Because I published my second comic book in July this year, I feel like it is totally fine to take a small break from making comic books. HOWEVER… there will STILL be monthly progress report logs. Why? Because I am going to be using my Udemy art course to IMPROVE my drawing skills! 😀
While I have learned a lot from making comic books, I don’t see a totally drastic improvement in my drawing skills. From October 1st, 2023 until January 1st, 2024, I would like to focus on improving my drawing skills. I would LOVE to continue making more comics right away, but I really wanna improve the look of my artwork, before publishing another book.
I DO WANNA CLARIFY: I will STILL be making comic books! I will just have to resume my progress in the beginning of next year. I really wanna spend the rest of my year improving my craft. ❤ I hope you readers understand.
Expect to see monthly progress reports of my stuff. Heck! Maybe I’ll make a new blog post, each time I get my Udemy homework done.
I hope you guys look forward to IMPROVED artwork from here on out! 🙂
I’m very sorry, everyone, but because printing costs on Amazon have changed, I have upped the prices of my paperback comic books. Otherwise, I would hardly make any profit on my work. They’re actually $14 each, which is the original price of Space Grind: House Havoc. It was nice having the price be $12 for a while, but unfortunately, that is no longer doable for me 😦
However, there IS a bright side! I will keep the digital copies the same price: $7 (half the amount of the paperback price). The reason why I feel comfortable keeping this price is because my profits aren’t affected by printing costs with digital. I see no reason to up the price of my digital copies, if my profits work for me the way it is.
Thank you to all my customers who are still willing to buy my books under this price change. I hope it is not too inconvenient to anyone ❤
A day late, but I’m posting this now! 😀 I got A LOT done during the month of August, but not necessarily in regards to just the comic books! I also got A TON of short silly videos done this month for YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram, and Game Jolt. I was making so many, I didn’t even add most of them to the Progress Report log (I didn’t want the list to be too long).
Here is the list of last month’s accomplishments
August 3rd, 2023 — Finished page 2 of “Freedom Passes” (page 44 overall)
August 4th, 2023 — Joined an app called Game Jolt
August 6th, 2023 — Figured out OBS and streamed myself starting page 3 of “Freedom Passes”
August 7th, 2023 — Hosted another YouTube art livestream, for page 3 of “Freedom Passses”
August 7th, 2023 — Finished page 3 of “Freedom Passes” (page 45 overall)
August 8th, 2023 — Edited a certain drawing for page 3 of “Freedom Passes”
August 9th, 2023 — Created a new kind of video about Dimwit and Trax. Uploaded it to YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Game Jolt.
August 10th, 2023 — Created another experimental video with Neuro and Onion. Uploaded it to YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Game Jolt. Lots of success!
August 10th – August 12th — Livestreamed 4 different times over the course of these three days.
August 12th, 2023 — Created an experimental video of RSL and Radmu. Uploaded it to YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Game Jolt.
August 12th, 2023 — Live-streamed myself making another experimental video, with Dimwit and Comida. I also got that video finished and uploaded to YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Game Jolt.
August 13th, 2023 — Received a donation from Game Jolt user @ChristoffOffical
August 14th, 2023 — Posted two new blog posts
August 14th, 2023 — Created a NEW YouTube Channel trailer, to replace the old one.
August 28th, 2023 — Finished page 4 of “Freedom Passes” (page 46 overall)
August 29th, 2023 — Read the unfinished script for “The Spicy Meatball” to 2 friends for feedback
August 31st, 2023 — Got started on writing both the introductions to the stories: “The Spicy Meatball” and “Freedom Pass”
I’m very pleased with the progress I’ve been making in the month of August! I hope you also have been enjoying the short silly videos of my characters acting out classic memes 🙂 As usual, below is the monthly sneak peek of the next comic book! Have a blessed month of September, y’all!
P.S. I turn 25 years old this month, and I’m very excited for that ❤
Here are a few pages that are free to read. It’s the comic story “Girls’ Night Out,” which is from the book Space Grind: Robot Takeover!. You can get yourself a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Space-Grind-Takeover-Alexandra-Nelson/dp/B0C9SNG88D/?encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=6CVHS&content-id=amzn1.sym.5f7e0a27-49c0-47d3-80b2-fd9271d863ca%3Aamzn1.symc.e5c80209-769f-4ade-a325-2eaec14b8e0e&pf_rd_p=5f7e0a27-49c0-47d3-80b2-fd9271d863ca&pf_rd_r=FRJXTK84ZF7KYV40CHVR&pd_rd_wg=ArFkw&pd_rd_r=eca11c43-3595-4cbb-83a3-fe830950c674&ref=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m
If you guys keep up with my latest YouTube videos, you’ll notice that I’ve been uploading more videos lately 😀 I thought I should try something new and different for my YouTube channel, so I can hopefully gain some more attention on my content. It seems to be working! Or at least… working more than my videos have in the past. ❤
It first started with this YouTube video. It was different than any videos I’ve made in the past. It also didn’t take me too long to make. Basically, I make color-coded sketches of my comic book characters, and then have them say silly things. What they say are mostly based on popular memes, and I try to keep the words faithful to their character. For example, the only human Trax has taught to drive a space car is Dimwit, so I thought this meme audio would suit them both perfectly.
