Coffee Time

I am an asshole. I fully admit it. No no, don't try to stop me from saying it, I can back this up. Coffee Time Vol. 2 ends not so much with a cliffhanger, but a future. Not everything is tied up. It's leading into a Volume 3, but ya see, in the near future there will be no Volume 3. In fact, I'm not completely sure if there ever will be. You guys have been reading all this time, and now, POOF!, these characters and the world they live in will cease to exist, with more left to do, and for a time unknown to even me. Therefore, as the writer, I am an asshole.

When I started writing Volume 2 of Coffee Time it was almost 2 years ago. Not being a psychic, there's really no possible way that I could see how drastically different my life and Tobias' life would be. As an inexperienced writer I just did not have the foresight to see that Vol. 2 would go as long as it did, that I would not be able to tell the stories I was creating within this volume, and finally, that Tobias and I would need a break from these characters. Maybe not completely as I think we would both be willing to come back and do one last volume after some time off from them, but after that it would definitely be the end. Neither of us are the type to stick with one set of characters recycling themselves for years to come. I'm not sure how anybody can do that. I think that maybe for some artists it's easier to exist within a creative bubble in constant fear of it popping so they don't do much to disturb it. Others i think start making money off their one creation and get way too involved in marketing, licensing, and branding their art until it seems the comic is just an advertisement for the T-shirt. That is one of the major reasons I'm actually kind of happy that Coffee Time never really took off in a big way. What if it did? Where would we be as artists? I think Across the Way helped me discover a lot about myself and the directions I want to go with writing. I think it also had an effect on Coffee Time, more with tone than anything else, that will be fixed before I ever start Vol. 3.

So yes, a Volume 3 is intended some day, and as we both grow as artists i can say with certainty that it will be a reinvented amalgamation of 1 & 2 and ten times more ass-kicking. And final!

What now? Well, we seek the career. As Tobias goes through his initial training within the Navy (whenever he gets there), I'll be writing the big project we've wanted to do forever. it's the one we're going to try to get published with, and that is what we really need to do. I'm turning 30 in a month, and whether Tobi likes it or not, he'll be there with me soon. The time is now to get those other projects going, something we of course could not have done without Coffee Time Comics. You want to learn how to write, draw, make comics? Do webcomics. Do two at a time. Make sure they're story-based. You'll work your ass off. You'll have gone through school. You'll be burnt out juggling the comics, bills, work, and life. You'll be ready for more as soon as your done.

I really do hope you all have enjoyed our comics these last few years. Both Tobias and I are thankful to know there a few folks out there that have enjoyed what we do. Through all our rough spots, and our attempts to grow, people actually seemed to have stuck it out with us. That's awesome! I hope that someday you'll be in the graphic novel section of your local bookstore and see at least one of our names on the cover. Even more I have great hope that we are able to find you guys so that you know this site is up and running again. Wouldn't that be a nice surprise. Who knows?

Thursday will be the final update, the cover. And now, here are some of my favorite Coffee Time moments:

1. Open for Business - Page 1: Kind of scary looking back this far. Those bubbles are horrendous. the page size is off like the whole of Volume 1 is. I simply put this here because of Greg. He is a friend that passed away maybe 1 week before we put the comic online. The Newsstand Man is Greg, Greg was the newsstand man, on the corner of Van Nuys and Ventura Blvd to be exact. It was a last minute decision to create the character in memory of a really cool guy. I wish he could have seen the comics because he really dug Tobias' work and I think he would have loved to see Tobias grow. Thanks for giving us such a great character man, though we'd rather have you here.

2. Tanaka Needs Coffee - Page 2: That last panel of Tanaka was the first time Tobias drew something for the comic that I really laughed out loud. For me and Tobias, that last panel is classic.

3. Cypress' Interview - Page 3: Okay, this is not a favorite by any means, but looking at Cypress here is a good way to see how much Tobias progressed on this comic when you go to the last few pages of the current episode. I mean JESUS CHRIST! LOOK AT HER! hehe

4. Customer Disservice - Page 1: Even though there are small examples in a couple of the previous episodes of some decent writing, I think this episode is the first complete package.

5. The Right Turn - Page 2: Let the race begin. This episode is pretty much where we first introduce action.

6. Madcap Exploits of Comic Convention: There are obvious reasons why I like this so much. I miss writing the John & Tobias stuff. This feels so long ago.

7. The Geek Pantheon - Page 1: I wrote this episode with a good friend Matt Horowitz who I never really got to give credit on the page because we didn't have out names on the episodes back then. Thank you Matt. This is one of the funniest of Volume 1.

