Regarding PoP and the future of FF
Added 2019-11-30 04:16:00 +0000 UTCIt's been many month with no update on PoP(Pinnacle of Physique) and FF(Forbidden Frontiers) I've been avoiding addressing these 2 series for so long, it's time for me to break the silence.
When I start my Patreon 5(6?) years ago, it was to fund my comic, Forbidden Frontiers. While I intend FF to be more of a fetish comic(it feature muscular characters who can get even bigger and a big boobs goblin girl lol) I still want to tell a compelling story. I dont pretend I'm a good story teller. Hell, Im not even a good world builder. But... I just want to try. The thing is tho, I dont have enough talent to do that. In the second chapter of FF I tried world building a little. It was nothing special but it was kinda there and I like what I achieved with that little chapter. Thing is tho, it was more difficult than I anticipated.
I'm a kind of guy that don't make a detailed plan. I have a vague story line already in mind of course but for in between major plot point, I "wing it" most of the time. While this give me a lot of room and flexibility(just the way I like it XD) It also a lot harder to come up with how each page flow. You can "wing it" for so long before you run out of ideas.
So, to get to the point, I ran out of creative juice for FF.
Why does it take so long for me to publicly admit it? Well, I'm afraid.
There are many early backers that I support me for the promise of having unique item, lore, or even character based on their idea. The money is paid. Some even continue to support me to this day via Patreon(Demonqueen who pledge a whopping $80 a month since the first day of my Patreon for example.) I'm afraid that I have disappointed many of them and that's a very difficult thing to accept. I try to convince myself that, with bonus artwork throughout the years, maybe they will forgive me but it's time for me to face the truth.
While I have no intention to abandon FF, I just don't know when my creative juice will flow again. Having admitted that, I'm ready to receive a (well deserved) criticism that will be direct toward me.
"What about PoP then?"
The story how PoP came to be was, as you might have guessed, was a declined in popularity of FF thus the declined of my Patreon income(Didn't help that I pulled some George RR Martin in the story lol) . Struggling to find a way to increase my revenue again, I come up with a project. That project was PoP.
While PoP did give me increases in Patreon revenue, it was a project with up and down. I did enjoy working on PoP for the most part but there are some difficulties. Namely, a character that didn't follow guide line. I have to bend my own rule just for them to work in FF setting. I think most reader won't care but I do dammit XD
And as you've already know I am such a dumbass, promising a 6(!) page comic for the winner of each category. Hoooo boy did I overestimated XD (A total of 24 pages full color comic!) While I did negotiate for a fewer page(4 pages per winner instead of 6) it's still a whopping 16 pages comic.
So what happened? Like FF, I ran out of juice. and like FF, I'm afraid to face the backlash.
And like FF, I still want to follow through with my promise but I will have to negotiate again. I will try to offer each winner a commission of their choice. I don't know if they will accept it but commission has a better chance than comic at this point.
So here you go. Now you know what's going on, let me hear your thought. Don't hold back.
(sorry for my wording, I type this without consult anyone with better grasp of English)
Comments
Love ya man, stay strong
SNEEDHAM
2020-01-08 00:05:51 +0000 UTCI became a backer because of your amazing art and not for the writing or story lines. Giving your characters a bit more personality is great but you don't need to make an over-arching plot line to do that, really.
Jason Slade
2019-12-04 17:14:56 +0000 UTCAs a creative myself, I have never understood the concept of running out of creativity. Mine is unlimited, something I've had told to me is some sort of superpower or a form of autism, I don't know. That said, I have gone through periods of extreme mental exhaustion. I have the ideas, but the idea of going to the keyboard just sounds like a nightmare of effort. So, I get it, to a degree. That said, I've enjoyed a ton of your content by paying ABSOLUTELY NOTHING over the years, so to me the Patreon is less a "gimme" and more of my way of saying thank you in 15 dollar doses.
Evan Snow-Wolf
2019-12-03 01:08:12 +0000 UTCWhile I appreciate you being honest with this and giving us an explanation for the delays, I feel like this comes way too late. There was a time when I pledged 20 dollars a month, more I think when the PoP contest was still running, but now that pledge's gone down to one dollar a month and there's a big reason for that. And that's because I've been given the short end of the stick on multiple occasions and just went with it because I didn't want to cause too much trouble. Even Mikiri's part in PoP isn't really what I wanted because you already had drawn a bunch of art of her without consulting me first and now this? Now I'm apparently not getting the comic I was promised. Yeah, not cool. I invested a lot of money into this Patreon and I seriously feel cheated now. I'm gonna think this over, but I don't think I'll be sticking around for much longer.
Ramsey
2019-12-02 20:22:30 +0000 UTCThis might be easier for me to say, as someone who didn’t ask to be in PoP, but I think you did an amazing job with both projects. Burnout is real, and it takes a lot of guts to admit it. I hope going forward you find a good balance between work schedule and creative energy, regardless of how long it takes to put out content. Best of luck!
