A Very Fuzzy Update

I sat on this post for a while because I wanted to release it alongside the announcement on my Fuzzy Knight comic sites. Here, I’ll go into a bit more detail, and a bit more background.

Some of you might be familiar with the original Fuzzy Knight photocomic from 20 years ago. I’ve had a number of people ask me to bring it back and re-release it.

And while I might someday make the whole kit and kaboodle available to the die hards out there, I gotta warn you… it’s pretty rough. It gets better and cleaner as time goes on, but in so many ways it was the comic of a complete novice who didn’t know what they were doing, and did it anyway.

I mean… just LOOK at this!

I can’t even begin to go into what I would do differently now. Those word bubbles… that font… and the camera resolution is just terrible.

Even when I got a better camera and I started feeling like I was hitting my stride, it was still kinda rough…

Oh man… those word bubbles still hurt…

But another problem was the pacing, and sometimes the wordiness. While Fuzzy Knights can still be pretty text-heavy at times, it’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be…

Yeah, that’s a bit much for a single panel, don’t you think? And who’s this clown’s editor? Yeesh!

Point is, I’ve had twenty years to get better at writing, and I have new skills I want to develop when it comes to drawing.

So I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Give the fans of the original a chance to revisit the first story in a new way, while giving those only familiar with the drawn comic a chance to experience it in a (hopefully!) more polished form.

But I don’t want to just regurgitate the original story, either. That’s why I set up the story framework the way I did last episode. I called it “Princess Briding” but that was just for the name recognition. It would be more accurately named “Goldmaning.”

In other words, this will be “The Good Parts” version.

From a drawing perspective, this is going to be both a challenge and a break. The framing is already taken care of, and I can trace the backgrounds to keep everything in perspective. But each character drawing will be original—based on the original poses whenever possible, but never traced.

It’s a technique I used earlier this year, when I revisited Violet’s Story. And it’s because I thought that went so well that I decided to go ahead with this.

So, I present to you…

That’s my homage to the original poster I created for the story, setting things up. I’m really happy with it.

But one of the great things about drawing is how I can at least try and take things to the next level…

Hope you enjoy the ride!

And on a connected note, I figured now was as good a time as any to get a Patreon page up and running. I’ve had one registered and waiting in the wings for years, but never actually activated it until today. So, if you feel like helping me promote my work, or just want to throw a few coins in my hat, here’s your chance!

I’m keeping the reward tiers simple so I don’t overextend myself, but I am offering sneak previews of the comic (a day in advance) as well as a drawing of your own custom Fuzzy after six months.

Let me know what other kind of rewards you’d like to see!