– Here’s a long story. I had a solid idea for how Season 3 of modest Medusa would end way back at the end of Season 1, and by the time Season 2 ended the major plot points of Season 3 were pretty solid in my mind. With that kind of skeleton structure in mind I like to work out a week or two worth of strips in my head at a time, and I usually don’t come up with the exact dialogue until after I’m lettering a strip (so after all the drawing is done). This is how I’ve written the comic from the very beginning and it usually works pretty well. This worked well for Season 3 until right up after the end of the Wither Away story arc, when I realized that I knew exactly how I wanted the season to end, but I wasn’t sure how to get there, and what I was sure of is that I had a lot of loose ends that weren’t particularly exciting to me. Little (and maybe not so little) details that really needed to be addressed but weren’t really very exciting. Things that I should have spent some time thinking about so I could make them funny and interesting. I hadn’t and they weren’t, and all I could think is that I really just wanted to move on to the big finale and the bits I’d been working toward for the last 200 pages.
So I thought about this over the last two weeks while at Fanime down in San Jose and while working on the last few strips. I spent some time trying out different gags and working up some clever ways to make all these little things fit together nice and funny and neat. I came up with some good stuff and some okay stuff and a lot of really not so great stuff, but the end of it was that no matter what it was 12-25 pages of extra stuff before I could get to the season finale. Now here’s the thing: That shouldn’t have been a problem at all. I should have told myself to do the story right, give it the space it needs and take my time to bring everything to a conclusion. But… this season has been pretty hard, and the Wither Away arc was especially draining and the season was already going to be well over the 100 pages I had originally envisioned. More than anything, I was just ready to wrap everything up, and the thought of doing another unexpected 12-25 pages was just too much. So I had this idea to do a single summary strip that would cover all the loose ends in one go and get everything out of the way. It wasn’t a great idea, and I put it aside while I tried to write something better, but in the end it’s the idea I came back to.
So here’s the strip I ran last Friday (click to enlarge):
Okay, so I thought it was kind of clever. But on the walk home from my studio after i posted it I realized that the summery was a mistake. That kind of short cut wasn’t going to add anything to the story. It would save me some time and effort, but a year from now I wouldn’t be happy with it and I couldn’t image any of my readers would be either. So by the time I got home I had decided to pull the strip and resolved myself to finishing out the season the right way, even if it meant doing 25 extra strips I wasn’t super enthusiastic about. In fact, i needed to find a way to be enthusiastic about those strips and make them work.
So the Friday strip got yanked from this site before more than a few people saw it. It stayed up on DA and Drunk Duck though, and you can see the comments here and there for yourself. Some people thought it was okay and a lot didn’t, but I think I was right that almost everyone would prefer actual strips over a summary, so that’s what’ll happen. I do want to be clear that the negative comments did not influence my decision. I had made up my mind by the time I got around to reading any of them.
So starting with this strip I’ll be fleshing out the events from the summary comic. You can think of the summary as a spoiler if you want, but I’ll do my best to make this content worthwhile and fun, and I guess we’ll get to the end of the season eventually!
– Aitwo posted a Blackrock Shooter Medusa over on DA. Please check it out!
– Here’s some fan art byLilah!
Book three material?
And, that’s it for me. Seriously. Deleting the comic from my favorites folder and not coming back. If you can’t take your story seriously, why would you expect anyone else to? Good luck.
I’m sorry to hear that.
Uhm, what this guys problem? Seriously.
probably someone who tinks what comic creators dont sleep dont eat and dont work and them need to be perrrrrrfect in what them do
for me its somethign very stupid tink that
Wow. That sucked. Keep pressing on Jake. You are making something special here. You create–we read. Even if we don’t read, you need to create. Someone will read, and they will smile. 🙂
Thanks Dusty.
I would rather have it done right rather then rushed, if we have to wait for it, that’s just fine for me. There a big name artists that work for Marvel, DC and Image comics that cant produce a comic even once a month, they are so routinely late the guys at my comic shop stopped promoting them. So Jake is doing great in my book.
