I’m taking a brief break this week from updating the comic for a few reasons. Most importantly, this week has been CRAZY busy with preparations for the upcoming pilot episode! To those who missed the announcement, last Monday we managed to hit our $10,000 goal for the Kickstarter campaign, which means the pilot episode has officially been given the green light! We are good to go and the work is already beginning.

But we’re not done yet!! As of the date of this post, we still have one more week to go until the deadline! This means we can continue to bring in additional funds to really push the quality of the project as high as possible! Every new donation that comes in will help us afford more voice actors, original music, and more advertising for when the episode is complete and ready to pitch.

Of course, this also means that all of the rewards for the campaign are still up for grabs! So anyone who was hoping to land a cameo appearance in the comic or pilot episode — or even add their own character to the permanent cast — still has a week left to make it happen! Whitney and I have already begun working with a few of the folks who donated the top spot to create their new characters, and I can guarantee that they are going to be awesome new additions to Peter & Company universe. I can’t wait to debut them in the comic.

So please, everyone: continue to spread the word about the Kickstarter campaign! Until the time runs out on the clock, the doors are still open to receive donations. We want to make this episode the absolute best that it can be, so that we can get the attention of the networks and get Peter & Company onto TV! Thank you so much to EVERYONE who has donated so far and helped spread word by sharing the links around various social media. Let’s give this project one last push across the finish line!

I’ll be back next week with the next page of the comic, along with the final totals for the Kickstarter campaign. See you all then!

This is all leading up to a very important development in Peter’s youth, as it was definitely a turning point for mine. Over the next few pages Peter is going to discover something that will stay with him for the rest of his life. Hmmm, what could it be??

In other P&C-related news: as of this post, the Peter & Company animated pilot Kickstarter campaign is EXTREMELY close to reaching its goal!! Out of the required $10,000, we currently have raised $9,460!! UPDATE!! It seems that in the time since I made this original post at midnight last night, several more generous donations have come in that have pushed the total amount over the edge. The current total stands at $10,120!

That’s right, everyone: the Peter & Company animated pilot episode is green-lit for production and will be coming later this year to an internet near you!

And the Kickstarter isn’t done yet! We still have two more weeks left until the deadline, which means that’s another two weeks that we can still bring in more donations! Meeting the goal just means that the project gets approved for production. The more funding we can bring in now past the goal amount, the better quality we can afford to make the pilot!! So to everyone who still was hoping to donate, PLEASE still do so! All of the rewards will remain available to anyone who wants them, so as long as you send your donation before 2:53 pm EST on May 21st, you will still be eligible to earn a spot in the cast of Peter & Company!

Please continue to share the link to the Kickstarter donation page on your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools. Once the final two weeks of the campaign are up, I will be creating a new blog specifically to share news and updates on the production of the pilot episode.

Thank you to EVERYONE who has donated to the project or shared the links with others over the past couple months! This has been a wild ride, and it’s still only just getting started. Peter & Company fans are without a doubt the most awesome people in the world.

Lastly, just for fun: Got a random question you’d like to ask Whitney and me? Check out our Formspring page and ask away!

To those who don’t know, Pavlov was a behavioral scientist who was able to make a dog associate a bell with feeding time (discovering the sound of the bell would make the dog salivate, even if food was not presented). For me, the repeated viewings of the movie whenever I was sick reached the point where Willy Wonka actually had a subconscious healing effect, that I still sometimes feel even today as an adult. Every time I get sick I have this strange desire to pop in the DVD of the film. I rarely do anymore, but that association (sick time = Wonka time) still exists.

The Gene Wilder one, of course. We are the music makers… and we are the dreamers of the dreams. Come on, it doesn’t get any better than that.

And yes, Seth apparently is also a fan of CSI: Miami. Or he just follows internet trends. Hard to tell.

I’m going to try and get the next page cranked out before the weekend, since Whitney and I have plans to be away for the entire time. Tomorrow is her birthday (my lovely wife turns 23!), so I am taking her out to celebrate in style for the weekend. So yes, everyone be sure to wish her a happy birthday, if you have her gallery on your watch list around the ‘net.

Also, the Peter & Company Animated Pilot Kickstarter is over the halfway point now in its goal (currently $5,160/10K) with 34 days left as of this writing! We’re coming up on the second half of the fundraiser, so it’s time to kick the efforts into overdrive! Thank you so much to EVERYONE who has donated and helped to spread the word already. Please continue to post the link to the Donations page on your Facebook, Twitter, DeviantArt, or anywhere else you can share it! Let’s get that goal met so that Peter & Company can finally become an animated series!

