Mad Rupert Comics Zone

The personal art blog of MAD RUPERT, an extremely short comic artist and writer.

[mynameismad]

I regret to inform myself that making Sakana digitally looks almost exactly the same and I was a fool for not trying it sooner 😔

[mynameismad]

Mad, I hate to bring up the past and etc, BUT IS THERE ANY CHANCE YOU WILL BRING BACK SAKANA

yes :)

[mynameismad]

i just got into sakana after seeing some of the recent wips (i might have spent several hours going through it all in one day) and i love it so much AHHH (coughs. wheezes. falls down)

do you know if there will be a complete edition printed once the series is over? i would love nothing more than to have it on my shelf (as well as in my heart).

Ah wow, thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it! :D

Not 100% sure what the future of print versions will look like for Sakana, tbh! I've kickstarted three volumes in the past, but print and shipping costs have really skyrocketed recently and I'm not sure where things will stand when it comes time to make volume 4 (the final volume!) ON THE OTHER HAND: an omnibus would fulfill a personal dream...but also be a huge, landscape-format, 400-500ish page brick lol. In any case, that decision is still quite a ways off, and I'm going to focus more on trying to finish up the story and maybe do some digital releases in the meantime 👍👍

[mynameismad]

I regret to inform myself that making Sakana digitally looks almost exactly the same and I was a fool for not trying it sooner 😔

[mynameismad]

After 657 pages...I am finally trying digital. 🥲

[mynameismad]

Jirbones is also here 🐟💦

[mynameismad]

Honestly it would be a lot easier to finish Sakana digitally, but as mentioned, I'm over 600 pages deep and I still HAVE all of those 600+ traditional pages.......it would feel weird not to have a full set. The style change wouldn't be abrupt, per say, but it would definitely be noticeable. On the other hand, who cares????? IDK, something I grapple with a lot haha.

[mynameismad]

Ok so I got over myself and now I'm going the digital route lol. Trying to get a 20-30 (to 60????) page buffer finished before I do anything else, and will probably restart my Patreon and BigCartel store after that if everything seems like it's going well.

Just a quick update to let everyone know neither I, nor the comic, are dead. 🙏🐟

[mynameismad]

After 657 pages...I am finally trying digital. 🥲

[mynameismad]

I had some down time during my concept art contract so I threw together a few proof of concept pages for the new story about two evil wizards who have to become normal farmers and one is really into it and the other wants to destroy them both. But ACTUALLY it's about the existential crisis of changing careers in your 30s. :'^)

[mynameismad]

I had some down time during my concept art contract so I threw together a few proof of concept pages for the new story about two evil wizards who have to become normal farmers and one is really into it and the other wants to destroy them both. But ACTUALLY it's about the existential crisis of changing careers in your 30s. :'^)

[mynameismad]

I had some down time during my concept art contract so I threw together a few proof of concept pages for the new story about two evil wizards who have to become normal farmers and one is really into it and the other wants to destroy them both. But ACTUALLY it's about the existential crisis of changing careers in your 30s. :'^)

[mynameismad]

what if we were both evil wizards normal farmers and we both had complementary heterochromia to where when we looked in each other eyes our colors lined up....and also we both wanted to kill each other......mad your mind……..

Thank you. Thank you, you understand my vision. 🙂‍↕️👌

Sorry I've been doing a bad job of reposting doodles of my evil men

[mynameismad]

do you think we could get a small taro doodle...as a treat 👀

Who am I to deny the people what they want? 🙂‍↕️

[mynameismad]

This is killing me so I had to fix it

ENHANCE

[mynameismad]

Are you okay considering all the hiveworks stuff going on, and all the affiliated comic merch apparently being stuck in their warehouses from massive debt? Flight Rising already pulled out of their advertising contract with them and I remembered you also use them for your merch

Yes, I'm fine! (for the time being!!) My websites (Sakana and RR) are still up and active for now, and I have backups of both in case something changes suddenly. The merch I have with Hiveworks is only my physical books (the rest is print on demand, which is only made when someone orders it.) I've been in the process of moving for about half a year now and Sakana has been on hiatus for a long time, so the books are fine there for a while as far as I'm concerned. It's my understanding that I would be notified if they needed to be cleared out ASAP or about to be destroyed. I'm pretty sure you can still order them through Hivemill, but I haven't seen any payouts from that in quite some time. I assume that has more to do with low sales due to the comic updating inconsistently for the past few years, but it's something I've been meaning to look into. The situation with the Robber/Robert books is more complicated, and I will probably only be selling them at conventions for the foreseeable future, and releasing future chapters digitally on my own rather than getting them printed.

