I’ve been thinking about reboots. Sequels. Relaunches. We are living in a culture of constant recycling, remixing, never dying content. Zombie content. And I find myself wishing for new, original voices and stories.
Of course, there is the argument that nothing is ever new, not really. And I agree with that. Every story is influenced by something else. But what we are seeing now are a parade of never ending reboots. Audiences are comfortable with what they know. Movie studios and publishers are comfortable with what they can perceive to be “hits.” And, I don’t know? I understand it and regret it at the same time. Sometimes I’m excited about it when something reboots. I want that comfort too, a chance to relive a story that I adored in my youth.
One of the most frequent questions I am asked is when I’m doing a sequel to Golden Boy or Quick Step. And I always answer that I am not. Sometimes I let myself consider it. In my head, I have all the characters stories mapped out from birth to death. The story I tell is only a small section of that. So, I could if I wanted to.
The more you do, the more you do
A couple of months ago, I had a stretch of extreme comics productivity. I floated the idea out to relaunch Drunk Elephant Comics. I felt I could handle it with everything else I was doing. I really wanted to get back into webcomics. I thought I’d take a 30–60 days off after my big deadline. Then I would launch into Drunk Elephant and a couple other stories I’m developing.
Here I am at the end of my 60 day break thinking that I probably shouldn’t do the relaunch. For one, it took me 60 days to rest up. I had a grueling schedule that didn’t afford me much in the way of a life. I was exhausted. And just a year past heart surgery, there are signs that I pushed myself too hard during that deadline. I can’t maintain that level.
But also I have the desire to do new stories. I have two that I am excited about. I want to share them with the world. Why not do them as webcomics?
So I am reconsidering Drunk Elephant as an ongoing webcomic. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t revisit it in the future. I like the characters a great deal. I’m overdue in creating a collection of the strips. Maybe in the collection I’ll create a new story that can be the basis of a future reboot? I like that idea.
It’s good for me to take stock at what has worked and hasn’t worked for me in the past. Drunk Elephant had its time. I’m going to let it rest for now and start working on my other two projects. Just as soon as I finish The Walk.
