That First Webcomic Love

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Hey all you loyal, lovely Gods & Undergrads readers. I unfortunately have something really tough to tell you -- I've decided to put G&U on a sort of permanent hiatus for the time being. This is a really difficult thing for ME to do, but I'm sure for all of you out there who've managed to stick with it all this time, it's way more obnoxious! G&U has always been the book I've been MOST passionate about and the majority of people have been the LEAST interested in, and it was only recently after interventions from some friends and colleagues that I realized it was time to throw in this G&U towel for the moment. Not because I don't think it's worth it to put time and work into a story no one reads - hello, I'm in comics - but because the story itself is now REALLY suffering from my lack of attention. So I need to grow up and realize it and do something hard . . . like ending my first comic.

I started Gods & Undergrads wayyyy back in the year 2000 when first discovering an early love for (and awareness of) webcomics. While working at my college's art office and photo lab, I alternated between reading Scott McCloud's Zot, Derek Kirk Kim's Same Difference, and Jason Little's Bee Comix. I especially loved Dylan Meconis's Bite Me and Faith Erin Hicks's Demonology 101, too.

But what all of these people DID with their web sagas I failed to do -- they eventually finished them. They moved on to other things. While I, also, moved on to other things, other stories I wanted to tell . . . and yet I still dragged Gods & Undergrads along behind me, bumping it onto every pothole and street sign along the way. Leaving months, even years between updates sometimes. The audience I'd managed to build up until that point put up with a lot of unknowns, changes in style, even going from its initial full color format to all black and white, . . . but eventually most people have stopped reading. That's just one of the troubles with continuing a story after 14 years (and intermittent shoe-horning between other comics projects). It gets lost among the shuffle and doesn't get the attention and care it deserves.

HOWEVER, one of the reasons for me to tie it off now and put an (abrupt) ending on this 14-year-long saga is not just to stop me from dragging it through the mud, but also to give myself a chance further down the line of resurrecting it in a newer, more planned out storyline (rather than its current Frankenstein one). Oh, did I not mention that I would totally reboot this? I WOULD TOTALLY REBOOT IT.

So anyway - sorry for the lame news, everyone. I'm going to be posting the final, abruptly-cut-short 10 pages of Gods & Undergrads over the next few weeks. Sure, if I'd pulled the trigger earlier I could've ended it at the end of Book 3, with Lelaina gone and seemingly dead but WHO WANTS THAT ENDING??

I'll still have the books for sale (tons and tons of books) and will do sketches and things for anyone who wants them. And the archives will all remain online indefinitely. A BIG, HUGE, HEARTFELT THANK YOU to all of you who've kept up with the story all this time! Again, this definitely isn't the END end of Gods & Undergrads . . . just the end for now. *sniff*

And, of course, I'll still be doing Bonnie twice a week. And other comics. And I love you guys!

***UPDATE: I've decided this last chapter will be a FULL chapter, hooray! 48 pages of fun coming your way, so stay tuned! You'll have more G&U for a while yet. :)

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Gods & Undergrads SALE up in here

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In celebration of my webcomic Gods & Undergrads returning this month, I'm throwing a SALE PARTY and you're all invited!

Just use the coupon code CHEAPGODS to get 15% off Gods & Undergrads merch (or, really, any merch in my store) AND when you get a G&U book, I'll draw in it the Greek God of your choice!

Like this here Poseidon (who hasn't shown up in the comic ... YET) I did for a fellow reader:

So come on down to my shop and get some 15% off things! It'll help the comic and me and we'll all celebrate Greek Mythology Nerdiness together!

(psst - and if you haven't seen them, I also have a whole slew of Greek Gods inspired prints!)

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Gods & Undergrads Book 2 - Back in Stock!

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That's right, Gods & Undergrads Book 2 is now back in stock!

Want to find out what happens when Lelaina really falls for Linden? Or what rage in a college undergrad whose parents happen to be Greek gods looks like? Or who the next God to arrive at Troy University is?

Here's the book in my shop - and order ANY Gods & Undergrads books now and get a sketch of the Greek God of your choice on the inside! (just don't forget to tell me which one)

Oh yeah, and I managed to get it reprinted in full color without sacrificing one of my cats. Hooray!