I had some pretty bewildering Kickstarter experiences with them over the years, so I think I might be done with KS for my own peace of mind. I'm not sure what that means for a future Sakana V4 because I don't know how far in the future that might happen. If anything, I'll be printing and selling it on my own.

TL;DR: My websites are still up, I haven't gotten word that they'll be taken offline, I'm pursuing a different career, and so for now I'm fine to leave them where they are. I'm moving into game development and solo comic projects, so Hiveworks is in no way tied to my livelihood or ability to make money. If something drastic happens, I have backups of my websites and can take them to a new server. I'm moving more into digital releases and limited print runs of my future work.

Sorry to be vague, but I'm trying to move forward in my life and career so it's a relief to leave all of that behind me. I retain full IP rights to all of my work and can make them on my own time. 👍👍

[mynameismad]

Honestly it would be a lot easier to finish Sakana digitally, but as mentioned, I'm over 600 pages deep and I still HAVE all of those 600+ traditional pages.......it would feel weird not to have a full set. The style change wouldn't be abrupt, per say, but it would definitely be noticeable. On the other hand, who cares????? IDK, something I grapple with a lot haha.

[mynameismad]

do you think we could get a small taro doodle...as a treat 👀

Who am I to deny the people what they want? 🙂‍↕️

[mynameismad]

any chance there will be more sakana in the near future? I miss Yuudai lol. My brain supplies "Are you shitting me Jiro!?" anytime something goes wrong at work and I ahve to take an escalation even tho Jiro is not there and not to blame.

Hey, yes! Sakana has never been abandoned, no matter how often I go on hiatus. The truth is that Sakana has the unfortunate distinction of being my first long-format comic that I started when I was 20 years old, back when I had no idea what I was doing and had a very unhealthy relationship to work. I'm 36 now, and I have needed to put it down every now and then.

The SHORT-TERM answer, is that my partner and I have been in the process of moving and finding a new place to live for the last 6 months! We've been jumping around between relatives' houses in different states and have finally decided to head out west to LA for the time being. Sakana is the only comic I still make traditionally on enormous Bristol sheets, and I just haven't had the space or access to my materials that I need to work on it!

The MEDIUM-TERM answer, is that I'm trying to make the full-time jump from comics to the game's industry, which is ALSO notoriously brutal lol. I've been fortunate enough to find a contract job for the past year and a half, but that's currently on pause while the company tries to secure funding for the game. If it does, I can continue working with the same company! And if it doesn't, I'm concerned about finding a new job, just like everyone else! In the meantime, I've been plowing through a new idea (evil wizards!!!) that has lots of farming and fighting and magic and a bunch of gross stuff that Sakana, by its nature, doesn't allow me to draw very often. (And that's obviously why I've taken breaks to work on Robber/Robert too lol.) I'll have to shift into portfolio mode if the job uncertainty drags on for too long, but I wanted to give myself a month or two to make something I'm currently excited about.

There are, of course, cinematic parallels...Look, I said it was gross, ok.

LONG TERM--of course Sakana will be finished! It's over 650 pages long and, GOD WILLING, it will be complete around 800-850. Less than 200 pages! Only 6 more chapters!! (I think???!!!) I would prefer not to do comics as my full-time career any more, but completing it would be a huge win for my own satisfaction, and for all the wonderful fans, like yourself, who have stuck around all these years!

Very sorry to post barf on your kind and thoughtful ask. Thank you again for all the support 🥲❤️🐟🪱

[mynameismad]

I've been getting back into comics while I wait for more info from my concept job, and I thought I'd make a post about something very important to me, which is COMIC PANEL VARIATION and HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT.

Also, yes, before you ask, these rules can absolutely be broken. I strategically break them to create a noticeable shift or flow in the storytelling, like so:

You can also probably make your own set of 5 IN 5 rules! I like to draw facial expressions and backgrounds and hands (like a masochist), so my 5 in 5 is definitely geared towards that. If you like to make more quiet, introspective comics, you could throw in a panel with NO DIALOGUE every 5 pages, or a mood panel with no characters, for example!