8. Mean gene: The Ultimate Warrior - Page 1: I love the character of Eugene. He's my favorite person to write because his language is unique to the other characters.

9. The Trick and the Treat: This was really fun to do. Once you start doing the more story-based stuff, you don't really get to to do this anymore.

10. Screwed: I like Alvin and Jason and their one appearance. I suspect if there is ever a Volume 3, there will be more of them.

11. The Race of Hearts - Page 11: Pretty awesome looking page and probably the best of this episode because it doesn't have any of my horrid dialogue bubbles. They were so cramped throughout this episode because I was trying to make every page something different with a fast pace. This episode should have probably been 10 pages longer.

12. The Mountain - Page 4: I'm going to try and stick to mainly pages rather than episodes for Vol. 2, and not as many because it's getting late. I really like the perspective work on this page.

13. In the Chokehold - Page 2: The introduction of the Nightmare Car. Still my favorite page containing it.

14. Running - Page 5: This is the first storyteller page. I used this device quite a few times throughout the comic and once or twice in Across the Way. I really liked these. I think they got across the voice of the characters pretty well and let us know a little more about them. I also think it sucks this is the only episode with Shawn. I had plans for him that didn't work out.

15. The Big Break - Page 4: Very moody. Some good insight into what Tom is capable of. I like it.

16. Good Neighbors - Page 3: Rudy & Harold: 2 characters I wanted to do more with. I really wanted to bring them over to Across the Way. Since Bookstone would be built by Vol. 3, I suppose this will be their only episode.

17. The Match - Page 2: I really wanted to do more satire like this with Coffee Time Vol. 3. This kind of stuff pops up here and there, but not quite as much as I wanted.

18. The Boss - Page 1: Sometimes these episodes actually took place in Coffee Time.

19. A Moment Noticed - Page 4: This comes straight from my experience working with kids. I took this kids nose once and he looked horrified that I would do such a thing. It was awesome.

20. A Moment Noticed - Page 22: There were quite a few pages in between that i would have liked to put, but hey, it's late and I have to run in the morning. That you Greg for closing up for me.

When I think of the origins of Across the Way, I don't completely understand where it came from. I know some of it comes as a reaction to Coffee Time in that it would be a new direction for us, somewhere en route to where Tobias and I want to go with comics. I love Coffee Time, but I'm not 100% that we will ever do anything like it again, but that is a conversation better saved for the day that comic's last page is posted. Across the Way is more obviously a reaction to the world we live in. A place that is in my eyes constantly on the brink of very ugly things. Nobody sees that side of life more than the soldier. While the politicians and decision makers are playing in a sandbox, American soldiers are stuck in a scorching hot reality, not only suffering the hardships of war, but the scrutiny of the world. I wanted to tell the story of a soldier coming home as a man changed by war and struggling to understand who he is when placed in the shoes of his previous self. It doesn't strive to be a big story, just a small tale, personal and complete.

Overall I'm really proud of the work we've done with Across the Way. Where Coffee Time is a looser and more cartoony world pertaining to what we can and can't do as artists, ATW is much more confined. Unless we were inside of Erik's head, we had to strive for as much realism as possible. Though the physical space of both comics were located right across the street from each other, the worlds these characters inhabit are much different places, just as different as yours and mine. So stepping into Manny's Corner or Erik's thoughts was a refreshing change of pace, especially on a personal level, as Tobias and I have both worked as baristas, but neither of us has fought a war or cracked skulls for the local gangster. In a way that may be what I'm most proud of, taking the necessary step to break out of the safety of doing CT. As we continue on with what we do, more and more will we have to be breaking out of familiar territory, and I'm pleased that we could first do it with ATW, something personal, though on a grander scheme.

I think the most valuable lesson I've learned from ATW is a writing one. I will never write anything again in the manner that I wrote for Coffee Time Comics in the last year. I don't count the first Volume of CT because it was more of a gag-style comic, but the problem is that it became more story-based in Volume2 just like ATW and I continued writing in a more improvisational manner. "Improvisational writing" is the only term I can come up with for what I've done in the last year, and what I suspect is the way that many webcomics are written. Back in late 2006 when we started preparing fro Across the Way, all I had was a picture of four characters: Erik, Ricky, Marcus, & Jen. From there I did my usual thing, writing extensively about each character until their connections and story begin to come clear, only problem is that our site relaunch was coming up and I had just an inkling of an idea of what I wanted to do. The site was live, I had very little written for Across the Way, and so it was time to bust ass. I don't think I really understood what the story was until the 4th episode was written, and even then it wasn't 100% until way later. And so i went on working these ideas off of each other until i had a complete story. This is not the way to write. The story can so easily get out of control, which is unfair to the reader and especially unfair to the artist you are working with. Even worse was the fact that the very same thing was happening with Coffee Time which had four major storylines going at once. Only about half that was written before the website went live, and the other half didn't get finished until i was done with ATW. I think i got them both under control, ATW more than CT, but after this experience I vowed to never do it again. before a panel is drawn on the next project tobias and I do, there will be a finished script.

