New Webcomic: The 3rd Blade

[J Marc]

Hi guys, I want to announce the launch of my webcomic, 3rd Blade.

http://3rdblade.net

This is a comic whose length ranges from one panel to six pages, and seldom has recurring characters. The stories will be about all sorts of topics and genres, from toilet humour to action; romance to social commentary. Some are in colour, some not. The comics will usually be totally self-contained. I intend to post twice-weekly, on Monday and Wednesday. I have drawn 27 self-contained strips so far, so at the very least I'll have comics until the first week of April.

I would love to hear your comments, either here or on the website itself. Commenting is a bit like walking into a shop; if there's no one inside, you kind of don't want to go there yourself. But please do! There is only one strip at the moment, but I will post reminders here every now and then.

Cheers!
J. Marc

[Tom]

Ha ha!
My great great uncle had a similar experience... but it was about odd socks not nudity.

[Paul Bedford]

Well, they certainly couldn't be teasing him about his...um...proportions.
Another web comic worth following. Looking forward to it Marc.

[J Marc]

Thanks fellas!

The naked bus traveller is as yet my only recurring character in the 27 3rd Blade strips I've drawn so far; it took me a while to settle on a schlong size for him that looked right for the comic!

JMS

[J Marc]

By the by, if any of you guys would like me to add a link to your webcomic or website on the 3rd Blade, let me know, either here or by e-mail to jmarc@jmarcschmidt.com. I don't really know how to promote this comic, specially as it's a bit bare at the moment, comics-wise, so a bit of cross-pollination might help. Note that in the coming months will appear strips featuring sex, violence, politix, philosophy and, as Terry Jones said at the end of 'Meaning of Life', "lots of penises," so bear that in mind if such shadows might offend. (Nothing that is illegal in the state of NSW is planned, though!)

--JMS

[J Marc]

The year is about to end, and today I finished drawing and posted the last 3rd Blade webcomic, which will arrive on New Year's Eve.

I am very happy because I completed the goals I set out to do at the start of the year, which were, "to make interesting comics, to do something new with webcomics, and to keep busy for a full year, so I don't get into a creative slump as I often do. The plan is to keep posting comics all through the year, twice a week."

I think I did interesting comics; all of them were interesting to me and I'm proud of them. I did something new with webcomics, that no one else had been doing. (I also did plenty of toilet humour and superhero parody, so it wasn't all new!) I was certainly busy for the whole year. The comics started out taking not very long to complete, but towards the end of the year, they gradually took more and more time. I also posted twice a week, every week, and even put in seven extra comics. So I can happily say that all my goals were achieved. It didn't end my periodic creative slumps, of which I had a few during the year, but it did force me to be busy, which I am sure was beneficial.

I started out the year with a buffer of 20 comics, which grew to 28 when I was at my quickest. In those days, a comic I drew would thus appear two or so months later. However, when SLG offered to publish The Sixsmiths in June, I changed my focus to that for a while. By September my buffer zone was down to zero, and in that month and October I often stayed awake to the wee hours of a Monday or Wednesday morning to make sure the comic was posted on time.

Altogether 3rd Blade comprises about 220 pages.

It was quite exhausting towards the end, and I definitely did not have as much energy for 3rd Blade as I did at the start of the year. I am glad it's done. It's unlikely I'll do it again. 3rd Blade will stay on the net for another year at least, after that I don't know.

My webcomics career has not ended yet, though! The Sixsmiths will continue until later in 2010.

[Paul Bedford]

Congrats on reaching all your personal and creative goals, Marc. You'd think it'd be easy to just sit and write or draw (or in your case, write and draw), but nothing could be further from the truth. Case in point: I'm about to go and mow and my yard - a very unforgiving acre - but I'd choose that over nutting out a few pages of script. Not quite, but you get my drift?

Cheers,

Paul.

[John Retallick]

3rdblade has been one of the highlights of my year. It's been funny, intelligent, touching and scathing. It's also been reliable.

Thanks for the great effort and work and I really hope that some (or all of it) sees print so i can stick it on my shelf.

Huzzah!!