Trax making sure Dimwit hasn’t gotten into any trouble after driving.
To increase the odds of my videos getting attention, I’ve also been posting the videos as YouTube Shorts. The YouTube Shorts seem to be working VERY WELL!! With an average of at least a thousand views per video. I’m wondering if these kind of videos pleases the algorithm.
I also have been posting the same videos to other platforms, such as Tik Tok, Instagram, and Game Jolt. Each of them have their own varying degrees of success.
So far, this video seems to be the most successful 😀 (at least the YouTube Shorts version — what’s posted below is the full version, which ironically has less attention)
A video of Onion “catcalling”
I hope you guys have been enjoying these kind of videos! I would like to continue making more of them 🙂 Feel free to leave a comment on this post, to share your thoughts!
P.S. I also plan to make some videos to promote Rachel the Vampire very soon.
I wanna thank Instagram user and friend: @Dynocation, for recommending a relatively new app to me called Game Jolt. I just wanted to let people know that I’m on there now! I have been finding some good success on the app, and I enjoy using it a lot 😀
Dynocation is also on Game Jolt, if you want to support her work!
On August 13th, I received a generous donation from Game Jolt user: @ChristoffOfficial
I wanted to give him a shoutout for sure! He is entering his second year of college soon, for learning Game Design and Development! I look forward to seeing what he does with his passion and skills. 😀
I also wanna thank my first donator Greg H, who is a talented musician and writer! He donated to me about a year ago. He has a BA in screenwriting, and even complimented my work! He also wrote a review on Amazon for Space Grind: House Havoc. Thank you so much, Greg H!!
If anyone else would like to donate to the website, I’ll be sure to give you a shout-out and public thank you!! If you wanna donate without a public shout-out or thank you, please reach out to me and lemme know that you want your donation to be private 😉
I appreciate EVERYONE’S support over my comic books over these past 3 years! It’s been such a pleasure ❤
July 2023 was AWESOME! It was the month where I officially finished and published Space Grind: Robot Takeover! 😀 So exciting! Here is the list of accomplishments:
July 2nd, 2023 — Finished Zig’s and Zag’s “Art Gallery” page (Page 49 overall)
July 2nd, 2023 — Got started on the first page of the comic story “Freedom Passes” (which will be released in a separate comic book, after Space Grind: Robot Takeover!)
July 2nd, 2023 — Finished the first Draft version of “Act One” for “The Spicy Meatball” script.
July 8th, 2023 — Finished the Copyright page, after getting my free ISBN from Amazon (page 2 overall, which is the LAST ONE needed!!)
July 8th, 2023 — Set up everything on KDP for the next comic book — Just got to wait for the proof copy in the mail.
July 9th, 2023 — Finished the first page of the comic episode “Freedom Passes” (page 43 overall – third planned Space Grind comic book)
July 11th, 2023 — Got started outlining a script for the first Rachel the Vampire comic
July 12th, 2023 — Got the proof copy of Space Grind: Robot Takeover! in the mail
July 12th, 2023 — Approved of the comic book for it to be sold on the Amazon website.
July 13th, 2023 — Space Grind: Robot Takeover! appears on the Amazon website!
July 13th, 2023 — Got started on Act One for a script for the first Rachel the Vampire comic book, titled “Uncultured Swines!”
July 16th, 2023 — Finished the E-book version of Space Grind: Robot Takeover! And submitted it to Amazon NOTE: THE E-BOOK GOT BLOCKED, AND I MADE A PHONE CALL TO AMAZON. I SHOULD SHORTLY RECEIVE AN EMAIL GETTING FEEDBACK FROM A CONTENT REVIEW TEAM.
July 18th, 2023 — Received an email that my e-book has PASSED the KDP Content Review! 😀
July 27th, 2023 — Got started updating the digital manuscripts for Space Grind: House Havoc
July 30th, 2023 — Finished updating the digital manuscript for Space Grind: House Havoc
A lot has got done! I’m even working on two different comic book projects at the same time. I’ll try to get at least one of them done sometime next year. ❤ I already have a few finished scripts and scripts that are still being worked on.
