Major Apologies and Changes

Yeah, so if I still have any readers, you may have noticed that I haven't updated in a while. There's a reason for that. Several reasons.

Last summer, my sister and brother-in-law kinda-sorta hired me as a babysitter/housekeeper/groundskeeper/animal handler with a little graphic designer/consultant on the side. So I moved from my apartment near my folks to my sister's basement up in Middle-of-Nowhere, North Dakota. I like it, usually, but moving in and getting settled was (is) a bit of a process.

Once I got things arranged so I could start drawing more often, woops! My drawing computer starts acting up. Or, perhaps more accurately, not starting up. That's what I thought, anyway. Something turned on, but as of a couple months ago, it wasn't communicating at all with the Wacom tablet.

Finally got the entire rig down to my brother and the first thing he does is open the converter box between the tablet and the computer. It looked like bird poop and melted chocolate. Or like something exploded.

Apparently, these sort of components aren't supposed to do that.

Yay.

Welp, my brother takes a look around and finding a quality replacement would not only be difficult but also expensive. I've also been thinking about saving up for an actual tablet computer for a while so I can do what I wanted to in the first place, see something interesting and just whip out the tablet for some drawing.

Which would run somewhere between 1,100 and 3,000 bucks.

So I haven't been working on Mary Quite Contrary or much of anything else art-wise for the better part of a year. I'm sorry. Really. I don't know if anyone is still reading this, but I do want you to know that I haven't abandoned this comic.

In fact, as soon as I can get a drawing rig up again, I plan on rebooting the story. There are a few things I ended up skipping over because I was trying have the comic's time run in 'real time.' I think I've also learned a few things about pacing and layout since the early strips. Not to mention I'd like to give a bit more focus to Mary's family.

MQC will return, eventually, and I'm hoping it comes back better than before. Cross your fingers.

Chapter 15, Page 14 Anesthesia

Sorry for the long wait. First I had trouble just working on the comic (technical issues with the computer and various demands on my time). Then I heard about Blogger having some issues with posting images because of a new security protocol. I'm hoping things have settled down enough so everything shows up the way it's supposed to.

Not the greatest strip to end a hiatus with, I know. It's what I had.

Reason for the delay.

Okay, there are a number of things contributing to the current delay in a new comic coming out. One of them is that my drawing computer is refusing to talk with my drawing tablet and vice versa. As soon as I can arrange some couple's counseling for them I'll try to get back to the comic.

Chapter 15, Page 7 No spoken de Doich?

Really happened. I was half humming, half singing a Norwegian song and an old man started speaking German to me. I had a bit of a time trying to explain that I couldn't understand him.

Sorry for the long delay again! I forgot which thumb drive I was using. ^^;

Delay again... still...

Well, I'm almost done with moving. That is, I'm within a day or so of having my stuff out of the old apartment and into the new one. Not sure when the chaos of boxes and furniture will turn into something livable.

My initial plan for Mary Quite Contrary was to have Mary and her family age in more-or-less real time, like Gasoline Alley and For Better Or For Worse. The way things are going right now I'll either have to change that plan or skip a lot of stuff I had planned to draw. I think I'll go with the former. Not that I don't also plan on adding a lot of stuff to the earlier chapters. That will probably wait until I get these into 'dead tree' format. If I ever manage to.

Just wanted to let everyone who's still reading this know. I will be back eventually.

Apologies.

This has not been a good month for me so far. I could go on at length, but suffice to say that life has been happening with unusual frequency lately.

And to top it off I actually *do* have the next comic ready. I just can't access it because the computer my brother and I *finally* got working (mostly) decided to stop recognizing the Wacom tablet and keyboard *after* I'd finished the comic but before I saved it as a jpeg on my flash drive. The computer turns on, but without any way to see the desktop I can't do anything with it.

AAAAA!!!

I do have something to post, but Blogger was down for a while. And blog posts have gone missing from several of my Dad's blogs. Possibly mine, too, but I haven't checked thoroughly. The problem is being worked on, but posts are still appearing and disappearing. I'm a little leery of posting the next episode until the situation settles down.

Sorry about that. ^^;

A delay

I'm having a really hard time figuring out how to show the level of panic Mary feels behind the wheel. There are also a couple events coming up in story and in real life that are going to make things interesting for me. Uff da.

Anyway, I'm hoping the delay won't be long, but I wanted to give some warning, anyway.

Heat related intermission

It's way too hot. And I don't have A/C. Because of that, the next episode is going to be delayed a bit. My brain is melting, my skin is becoming one with whatever surface it comes in contact with, and you do not want to know about my digestion.

By the end of the weekend I should (I hope) have A/C and will be able to complete the last couple of steps necessary for the strip without having to dive into the freezer every 30 seconds. Thank you for your patience.

More delays. So sorry.

First Monday's strip ends up posted on Tuesday and now there's no Wednesday post? Sorry.

There's a bit of drama on my end involving my rabbit and an apartment management that doesn't like him being there smelling the place up. Never mind that everyone who actually lives here loves the little ball of fur.

I'm going to try to keep my rabbit and the roof that's currently over my head. Hopefully without falling too far behind on my other obligations.

I'd explain the delay, but...

Between finals, an annual apartment inspection, and some health concerns you really don't want details on, I just don't see me getting today's strip up today. In fact, I was working on it and things started to smudge. Not a good sign.

So I'll shoot for Wednesday.

Sorry for the delay.

Well, between the excitement of having one of my school projects accepted as a poster for a local hospital's holiday gala, realizing ohmygoshtomorrowisthefirstIneedtogetRabbitWriterready, and having a few set backs in a project that's due Monday, I haven't even started on the strip that was supposed to be up today.

I'm really, really sorry! I'll try to get back on track next week!

Cold induced delay: Therefore fanart

A good friend of mine, Elizabeth-EvilChibi, offered to do some fan art since I couldn't do an update for today.

This is the sketch version of that fanart. Pretty cool stuff.

Thankfully, my cold is getting better, so I should be back up to speed for Friday's update.

Humble appologies, delay

My right arm doesn't feel good. My wrist in particular aches a bit. So it's difficult to work on Mary Quite Contrary. Hopefully, I'll get to a chiropractor soon and things will return to normal or better, but until then I would be able to update as planned.

T.T I don't like this delay, either.

Hozowokamu = I'm very sorry!

I'm going to an anime convention next week and because I've been so busy getting ready I haven't prepared any episodes for today or next week. There are some sketches, but nothing finished. Once I get back I'll be working really hard on catching up. Promise!

Bye!

Sorry for the Delay

Do to circumstances beyond my control...

Okay, so I could have controlled it. It's kinda complicated. (More like embarrassing.)

The point is that the regularly scheduled update has been delayed. Hopefully I'll have something on Friday, more likely Saturday.

Thank you for your patience. Please excuse me while I hit my head against something hard.

Sorry for the delay.

I'm having a little difficulty with my computer and am currently at my Grandpa's. Unfortunately, it seems Grandpa doesn't have any USB ports on his computer so I can't upload the images for the next comic. I'll see about making a double post on Monday to get things back on track.

Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.