So in my final thoughts about this comic I will not divulge what it all means, because that's not for me to do. that's up to the reader and the critic. For me or Tobias to say would only make it fact, and to me that is not the place of the author and that is not the place of fiction. Instead I'm going to leave you with links to some of my favorite panels. Thank you Tobias for making these written moments feel so real.

1. Erik's Old Man - Page 3: This is the first page we did that really felt like we were going someplace far removed from where we've been before.

2. Erik's Old Man - Page 9: For the same reason as I stated above.

3.The Dive - Page 2: This is about as close to our original vision of Across the Way as you are about to see. Originally we wanted it to be more fun and loose. Wise guys and thugs cracking jokes and having fun doing their crazy shit. A little bit more of a gag thing. Sideways & Dawg were also supposed to appear a lot more than they did.

4.The Dive - Page 15: Panel 6 is one of my favorite panels. A quiet transition in the conversation. I feel like it really captures a moment.

5.Brothers in Arms - Page 7: Just a damn good page and shows why Tobias needs more action to draw.

6.Born to Lose - Page 3: I'm mainly looking at the last panel of Ricky. i think just as much as the last page was a great example of Tobias' grasp for action, this one shows his skill with character. You can feel 1,000 memories on Ricky's face there.

7.Born to Lose - Page 12:This was a very last minute page. This episode was supposed to end on the previous page, but I knew that wouldn't work so I wrote this one and I think it came out nicely.

8.The Standard of Living - Page 1: You can feel the dirt.

9.Decisions - Page 3: The visual speaking for itself. Something as a writer I must learn to utilize more.

10.Decisions - Page 6: This was a fun one to think up, even more fun to see the finished product work so nicely.

11.Losing Ground - Page 1: I like this page so much because it feels really different from anything we've done. I also struggled for hours to get this dialogue right. Seriously, it took forever for me to be happy with it. The color we used for this page was a very last minute idea and it may be my favorite use of it.

12.Paths - Page 1: My favorite Clive. You can feel the years.

13.Paths - Page 7: Okay, so it's one of those pages that got a little political than I intended. Sometimes I feel when that happens you don't always have to stop yourself. I like the effect no matter what it says.

14.A Means to Amends - Page 1:I think this page came off real well.

Did you actually read all that and make it this far? Cool. I guess if you did you obviously read the comic on a regular basis. Thanks for that. We appreciate it and hope you've enjoyed your time here. I'll definitely post more news as Coffee Time ends, if not before then. Please donate to the American Cancer Society.

It'd be easy to say that today is the beginning of the end for Coffee Time Comics, but it's not quite true. While the last episode of Coffee Time starts today, and the last episode of Across the Way starts tomorrow, that is only what is beginning on the surface. As these comics end, the only thing that's clear is what begins from then on. Tobias and I may be going our separate ways in life, but not as artists. I will continue to write for him, and he will continue to draw for me, just not the two comics on this website. Though I really do think that there will be a Coffee Time Vol. 3 someday, it's just not happening in the near future. In fact, far enough off that I think anybody who reads right now will have to stumble on it in order to find it. The same can be said for Across the Way. I believe it will continue on in another volume someday, but not until it's right. For now there is only Esperanza, a very important project for both Tobias and I. It's both a natural growth from what we've been doing, and a challenging artistic step in that it's nothing like what we've been doing. I also think it's something we need to do to further immerse ourselves into the comics world. This comic is going to be a big undertaking and we are going to try and get it in print. In the meantime we'll both be taking big steps in our personal lives as well, so that is why for now Coffee Time Comics projects must go on hold. Esperanza will need every ounce of creativity and sp[are energy we have.

So today does mark the beginning of something, but of what we'll have to let the years decide.

I'll definitely be back with a post as Across the Way has it's final update. Please donate to the American Cancer Society.

06/25/08

That's All Folks!

04/29/08

Across the Way is Over

04/14/08

The Beginning of?

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