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Last of the Colorful Gods & Undergrads Books

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EEK! My 2nd volume of Gods & Undergrads (i.e. the book where SHIT REALLY GETS REAL) is almost sold out! Now, I'll be reprinting this volume, so too much panicking isn't really necessary, BUT not in color. Not again, not for a little while. Until, y'know, the massive omnibus of all things Gods & Undergrads happens and I finally do a KickStarter about it or somethin' somethin' (which will probably totally happen at some point).

So if you want Book 2 in color ... act now! It's $8, and I've got four left. Tick ... tick ...

Here are some fuzzy pictures I took with my phone of this endangered beast in the wild ...

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Book 3 Pre-Orders!

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Woop! Getting all ready over here for the Gods & Undergrads book 3!!

It will be 122 pages, black and white, manga sized (that's 5 1/4" x 8"). Featuring the last two chapters of the series, sketches, plus a couple lovely fan art pieces from these cool friends/wildly talented folks:

The book will be released early September (round about the time of the Baltimore Comic Con / SPX back-to-back weekends in comics yay spectacular) BUT if you pre-order it now, you get a choice of one of three of these nifty little prints:

Each are 4" x 6", printed on Epsom Matte Ultra Premium Presentation Paper. PLUS if you pre-order, you'll get a free sketch IN the book of whoever ya want! Just drop me a line when you pre-order and tell me which print and which sketch you desire.

[button color="blue" size="medium" link="http://lipstickisspress.storenvy.com/products/2064451-gods-undergrads-book-3" target="_blank"]Pre-order HERE![/button]

 

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Gods & Undergrads Book 3 News!

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I've mentioned before that I'm spending the month of July spiraling down the (eek, ever increasing) page count to finish up the 3rd Gods & Undergrads book. Now it looks like it really IS all coming together - heh heh, sure there wasn't any doubt - and it will be available in time for Baltimore Comic Con, SPX, all those good things. I.e. Fall time, where I for one will be happy to be done sweating and wearing shorts.

This book will contain the last 2 chapters - all about death, hanging out in bars, Hades, weird glowstick hand powers, boy trouble, and Lelaina's descent into ... well I'm not going to ruin it for you! Plus I'm going to throw in some extras at the back of the book like character sketches, inspirations, and a few guest artists, to boot!

I'm pretty excited about it so I wanted to give everyone a STAY TUNED STAY EXCITED YAY!

And once again, if you'd like a refresher to the comic without actually reading all the pages of it again, check here for the cute one-page chapter summaries. And if you DO want to read all the pages from the beginning, I've added a wee Introduction page in an attempt to organize this ginormous comic into something that makes reasonable sense.

So until then, I'll keep putting up chunks of pages every Wednesday until the STARTLING CONCLUSION. Eeeeeeeee! I'm going to come up with some fun gift to give those of you who pre-order. Stay tuned!

 

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Gods & Undergrads Recap - this week!

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Hi guys! So I've got some news to share for my ol' Gods & Undergrads comic. You know how it's been plodding along, one page a week for a while now? Well all that is going to change! Starting (later) this week, I'll be posting multiple pages per week, all on the same day. I'm not sure which day that will be, per se, my schedule will have to dictate that. This is all ramping up in preparation of FINALLY FINALLY getting my third volume printed up, yippee! I'm aiming for a release date of Baltimore Comic Con/SPX-ish (i.e. September). It'll contain the last two chapters of Gods & Undergrads and it'll be all in black and white. Sorry about the lack of color, but I figured it was more important to get it done and out for now. AND if I ever do a Kickstarter project, you know I'll be tempted to make it about one massive colorful G&U book.SO in ramping up for this week's chunk of pages, I've created some one-page recaps for each chapter of the story so far. This is a way for people to start reading or catch up without having to slog through all the back pages. Not that there's anything wrong with slogging through the back pages, I just appreciate that some of you may not have the time for such things.

So here's the recap for the very first chapter of G&U, Book 1, Chapter 1! Chapters 2 and 3 will be up in the next few days!

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Home again, home again

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Whew!

