Rick The Stick - a comic on the Interwebs » Milton Manner

Arresting Opportunity

Ken Drab — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:00:15 +0000

Good morning!

Hmmm, Dan was ooooh-so-close to having words with Rick. Although I don’t think it would have mattered – I’m not sure Rick would have heard a word he would have been so star-struck!

Thanks for dropping by!
Ken

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Rick the Stick is a funny online comic – word.

Milton Manner

Ken Drab — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 05:00:57 +0000

Milton is Rick’s closest friend and cousin. Milton is patient, usually the voice of reason and always there for Rick. Milton is extremely smart and could have gone to school anywhere but chose State College of University in Florida because it was in his hometown and loved their engineering program. After discovering that he was really passionate about sports, decided that he would do duel majors and added Sports Management. He interns with the school’s football program in the Sports Information Department.

Name: Milton Manner
Age: 19
Resides: In the apartment above his family’s garage.
Occupation: Student/Works in the Sports Information Department of SCUF
Lineage: Cartoon – Rick’s cousin
Wants: To be reading right now. To be rich, and get rich winning at fantasy sports. He also would secretly like to find a girl who can cook like his mom.
Fears: That he’s going to have to rely on/live with Rick for the rest of his life. Losing to Rick in fantasy sports.
Flaws: Can’t stop gambling on fantasy sports, is shy with women, tends to get caught up in Rick’s schemes, and he REALLY loves his mom’s cooking.

Super Perspective

Ken Drab — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:00:54 +0000

Good morning!

Hey guys. Planned on making a nice little post, but I spent a good portion of the night doing Thursday’s comic and getting my GoComics Sherpa page updated. I am very glad that will be coming to an end at the end of the month.

I’ll do better tomorrow. I promise.

Thanks for dropping by!
Ken

Abacab-dabadad

Ken Drab — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:00:02 +0000

Good morning!

We’re still back! During my two week break, I’ve tried to improve the process in which I create the comics from start to finish. Yesterday, I posted the old process:

Excel: write the comic out – usually a week at a time to tie together a theme ending each Friday with the climax for the week.
InDesign: paste in the text into my comic template. Print this out on 11×14 paper from my home laser printer.
Free stylin’: sketch each comic out during my lunch break at work.
Scanner: scan the artwork into PDF format (for multiple pages, usually scan a few at a time to cut down on emails and files)
Acrobat: cope the artwork from the PDF scan.
Photoshop: paste in the artwork, rotate, size and adjust levels – copy updated sketch.
Illustrator: paste sketch into template. Ink over and export as an .EPS (this allows me to export it in any size format – including hi-res printing at a later date if necessary).

InDesign: import .EPS file, format text accordingly and export (having the file in InDesign was to help me when it came time to put the book together).

Photoshop: open inked artwork, adjust if necessary, format and size for web.
Cyberduck: upload completed JPG to server.
WordPress/ComicPress: Format and update 11 fields for each comic post including scheduling, SEO, mouseover (hover text), categories and tags.
Review and check everything – post comic for release.

The bolded line is one I forgot to add – and one of the most important! There were 12 steps to the process.

Here’s my new process:

Excel: write the comic out – usually a week at a time end each Friday with the climax for the week. Reducing the overall running thread.*
Illustrator: paste in the text into my comic template. Print this out on 8.5×11 paper (2 frames on a sheet) from my home laser printer.
Free stylin’: sketch each comic out during my lunch break at work.
Scanner: scan the artwork into JPG format (for multiple pages, usually scan a few at a time to cut down on emails and files)
Photoshop: paste in the artwork, rotate, size and adjust levels – copy updated sketch.
Illustrator: paste sketch into template. Ink over and export as a JPG.**
Cyberduck: upload completed JPG to server.
WordPress/ComicPress: Format and update 11 fields for each comic post including scheduling, SEO, mouseover (hover text), categories and tags.
Review and check everything – post comic for release.

