artisticScatterplot will be ending within the next month.
Those of you that read the comic recognize, I'm sure, that the current story arc - what I was calling Phase II back in 2003, the conversion of Scatterplot from a gag-based to a story-based strip - is quickly reaching a climax. In fact, it's basically happening right now. Denouement should be relatively quick, and I hope to have the comic done (at least done drawing, etc - if I'm buffered, I may be updating for a week or so afterwards) by the last day of October.
This is because Tuesday, November 1st is the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. With Scatterplot complete, I will be able to fully focus my creative energies on the novel.
The novel will be complete on or before November 30th. (I make this claim because I do not intend to show weakness in the face of the 30-day deadline. I will complete the novel.) December, then, starts a relatively dormant period, compared to my constant, active creative work (such as having new comics up three times a week or having approximately 1700 words of novel complete every day).
I have several plans for this time. I've got ideas for four separate games floating around in my head, and I need to get them at least committed to paper, if not actually prototyped for playtesting at the next con I go to. One of them, at least, will be the revival of the Convention Game project I had embarked on with a few friends of mine at... hell, it was probably Otakon 02. One of the only good things to come out of that con, really. (Hey, guys, I still have the card list. Woo.) I also have ideas for games based on presidential elections, corporate hiring practices, and space battle and colonization. We'll get there.
But the ultimate product of that period, besides any reasonably playable games that come out as a result, will be the first story arc and overall plot for my next webcomic project. I intend to launch that webcomic in the spring of 2006. I will decline to speak more about the idea here, save to say that the current idea I'm looking at is a fantasy world with rule-based magic.
So now you know. The next few months should be very interesting indeed.
As for now, tonight's comic is up, and I'm almost done penciling Friday's.
It'll feel odd to be done with Scatterplot, though, I think. The comic has survived through two breakups, a graduation, two cross-country moves (one of them permanent), and a new job. Not to mention Stefan's departure from the project. But now, this story is ending.
Someday, though, I might come back to Scatterplot. There are more stories to tell, and I know where I'd go next. But I'm more interested in this point at the new project.
I'm excited.