Whimp. ಠ__ಠ
At least Jake posts on an almost consistent basis and doesn’t leave you hanging for months on end. Like seriously, It’s hard to find good comics like this one that doesn’t just suddenly stop with no explanations and no real ending. He even was about to resort to just writing it all out for all the impatient fucks out there that can’t seem to spare him even a minute.
>_> Also you do realize that he lets you read all this, FOR FREE. That’s right, FOR motherfukin’ FREE, so just one pulled comic to me is an okay trade off, considering all the hard work he puts into pleasing everyone.
He shouldn’t have people giving him this kind of crap. 🙁
Yeah, you tell ‘im Josh! That’ll teach him to make a free quality webcomic for the entertainment of hundreds if not thousands. You did a good job in taking the effort to delete that whole shortcut from your folder. Just think of how much good your actions will do! Good thing you made sure people knew about it. God forbid you go out with some decency.
Pfft. You’ll be back Josh. And boy, won’t you feel silly for your tantrum then?
Dude, you’re a prick. He’s working on it, and he’s the only one; picture doing a project this size weekly with tons of fans waiting and reading.
That’s a lot of stress for one person, so deal with it. If you’re willing to drop the comic over something like this than you obviously weren’t a legit fan to begin with.
Fun season ahead. In the meantime I will go back and read my print copy of season one. Great work Jake. CU needs his own strip at some point–but it has to be organic, and that is probably not a high priority anyway. Draw what is in your heart of course, but my vote is for more (S1) fun. The adventure is fun, but the impossible innocence of MM in a world of crazys and (now dead) BMs was something unique. I will continue to support this comic. In fact I have been promoting CU at various nerd outlets 🙂
“They [we were] having a big fight”
And yes, he had a hook, and he wasn’t left-handed anyway.
On one hand (not the mysteriously reappearing one) I feel that doing it as a sort of in-universe summary would have kept the mood better–“welp, guess we need to find some way out of here” “[deep voice with southern accent] and so they let the medusa(s?) and sheep escape through the sewer and the chainsaw unicorn raised them himself with a supply of sheep to feed them; meantimele, the pirates’ fight turned against their favor and they escaped into the moat”. However, because I like anything that’s meta, this works too!
Anyway this sooo reminds me of something I did years ago; a friend did it, too, actually. The difference though was we were in a rut. A fan-fiction rut. But yeah definitely know that feeling.
I’ve decided to scrap the whole thing and just do it proper. I thought I was being clever, but really I was just looking for a short cut.
Ha! I liked it.
You know, seeing as how more folks seemed to have at lest enjoyed it for a good laugh vs one jerk who didn’t, kinda wished I hadn’t have missed it myself. Would you ever consider posting it in some gallery somewhere in the future? =)
I’ll post it in the notes on Monday for everyone to see,along with a explanation. I didn’t take it down just becasuse of what Josh said though. I have already made up my mind to change it at that point.
I’m another that is glad to hear I haven’t missed out completely. It sounds funny.
YAY! After reading all the comments I wanna see it now too. XD
Don’t let one asshole be the asshole who ruins everything. If he was just ONE BAD STRIP away from unsubscribing, he wasn’t someone who was going to keep on reading for much longer anyway.
I also don’t get why people feel obligated to tell people that they’re no longer going to be reading your strip, as if they’re a customer who has been paying money to see it and that this is their way of getting a refund or something.
So yeah, assholes on the Internet, film at 11.
Thanks for sharing. While maybe not the best idea, and glad you are doing a full telling, I can understand (as seems others) being overwhelmed. Overall really didn’t look all that bad to me…as long as it didn’t become a common theme. =P
I like this webcomic. In fact, I’d say it is one of my most consistent favorites.
I think you like writing it.
I understand why you might want to wrap a storyline up more quickly, but a summary isn’t the way to do it. Maybe for some of the background that would have been good.. I can honestly say I was getting grumpy around the 20th entry in the chainsawunicorn background; not because it wasn’t good, but because I missed medusa. But, I stuck with it, because I figure if you tell me a story, it’s worth listening to. And it was. And is. And I’m excited to see more.
And I’m glad you came to the conclusion that the wrap up wasn’t the way to do this storyline justice. You’ve poured months into it. To summarize it seems like a reneg on all the work you’ve done; only worth doing if you thought you had failed to bring this story to your readers.