9 steps now allow me to complete the comic. It removes a lot of importing and exporting, waiting for my computer to format the file when opening in a new application. It seems to be a very good time saver. I’ve completely eliminated InDesign which was a huge time suck between it quitting and stalling when I switched back and forth from other apps and it.
* The overall story of Rick the Stick will slow down and in place, there will be week to week stories to help new readers get into the flow. With nearly 450 Rick the Stick comic strips, that’s a lot of story to catch up on!
** By eliminating InDesign, there is a lot more direct transfer of files between apps saving me computer processing time.

Another bonus is the preview of the comic. With InDesign, you have an option for a higher res preview, but scrolling and time waiting for the rendering made the low res preview a better option. Although there were times I had to go back and tweek things accordingly. Here is the before and after (first two are before).

This was the old process – illustrated in one application, layed out in another. No text here.

The old process of importing the illustration into a page layout program. I chose to use the poor resolution option for rendering purposes.

The new process incorporates all the steps in the illustration application. This is from tomorrow’s strip…

I’m excited to see how much time the new process saves me! As you can see, the previewing part is a lot better – since I’m also sketching the strip at a larger scale, I should be able to get more into the strip without making it more crowded – including word bubbles.

Thanks for dropping by!
Ken

Smoke Screen

Ken Drab — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:00:07 +0000


	Today I got tackle a fire. Kind of. Actually, things didn’t go according to plan – much… or at all…

Good morning!

More wallpaper – I got really behind on the strips this weekend (despite working on the comic all weekend long), so here’s another wallpaper I did to commemorate coming up on 450 Rick the Sticks next week, or the week after… Anywho – let me know what you think!

Not really relevant, but I wanted to have another movie poster up there as wallpaper. You understand…

Thanks for dropping by!
Ken

Bored Room

Ken Drab — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:00:05 +0000


	I’m bored – despite helping out this community I think I failed to see the forest for the tree fire…

Good morning!

Man, that was a quick weekend! After everything is all said and done, I didn’t even get the site upgraded. Technical issues prevented it. Ugh. Regardless, today’s and tomorrow’s strip took me twice as long to complete. The good news is they’re done. The bad news is, I’m not happy with them. I think overall, they’re okay, I was just hoping to astound you today!!!

I also threw this together. ‘Who’s Watching the Stickman’

In case you're not aware, this is a spoof of the movie 'Watchmen'

I’ll resize that for different formats shortly. Hope you like it!

Thanks for dropping by!
Ken

Out The Window

Ken Drab — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:00:21 +0000


	I’m resigned to the fact that Milton won’t join me on my quest to fight evil, and decide it’s time to leave…

Good morning!!

It’s FRIIIIIDAY! Wooohoooo! So how u doin’? I finished writing next week’s comics on Tuesday night and it was a lot different than I thought it would be. I tweeted about it a little bit so if you follow me on twitter and saw that comment before, you’re not having deja-vu. And where it ends up actually gave me an idea for the week after. My main focus for the rest of the year is content. The art, the writing, the story. So hopefully, you’re entertained.

SUCCESS only comes before WORK in the dictionary

This is my new credo – and I love it. I do a lot of research for the business side of the comic. The whole industry is in a state of uncertainty. It’s uncertain because the dynamics of the Internet inherently may shift the business model of webcomics faster than most people can adapt. Where do you focus your resources? Where do you try to build your audience? Where are my shorts?

The reality is, it comes down to the comic. If the story is unique, art is good and the writing is exceptional, then people will be attracted to it. So where does that leave Rick the Stick? I believe the story is unique. At least in the direction I want it to go. The art is probably good enough. The writing – that’s another story. It hasn’t been the strength of the strip. It needs work. Lots. I’m putting together the book and I’m realizing that it needs to be stronger. It needs to make you laugh out loud – litteraly.

