#Frog Alarmclock

[thewebcomicsreview]

Crafting A Comic: Frog Alarmclock And The Fabric Of Time

For a long time, I’ve wanted to make a webcomic.

I’ve written two webcomics, Legend of the Hare and Saffron and Sage, but I didn’t draw either of them. And I’ve always been a little self-conscious about that, and harbored a desire to make a comic all by myself, art and all. This desire has been inflamed lately by the success of ForEach, a comic made by one of my discord mods. It’s getting kind of popular, and already has more interest and engagement that Saffron and Sage, something I’m very normal and well-adjusted about, and I’ve been thinking this is something that’s in my power to make. My art, while still limited, is finally at the point where I can do this, and I’ve been writing forever. All I need is a plan.

I have never been a good planner, and it shows a lot in my comics, so I want to have a lot more of the comic written out and planned before pencil comes to paper than I traditionally have done, and I‘d like to turn this brainstorming into Content for you all. It’s a critical part of the writing process, and one that gets glossed over a lot, in part because it leads to slightly rambling essays. But I do have one thing to start with: a protagonist.

(Art by HolyHandGrenade)

Frog Alarmclock is a young woman being trained to join a coven of powerful witches who stitch the fabric of time. She has very little interest in this grand destiny, and is a bit of a stereotypical NEET loser despite her great magic power. Her name, Frog, comes from a knitting term referring to a way of correcting mistakes, but obviously frog-the-animal theming is cute and marketable. I’ve posted a bit about this character on my discord, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, so I think there’s some potential here worth mining. So far, though, the only plot element I’ve been able to come up are

Frog lives with her Grandma, who trains her. Grandma’s power level has fluctuated wildly in my rough drafts, from “generic witch” to “personally gets into fights with Satan in hell”, and I’ve been leaning towards the higher end. Frog and Grandma don’t get along. I’m giving her the placeholder name “Batra”. It sounds witchy, sounds batty, and it comes from batrachia, which means Frog, so it fits the theming subtly.

Frog lives in a Florida suburb. I don’t remember why I settled on Florida specifically, and that may change, but I do like the idea that this cosmic entity lives in kind of a slummy neighborhood. I may move them to Lowell, MA, which is closer to home and an aesthetic I know better.

Frog has a crush on a pink biker chick with pig theming, the Miss Piggy to her Kermit. For the time being, lets call this character Susie Pepper. Susie from “Sus” the latin word for pig, and Pepper because Peppa Pig. It’s a placeholder name.

That’s all I got so far. Even the name, “Frog Alarmclock and the Fabric of Time” is placeholder I made up just now while writing this. I’ve written a few random short stories of this character, trying to get a feel for her, and I even made her my character in a weekly Pathfinder game. But it’s time to try and get a proper story going. With Legend of the Hare, I had a huge over-arcing five-year plan for each layer in the tower, but little sense of where the comic was going to be in three pages, which led to a lot of problems. With Saffron and Sage, I set out with a vague over-arching storyline of “Saffron must rescue her prince”, and kept the comic to short episodic self-contained stories, taking heavy inspiration from Gunnerkrigg Court. Saffron would go on wacky adventures, and rescuing Faunus would be some vague future goal she was theoretically working towards in the same way Ash Ketchum wanted to be a Pokemon Master but took 20 years to get around to that. This worked better, but led to the comic feeling very aimless and meandering, which is part of why it’s turned increasingly farcical. In some ways, my two comics would be better served by switching protagonists. Saffron is very driven in a way suited for a somewhat goofy battle shounen, and if Jill set out on an adventure to rescue Riley she’d be distracted more easily and it’d lend itself better to an adventure-of-the-week format.

Frog, being a NEET loser, is closer to Jill than to Saffron. And suddenly, just from that sentence, I know what I want to do with this comic now. Writing this essay has given me one of those Eureka moment that happens sometimes, when you go from no ideas to the entire plot of the comic all at once. Frog is Jill if she was the Rabbit Champion for a few years before the story started. They’ve got different personalities, of course, Frog isn’t just Jill with a big hat, but this is the throughline I needed. I can work with this, get a first draft done, get an editor to look at it, and report back to you with more detail.

[hellstobetsy]

Tonight, on a very special Saffron and Sage, a callback to chapter four that no one remembers but me. Read more at SaffronComic.com!  Sometimes your punchline is a callback to something from 2019 and you just have to hope to god anyone has any idea what the fuck is going on. That was over a hundred pages ago! That was over ten thousand dollars of art fees ago! (Please help me budget this my family is dying) We’re getting close to page 200. I didn’t do anything for page 100, will I continue that streak? My gut says….maybe. Also, the Frog Alarmclock comic I made is there. I think I'm going to try to update that everytime Saffron updates, it'll make a nice Patreon post with multiple images. 

[saintedsin]

You have been visited by Alexander, the fat frog of fortune. He offers his love and alarmclock screams, free of the usual charge of mealworms. He’ll probably nom fingers but he thinks it’s worth it so long as you know you’re loved and someone cares about you. 

