(UPDATE – Yes, tucking in an extra upload this week for Tuesday, to get us through this transition a little faster!)

Welcome welcome. If you’re reading this, there’s a 99% chance that it’s because you came through Anders Loves Maria, and for that I thank you.

I hadn’t planned to officially launch this until I finish up this first scene next week, but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up — the Anders Loves Maria audience is exactly who I’m aiming at. The downside is that you’re all coming in for a week next week that’s light on content and heavy on transition. What I might end up doing is updating every weekday that week just to push us through.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the Gallery and Cast pages. They’re actually fully fleshed out and ready for consumption.

Looking forward to getting this story out to you (yes you)!

Now that I’ve got a few of your here – How’s the update pacing working for you? Is 3 a week too little? Will you end up losing the thread after not-too-long?

Because the good news is I think I can pull off 5 a week instead of 3 (even at 5 a week I have an almost 3-month buffer right now). Any takers?

As you may have noticed up top (particularly if you’ve shift-refreshed your browser page), but we’re going to 5 days a week starting right now.

When I asked, y’all were kind enough to speak up, and some thought 3 was fine, other wanted 5, some were worried of burn-out/work-load, and still others considered 3 to be too little. I tend to fall in the later camp – I don’t think 3 a week is going to be the ideal way of reading this.

For those concerned about my work-load, I’ll just speak into the process a bit. These updates are all formed from cut-up full-sized pages, and I’ve got quite the backlog done up already. 5 updates a week equals about 2 and a half full pages, which should be doable going forward. The nice thing is I have a 10 week buffer right now, just in case. Worst case scenario – I go to 5 days a week, never get any more work done, and in 2 and a half months we’ll be dropping back to 3 days a week.

So 5 a week we go! Tell your friends. No really. Please do! The more the merrier.

With the end of Scene Two, the intro to Brightest is over and we’re off into the real ‘meat’ of the story. Welcome aboard, everyone who’s still aboard.

And it was the first week of 5 days a week. I think it went well. How’s it working for everyone else?

Hey gang. Pull up a seat – I’d like to have a talk about our relationship.

I just don’t feel like I’m doing enough for you, so here’s the deal – got any requests about what you’d like to see on the site? Want some new art in the Gallery? Want a Fan Art page? Want a link section? Brightest banners and buttons to use to link here? Maybe your biggest issue is that you’re dying to advertise and spread the word for me and there’s no tools to help you with that (bless you). How about longer, more interesting blog posts? (Probably can’t help you with that.)

Just anything, feel free to toss around some ideas! I want to help YOU.

I asked for some feedback last blog on what you’d like to see, and this is me delivering on most of those comments. Thanks to the people who spoke up! It was really helpful, and I probably wouldn’t have done any of this without your ideas.

You might have noticed along the top of the site that we now have an (empty) Fan Art page, and a Banners page (for when you’re so delightful that you’d like to spread the word of Brightest around). Along the right in the little off-site Contacts box there is also a new link to a brand new blog where I’ll toss up random writing (there’s one short in there already).

The question remains open, though – if you’ve got an idea on something you’d like to see here, just lemme know!

Well some ads went out last week and the reaction has been amazing! Not just the actual clicks the ads have been getting, but more the fact that there was a sudden influx of feedback and comments from a bunch of you. That’s the most awesome part. It’s definitely got me feeling really jazzed for Brightest and excited for the future.

Thank you!

Sorta-celebrating all this buzz, I’ve posted up a new picture of Charlene in the Gallery. You could even look at it on DA. So many options!

Just so you know, I do feel bad about these transition updates. But they’ve got to be done! Just trust me – when you get this all together in a nice book it’s going to be really nice to have the quieter moments and the transitions.

But I’m not going to leave you high and dry. I’ve got a couple pics for you to (possibly) enjoy! There’s a new picture over in the Gallery. And there’s even (the first!) bit of fan art in the Fan Art Gallery. Will this open the floodgates for fan art? Only you hold the key.

And because it gets requested so much, I’m putting some time into thinking about an ‘about the author’ section. You’ll all be horribly disappointed!

Group Hug time, y’all. Gather up.

Just wanted to say a big catch-all thanks to all the active readers that have been going on these last couple weeks. You’re vocal and that’s awesome. I’m honestly not too sure what the protocol is on replies and I don’t want to flood the comments with a bunch of “thanks!” because as a properly self-loathing artist compliments are hard to react to.

Not that I don’t secretly need them to survive. I’m just awkward about it, is all.

So if you’re here and reading the comic and see this, give yourself a hug! Or just a handshake or something. Whatever you’re comfortable with. Maybe have some wine coolers first if that’ll help. I just want you to know that you’re awesome. Hell, even if you’re not reading this post, but are reading the comic, you’re awesome too. I just can’t tell you you’re awesome because you’re not reading this post.

We had good timing last week, so today kicks off a new scene.

Seems to be getting customary that I update this blog once a week: lets keep that tradition rolling!

First things first – there’s another piece of fanart. Go check it out! (Thanks, Calheb).

Second things second – let’s say I was theoretically working on a series of pictures to sell as prints. And theoretically I was planning on opening an Etsy page for it. If these theoretical prints became a reality, would people be interested in them being initialed and numbered on the back? With a theoretical fancy silver pen? Any interest in prints in the first place?

I’ve already got one of them printed up (actually there are way TOO many prints of this one that came out, oops), but I’m going to wait til I have the other three printed out before I put any of them up. Hopefully not much longer than a couple more weeks on that.

Third things third – the new Shin Megami Tensei for the DS is completely awesome, and is totally scratching a very specific itch that’s gone untended for a while. In a week of car expenses and a PS3 dying, thanks for being that dependable pillar, DS.