When I started this webcomic, I gave myself three years. Three years to determine whether or not I could be a successful web cartoonist. Being able to do this thing I love so much, and to my credit, I came into it with a plan. Admittedly, is that I came into it naive. I thought I could easily conquer this, after all, it’s been my dream since I was a kid. The thing that’s opened my eyes is one thing – there are thousands, maybe millions of other people that share that dream. Listening to people like Scott Kurtz, Dave Kellett, Kris Straub and of course Brad Guigar say that it should take anywhere from five to ten years blew my mind, stomped on my spirit and broke my heart. But I’m over that.

I’ve resigned to the fact that most nights I’ll get six hours of sleep – on the high end. The rest may be around three or four. I work a full-time job as a web designer that requires a lot of mental effort. I also have had the amazing privilege to handle this through the birth and raising of an infant. Additionally, I haven’t profited a penny since I’ve started – which I only mention to show you that I don’t do it for the money. Sure I want a big house, lots of cars and toys. But the reality is, I have everything I want – except for this. My dream.

So I’m going to work harder than most people. I’m going to focus on the business side of webcomics. I’m going to struggle and at times I’ll fail. But I have my plan. The first year it was all about the art. It’s taken longer to get it to where I don’t cringe so much, but I like it. Since I’ve shown progression, I’m confident that it will only get better. The second year (currently) is about awareness. Building an audience. In that arena, I’ve spend some money on advertising and it’s been a successful summer. I broke personal visitor records and I’m encouraged by the amount of time most people spend on the site. In March I went to NEWW in Easthampton, MA, and in October I am going to Baltimore. I’ve had great conversations with other artists and am hopefully building good friendships as a result. I’ve gotten enthusiastic support from a couple of people and that makes the effort worth it.

Year three (starting in March 2010) will be about making a profit. Not making a living – I’ve been very clear to myself that I only need to show myself (and my wife) that this is a viable business and that my talents can sustain it.

So what have I written all this for? What am I bugging you for? I guess I’m just letting you know that I’m not working this hard to throw my art up on the Internet. I want to entertain you. If your still reading this post and haven’t vomited on your shoes, I only ask that you keep coming back. Post comments, vote in my stoooopid polls. Continue to give me a shot to show you I have a good story to tell, the art is charming and the writing will improve.

Thank you for your time – I know it’s as precious as mine. I also wanted to mention that I got a great, inspirational email from Todd (one of our infamous comment poster’s) yesterday – it was much appreciated. Now get outta here and enjoy your weekend!!!

Thanks again for dropping by!
Ken

A New Axiom

Ken Drab — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:00:20 +0000


	Milton and I discussed options on my genius new saying…

Good morning!

What’s up? I was just thinking last Friday that last week flew by. It’s amazing because the older you get, the faster time goes by. You only get 52 weeks, or Fridays every year – and here we are, it’s Thursday already! Someone please slow the world down!!!

Here’s some signage I’m thinking about getting made and bringing to Baltimore…

Wondering if I should put the book on there or just attribute it next to the image of Rick on the toilet.

I came across a saying that is my new credo: Success only comes before Work in the Dictionary. Word. Gotta get to work. Talk to you tomorrow!!

Thanks for dropping by!
Ken

And The American Way

Ken Drab — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:00:06 +0000


	I see sooooo clearly for the first time! Birdman here can’t see the truth!! The justice!! The American Way!! I’m talking about disrupting town hall meetings!! WHO’S WITH ME!!!

Good morning! And a fantastic Friday to you!

Not much to add today, just working on some things in the old head of mine.

I’ve been sketching so much lately – which is GREAT! Here’s one of them.

Click on the image to enlarge. I'm not really sure why he's running and not flying…

Thanks for dropping by!
Ken

So Who’s the Walrus?

Ken Drab — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:00:05 +0000


	Milton is having an identity crisis, while I’ve finally woken up! Things are changing starting now…

Good morning!

Coo coo ca choo… Sorry not much of a blog post, but working on the book. I had to change the cover due to the actual layout. In lieu of a post, I give you what’s probably the final cover art.

I'm excited to work on the back cover. The dedication had me tearing up a little bit. BACK TO WORK!

Thanks for the encouragement and comments yesterday guys!

And to everyone else, thanks for dropping by!
Ken