Chalkdust

Christmas Letter

2005-12-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed some changes to the "Chalkdust" website. I got rid of the "Caption Contest" and the "Games" sections... I felt they were distracting from the point of the website, which of course is the comic strip. Plus, since Chalkdust is now new 6 days a week, I don't really have the time to keep up with extra curriculars.

If I haven't said it lately, thanks for reading, and have a happy holiday season!

We are underway!

2005-12-07T06:39:00.000-08:00

Starting back on Monday, "Chalkdust" went to a six day a week schedule! That means new strips every Monday through Saturday! Enjoy!

Also, I've been conducting a bit of revisionist history... I recently went back and colored all of the old "Chalkdust" strips. Now, they're all in color and, on the Chalkdust website, are all in the bigger format.

In other news, "Adventures of Keystone" will be ending soon. It's been fun, but the future lies with "Chalkdust" and with it going on it's new schedule, "AoK" will have to be shelved. Thanks to everyone who supported it, and be sure to check it's website www.keystonecomic.com for the archives.

Holy Cow

2005-10-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted new news! Anyway, here's the latest..

"Chalkdust" has now started appearing in the teen supplement of the Quad-City Times (of Davenport, IA) called "Your Mom" It's been great so far, and though it doesn't seem to be appearing online with the rest of the website, that's okay... You already know where to find Chalkdust!

On the "brucetoons" front, there's new stuff always going up... most recently, the Original and Lost Strips sections of "Sinking Ship" are new, more "Tumblers" strips, and the newly added "and some other stuff" category, which is still being updated.

Finally, I loaded Adventures of Keystone through January 1st, so that'll take care of itself for a while

Check your Local Listings

2005-08-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

I've finally settled on an update schedule for AoK and Chalkdust. AoK will update once a week, on Sundays. Chalkdust will update three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

My next web project will be updating brucetoons.com. That's languished a bit in recent months, and it could really stand some attention. Click on the link to your right to see how it looks now.

Chalkdust is Back!

2005-08-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

Lots of big changes around here!

First up, I've brought back "Chalkdust" It was my webcomic before "Adventures of Keystone," and there have been a lot of people asking for it back. I started all over again, on a MWF schedule, so be sure to check back often.

Adventures of Keystone is going well. THe eighth adventure is being completed right now, and the fourth adventure begins on Comics Sherpa and Keenspace (Comic Genesis, now? who knows anymore) Sunday!

Be sure to check out brucetoons.com too, for an archive of my older stuff.

Change-Up

2005-07-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

It's been brought to my attention that the image files I've been using for "AoK" are too big, so I switched them from Jpegs to GIFs. With my newly acquired cable internet, I didn't notice, but hopefully this will make viewing easier for everyone.

The other big news is, starting July 24th, "AoK" will start updating TWICE a week! It's going to be a bit of a challenge, since I'll be upping the Keystone output 100%, but this just means twice the awesomeness!

Let me know what you think of "AoK" so far.

Victory!

2005-07-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

After weeks of work, Keystone's Web Site is up! I'm happy with it. I wish, however, I was better at web design and programming and what not. I look at some of these other webcomics, and I wonder how people do what they do? It seems to be a fascinating combination of right and left sides of the brain working together, to have someone who can draw and write a cartoon, but have the technical prowess to program a website (even using a WYSIWYG program)

The Big Bad Web

2005-07-05T07:05:00.000-07:00

Construction is still underway on the stand-alone website for "Adventures of Keystone." It'll be hosted on both Keenspace and Doteasy. I'm loving me some Keenspace, simply because of the automatic updating and archiving features. And I'm this close to getting the site to look how I want, so it should be up and running in a matter of days.

It was tough to get anything done with it over the holiday weekend. Not so much because I had so much to do, but because I was out on a boat Saturday, and I'm sunburned as all get out. But, nothing like spending the day drinking beer and floating on the water with a bunch of party animals. It was a great time.

Don't forget, the wait is almost over, KeyFans! "Boombox Blast" part 2 of 4 comes your way tomorrow!

Local Bands

2005-06-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

I was out at the bars last night (yep, on a Monday) and walked smack dab into a show put on by a couple of bands. I'm trying to remember their names, but for the life of me , I can't.

That notwithstanding, I found myself being the only one of the group I was with who was enjoying the show. It seems to me most people can't be bothered with anything, unless they've seen it before. Hence, the popularity of cover bands. But if people are only interested in you if they've heard you before, how does one become heard in the first place?

Thinking about it some more, I suppose that's the struggle of anyone who has an artistic pursuit. Like any of my cartoons, it's a real struggle to find a fan base. You have to go through so many levels-

1. People who are willing to give new things a shot, who tell-
2. People who are willing to listen to reccomendations about new things, - who then make it just popular enough to bring it front of-
3. People who are too busy, or just don't care about finding new music, cartoons, what have you.

By the way, as far as Adventures of Keystone goes, I put a new logo on all of the new and archived strips. I think it gives the site a much sharper look. I'm still waiting for news from Keenspace, so I can set up a site there. Hopefully, by the time that goes through, my re-registration of my Keystone domain name will go through as well.

Now we play the waiting game...
...the waiting game sucks. Let's play "Hungry Hungry Hippos!"
-Homer Simpson

Re-Writes

2005-06-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

I hate it when I have a whole series of cartoons written, only to go back and have to re-write the whole thing. I work pretty far in advance on "AoK" so sometimes I'll be looking at a script that was written a few weeks ago. Plus, there's going to be a huge checkpoint for the series sometime in the future (probably next summer) so I have to make sure everything flows in that general direction.

By the way, as far as the Fed-Ex thing goes, I just dropped the package off in front of the dude's apartment. I try not to be anti-social, but then again, sometimes I just don't have the energy.

Fed Ex Guy

2005-06-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

So, there I was, working on a script for my webcomic, Adventures of Keystone, when I hear a knock down the hall. I ignore it.

A few moments later, there's a knock on my door. It sounded urgent.. not like a fireman coming to rescue you, but more like a maintenance man coming in to fix the problem you've been having with your fridge.

I answer the door, to which I see a Fed Ex Guy (FEG) The thing is, I didn't order anything from Fed Ex.

Says he: I have a package for Travis.

I just moved into this apartment building, and I work from 2:30 until midnight at a local TV station. Hence, I never get to see anyone... Including Travis. FEG goes on to explain that he needs to drop this package off, and wonders if I could take it. I decide to, mostly because this guy seemed new, and very exasperated.

Plus, it'll give me a chance to meet a neighbor.

The adventure continues.