Today’s blog post is about something very special to me! A lot of writers know or have been told that they should write down their ideas. I’ve been doing that ever since 2016, back when I was in high school. I’m so glad I did. Today, I’m talking about my four “Idea Journals.” I think every writer who is serious about writing should have one 😀 They definitely come in handy! I will talk a little bit about each of them in today’s post!
From left-to-right are my oldest to newest Idea Journals. The cross-striped “Idea and Intentions” journal is my VERY FIRST idea journal. The dirty and faded journal with “Notes” on it is my second journal. The other journal with black and white stripes (which has now super faded words) is my third idea journal. Lastly, the blue one that says “Full of Ideas” is my fourth idea journal, which is still being worked on. It is full of blank pages right now ❤
I wanna talk a little bit about each of these journals for fun. I will also show some journal entries that might be entertaining to read.
IDEA JOURNAL #1
This is my very first journal! Considering how journals #2 and #3 are so faded and covered in pencil lead, I’m surprised journal #1 is in such good shape after all these years! How many years, you ask? The first journal entry is from September 25, 2016. That’s nearly SEVEN YEARS OLD! Let’s take a look at some of these journal entries, shall we?
Concept Artwork From Thursday, February 9th, 2017
I absolutely LOVE that I sometimes would draw out ideas in my head!! I 100% FORGOT about this idea, until I went flipping through pages today for this blog post.
Inside Jokes While Writing Down Dates — Wednesday, March 14th, 2018
Whenever I write down ideas on a day that is meaningful to me in some way, sometimes I will make a little reference or drawing to go along with it! It makes writing down ideas even more fun! For example, this is based on a scene from the SpongeBob Squarepants Movie in which Plankton says something about March 14th on a calendar. I also totally forgot that I wrote in my Idea Journal to write down theories and thoughts during my first playthrough of the video game Life is Strange.
Last page of Idea Journal #1 – Thursday, April 12th, 2018
The very last page of my idea journal was pretty sentimental to me ❤ I even wrote down how long it took to complete the Idea Journal 😀 It took 1 year, 6 months, and 18 days.
IDEA JOURNAL #2
Ah man! I remember this Idea Journal being so shiny and nice when it was brand new. Whenever I put it in my backpack, I’d put it in with a very nice pencil sharpener. I believe the lead from that pencil sharpener would dirty up the journal, so sadly it doesn’t look as nice 😦 This journal took 1 year and 10 days to complete.
Brainstorming Names — Sunday, May 13th, 2018
I would often brainstorm what to name my characters in my Idea Journals. This is just one example. I’ve seen several pages like this while flipping through Idea Journal #2. Funny enough, sometimes I would forget what names I would choose for certain characters, and then write a new name for them in a separate journal entry LOL
Funny Acronym — Sunday, July 1st, 2018
HAHA! I thought this acronym was hilarious! Perfect for satire comedy! Oink! Oink!
Coming Up With Trax Zarpp’s Backstory — Monday, November 5th, 2018
This is a journal entry where I brainstormed the details regarding Trax’s relationship with his wife Rel. Particularly why the two are separated, but still married.
IDEA JOURNAL #3
I can barely see what the original words are, because it’s so faded! I believe it said “Thoughts and intentions” in pretty cursive.
Amazon SP00 Stickers! — Friday, September 27th, 2019
I actually talk about this particular idea for a character named SP00 on page 50 of my comic book Space Grind: Robot Takeover! It’s so cool to me that I have the original sticker that sparked this character idea ❤
Writing Down Dialogue — Friday, October 11th, 2019
Sometimes, I would write down specific dialogue between my characters in my Idea Journals. This is dialogue between Trax and Onion (whose name was “Twig” back then). I thought this in particular was pretty funny!
IDEA JOURNAL #4
I’m doing my best to have this particular Idea Journal maintain its nice and clean look! I’ve had this one for a bit now, and so far so good! I think I’ll only post one idea from this journal, because there aren’t as many ideas to choose to show.
Brainstorming the Space Grind Timeline — Thursday, March 17th, 2022
I remember wanting to keep track of how time works in Space Grind, so I wrote down some ideas on this page.
Closing Thoughts
I want to end this fun blog post with a Bible verse: “And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.” (Habakkuk 2:2 ESV) I think this Bible verse is very fitting for today’s topic! It certainly has been useful, as well as a feel-good accomplishment! 😀
I hope everyone here has enjoyed reading this blog post, and will also enjoy their day today! 🙂
Alex Zen Draw 