Genesis: Part Three

I kept writing and drawing Eat @ Shrimpy’s off and on for years, but eventually stopped as my motivation slowed down.  This was a natural course of events as I came to the stunning realization that my lifelong ambition was not going to play out exactly as I had planned.  I had hoped to get a job right out of college doing something that I loved, drawing comics, but when no one knocked on my door save for a few individuals with a couple dollars to spend on pet projects, I started to pick up my pencil with less frequency.  I made a feeble attempt at turning it into a webcomic around that time but poor planning on my part left me with a bunch of art that was at too low of a resolution to be any good to anyone, which basically meant that if I wanted this thing to succeed I would have to re-letter everything that I had already done and then get back on the horse.  At that time it did not seem like a viable option, so Eat @ Shrimpy’s went on the shelf. 

That is where it stayed for years because I knew that if I were to start again, it would be an onerous undertaking.  I had the plot together for the first twenty-five issues and knew that once I started, I owed it to myself to keep going.  Then tragedy struck two years ago yesterday.  A friend of mine from the Kubert School, Lance Eslava died in a motor vehicle accident.  While being a sad event for all of his family and friends, hell anyone who knew him, it was a revelation for me personally.  I know that Lance was heavily involved in creating his own comic book to self publish, and actually had been developing the idea from the time we were in college together.  What he left behind was an unfinished work of art.  I was determined that this would not happen to me.  While I knew that it was damn near inevitable in the long run that something would be unfinished, I also knew that finishing a comic strip would take infinitely less time than finishing an entire comic book.  I decided to throw myself back into Eat @ Shrimpy’s whole-heartedly to ensure that even if I did manage to die before I said all I wanted to say, a good portion of the strips would be done.  I also made the conscious decision to avoid the day and date format that many webcomics try to adhere to.  I would work ahead, as is my general nature, and craft a story.  Sure, I have done some individual strips, and even some pop-culture heavy ones that when viewed even five years in the future probably would carry very little weight, but the bulk of the story is written well in advance.  The plan is that if I was to croak before my strips are completed, I could feasibly pass the reins to anyone and all they had to do was follow the script.  This is a large portion of my life that covers a huge portion of the lives of my characters and if I can’t finish it, I would hope that someone inquires about doing so.  I have the story-arcs broken up into “issues” of 32 strips each (as that is the size I wanted back when I was trying to do this as a print comic).  Currently I have twenty-eight issues written and I am working on issue twenty-five right now.  I know that sounds weird, but I haven’t written all of the issues in order and issue twenty-five is going to be huge so it has taken awhile to flesh out.  Needless to say, I have enough material in the queue to last me for quite some time in terms of story.

It also turns out that, because of the shorter amount of time that it takes me to produce a comic strip as opposed to a comic page, I can actually keep a decent schedule while still preventing the nerve damage in my hands and arms from becoming too much of a factor.  There is nothing worse than being halfway through a page and not being able to finish because of the pain in my hands.  By sticking to strips, I cut down my time drawing while, in essence, getting more done and being able to get more out to the viewing public in less time.  And on those rare occasions when my hands are working properly for an extended amount of time, I can pump out four to six strips at a time.

This is a perfect storm of both ambition and opportunity coming together and kicking me in the ass to get moving  While I still hope that someday Eat @ Shrimpy’s can be bigger than I would have ever imagined, just getting this out there for everyone to read and hopefully enjoy is enough for me at this point.  Thanks for reading!

There you have it.  Now you know the history of Eat @ Shrimpy's, so you can tell your children and grandchildren.  If you want an actual book to show those kids as well (kids love pictures!) be sure to pick up Shrimpology which is the visual history of The Masked Shrimp including all of his earlier comic book appearances as well as a ton of extras.  Ordering info is in the right column.