avalon. I was going to do it myself after I get finished with It's Walky!

Sorry David, but you're not allowed to finish It's Walky. In fact, it's going to be your eternal punishment.

[Animal]

Josh, you can't finish Avalon. I was going to do it myself after I get finished with It's Walky!

Which of the Avalon kids are abductees? (I've always wondered about Ceilidh and that kendo stick grab.)

[HavenTWaters]

Josh, you can't finish Avalon. I was going to do it myself after I get finished with It's Walky!

Which of the Avalon kids are abductees? (I've always wondered about Ceilidh and that kendo stick grab.)

Gotta be the kendo stick kid. Just don't see Ceilidh as an abductee for some reason.

[GrassyNoel]

Which of the Avalon kids are abductees? (I've always wondered about Ceilidh and that kendo stick grab.)

She'd be an abductor, I reckon.

[Davie daWeird]

The 18th is my birthday. Avalon would make a damn cool present.

[MarkusN]

Which of the Avalon kids are abductees? (I've always wondered about Ceilidh and that kendo stick grab.)

I dunno. Look at at the way Nancy is holding that stick back over her head. It doesn't take a lot of force to hold it in check from the back. That's why Nancy has to dive out from under the shinai to regain control.

[Kruador]

...Josh posts new strips ~2 days after Keenspot's front page is reorganised and Avalon gets moved into the 'on hiatus or ended' category.

Keep up the good work, Josh.

[GrassyNoel]

How do I join the livejournal community? I followed some links and it gave me a page saying 'Create a New Journal'. Didn't sound right, so I backed out. Anyway, is it free?

[Sideliner]

How do I join the livejournal community? I followed some links and it gave me a page saying 'Create a New Journal'. Didn't sound right, so I backed out. Anyway, is it free?

As I recall, the LiveJournals are accessible for commenting on journal entries, unless the owner has set up restrictions. The journal can be locked on a per-entry basis.

[Edited for factual error and OT ranting]

[Galvatron56]

I think that you have to be invited into the live journal community by another member. At least for it to be free....

Why would someone post their journal on-line, and then bitch when someone looked at it or commented on it?

[MarkusN]

How do I join the livejournal community? I followed some links and it gave me a page saying 'Create a New Journal'. Didn't sound right, so I backed out. Anyway, is it free?

As Galvatron said, after LiveJournal had started to grow madly and after some abuse, the invitation system was created. You have to be invited by an existing user. I could provide such an invitation if you want to join.

You can also buy a membership for 25$(US) a year. This will give you additional privileges and generally is understood as a statement to support the community (plus they have to pay that hardware, sevice and bandwidth somehow).

[Whackjob]

I know it's not going to happen, but I'm still hoping for Josh to give someone the go-ahead on a spinoff. (Pheobe, Joe, and Ceilidh all make the same university?)

[freelance civilian]

well i am pretty new to keenspot and an all-new avalon reader and i hope that josh manages to conclude avalon, as it has in my opinion an enticing storyline and very good art as well as character design.
still, i agree with most people on this board that the advancement of this strip is not worth risking the artist's well-being over it.

[Josh Phillips]

Time for an update, methinks...

I'm getting married in two weeks, and things have gotten very hectic in a very short amount of time. I won't be able to update Avalon again until after the honeymoon and all, which is at least 3 weeks. And then I have to move from Ottawa to Kingston. :-/

I never really had a chance to prepare for this kind of delay, since that would require drawing two or three strips per day for several weeks. However, Darth Paradox has just completed another installment of his Ryan and Deirdre guest series, so expect that shortly. Also, I might get some one-shot sketches and the like up once in a while.

Eventually, I hope to have this info on the front page for all to see.

JOSH.

[Marcos]

I'd been wondering what was up with the lack of updates. Glad to hear that it's not a lack of ideas or something.

[Josh Phillips]

I'd been wondering what was up with the lack of updates. Glad to hear that it's not a lack of ideas or something.

I never said that wasn't part of it. ;-) I *have* had a bit of writer's block anyway...

JOSH.

[Doctor Emmit Brown]

Time for an update, methinks...

I'm getting married in two weeks, and things have gotten very hectic in a very short amount of time. I won't be able to update Avalon again until after the honeymoon and all, which is at least 3 weeks. And then I have to move from Ottawa to Kingston. :-/

No worries!* Most of us here knew you were getting married soon, and were probably expecting you were going to take a bit of a break. I think this is a bit more improtant than some comic.

As for your writer's block. I think you may have written yourself into a corner (I see no way out of it at least). Can't wait to see what that devious mind of yours comes up with next.

Oh and Darth Paradox, I've been waiting to see the next installment of your series for a while. Great so far!

*(geez, hanging around the Australians 'round heregets to ya)

[hengist]

...I hope I don't offend anybody here, particularly Josh, whose work on Avalon I admire tremendously. What worries me is that these days updates simply stop for any reason - hey, I appreciate that getting married is pretty special, but things have never really gotten going after the 'big pause'. We have all waited patiently, hoping that the year without proper strips (spare me the 'guest art', for Chrissake) would mark the end of the problem. The truth is, it's difficult to hold a story, and people's interest, if the story hangs every few frames. At this rate, the strip will take several (perhaps many!) years to complete, and we'll all get p*ssed and drift away, or Josh will decide that in his married state he can't devote the time that Avalon needs - and it needs a lot to draw strips like these. Or perhaps Josh will, at some stage, stop talking about how things are going to be different one day, and prove it.

I don't want to sound harsh. I've had similar problem writing books in the past, when everything (illness, circumstances, the works) conspires against getting the job done. But if it matters, the job *is* done.