Update 4/30: Well, in a sheer stroke of coincidence, the moment I decide to do a story about Peter getting sick, I also get sick myself. I caught what feels like a flu bug last Saturday, and have now been wrestling with it for a week and a half. So yes, this week I’ll be making time to draw, now that I’m on the tail end of it. Just remind me never to do a “Peter gets sick” story again after this.

This page is for anyone who’s ever tried to give a cat a pill, hehe.

I always did have trouble taking pills when I was a little kid. Not quite as bad as THIS, of course, but it did take me a bit of courage to finally be able to swallow a pill without freaking out about it ahead of time.

Also, this is the first time Peter’s mom has made an appearance in a straight black & white page. Up until this point she’s either been fully colored or in grayscale (back when I was using the 10-tone palette for awhile). I had a hard time figuring out how to put in spot blacks to make her coloring pattern more readable (since she’s a calico), but I’m not sure I like how it turned out. As Whitney told me while I was inking it, “she looks a bit like Cruella DeVille.” I might just revisit this later in the week and edit the half-black out depending on what other folks say about it.

In other HUGE news: to those who have been following the Peter & Company animated pilot episode and awaiting progress on it, I invite you to take a look at the project page. As of Thursday, March 22nd, the Kickstarter campaign that will fund the project is officially underway. We have two months to raise the budget of $10,000 entirely through viewer donations.

If you would like to help the project by spreading word to as many people as possible, share the following links on your Facebook, Twitter, or other online accounts:

Kickstarter Donation Page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/557429950/peter-and-company-the-animated-pilot
Youtube Announcement Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXSibzS-XOU

The project cannot begin until funding is raised, and if we can’t make the goal before the deadline (May 21st), it will be cancelled. So please, if you would like to see Peter & Company on your TV, now is the time to start spreading word about the fundraiser!

Update: As you all have probably noticed, the site’s been on pause for a little bit. Whitney went home to visit her family for a couple of weeks, and whenever that happens I always end up losing all of my inspiration to draw. She’s my muse, so I only seem to be able to get the energy to draw when she’s with me. Now that she’s back home, I’ll be making time this week to catch up and get the next page put on paper.

Also, be sure to give the Kickstarter page a look for updates on the total donations! Thanks, everyone!!

Even when hit overnight with a vicious head cold, Peter still has a sense of humor about the whole situation.

Or maybe he’s just delirious. It’s hard to tell.

I actually just drew the “Braiiiiins” word balloon as a joke while sketching it on Livestream/Youtube (watch the recording to see), but during the inking phase Whitney told me she thought it was hilarious, so I kept it in. I blame the fact that we’ve been hooked on The Walking Dead lately, hehe.

Also: Stay tuned this coming week for some HUGE news concerning the Peter & Company Animated Pilot episode. I’ll post more information on it very soon, like within the next couple days.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a Youtube recording of this one being drawn. I penciled it on the Inking Room like usual, but connection difficulties caused the recording to become corrupted on Livestream’s servers, so I wasn’t able to save the stream. Such are the dangers of using Livestream, I suppose. Here’s hoping the next page goes smoothly this week.

So yes, a few pieces of news. With the new site design comes a better format for adding links to other comics, so I’m participating in a link exchange this week with a new one! Check the sidebar to read Altermeta, an awesome comic filled with dragons and general insanity. Give it a read, as it’s definitely one of my favorites.

Also, a new comic project has fallen into my lap this week. It’s not related to Peter & Company, but it will be taking up some spotlight time on the Inking Room very soon. I’m going to be setting up a new website to showcase it, which will also be linked on here once it’s ready (at which point I’ll give all the details on it as well). All I can say is that it’s a very interesting piece of sequential art history, and I’m extremely excited to see where it goes. Stay tuned!

Update Note: 3/12 - I decided to hold onto the next page of Peter & Company for just another week so that I can get it finished in full color. I’ve owed a color update for quite awhile now and this will be a good page for it. I’ll also be streaming the coloring process on the Inking Room so you all can see how I do it. To catch when that show happens, follow my Twitter.

