An extra big thanks to all those that have stopped by to see the new Love Sick webcomic.

In addition to the comic there are other things to look forward to here at lovesickcomic.com. But more about that later…

Quick head designs from the sketchbook.

I currently have about 8 weeks buffer on finished strips. I have been using this buffer to wrestle this site into something that I think will work for me. I’m in the home stretch regarding the website and that’s exciting. It’s exciting because that means it’s time to head back to the drawing board. The real one.

When I started this strip I just wanted to get something down. I wanted to see if I could make it work. I was not overly concerned that everything was perfect – and it shows. Honestly, Love Sick could be drawn better and today I pledge to take this to the next level by changing that. I don’t think everything will be perfect – but it is going to be better. Expect to see some characters evolve graphically starting early next year. That sounds like a long time away uh? It’ll be here quicker than you think.

Additionally, I’ll be changing the format. I’ll be moving from a traditional strip format into something that I think will work better both for the strip and it’s potential. What I mean by that is that the new format will allow for better story telling, interesting layouts, better design and should translate into a variety of formats, including mobile devices better. This comic this is on the web – why not embrace this freedom?

So between now and the end of the year you can expect to get a few previews of the progress of these evolutions. I hope you are enjoying it so far. Let me know!

So in honor of his birthday, here is a poem by the genius himself.

Genius by Mark Twain

Genius, like gold and precious stones,
is chiefly prized because of its rarity

Geniuses are people who dash of weird, wild,
incomprehensible poems with astonishing facility,
and get booming drunk and sleep in the gutter.

Genius elevates its possessor to ineffable spheres
far above the vulgar world and fills his soul
with regal contempt for the gross and sordid things of earth.

It is probably on account of this
that people who have genius
do not pay their board, as a general thing.

Geniuses are very singular.

If you see a young man who has frowsy hair
and distraught look, and affects eccentricity in dress,
you may set him down for a genius.

If he sings about the degeneracy of a world
which courts vulgar opulence
and neglects brains,
he is undoubtedly a genius.

If he is too proud to accept assistance,
and spurns it with a lordly air
at the very same time
that he knows he can’t make a living to save his life,
he is most certainly a genius.

If he hangs on and sticks to poetry,
notwithstanding sawing wood comes handier to him,
he is a true genius.

If he throws away every opportunity in life
and crushes the affection and the patience of his friends
and then protests in sickly rhymes of his hard lot,
and finally persists,
in spite of the sound advice of persons who have got sense
but not any genius,
persists in going up some infamous back alley
dying in rags and dirt,
he is beyond all question a genius.

But above all things,
to deftly throw the incoherent ravings of insanity into verse
and then rush off and get booming drunk,
is the surest of all the different signs
of genius.

Earlier today,

And so comes in a handy little app called StoryPages that allows for more than just note taking. It allows you not only to draw your idea out, but to script it too.

Just released, the app by SpinThought® is an iPhone app for those that need to create illustrated story pages on the go. StoryPages lets you draw in the top portion of a page and then add text descriptions below your drawing, like a storyboard. You can add a background image from the Photo Gallery or take a picture to use as a semi-transparent background to set the scene if you’d like.

I’ve used it a few times and it is one of those things that if you don’t have, you are constantly thinking “if only…”  Or, you can just lose your idea – it is up to you.