So thank you for deciding against it.
Jake, you do a great job. I can wait for quality. Monday’s not that far away.
(For those of us who haven’t seen the comic, could you put a link rather than inlining the image – I personally would like to avoid spoilers, but others might want to see what was taken down.)
I’m glad you’re taking your time. I love to see the story unfold at its pace. Keep up the great work!
I can see what the objection to Fridays comic were, but still enjoyed it.
I do, however, think it would make for a good summation – let’s review – wrapping up comic. I’m no artist, but I know what I like.
As an aside, are you getting Animal Crossing New Leaf? I have seen you playing a bit of Disgaea 3 on the Vita of late, but do not know if you have a 3DS. If you do have a 3DS and were planning on doing the Animal Crossing thing, I’d like to offer you my friend code; 1118-1317-4767. Let me know if you are gonna add me, though. I need to clear out some room on my friend’s list.
I may get it eventually, but not yet. I gave a stack of games to play through first! I’ll let you know if I do.
Jake. I loved you for your comic, and great story, great characters, great art…. but I have just recently read that you play Disgaea….. and now I love you.
Oh and yeah, yer comic was already within my top 3 favorite comics to read (of my like 10-12)… but WOOOOOO YOU PLAY DISGAEA!!! 😀 😀 😀
I can’t capslock hard enough! (Disgaea 3 wasn’t my favorite, Disgaea 2 had the best characters and plot, in my opinion, but damn if Disgaea 4 didn’t have the best gameplay!!)
Well thanks. It’s a fun game. I skipped 2 but I’ll go back and play it at some point.
There is a lot of in-jokes in the Disgaea series, and a TON of reoccuring characters, so it wouldn’t hurt. Lemme know if you get Disgaea 4, I’d love to go head to head against you in battle mode. (^.^)b
I loved the strip and thought it fit well into the type of humor that you write MM with. Glad it is not going to disappear forever and hope it becomes part of Season 3’s book when it is published…
Jake, you’re the creator. You ave to keep doing it the way you like doing it, no the way you think people will like it. We wouldnt be following the strip if we didn’t like it the way it is 🙂
I just discovered your comic today, and read through it all in one go. It’s a great read, I think I haven’t laughed that much in a while with a comic. Keep up the great work, thanks a bundle for sharing. I’ll be watching!
Thanks!
I’m confused. I see no page, you talking about shortcuts, some guy named Josh flies off the handle, and Davidicus just gets confuzzled.
I feel like I missed something important.
Can someone spare me some info?
I’ll post a full explanation on Monday.
If you’re worried about loose odds and ends… leave them hanging! They can be threads you can figure out how to tie back into the plot somehow later, a year or two down the road maybe.
Like, eventually Modest starts going to school, and several teachers go mysteriously missing so the principal has to find replacements, and SUDDENLY BITCHY MERMAIDS
Leave the loose ends? No way, loose ends drive me nuts 🙂 I am a “well what happened to that person, where this this one go to” person. it can be a pain sometimes 🙂
Jake – anyone who publicly announces they are unfollowing, delisting, unmarking, whatever – are doing it for the drama and their own “dramatic exit”. otherwise, why not just do it, and if you feel the need to “send a message”, do so privately by email? For the spectacle, that’s why.
Pffft.
Forget them. They’re the types who would only be a BIGGER headache if they stuck around longer until they left because it was only a matter of time, you know?
Keep up the good work!
I will patiently wait for Monday and not ask question. 🙂
Found a back up of the strip
Glad you’re deciding to do this properly. That summary was… Yeah
The summary was OK. This strip has a pretty solid standard for quality so I can see not settling for OK.
I don’t know much about literary theory or anything like that but maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to leave some of the loose ends loose. You can leave a bit of mystery and then one day when you need a deus ex machina; Suddenly a pirate ship captained by a knight of chains and crewed by vampire minks erupts from the toilet.
Of course I have all the creativity of a lobster so take my advice with a tablespoon of salt.
Anyhow, I love the comic and the way the characters have developed.