So Peter was literally less than a minute away from being able to see Chelsea get knocked the heck out for the third time. Three times getting punched in the last few story arcs… one would think Chelsea would learn her lesson by this point.

Also, a peculiarly large number of students seem to be a little too happy about Chelsea getting floored. Makes you wonder if she has a bit of a reputation for being a punk around the entire school, instead of just to Peter.

This was another another page of character cameos, with slots being filled by folks who submitted their creations during the Livestream shows. The main girl chatting it up with Peter and sharing her eyewitness account is GlitterbabyKitty. The rest of the character cameos, in no particular order, are:

DYW14 | Ironmania2003 | BrotherFluffy | NBBowler | KitSkyFire | Comitatus | Giggman | Tkitcs | KaoNinjaratzu | SorcererLance | Xion

Peter is slowly starting to realize that he might actually make it through the day alive after all.

The crowd scene in this page is another huge group shot of other artists’ creations, offered up for cameos with their permission. Last week’s call for characters resulted in a new record for total characters in one page — 25 total (22 being cameos). It was a blast putting this page together over the course of several evenings on the Inking Room, and much thanks goes out to the following folks who contributed:

Christopher Wade | Muddypaws | RelaxingDragon | Huevadoches | Darkario | Spirit Studios 2011 | KGYiff | Glitterbaby Kitty | Moonsango | GeminiJC | thetacoslave | DiabloDragon | Thwaitesy | Piperhorns | KaoNinjaratzu | Dozer | OtakuMan24 | Flynn | Garfieldo | Taggs

So yes! As you may have noticed, this week features the launching of the updated Peter & Company website. I rearranged a few things, streamlined the navigation, updated with new graphics, added in links on the right to my social media stuff (Formspring, Livestream, etc.), and integrated the Youtube account for the Inking Room. Now on pages where I’ve recorded the Livestream broadcasts, you can click on the “Watch it Get Drawn On Youtube” button above to watch the drawing process. You can also subscribe to my Youtube page to see the rest of the recordings, and if you’d like to catch one of the live Inking Room shows, follow me on Twitter to be told when each show goes live.

This page was the latest to feature a few guest characters from readers of the comic! The first two panels feature cameos from characters by linkcollins, nbbowler, thwaitesy, and tanooki00. These folks showed up to the Inking Room Livestream feed as I was drawing the page to give me reference pics of their characters. While this page only had space for a few characters, the NEXT one is going to feature another massive group shot like the first party scene. So if you have an original character that you would like to have a free cameo in the next page, check out this post on the Inking Room website.

Update Feb. 7th: Tonight’s Inking Room show was almost a success. There were a number of technical difficulties that put a significant delay on getting it all done. As a result, only half the page was complete, and there are still over a dozen character cameo slots left to fill.

As such, I’m adding another night to the Inking Room schedule this week! Thursday night at 8 pm EST, we’ll turn the cams on again to take in more cameo requests and finish out the page. This means if you weren’t able to catch it tonight, you still have a chance for your character to make it in.

I’m taking just a brief break this week from updating the comic to get a few things done that were demanding my time. The next page of Peter & Company will be posted next week, on January 30th. In the meantime, I have very big plans for this week, specifically involving the Peter & Company animated pilot.

In order to make the characters easier to animate, I have to create streamlined versions of their models. I put a lot of detail into the comics (particularly with the hair/fur, backgrounds, and clothing), and while I’d love for the animated versions to include as much of that detail as possible, it may not be entirely feasible. So I’m going to be turning on the camera for a Livestream show this week in order to go through the cast and work on the cleaner models.

The Livestream show is going to happen on Wednesday, January 25th, at 8 pm EST. This post is an open invitation for anyone to join who would like to partake in the process and give feedback. In particular I would love to have any fellow animators join in to offer their view on everything. I already have several of my friends in the animation field planning to attend, but the more people who can watch, the better!

The moment the camera goes live, I will be updating both my Twitter account and the Peter & Company Facebook page (both linked below) with a link to the feed. Make sure to keep an eye on either of those places if you want to catch the show. Whitney and I will both be on cam to talk with people in the chat room and hopefully make some good progress on the project.

Relevant Links:
- My Twitter account
- The Peter & Company Facebook page
- The Inking Room on Livestream

The pilot episode is coming up very soon here. I will be posting more information — including details on the upcoming Kickstarter campaign, which will fund the project — within the next month or two. In the meantime, the next P&C page will come next week. See you all soon!