#dkirbyj

One Piece Summer

---------------------------- Portfolio: donaldkirbyart.com

Miss West is 7 years old today! (not 6, like I thought. That was last year)

So for anyone who follows the comic, I made a silly announcement a year ago about 2017  being the year that Miss West comes back from hiatus and begins chapter 7, remember?

Eh heh heh heh... whoops.

Yeah, that didn't really pan out how I would have wanted it to.  I have the chapter mostly written and partially boarded, and I even have a couple pages finished even (the panel above is from the first couple of pages).  But, I feel like something has changed within the past two years that made me question what I wanted to do with Miss West and what I should be doing for myself.

So on this anniversary, I am making the unfortunate announcement that I'm going to be putting Miss West on an indefinite hiatus.  Not canceled, but on hiatus to be worked on again in the future.  Hopefully.

My reason for this isn't because I got bored or that I now have actual, professional work to keep me busy (work that I enjoy).  The reason I want to put MW on hold is that I would like to work on projects that have visible completion goals, unlike Miss West where it's endless.  I wrote Miss West to be an endless stream of episodic adventures.  I mean, Miss West would have an ending, and I kinda know what it is, but the ending was barely important.  I realised within the past couple of years of doing MW that way doesn't really work all that well as a webcomic, with only a few pages coming out every week.  I liked writing  30-60 pages of a single incident that didn't really have anything to do with an over-arching plot, but it takes too long to get anywhere significant.  I didn't think it would be enjoyable for people to read, and it was starting to not become enjoyable for me to work on something that I can't say is complete.

Right now, I'm more interested in working on stories that begin and end in a shorter amount of time, like a single 30-60 page chapter.  I wanna work with more settings that aren't set in the real world.  Most of the throwaway stories I come up with in my head are either fantasy settings or weirdo variations of the real world with their own set of rules.  It was kinda odd that I went with such a normal setting for Miss West.  Yeah, Miss West had the Problemites that don't exist at all, but the setting was an average, real world setting.  And I also want to try to work more with themes and issues that are constantly in my head and are dying to get out.  I'm not so good at putting those thoughts out like a normal person, so why not do it through my art?  I'm sure it'll be silly and won't amount to much, but I'd like try putting a litte more meaning into the things I write.

Sorry if this is rambling.  I haven't really prepared a statement on this other than to say that Miss West will be going away for a little while (unless I draw a one off drawing of her, cause I like drawing her still).  If Miss West does return, then expect a change in format, since I can't really keep up Miss West the same monster of the "half a year" formula I've been doing.  I would try to do more of a connect story and work towards a conclusion sooner.

The main thing is that I want to work with different characters in shorter stories that I can finish and feel some sort of accomplishment.

Sorry to those who have enjoyed Miss West in the past.  And if you haven't read it... well, I somehow drew over 200 pages of it for you to enjoy.  And I'll try to work on some Miss West merch once I figure out how to open up a store and make stuff for people to buy.

Until Miss West makes her awkward but warm return, I hope everyone will look forward to any other projects I have coming up in the future.

Ridiculous. --------------------------- Portfolio: donaldkirbyart.com