The website (http://openfirecomics.com) will contain content from all creators across a vast spectrum of topics and choices. I’m fascinated to read this stuff as a fan, and I’m honored to be contributing as a creator. Should be a fun ride, and it will be the primary source for news about my upcoming comic, Act Natural, leading up to launch. (you did see the announcement poster for Act Natural, right?)

This Saturday, August 13th, Open Fire! is having a party to celebrate our launch into the world, and you should come! It’s an internet party, so no matter where in the world you happen to be, you can attend! Details in the pretty image below:

I probably will not be there (I’m moving that day, and it’s doubtful I’ll have internet at my new place in time), but I will have a special prerecorded video greeting for attendees and most of the other creators will be there, drawing, laughing, and having fun, so it will be a great opportunity to meet the rest of the crew. Should be a great time!

And of course, while you’re there, be sure to add http://openfirecomics.com to your RSS Feeds and bookmarks!

I’ll be at booth M-28; here’s a handy map (click to enlarge):

Need some extra inspiration to come? I’ll be selling special versions of Jimmy and the Hammer Issue 1 that will ONLY BE AVAILABLE AT THE SHOW. I’ll also have regular versions there. All of them will be Artist Editions, signed and with a sketch of your choosing in the inside cover. Maybe you want the con-exclusive cover, maybe you want a custom sketch, maybe you just want to buy one from me in person and not pay for shipping. No matter your motivations, this is the place to buy! Check out the fancy Emerald City Variant Cover below:

Maybe you’re broke. I get it. So how about a FREE postcard featuring Doctor Who artwork by the inimitatable Ran Brown promoting my series “I Don’t Know, I’m Not a Doctor” over at You Need To Eat? Swing by my booth and I’ll give you one, no questions asked.

Plus, to top it off I’ll be doing sketches all weekend as well. Plus there’s a bunch of other cool people coming. Plus, if you don’t come you’re a GREAT BIG JERKY JERKFACE. NO EXCUSES.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

What does this mean?

1. Jimmy and the Hammer is not dead, just sleeping. I still intend to finish it, eventually, but pages will come out much less frequently.
2. I intend to continue collecting the existing (and future) material in printed form.
3. I’m not done making comics. I’ve got two other series I’m writing that I’m currently looking for artists on. More information on those projects as they develop.
4. I’m certainly not done writing. I blog quite frequently at You Need to Eat, including a new series where I am watching every episode of Doctor Who ever made.
5. I will still be exhibiting at Emerald City Comicon (and maybe Stumptown?). So plan on going to those and saying hi to me!

So, to reiterate, Jimmy and the Hammer is not gone forever, just won’t be updating frequently for a while. Still lots of news to be had here, so don’t unsubscribe from the RSS, and don’t stop checking in on the site. Just check in less frequently.

Thank you all for your support so far, and I hope you continue to support me as I continue with other projects.

-Evan

Sorry for the missed update last week. I should really just change the header to “Updates most Fridays”.  With the Holidays, and everything I’m working on, it’s a little nutty right now. I’m going to do my best to make sure there continue to be updates, though.

Also, who are these people? A dude and a monkey? OH YEAH. They’re the titlular characters! Been forever since I drew these two.

And if their talk of Wallace and the Inventor confuse you, perhaps you should re-read Issue 4.

Order here!

It comes in two flavors: regular, and an artist edition with a sketch in it by yours truly.

For those of you who like to buy your comics from a brick and mortar retailer, Jimmy and the Hammer will be available for purchase very soon from Atomic Comics in Tacoma Washington. For those of you with eReaders, several digital versions will also be available soon.

The eCommerce package on this site was thrown together fairly quickly, so if anything goes wrong when you’re ordering, please let me know immediately! You can reach me by email at evan@jimmyandthehammer.com

I am waiting now on the printer for me to get my second batch of these, and because of that delay, even if you order right away, they may not arrive in time for Christmas. If you order now though, your odds will be much better of it arriving in time to be a Christmas gift.

If you order before December 23rd, shoot me an email (at the aforementioned evan@jimmyandthehammer.com) with the gift recipient’s email address and I will send them a special eCard  on Christmas Morning informing them of their incoming gift, as well as wishing them happy holidays. (email addresses received in this manor will not be stored or used for evil. I promise!)

Anyway, I could babble for pages about how excited I am, but I’ll do my best to keep this brief. I was a comic book nerd long before I was a webcomic nerd, so the fact that my work is in print is a big deal for me. Long story short, I’m pretty amped right now, and I’m incredibly grateful to all of you for making this possible.

Here’s a new page, I hope you love it.

The next page is already well under way, and should be done and posted next Friday.

I’m really excited to participate, it should let me create new material and some quick, fun, art; also it will allow me to deliver content to you folks on a regular basis.

Are you intrigued?
Here’s the website.
Here’s my intro post.
Here’s my first character: Fredneck.
Here’s the RSS Feed for the site
Here’s the RSS Feed for just my posts.

There’s a lot of very talented people participating, over 150! I’m excited to see all the cool things that get created.

I’ve been uncharacteristically quiet on the subject too, and the reason is that I didn’t want to say anything until I had something definitive to say, and I wanted to make sure the problems I was having weren’t short term. So I took some time to think about it, but I still don’t have something definitive to add, so here’s my best shot:

Jimmy and the Hammer will continue to update erratically, without warning for the foreseeable future. It is not ending.

How did I get here? Well, with issue 4, I focused very intently on getting pages out twice a week, no misses, no excuses. And I succeeded! That’s good, right? Yes and no. I wound up having a lot of late nights bumping up against deadlines, quickly drawing pages the day before they were “due”. I was enjoying myself, but I feel the quality suffered a bit, and the pages just weren’t up to a standard I was happy with.

So for issue 5, I took another path. Instead of an internal emphasis on timeliness, I put the internal emphasis on quality, pushing both my writing and my art to levels heretofore unseen on Jimmy and the Hammer. And on the few updates you’ve seen thus far, it really showed.

But I ran into a new problem: the art was taking 2-3 times as long to do, and it was not a fun process for me any more. Rather than my previous process, which was basically “doodle doodle doodle it’s a face”, I now had a time consuming, incredibly detail oriented, meticulous process that felt like work. The joy and creativity of the process was gone.

I was in a position where I was spending a large chunk of my free time working on a project I wasn’t enjoying, and why? I was making no money, I wasn’t really gaining fans outside of people I know personally, and it wasn’t really internally satisfying like it used to be. So why keep doing it?

All logic was telling me it was time to throw in the towel, but my heart wouldn’t let me. I had some misplaced sense: maybe loyalty, maybe stubbornness, that just would not quit. And even though I couldn’t quantify what the value is, it became clear to me that this project still has value.

So here’s where I ended up. It may feel like work, but it’s worthwhile, and I will try to work on this every day. It may be drawing new pages, it may be getting old pages ready to print, it may be fixing html on the site (which is sorely overdue) or it may be writing. But rest assured, whether there are results that are visible to you or not, I will continue working on this.

I’m going to try to keep doing about a page a week, but it will continue to update erratically without warning, so I recommend either subscribing to my RSS feed or following me on twitter, so you don’t miss a page.

And Jimmy and the Hammer will continue until at least a semi-satisfying ending. It won’t leave you hanging mid storyline. That’s a promise. It may take a while to get there, but I won’t leave you hanging.

There may be some other announcements in the future, I still don’t know what form they will take.

Most importantly: to the fans who have found me and stuck with me through this all, thank you. Every comment, tweet, or email expressing how much you’ve enjoyed what I’ve done so far has made everything worthwhile.

-Evan