The quarterly blog update is late this time around because I have been busy working on some major revisions to Neatstep & Co. I had not been completely satisfied with the recent drawings and how the series was working out. It seemed like a giant puzzle with no obvious resolution and I couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong…..
So, I decided to seek some expert advice from a professional cartoonist and sent out an SOS email. I was extremely surprised, one weekend, when I received a phone call from Rob Smith Jr. out of Florida. He had very kindly reviewed my comics and had a list of things for me to do. I can’t thank him enough. This was exactly the input I needed to get me on the right track and all of a sudden, everything seemed a lot clearer and I could see my way through to the end of the puzzle.
The most important task was to work on the character drawings and loosen them up a bit. At the same time, I decided it was necessary to pick a permanent style for each character. After reviewing the 100+ comic strips so far, strangely enough, I liked the earlier drawings best of all. It was almost as if my drawing had gone progressively worse, over time, instead of better. My family members agreed and so it was decided, fairly quickly, to adopt the original figures as the standard from now on.
After making a host of subtle changes I think the right balance has been achieved. The final step will be to revisit the whole collection and incorporate the new drawings together with all of the other suggestions that were made. I am confident that the revised series will fulfill my own expectations, which for me, is the only really important criteria. I hope that my readership will feel the same way when the results are presented and meanwhile, I wish everyone a very Happy Easter!