Happy birthday to me! So here’s my present to you!
Ladies and gentlemen! After a very long time, a lot of hard work (plus an admittedly embarassing lack of sleep): Welcome to my three websites!
And my personal blog... and the relaunch of my two webcomics, Chip and Walter and Time Trouble…and eventually my portfolio, Patreon/Commisions Hub, writings plus everything else that I can conceptually fit here!
I’ve been in need of a professional venue that I can maintain for a looooooong time. This joint still isn’t completely moved into but it’s definitely at a point where I can comfortably launch and not feel awkward about doing so! This is a rare time that I’ll be cross posting to all three of my websites so I’ll break everything down accordingly. Please bear with the long post…
The Main Website: www.jongraywb.com
This will be my primary, personal, professional website. Here you’ll find info containing my bio, my published works (specifically dealing with licensed materials like Disney Comics and Sonic the Hedgehog!
If you are one of my Principles of Cartooning students at the School of Visual Arts, you can find a copy of the syllabus as well as a direct means of contact should you need to ask me any questions about assignments or general advice after school hours. IMPORTANT NOTE: The new syllabus will most likely go up next week in anticipation of the start of classes. Currently I’ve linked the old one just so you can get a rough idea of what it will look like. All school related info can be found on the left sidebar.
The right sidebars of this page will be updated with all my current Disney Comics solicits for IDW Publishing.
Beyond general updates the news feed here will double as blog entries whenever I feel the need to discuss random things, announce events (conventions, new books coming out, etc), travel plans or talk about general things that are on my mind.
FAQ sections for all three pages are interlinked depending on content. I’d debated on consolidating them into one big page but it seemed to massive and cumbersome.
WHAT’S MISSING?
The next major things to integrate here will be a full image/portfolio gallery of all my non web-comic work plus a working Patreon/Commissions Hub for donations/any work you’d like me to do. I’d liked to have launched with this but time was of the essence for the start of school and freelance work. PLEASE NOTE THAT COMMISSIONS ARE NOT OPEN YET! They won’t be until I’ve finished this project and specifically gotten these things launched. This is the next major thing I will be working on following this update.
Chip and Walter: http://www.chipandwalter.com/
Time Trouble: http://www.time-trouble.com/
After a long time, my babies have finally been re-launched.
I promised these comics would come out ages ago (2014 to be exact) and I’ve sat down plot-mapping, character redesigning, planning, thinking, re-plot-mapping and drawing and redrawing a buffer that I’ve slowly been pecking at for years. It wasn’t until the past year and a half that I finally overcame my personal worries, buckled down and pushed myself to do it. I don’t think it’s prideful to pat myself on the back for having finally achieved that goal.
Before I say anything else…
A lot of you have messaged me about wanting to see return to doing my personal comics/doing original work. I can’t thank you enough for both your patience, your inquiries and for the needed words of encouragement. Artists are sensitive and, personally, I’m always exceedingly nervous about putting myself out there. My comics are representative of my personal grow and improvement since my earliest days. The more I got into the groove or drawing these for myself, the better I feel like I got. I can’t wait for y’all to see the stuff that hasn’t even gone up yet.
I can only hope that you enjoy the story as much I enjoy creating it.
Both comics have launched with their respective 15 strip Chapter Zero prologues including title/cover pages (for the prologue itself and ending on the cover for the following chapter), a bonus cast page (the plan is to end all chapters with some sort of bonus page) and a rudimentary archive for easy browsing.
Updates for each comic will individually occur once a week barring any pressing freelance or professional work that comes my way (My pro work always comes first. Gotta pay my bills.)! As with my main website, all updates will be announced on my social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr) and noted on their individual pages as news posts when necessary.
WHAT’S MISSING?
While cast pages currently exist as makeshift tags, these only show what strips (plus a counter) each individual character has appeared in. As the stories progress and new characters are introduced, I will add in proper cast descriptions with new individual artwork as I see fit.
I will definitely be replacing the large top header banners for both comics with more intricate illustrations like on my main page in the coming weeks. Right now I have a several “placeholder images” up in spots to suit my needs.
I’ll probably also add outgoing links to other comics I like read. I have no earthly idea how RSS feeds work, so I’ll be looking into that in the coming week.
As a sidenote: I know the dropdown menus for each comic are currently acting weird. I’ve been tutoring myself in CSS on the fly and while the background color for individually selected comics on the dropdowns work, I have no clue how to get the chapters to have the same background color as the rest of the menu so that they’re actually readable. If you have any idea on how to fix this problem I’m all ears. I’ll probably also ask some knowledgeable friends later once I get ample sleep. And I think that’s that.
Finally, if you’d like to comment on any of the comics or even the individual blog posts feel free!
Again, I have no plans on cross posting to all three pages like this, preferring to keep news worthy things separate and organized, but this is a special occasion and I want to cover all my bases. Do note that I’ve set up an approval system on comments, so nothing will show up yet without my say-so. That said, my twitter and facebook accounts are always open (check the Social Media Portal on the left sidebar of all pages!) If you post with “first” nonsense I’ll most likely ban you outright. I’ll approve any commentary once I’ve gotten decent rest and celebrated my birthday proper. 🙂
Thank you so much for being patient. I hope you enjoy what you see and I hope these pages will eventually do everything I intend for them to do. Have fun and enjoy the comics!