Broken Plot Device

I feel like I need to apologize to you guys. I KNOW I’ve said repeatedly how I’m going to be moving forward with comics and my creative output, but as I’m still getting questions and comments and… erm… insults, I feel like I haven’t done a good job at explaining myself, what I plan on doing, and why.

First: Broken Plot Device, as a one-page-at-a-time regularly scheduled webcomic, is not going to come back. This is not, as some have assumed, because of my breakup, nor do I fault people for thinking this. The break-up forced me to put things on hold, but it has nothing to do with why it won’t be returning. In reality, the webcomic update formula had been stressful and frustrating to me for a very long time. Primarily, I hated the constraints of writing a long story that would take 5 months for you all to read, one single page at a time, meanwhile not being able to do anything with ANY new ideas I may have in the meantime. I hated feeling I had to rush pacing in order to have something interesting or exciting happen with each update. I hated not having any time to work on ANY other non-BPD comic ideas I have because all of my focus was either on BPD or completely unrelated commissioned work. But most of all, I felt like the webcomics format was forcing me to put out increasingly sub-par content just to have SOMETHING on the site. I hadn’t been happy with 95% of the comics I’d done in the last year and a half, and I felt like I was doing all of you a disservice. My breakup was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, the thing that finally forced me to really look at what I was doing honestly and realize that I was just not happy with what I had been doing, and hadn’t been for a long time.

I would like to stress, however, that I am NOT done with comics. I have actually been working on a couple new things in the months since I left Philadelphia, and am excited to show them to you when I am done. It’s just that I will not be returning to webcomics in the form that I had before. It was making me miserable, and I felt like I was churning out formulaic & subpar content, when I would MUCH rather take the extra time to give you guys something GOOD, that I’m PROUD of. My intent is to focus more on doing more long-form comics, and releasing them as one single package. This would mean I don’t make comics posts as often, but when I do you will have one entire story, or a chapter of a story, to read all at once rather than one page at a time over a number of months. I’m still figuring out what projects I’ll be pursuing and focusing on over the others, as well as the specifics of the new business model (as my old webcomics model wasn’t working out for me financially either), but the important thing is that I am NOT GIVING UP! I’m just shifting gears to something new.

To those of you who have been patient and supportive, THANK YOU! I know many of you have been disappointed or confused or frustrated with me and with the disappearance of the webcomic, but if you chose to stay in hopes of the next big thing, than I cannot possibly express to you how thankful and appreciative I am of you. You guys are awesome, and if it wasn’t for you than I really WOULD have just given up entirely and gotten a “normal” job.

And if you do want to be kept up-to-date on any new projects I’m working on, please go to my NEW WEBSITE: http://www.lizzie-bean.com. This will be where I post all of my new comics – even some new BPD stories – as well as anything else I have going on; blog posts, artwork, tutorials, news, tutorials, reviews, and more. My goal is to have lizzie-bean.com be a general hub for everything I do, as well as be a general geek-centric entertainment site. Once again, I’m still figuring out exactly what direction I’ll be going in, so any input from you guys is appreciated! If there’s something you like or that you want to see, don’t hesitate to let me know.

So hopefully that clears things up. If you still have questions or concerns, feel free to post them in the comments. The decision to “end” the webcomic as it is now was NOT an easy decision. I just hope you can give my new endevor a chance, as I intend to work as hard as I can to make sure anything I do from here on out is many times better than anything I’ve done before. I hope you will join me for my new chapter in comics. ^_^

-Liz

Hey, guys!

I wanted to make you aware that, in the future, all new comics will be posted to my NEW SITE, Lizzie-Bean.com. I have a 4-page short story in the works, the first page of which I will post here as a preview. The rest of it will be available for free on the new site. I just wanted to make sure you all are aware, so you don’t miss out on any of my new stuff when it comes!

Back to productivity. Wee!!

Quite a few of you have been asking for an update on my situation.

At the end of June, I was forced to move out of the apartment Bob and I shared in Philadelphia. I had been given no choice to the matter, as Bob had already promised a friend of his that he could move into the apartment’s 2nd bedroom (and had made this promise weeks before telling me we needed to break up.) Thankfully, my father had spare space on the 3rd floor of his house in New Jersey, so I was able to move in there.

Right now I’m in limbo. I have a place to live, but it’s definitely a temporary situation. I’ve no real art stores anywhere nearby; the nearest Dick Blick to me is the one back in Philadelphia. Eventually I’m going to have to move out. Right now, I don’t know where I would go; I’m not sure I can afford to move back to philadelphia as I cannot afford to live alone on the freelance/comic income as I had it before. My good friend stephanie, who had moved up from Atlanta in the spring to be near Bob & I and who had been temporarily living with us since then, is moving out of our old place and into another temporary spot, and is at the moment 50/50 on even staying in Philadelphia; if she stays, I have a roommate. If not, I have to make the choice if I want to move to Atlanta or not. I’d consider moving across the country if I can find an ideal job opportunity (I’ve put in a portfolio for Pixar already, pray for me), but it’d be a huge investment and right now I’m afraid to take that big a leap for a job I’m not 100% happy and excited for. Bob even hinted right before I moved out that he would like to see about doing some introspection and fixing our issues for possible reconnection in the future, but being I’ve only gotten one e-mail from him that basically amounted to “sorry I haven’t written, I’ve been busy, have patience”, I’m not very optimistic for any progress there. But even if some miracle DOES happen and fix out relationship, I wouldn’t be moving back in with him (baring marriage, as impossible as that prospect is right now) so that’s the farthest from a realistic option as there could possibly be.

So right now, the next few months are going to be critical in me figuring out what’s going to happen. I will return, I SWEAR, but when and how and what I’ll be doing I’m still trying to figure out. I don’t want to leave you guys hanging for too long, because the outpouring of support and well-wishes has been amazing and I can NOT possibly tell you how much everything you’ve been sending means to me. I want to reassure you that I am NOT going to disappear. I may shift gears with the work I produce, but I do want to get back into making comics and bringing you laughs and entertainment. I just need a little bit more time still to settle in and figure things out.

So again, thank you all for your support. The last 4 years have been incredible, and hopefully I can come up with something for the next 4 that’ll be 10 times better.

-Lis