[Josh Phillips]

...I hope I don't offend anybody here, particularly Josh, whose work on Avalon I admire tremendously. What worries me is that these days updates simply stop for any reason - hey, I appreciate that getting married is pretty special, but things have never really gotten going after the 'big pause'. We have all waited patiently, hoping that the year without proper strips (spare me the 'guest art', for Chrissake) would mark the end of the problem. The truth is, it's difficult to hold a story, and people's interest, if the story hangs every few frames. At this rate, the strip will take several (perhaps many!) years to complete, and we'll all get p*ssed and drift away, or Josh will decide that in his married state he can't devote the time that Avalon needs - and it needs a lot to draw strips like these. Or perhaps Josh will, at some stage, stop talking about how things are going to be different one day, and prove it.

So, uh... what should I be doing differently to keep you from being pissed and drifting away? Ignoring life and devoting myself to a webcomic?

I don't know what your expectations of me are, but they're unreasonable. Please be more realistic and change them immediately.

JOSH.

[TheMike]

I hope everyone doesn't jump all over hengist, he's just speaking his mind. I'd like to think that what he says, he says out of love of the comic and a strong desire to see it completed (not to mention frustration at the hiatuses).

The important thing to remember, hengist, is that the comic is Josh's hobby. It's not fair to draw comparisons between your completing jobs because this ISN'T a job for Josh, it's something he does for FUN. The second this comic feels more like a chore than a joy to Josh is the second he should stop doing it (at least in my opinion). You say "the comic stops for almost any reason" as though that's unexpected or somehow representative of a bad work ethic. It's Josh's life, it's Josh's comic, it's Josh's hobby. He can take a hiatus - hell, he can stop drawing the comic entirely - for any reason he wants.

I'd love to see Avalon done, too. But Josh has a life. This is just something he does in between the really important things. It'd be NICE if Avalon were more consistent, sure, but it's not as important as Josh living his life. He doesn't make money off of Avalon - I'm betting he loses money keeping the server up and all that. He doesn't owe us the comic, but if we like it and want to see how it turns out, we owe him a bit of patience. If you can't give him that, then... well, there are a lot of other comics to occupy your time while waiting for Avalon to finish (whenever that may be).

-Mike

[Sacred_Insanity_Cat]

Well as for me, I'm just curious as to how it ends and as such don't mind waiting Good luck with the wedding

[K A H]

(And here we see the most boring person in the "Avalon" forum, thread killer par excellence K.A.H., closing in for another kill. Let us sit back and watch this extraordinary scene.

.... on second thought, his reputation as most boring person in the forum is well earned. Let's go and watch those "Monty Python's Flying Circus" DVDs I bought last week instead. *sounds of retreating footsteps fading into silence*)

....? Thought I heard someone's voice.

Anyway, I've nothing new to say beyond adding my voice to the choir of people saying the delays to the comics are entirely understandable - never having had any involvement in a wedding beyond attending two or three (a meagre total, to be sure), I can only imagine the chaos that must be consuming the life of Our Good Cartoonist at the moment.

As such, I'm sure everyone here will join me in saying, all the best to you and your bride-to-be, Sir, and I for one wish the two of you every happiness both during and after the honeymoon (going anywhere particularly exotic, or are meagre finances restricting you to, say, Winnipeg?). We'll still be here when you return, however long a wait this entails - have been before, will be again!

(And the return of DP's guest series is welcome news indeed! Huzzah for the resurrection of "Darthalon"! )

K.A.H.
whose current musical project, funnily enough, entails writing two marches for a friend's wedding, at least one of which will incorporate a popular video game tune!

[barabbas]

So, uh... what should I be doing differently to keep you from being pissed and drifting away? Ignoring life and devoting myself to a webcomic?

I don't know what your expectations of me are, but they're unreasonable. Please be more realistic and change them immediately.

JOSH.

I completely symphatise with Josh here - I myself have a Master's Thesis to write, which I keep neglecting, and I have never even started to draw the graphic novel I have been planning for past five years.

However I do understand hengeist's point too. In the past I used to visit Avalon website daily, but nowadays months pass between visits, and I usually still and up disappointed. It's not that I have any expectations of Josh personally - I would even understand if he decided to completely stop drawind Avalon. But Avalon hasn't for a long time fulfilled my expectations as a webcomic.

Although I don't know why anyone should be pissed about the lack of updates, I think it's perfectly understandable if people are disappointed and drift away from Avalon.

[Tenma]

I'd suggest weekly updates here, so that Josh could spend a few minutes on the comic every now and then during the week when he had the chance, but I don't think that's the way he likes to operate. It is a possibility though.

There was no GAS this week. I was wondering... Did we run out of contributions?

Later...
-Tenma

(Yes, I should by all means get cracking on my own GAS strip.)

[runidiot262]

(Rah-rah-ing follows.)

Last night I encountered Avalon, then nearly pulled an all-nighter reading it. High school wasn't really like Avalon, but at the time, the hopeless romantics among us thought it was. Love was real, then, and honor and duty supposedly controlled even the smallest choices. Avalon is a little like Ender's Game, in that it's written and plotted for the child's reality, not objective reality (except Avalon doesn't have so much space warfare). It's overdramatic and unrealistic, yet at the same time, it's dead-on. And funny.

(End rah-rah-ing.)

Though I have no standing in these forums, I think barabbas really got it right. If you can't stand to wait, then don't, but no complaining from either side.

However, given how many plates are spinning with three months to go in the story, I can see Josh being forced to B5 the ending. 'In the face of approximately 100,000 unresolved catastrophic problems, they all went their separate ways. The end.' Should I be worried?
_________________
Chris Battey is my geeky god.

His webcomic is at scatterplot.keenspace.com