I think I'm done for a little while. And by done, I mean I won't be traveling to exotic, far-off lands every other weekend. Now it's time to relax and make COMICS again! Hooray! So, sorry for the delay, but since I rolled back into town this week, all my Bonnie/Gods & Undergrads updates are going to be a wee bit late this week. Or "fashionably late", as I prefer to call them.

Allow me to say a hearty hello to all of you who came by to visit me at TCAF, holy crapola what an amazing show that is. If only all comic shows were in libraries and all of them packed to the gills with amazing readers! So much comics love and excitement all over the place, I got really spoiled. Besides having a fun time catching up with my pals Tim Fish and Greg Lockard, I ALSO got to be part of an amazing podcast DINTERVIEW (dinner + interview, according to Becky Cloonan) with Paul Pope, Becky herself, Glyn Dillon, and Jimmy Aquino of Comics News Insider. Li'l ol' me, chilling with some serious comics heavy hitters, trying to keep my laugh from being a cackle and attempt to add something to the conversation. You can find that interview here, and Jimmy also posted a one-on-one interview you can find here!

 

Sigh. Such fun times! I'll be over here beaming, so in the meantime check out some sketches I did at the show:

 

 

 

Also, I created these little family seal drawings for some of my Gods & Undergrads characters. Once I clean these up a bit, I'll be selling them as prints.

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Gods & Undergrads Is Back!

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Hooray! Gods & Undergrads (my weekly webcomic about a girl at college and her Greek God relatives) resumes again today! I'll be posting a page a week, every Wednesday. Today there's a special block of pages to get the engines rolling!

Click here for the latest and here for an archive of everything so far!

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Gods & Undergrads Returns!

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For those of you who don't know, I started doing comics way back in 2000 with Gods & Undergrads, my first foray into webcomicking. (and for those of you interested in my process, I go into the details on my four part process for creating comics here!)

Gods & Undergrads is the story of Lelaina Pentheus, a college sophomore. At the beginning of the comic, she's applying for residency on campus. And over the course of 2 1/2 books, Lelaina meets friends, falls in and out of love, and discovers that her relatives are Greek gods.

When I first started G&U, I was pretty regular with updating the comic. But, over the years my updates grew more and more sporadic. Many people stopped reading, many people yelled at me, and most people suggested I stop doing this comic already. So while all that was happening, I worked on other comics and even created a NEW webcomic - Bonnie N. Collide, Nine to Five. Buuuuutttt ... well, I never wanted to stop doing good ol' G&U.

I'm just not finished with the story yet. What makes it awkward is how much the story and the art and the style have changed over the years. Even though I look back at the earlier pages (and the later, let's be honest) and I cringe, I'm going to keep plowing ahead until ... well, until the end.

Anyhoo. This is a LONG, drawn out way of saying that where we last left off in the story:

What crazy shenanigans are going to happen to the undergrads of Troy University next? Find out DECEMBER 12TH, when Gods & Undergrads continues!! Wooooo!

In the meantime, here are some links to help you catch up/start the story:

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Gods & Undergrads Update #4 - the last one for Chapter 6!

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Aaaaaaand scene. That's it for this chapter, everyone! I wanted to leave it on a quasi-cliffhanger, or as my boyfriend would call it, an "Oh shit, it's Mystique" moment. Which is a reference to the first time I saw X-Men in the theater. When Mystique first appears on screen, revealing herself as Senator Kelly's aid in the helicopter, this dude in the back of the theater was TOTALLY SHOCKED and said out loud, "Oh SHIT, it's Mystique!" Priceless.

For this chapter, I wanted to deal almost entirely with Anthony's descent into the Underworld. At first I thought about making it just about he and Hermes' journey together, but then I decided to split it up into sections - each one dealing with one of the stages of grief. As Anthony eventually accepts his death, his wounds return, and it finally becomes real what happened to him. And even though the build-up is kind of scary and sad, the reality is - kind of no big deal. Hades was the general underworld of the population - it's where everyone went, good or bad, which I always loved about Greek Mythology. Rather than going down to hell or up to heaven, you got ferried to one place, and sorted out later. I know I barely touch on Hades and Persephone in this chapter, but I'm saving them for later. I didn't want them to steal focus from the guy we've journeyed with this whole time - not yet anyway.

