Changes! Changes! And a question for you, The READER!!!

Hey all!
I am alive and I am well! I had to take an unplanned hiatus from the strip due to some unexpected changes in my professional life. It seems that my time at Pixar must soon come to an end. Without getting into too much detail, it is an amicable parting but it became quite clear in the past year that Pixar wasn't quite the place for me. So...Sara and I will be returning to Burbank, as our house there never sold and is there, happily waiting for us to return. To tell you the truth, we never quite adjusted to the Bay area and missed LA terribly. What can I say? We love the sun, the beach, the awesome movie theaters, and all the great restaraunts in Korea Town.
Now, some of you are thinking "Oh great, now we get another 4 or 5 months of bellyaching about unemployment". Not so!!! I already have a brand spanking new job waiting for me with lots of old freinds at Dreamworks. I can't talk about it now, but I assure you, it's a great project. The next few movies out of Dreamworks are going to be pretty spectacular. You'll see what I mean when "Kung Fu Panda" comes out.

Once I get settled in LA, I am going to launch the all new Chippy and Loopus site, and begin posting once or twice a week, and then ramp up to posting 3 times aweek.
Now, the question. Due to work, home and a thousand other pressures, my posting schedule has been erratic at best for the last year and a half. It has been damned near impossible to maintain a narrative thread. The original intentions for the current story are lost somewhere in my subconcious, and frankly, I woudn't be surprised if you all felt the same way. The way I see it, I have 2 options: One; dig deep, roll up my sleeves and write my way out of this corner I've painted myself into and drag all of you along for the ride OR
bow out of the current story and start over fresh when I launch the new site. What I would do is consider the old 2x8s a dress rehearsal, and start over, re-drawing the strips that work, and working new material in whenever and wherever I can, eventually working up to the time travel story. The downside of this is that many of you will be saying "haven't I read this before"? However, the upside is that it will be easier to get new readers on board with the shorter stories and bits I did in the beginning. After all, this is the reason for the site redesign: to make it easier for new readers to jump in
What do you all think?
Thank you for your continueing patience!
-John

Comments

[Arna (one of the doodlers)]

Go for the redrawing/ rewriting thing... as long as you don't feel like you're just repeating yourself. It would be interesting as a reader to compare the first draft with this new second draft as it were. And congrats on the new/old job!

[Arna (one of the doodlers)]

Go for the redrawing/ rewriting thing... as long as you don't feel like you're just repeating yourself. It would be interesting as a reader to compare the first draft with this new second draft as it were. And congrats on the new/old job!

[Gareth]

Hey John, good to hear you're ok. Shame Pixar didn't work out but good luck with your Dreamworks venture!

I wouldn't mind you re-doing the C&L's of old, it will be cool to see your new take on them! You've come a long way since I tuned in and I'm sure you have things you want to do differently or improve on.

I look forward to seeing it whatever happens. :)

[C. Edwards]

If I had to choose between the two choices you've provided, I guess I'd choose the former, but I'd prefer it if you just started with an all new story, not go back and re-do the old strips. Move forward and consider the first batch a dry run.

[Larry Levine]

Hi John, First--congrats & best of luck at Dreamworks! With you & Chris Sanders there, a lot of animated magic is awaiting us!

I would start fresh & as the readership builds work the time travel story into the strip.

Just don't redraw or upgrade the Feb 2nd strip, that's my favorite one :)

[Ubel]

It's time for us to hit up Islands again, Mr. Sanford!

[Mike Kitchen]

In the end you should do what you want to do... but since you asked...

I'd say wrap up the current story in a strip or two, and then move on to your next story arch (since that seems to be the way you're leaning).

That said; I would hope it would be a NEW story, and not a redeux of the old ones.

[Jeff]

I concur with Mr. Kitchen. Wrap it up and move on. It's like you're clearing your head and transitioning to a new mindspace. Starting a new job will be alot of work but the new environment will get more ideas into your head. Do it!!! Kick ASS!!!

[Jeff]

Oh and we need to have lunch with Ubel when you land in Burbank.

[John]

Thank you everyone for your input!!
ARna!!! Duly noted!! There are some strips I'd love to tackle again with refined inking and lettering not to mention improved staging. And there are some..well, that I wouldn't do at all.
Gareth!! Thanks for the well wishes! One thing I'd like to do is make the 2x8 stuff more legible. Some of them are damned hard to read.

Hey C.Edwards formerly known as Klahd!! Good to hear from you! I understand your concern, but I'll clarify: SOME I would re-do, some I would not, and I would mix in new stuff I've thought up along the way. The thing that inspired this choice was seeing the 1949 run of Pogo in the short-lived New York Star (the only paper it appeared in at the time) and the 1950 version that was nationally syndicated. Kelly re-drew some gags VERBATIM, having gotten better at drawing the characters, and some he swapped out some of the characters, re-arranged sequences and changed the endings of some arcs altogether. Some of the 2x8 stuff is good, and I'd like it to see a wider audience. Some of it is ill-conceived and won't be repeated. With the new site, the goal will be to bring in new readers, so a lot of this stuff will be brand new to most people checking out the strip. Thanks for your input sir!

LArry! Thank you sir!! You are thinking exactly what I'm thinking. I've noticed that people coming into the time travel story cold are hopelessly confused, and so check out, and never check back in. i want to hook as many people as possible before I do something this big and weird again.