Daggone it, looks like I missed the drama once again. What I see as of Monday AM is hilarious. Sheesh, Jake, it’s a great strip. Don’t kill yourself with arbitrary deadlines. Just let it flow. We’ll be here for you.
I agree!
I’m okay with the summary, both as in a means to shortcut some plodding through wrapup, and as a how it’s going to boil out when doing the actual wrapup.
I think everyone will enjoy the next slew of strips, means more modest for all! 😀
Other than the pirates, I wouldn’t have questioned anything in the summary had it been left out. As for the pirates, if the occassional message in a bottle came up Jake’s toilet then they could still tell of their escape and any future adventures they may have.
If you ended the season as it is and filed in the loose ends with the occassional flashback in future seasons then I doubt anyone would have noticed.
This is good and I like it. Keep it up
If you’re going to plan out “seasons” of comic production, where the calendar is a constraint on the story, you need to plan them in more detail.
But why have such “seasons”? Why not free the story from the calendar and give it the time it needs?
The 100 page season format is meaningless except that it gives me a kind of structure and goal to work with, and that helps keep the story going in one direction. I’m not married ton the format (just like I’m not married to the 4-panel format), but I do like it.
In this case I had let myself expect that the season would be over by strip 300, and when that turned out to be the case I let myself feel a little fatigued at the idea of doing another 15-25 strips before the Season was done. Of course, I would have been doing strips during that time period anyway. When you tell yourself that you’re almost done, and then it turns out you’re not, that can be a little irritating.
But Jake already has a beard…?
He could always shave it off.
…Wait, Jake how would Jake look like with out a beard?!?! 0.0
I want some other fan, or Jake to draw that for me because I can’t see that!!!
If beards will not work there is always the MUSTACHE!!!!! ;D
I LOVE MUSTACHES!
I wonder what Jake would look like with and mustache too…hmmm
I’ll have to work on that Idea.
Jake, even if you can’t find a smooth transition to the finale I will forever love your work and modest medusa! 🙂
ROCK ON! 😀
ah..buh..durg…you tremendous dick! after reading the summary comic, I finish reading the explaination below stating that its going to be a massive spoiler for the next few weeks. dammit. not I have to go drown in tequila an hopefully forget reading it. hopefully next time Ill just skip it. wait, I haven’t done this before have I? that would explain the hangover…have I posted this before? anyway, keep up the good work, i’ll enjoy reading it whether I remember or not.
Thanks for the repost! I enjoyed that thoroughly – please don’t lose it. Bonus page in the book, maybe? The CU closure is brilliant, IMHO. Loved it. And if the Captain can grow his hand back, can Charles The Fish Scientist? Or does he get Urano’s other armored arm? Or the Captain’s hook? Is that where it went? Can’t wait to find out…
I’m glad you put it up, I was kinda bummed about not seeing it, even if you were just going to replace it with “proper” comics and flesh out everything. On the one hand I could see the one guys reasoning for saying he was giving up and the whole ‘if you dont care then why should we” and I sort of agree with the sentiment, but, you know, I also see it from your side. Personally I prefer the box style you started going with which i felt gave the comic a more distinctive and serious style, instead of the strip style which you seem to prefer with the funny/haha/4th wall breaking stuff, but I’m still gonna read it. I like the story, some parts i can do without and will simply ignore, while the rest, I shall enjoy as I always have. Keep it up. it’s your comic ultimately, and its your choice on how you wish to maintain it. and thanks, for posting up the thing you did, I think that was great, shows you’re not a diva stomping your feet, haha.
Anyways, cheers!
Shame you weren’t able to post your ‘summary’ strip back on April 1st, I think it would have made a heck of an April Fool’s Joke, but if memory serves, we were still hip-deep in ‘Wither Away’ at that point.
Yeah Jake, It wasn’t as bad as you made it out to be; I was expecting a total farce or something; I’ve seen some comics just give up in mid-story (when I was drawing regularly, I had a story arc in a college newspaper that I was forced to conclude well short of the intended end because the issues were cut that semester). It might have worked if the last panel went the OTHER way and you said, “Nah, let me just suck it up and continue” or something, but I think in any case you made the right decision to pull it and finish the story. It’s your strip and we’re along for the ride, so if you’re not satisfied with something you did, do what you want and don’t worry too much about one person jumping ship; you can’t please everyone. Frankly, I’ve followed you for over a year now and it’s inspiring me to pick up the pencils and hit the drawing board again. Soon. See, you never know who you might influence with what you do and the way you do it, so keep doing what you’re doing because it’s alright by me!