Muscle Girl Chaser
2019-12-02 17:36:20 +0000 UTCI think that this issues are mainly your fault for poor managing skills, but at the same time since 5-6 years since you started your patreon as you mentioned no one of those dedicated patrons decided to halt, question or aid you in some way to keep the creative juices flowing while at the same time having a reasonable doable schedule which allowed you to work on all series, comms, personal stuff, etc. I lay the blame with them also. Iam very much against any future different projects, same way as you've mentioned in this post. Can start with so much energy and passion and just like that, POOF. Gone. I do appreciate you coming clean as opposed to hide your mistakes and calling patrons bossy that they don't know how hard it is to work on all these art you do. You and your art are something I appreciate Pokk, but managing skills is something you must develop or it will bite you in the ass harder next time enough for it not to be able to recover. Best of luck man. :D
Cosmonauta
2019-12-02 05:03:43 +0000 UTCI'm curious what the issue with PoP was, this character that didn't follow rules?
Faziri
2019-12-01 15:09:05 +0000 UTCSometimes the creative juice is not in trying, but wondering what situation/scenarios you could put your characters in. Sometimes whenever I see someone who's only a small part on the side or has a quick one panel, I sometimes have to wonder what that one character is like outside the main story arc. Ever heard of the Marvel MCU plan? It's clearly about mapping where characters are in place and time in conjunction to one-another. I know you said you had problems doing this, but as I said sometimes you just have to let your mind wonder in order to unlock the most potential from it.
Munch
2019-12-01 08:13:24 +0000 UTCOn and off patron here. Learning to manage scope is part of becoming a professional creative, it's unfortunate that you had to hit this point but now you can grow. In the future build clear timelines so you can manage your patron's expectations and bring in collaborators to assist with writing or coloring. My personal opinion is that your FMG sequences have always been spectacular and look much simpler to execute. I'd get back to something like that where you can get a cadence going. You are talented, but knowing your own limits and meeting goals on time is key to long lasting relationships with a fanbase or client. Thanks for being straight with everyone, its the mature thing to do.
dave
2019-12-01 03:29:37 +0000 UTCI'm leaving my support for you..... Just Kidding 😜, look writer's block or creative pauses always happens to people and to everyone else so don't kick yourself too hard, like everybody says start collaborate with people to get some ideas and from friends too, do a little research and you'll get back on track if something personal in life and anything else stops you then it's something that none of us can control I think we all understand,so keep Being awesome !do what you gotta do and get back on top and stay awesome as always. And take care of yourself cause that's important too✌
Julio Gutierrez
2019-11-30 20:04:14 +0000 UTCI agree with SuperCDR in that you may need to get a team (1+ people) to bounce ideas off of if you feel like you don't know where to drive the story, especially if you have expectations or deadlines to meet. Regarding PoP, I really liked that series, so not seeing more progress being made on that this year has been a little disappointing.
windjammer
2019-11-30 14:28:09 +0000 UTCWell for the constructive criticism, (and btw you said I didn't need to hold back) you are an enormous idiot for promising things that you couldn't deliver and with no story telling juice left you would be ate alive........that being said your human not a machine, we all have our limitations and for most part we lack inspiration......but wanna know a secret, we always get that back.......so what you got a writers pause. Shiiiiit a lot of writers does that. And true it's embarrassing to admit it. But that it the hard stuff. Now for the REALLY Hard stuff. You need to take a vacation. Watch the world get something inspiring in that empty shell you call a brain. And for God's sake. EAT......you can't write a story on an empty stomach. Sound good. P.S. To FF, you told us only about Xiv's mother inheritance, but what about his Father, people refer to him as an Elf but ever heard of a Dark Elf Magician. Just saying.
J-Leaf
2019-11-30 13:00:24 +0000 UTCDon't worry about it man it's just fatigue. I mean you just started up a story and a project bc you wanted to try something and look what it blossomed into. No one's gonna judge for running out of juice. It's gonna take time to find a clear direction and mold the story to the way you want to but your going an amazing job. I do think it would be helpful to get team to back you up your doing so much at once having a team of writers would at least take some of the weight off of your shoulders. Don't try to rush things and do to much at once. Just take your time well all still love your work.
Tyler Pough
2019-11-30 07:10:33 +0000 UTCthis is something that happens to all the artists, the problems you described can be solved with time, putting ideas in mind, studying and trying to improve in the aspects that seem lacking, creativity will come back when you least expect it, we who support you believe in your work, remember that.
Daniele
2019-11-30 04:31:30 +0000 UTCJust get some people to help you out man. A team writes better than just one person. I do a lot of collaboration in my stuff. Many friends help me out all the time.
SuperCDR
2019-11-30 04:26:38 +0000 UTCI have for the longest time desired a spot on PoP but I never really got around to it :c
Cidolfas Silverwing
2019-11-30 04:18:58 +0000 UTC