Mike! There is no way I can wrap this story up in a strip or two. It's gotten waaaay away from me. It's a behemoth that can't be tamed!
As I've said, I've lost the thread, I need to duck out and start fresh. I can have the new site operational in 2 weeks or so, and then I can launch Chippy and Loopus volume 2.
This seems to be the way to go in order to grow the readership. I hope you all will bear with me. I'll keep posting odds and ends here until the new site opens, then I will shut this one and Phloo down. Thanks everyone!!!
hey Ubel!!! Islands it is!! I'll call you!

[Steve LeCouilliard]

Hey John,

Congrats on a positive career move! Do you expect to be working with Chris Sanders again at Dreamworks? I'm really curious about what he's doing next...

As far as your comic goes, I'd be in favor of archiving the original strip in an easily searchable format. I personally like to look back at a strip and see how it has evolved over time. I think re-drawing it would be a bit unfulfilling for you, and a bit of a retread for current fans, possibly causing you to lose some because they might get impatient for something new.

I'd say, finish the current storyline, then start a new one, re-introducing the major characters as you go. That's how the old adventure strips used to do it. There were no do-overs in those days, obviously, plus they constantly were trying to find new readers AND their current readers wouldn't necessarily have kept all the old newspapers. Comic strips are kind of a disposable medium, so I'd encourage you to move forward.

That's my two cents anyway.

[John]

Jeff!!!
Didn't see you there!!
As I said before, I can't wrap it up quickly, unless you have some ideas?......
Write me if you do!

[John]

Whoa!!! Steve!!!
Thanks man!!!
You make an excellent point, but see my post up above. Walt Kelly himself performed a "do-over", as did Garry Trudeau when he took is college strip and turned it into "Doonesbury". So did Berke Breathed when he did the same with Bloom County.
However, there is a very good argument being made for finishing up the current story.....but how?
Hmmmmmmmm

[MitchK]

YEA! Go for the re-draw/re-write! But don't be afraid to let your designs evolve again, like in the beginning. I love how the styles and designs changed from the beginning. It's like watching the characters grow up!

[Oh! And make an archive on the site for your old strips, in case people are interested!]

[Steve LeCouilliard]

Know what's weird? I actually wrote my comment before yours appeared. If I had read that, it would have probably altered my opinion. If you're only planning to update some of the weaker strips, I totally agree. I thought you meant you were going to re-tell the entire storyline. You know what you're doing. I can't wait to read your comic from the start!

[John Hoffman]

Congrats on the new job. Good news. I can relate to the unemployed thing...

In regards to your story, I as well would like to see some sort of quick resolution. That said, I have no solution. I'll have to read through the story again.

Good point on the relaunches of the strips you mentioned, they were all solid.

[Michael J. Ruocco]

Congrats on gettin' the job over at Dreamworks, John!

I like Mitch's idea of redrawing some of the old strips, but keeping the originals in an archive or database somewhere. But whichever way you decide to work, I'll still enjoy the hell out of it! I've followed this strip for what seems to be eons & I've come to love these characters & stories. Anything you do will be A-OK with us!

[Chris]

Wow! I sure wasn't expecting this one, but I'm sure you weren't either! Dreamworks upcoming slate of films does look a helluva lot better than their previous efforts and I think you could do a lot of good there. Congratulations!

I'm a lifelong reader, you've got me hooked. So I'll be following the strip no matter what you decide. If going back and reworking old material means new readers for CHippy and Loopus then I'm all for it!

[flaviano]

ok, can i take your position at pixar? if is still empty :)
the human been cannot live well without sun beach sea and bikini!
a lot of strip artists put on their strips what happen during their own days. sometimes is fun to read but i think is more fun if the world around the characters is totally different from reality (i mean: a man who falls from a chair is funny but a man falls from a chair on Saturn can fall without gravity? maybe yes if an anvil fall on is head!)
anyway i cant wait for new strips!
have good work!

[Gareth]

I got the Art of Bone book last christmas and it showed how he had adapted some story lines and situations from his college strip into the graphic novel. I thought it was quite cool to see how he had evolved them and fit them in and reworked new stuff in there too.

I'm looking forward to a similar thing from from John! I don't think it will be too hard on us older readers of C&L. And he promises new stuff in there too, so it's all good from my perspective.

[Lee-Roy]

JOHN!

I'm sorry to hear things didn't work out better at the big P, but since you're missing L.A. so much and you've got the gig all lined up at Dreamworks, it sounds like it's all for the better. We will welcome you back with open arms! As for the strip, it's sounding to me like you're ready to take it to the next level, and so that's what I'd encourage you to do. Also, seems like that's pretty much the consensus. Lookin' forward to it!

[Lee-Roy]

By the way, John. I've noticed that the latest version of Wordpress has an Import feature. It's located under the "Manage" tab of the admin page. You can import posts and comments from a Typepad blog.

[Spock Foolish]

Sun rules. Fog sucks. LA>Oakland!

[Ben Williams]

In my opinion, when you start the new site I think you should start with a new storyline but you don't need to go back and re-draw old episodes. Just start a brand new story arc that helps explain what the characters are all about. Therfore new readers will have a jump on point and old readers will have something new to read. Also, It will keep it exciting and fun for you since your getting to come up with something new.

Remasters that apparently "improve" the product tend to be very unsuccessful (Star Wars being a prime example).

[pbcbstudios]

redraw it all?!? i don't know. I guess, but I'm afraid you'll lose some energy from the originals.

maybe plan for it to be printed all in a book when you're done though! yes!