Well thanks!
Alrighty dokey. Read that behemoth, and the summary comic. I can easily see both sides of the argument. It did feel a bit lazy to completely break plot and fourth wall like that, just from reading it, especially with all these exciting, amazing things going on, then just hitting fast forward and zipzipzipzip they are outta there and it is time for conclusions!
But, at the same time, you are only human, and being a seudo artist of no spectacular talent, I can see where trying to wrap everything up neatly would be time-consuming and draining. Hell I STILL have like four or five comic strips of hilarious ideas my friends and I have come up with that are only half finished. And I don’t do two or three panels every week!! I do a comic whenever I feel like drawing.
I would suggest that, despite what I want personally, I’d say take a break for a week or two from the comic, heck maybe a month, just relax, play some Disgaea 3, maybe think about how you will tackle this endeavor, and come back fresh-faced and fancy in a few weeks. You are human, you deserve to take some time off. We are the internet. We can wait. What are WE gonna do if you simply don’t feel like drawning? Stop reading your comic? OH NO THE HORROR! Anyone who would drop your comic because you feel the need to take a break wasn’t a real fan of your work.
As for me? I have 9 other comics I can read while you take some time to relax. I always have minecraft, and I still have yet to beat Dark Cloud, and would like to beat Breath of Fire 3 again (one of my top 10 favorite games), and I STILL need to beat Final Fantasy 4 DS (why is it SO HARD!?! The original wasn’t this diabolical!).
I can’t speak for other fans, but this is what I think. You hit a road block, take some time to sort it out.
[/lengthy anecdote]
A break would be nice. Maybe in a week or two!
am i the only one who pictures medusa´s snakes wearing fake beards?!
Now I imagine modest,her sisters,the sheep, chainsaw, the pirates, and Marah putting on fake beards and almost getting to the exit beforing confronted by Momdusa and Prince (AND The Vampire Prince*rimshot*) all wearing false beards. they get into dramatic combat poses before someone asks if they can take them off and everybody does except Jake who tries but realizes his is real.
Did I miss the Yeld Kickstarter?
Not yet. It’s coming.
Jake is already covered on the beard…but he could always shave it off.
…Wait, Jake how would Jake look like with out a beard?!?! 0.0
I want some other fan, or Jake to draw that for me because I can’t see that!!!
If beards will not work there is always the MUSTACHE!!!!! ;D
I LOVE MUSTACHES!
I wonder what Jake would look like with and mustache too…hmmm
I’ll have to work on that Idea.
Jake, even if you can’t find a smooth transition to the finale I will forever love your work and modest medusa! 🙂
ROCK ON! 😀
Oops! I accidentally posted something twice!
…I’m such a dummy sometimes! :/
Thanks. I have some fan art from years ago (pre-MM) of beardless Jake. I’ll post it tomorrow.
Jake, the fan art is by Lilah. 🙂
Thanks. I was trying hard to remember. I should have asked!
That strip seems likely perfectly reasonable end of season filler, Artist’s Rant, or Artistic Decompression material to me. Really, the only thing it’s missing is a spoilers warning. I mean, people put up with Flipside’s quick sketch brick throwing fillers, after all. 🙂
On the other hand, it probably wouldn’t be out of character for MM and the rest to get caught up in hijinks leaving the castle, and leave a bunch of unresolved threads like “What ever happened to those pirates?” that can be addressed in detail later if you feel like it. Take those three panels, add one or two for framing, and if you want to be nice put in something implying that they get their ship back.
Thanks for continuing to write and draw Modest Medusa. It has been and continues to be entertaining and enjoyable to read.
You know, looking at that strip it really looks like there’s not too much to cover, but I actually left out quite a bit of stuff I wanted to do. I’m glad I’m taking the time to do it right.