Oh - and they're big on purpose. ;)

Thanks everyone for reading, and please feel free to share your thoughts on this page, or any part of this chapter!

***UPDATE: Gods & Undergrads returns on Dec. 12, 2012!! EEEEEEE!***

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Countdown

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Oh, how I wish the title was "final countdown" and I could see Gob's magic intro. [vimeo http://vimeo.com/1418162]

But by countdown, I mean the countdown to the end of Chapter 6 of Gods & Undergrads! Woooo! Gasp! There are only 4 pages left, my friends, so starting next Tuesday, January 17th I'll post a page a day. It's not terribly dramatic, since really there's only a few pages left, BUT STILL. I like to pretend this sort of thing is a big deal.

In case you need a recap of what's happened thus far, you can check out:

Then come back next week for the startling conclusion! (okay ... still, not startling, but EXCITING!)

'Sup December ... You Still Here?

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It's that awkward time of the year when I want to be on winter break and drawing nonstop, reading Calvin & Hobbes, and playing Donkey Kong on the N64. Alas, for me - it's back to work this week. But does that mean I have to stop eating cookies and listening to holiday music and generally pretending I'm still on some kind of vacation? I sure hope not. Well, since as I briefly mentioned last week, my computer ka-putzed, things have been a little hectic trying to get a new machine up and running that will allow me to limp along until I can buy a new one. Luckily my dad is the Frankenstein of computer hardware, so he and my boyfriend rigged up a nice little zombie to get me by.

Just a couple questions I had for YOU all in the meantime, though ...

As you know, I have two webcomics going - Gods & Undergrads and Bonnie N. Collide.  As things stand now, Bonnie is usually once-a-week updated and G&U maaaaybe once every two weeks. Now, I know that sporadic updating is the WORST trait a webcomic could possibly have. Alas, with the day job sometimes I find it a little tricky being consistent. So, my question to you guys out there is ... would you rather things update once on a semi-weekly schedule like they do now, orrrr update maybe twice a month with more than one strip/page at a time? I know everyone has a different opinion when it comes to their comics, but I wanted to give you guys a chance to chime in.

... Now I'm going to run off and pretend it's snowing outside or something. December!

'Sup December ... You Still Here?

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It's that awkward time of the year when I want to be on winter break and drawing nonstop, reading Calvin & Hobbes, and playing Donkey Kong on the N64. Alas, for me - it's back to work this week. But does that mean I have to stop eating cookies and listening to holiday music and generally pretending I'm still on some kind of vacation? I sure hope not. Well, since as I briefly mentioned last week, my computer ka-putzed, things have been a little hectic trying to get a new machine up and running that will allow me to limp along until I can buy a new one. Luckily my dad is the Frankenstein of computer hardware, so he and my boyfriend rigged up a nice little zombie to get me by.

Just a couple questions I had for YOU all in the meantime, though ...

As you know, I have two webcomics going - Gods & Undergrads and Bonnie N. Collide.  As things stand now, Bonnie is usually once-a-week updated and G&U maaaaybe once every two weeks. Now, I know that sporadic updating is the WORST trait a webcomic could possibly have. Alas, with the day job sometimes I find it a little tricky being consistent. So, my question to you guys out there is ... would you rather things update once on a semi-weekly schedule like they do now, orrrr update maybe twice a month with more than one strip/page at a time? I know everyone has a different opinion when it comes to their comics, but I wanted to give you guys a chance to chime in.

... Now I'm going to run off and pretend it's snowing outside or something. December!

Tried and Truly Obsessed

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I've mentioned I'm obsessed with Greek Mythology, right? Well, to celebrate the return of my much neglected webcomic, Gods & Undergrads, on Tuesday, September 27th, I'm posting some pictures of what I recently re-discovered on my last trip home. At one point, I was so nerdy that I drew each of the Greek Gods, taped them to my wall (complete with name tags and icons of their attributes), and organized them into a family tree.

(no, this isn't the last time I would do such a thing - certain college photo projects involving real people as Greek Gods would come later - but I DIGRESS ...)