PompFiction

Well, where to begin… It breaks my heart to tell you that I will no longer be updating Pompfiction.

-DOON-

I can’t begin to apologize enough to the hundreds of people I will be letting down. So many of my loyal followers have come forward to tell me what a difference my comic has made in their lives, and I will forever remain grateful. It has given me such a deep fulfillment to know that my work could have an impact on anyone’s lives. It hurts to know that I will be letting down the people who have just begun to read my comic, for those who have followed it from its early developmental stages years ago, for the loyal readers who have stuck by me for every update, for even the casual visitors, and for the people that inspired me to put my heart into my work… I can’t shake the feeling that this’ll be a grave disappointment for some people, that I’ve let people down, and so I am sorry.

After taking a week off of Pompfiction, I feel even more moved to end it all together. I can not fully explain what has caused this feeling, but it is a mix of two things. Yesterday morning, while trying to work on today’s page, I felt so strongly that God was leading me to drop everything, and follow a new path. Though it hurts to leave behind what has become so much a part of my life for the past few years and venture into the unknown, I can not deny my faith. But there have been things leading up to this point. Upon attempting to pour out my best work for the return of Pompfiction after a one week break, I realized that my heart wasn’t wholly invested in the work. For as many great things as this comic has brought for me, it is always a reminder of so many heartbreaks in my life. It wasn’t always a one-man show, as I draw my inspiration from my friends and loved ones in my life, but it has been abandonment after abandonment, and due to recent events, I feel that I can no longer invest my heart into this project. For my characters are alive through the relationships with certain people I have to draw upon, and now that they are broken, I have lost heart for my work. I feel I would be doing a disservice to you and I, if I continued to pour out heartless, uninspired work… I’m just afraid that three times is a charm, and I can’t go on, on a broken heart.

That being said, I don’t know where I’m going now, but the winds of change are on my back. Though I feel defeated now, I sense something bigger yet to come. I hope to finish the Steel Chef chapter on my own timing, and publish it one day in Pompfiction Vol2, as a final homage to the work that I’ve invested over a year and a half of my time in developing. I can not promise when that day will come, or if it will, but those are my hopes as of now.

Please forgive me for my infidelity to any and all of my loyal readers. I wish I had more to offer than my sincerest apologies. It has been a good run.

Thank you to everyone who has been voting for the past 14 days, and receiving free, printable valentines! Go forth and spread the Pompfiction love today!
Missed out on collecting all 14? Well you can have them ALL now for only $5! The first 3 patrons get a free customized, hand-drawn valentine when they buy a set of Pompfiction Valentines! Don’t miss out on handing out Pompilicious valentines next year, so head to the shop and buy today!

So OS9 on Deviantart asked me if I happen to have a tutorial on coming up with a good name for a story/comic, so I used the example of Pompfiction.Truth be told, Celest came up with Pompfiction XD But here’s how I started, when trying to choose a fitting name:

Basically how I started was to write a list of words that really defined what the comic was about. Any words I could think up “grease, pompadour, combs, leather, boots, hot rods, pinups, 50s” etc, then to narrow down that list to only what REALLY defines my comic. I’d cross out things like “boots, combs, pinups” etc. Then try to think of varations upon those words. Grease: Greaser, greasy, greased.

Some things you want to consider when making a good title is your branding. Your comic is your brand. EVERYTHING about your comic should fall under that brand. Mine is all about the greasy 50s, and all that implies. It’s funny, it’s serious, and it’s campy like a pulp fiction novel. So PompFiction, a parody of Pulp Fiction the movie, worked perfectly. XD It had that Pompadour feeling to it, and it is indeed Fiction, as my site not only includes comic pages, but ALL forms of story telling.

If you’re making it into a webcomic, consider your domain name strongly. Don’t just slap on whatever you want. Under 9 characters long will highly increase your direct site traffic. It doesn’t sound like it would help, but typing out “omgthisistotallymycomic.com” every time you want to read the comic is annoying. Consider Alliterations: “GreaseyGears” etc, that will be more memorable. If your comic name is uber long, consider a real memorable catchphrase or something short you can use as the domain name. Like if mine was called “Pompiliciousness” then I would just call it “PompComic.com” XD Player Vs Player webcomic uses “PvPOnline.com” So definitely consider that. The ONLY excuse for an uberlong comic name is if its shockingly memorable like “devilspanties.com”

Unfortunately it takes me FOREVER to come up with good names. I originally bought the domain name “pomprats,” but felt like it was way too generic and not memorable. It doesn’t really carry the FEELING of the comic, you know? You want to capture the feeling of your comic, more so than the literal content. Don’t just call it “A bunch of badasses in the ghettos.com” XDDDDDDDDDDDD Try to capture that feeling of it. If it’s grunge, go for a real grungy title. Something that strikes up an emotion, or imagery in the reader’s mind. That’s ultimately what you’re going after.

Well not exactly “new” flavors, but in case you guys haven’t noticed already, there are four ways to get your fix on Pompfiction updates! Follow Pompfiction on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter or RSS feeds, you’ll get instant notification as soon as a post, page, or anything is posted! Not into all those new fangled social networking sites? Pompfiction updates are also available through the Deviantart group The Jaybirds Nest, or catch updates on FurAffinity! Never miss an update, so subscribe today! (click any one of the links above to take you to the Pompfiction group for that site!)

For the next 12 days I’ll be offering a new part of the “12 Days of Christmas, Pompfiction Style” as voting incentive at Top Web Comics! So vote every day to receive a new picture, and to make me a happy webcomic artist!

VOTE HERE!