The big squeeze

Once upon a time, I would pass up a lot of neat comic ideas because they were just too big to cram into a standard-sized four-panel strip. But then at some point I remembered that this is the internet, not a newspaper. I don't have to cram my ideas into four panels. I can make my comics as long as they need to be, and all it costs is time, ink, bandwidth, and sleep deprivation!

The golden rule of serialization is that every individual installment has to be independently satisfying. And sometimes I have to make my comics longer to achieve that. But it has to be done. Otherwise, you wind up with Mary Worth. (Apologies to anyone who likes Mary Worth.)

In other news, it looks like it will be a couple more days before the posters can go on sale. I'm still in the process of acquiring the supplies I need to package and mail the suckers!

Sam Logan

Dun dun duunnnnn

That's a wrap for Tangent! Believe it or not, this was the longest single story I've ever run on the website, but I think the extra breathing room served it well. I hope you all dug reading it as much as I enjoyed assembling it from base atoms.

Next week: new things! And also (hopefully) posters! I'm going to spend my weekend calculating the shipping charges and buying some poster tubes. (Woo-ha!)

Sam Logan

Sakura Con

I have returned from the wilds of Seattle! And my server has mostly recovered from the massive influx of readers sent my way on Monday from Penny Arcade and Questionable Content. In other words, it's back to business as usual around here.

Claire and I had a swell time at Sakura Con (even though Claire was sick for most of it). It was great to meet all my Seattle-based readers. We also got to meet Fred and Shawn, both of whom were really great guys and very down-to-earth (especially for webcomic artists). And as always, it was nice to see my longtime friends enemies from Questionable Content again. Unfortunately, Jerry was unexpectedly drawn away from the con before I got a chance to annihilate his chosen race of stick-figure people. It will have to wait until San Diego!

The folks running the con were really nice to us and treated us very well. Thanks for showing us a great time, team Sakura. It was a blast!

Sam Logan