Here’s hoping you have a good day today!

#blessed

[ellekimmy]

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[itsjohnegman]

The Big Ole Present List of 2016-2017

LET US BEGIN

Concerned parties have been @ ed below, but there’s also general snacks to grab from Shou if you ask for it! He brought souvenirs. :3c

And please assume below: Along with whatever gifts given, also, an appalling number of gatcha items. If you want to know specifically which ones you can always contact me but otherwise just....a Ton.

Household

@jinglefart :

-A piano and french-themed lacy briefcase style strap bag from Axes Femme (Black)

- A cat-playing-piano themed backpack (white and black)

- A snow globe that had two sumo wrestlers and ‘oh! sumo dome!’ written on it in English.

-A “Bside-label” brand sticker with two pandas being adorable

- A (gently) used on-brand Lolita Hairbow from Closet Child, the used Brand Lolita clothes store (considering how expensive brand is, this is still no small monetary feet for anyone)

-A sweater featuring Disney characters in various lgbtq parings kissing with the words ‘love is all you need’

-Frame picture of themself and the “egg-son” they “raised” on their Christmas Day QPP Date

-A pastel shirt featuring a cat and a set of wings with the words ‘angel chimera’

- A ‘mug couple’ mug set with a heart theme on one and a clover theme on another, with the handles as black cats whose tails form a heart when put together--left the decision for who to give the other mug to up to him.

- A tiny fake acorn keychain with little Soot Sprites rattling around inside

-Tiny omamori charm featuring wisteria flowers, the flowers of April, for good luck.

-Egg on Toast plastic phonecase

-Egg Sweater

-Rabbit chopstick holders with little blue flowers on the toosh

-So. Much. Gudetama merch. So much.

@azackmiller

-Weirdly flavored kitkat mix bag (including vinyard grape, blueberry, melon, and new york cheesecake.)

-A strange obviously Star Wars but probably Knock off t-shirt featuring a storm trooper grabbing their crotch and the words ‘Smooth trooper loves yo mamas flapjacks’

-one of those keychains that’s an actual ramen soup spoon filled with super realistic looking noodles and broth

- A “Gegege no Kitaro” keychain of “Otosan”, the tiny demon with a single eyeball for a head, relaxing adorably in a little cup for a bath

-Hand-copied (and guessed at in some places) recipes from the food featured in the Alice in Wonderland Concept Cafe.

-An entire set of stickers from the Segopolis Persona Event--it seems each sticker came with a $7.50 drink. There are ten of them.

- A purple long sleeve shirt with dramatic koi fish decals

-A little daruma, for wish granting.

-Plastic earrings that look like little stylized tuxedos  

- A selection of ‘dating game’ based sweets (ie Tsundere ‘It’s not like I like you, just take it!!’ Valentine Cookies, Yandere’s ‘bloodsoaked’ strawberry marshmallows (given the appropriate disclaimer before presentation), ect)

-A book on advanced Bento Making 

-Books on Japanese recipes, both simple and from Michelin Star Restaurants

-A little ceramic fry jewelry case with a ringpop inside, as an injoke 

@aalexmiller

- A white and purple zip up hoodie featuring stars and an alpaca

-A small book on Japanese folklore and the different demons, spirits and other supernatural forces in them.

- A little handpurse shaped to look like the radio in Kiki’s Delivery Service

- A strap bag that looks like a fancy vintage clock

-A set of fancy but still classy lolita-brand shoes, blue and modest with little gold rose buttons. 

-A little clover ball bell charm for good luck

- Little cat cookies that have tail crooks so they can hang off the edges of cups

-Pretty traditional Japanese tea cups with gold flake effect

-One of those umbrellas where when it rains, cat paw prints appear

@ectobismallogist

-Baseball cap featuring the gods of wind and thunder as well as other complicated Japanese imagery

- A little bell, for good luck and happiness (also for Phantome to play with, if Ghostie likes)

-Nekomimi headphones with sound canceling (black and blue)

-Konpeito candy in a little jar--darker blues, purples and other night sky colors.

-A keychain that feels soft, like a cat’s peets

-A mug with the words ‘Who are you?’ a dark cityscape and cat (?) eyes everywhere that get brighter with warm liquid.

@itsjavestridbert

- ‘Aesthetic’ Minions phone case

- A towel that looks like a whole dead fish in the packaging

- One of the really mochi-soft saniro character plush keychains

-A Sentimental Circus Plushie

-A ‘game over’ purse with holographic screen and detachable wings (black)

-Potato Chips Backpack

-Small blue and red temari rabbit

-Wooden bird stand alarmclock

-Wooden bird hangars

-Bird themed chopsticks

-Some of those eraser food sets

Loved Ones

@idiotsyncrasis

-Black hoodie with all the different constellations on them that glue light blue in the dark (with a pre-giving worry speech warning about the different astrological signs and if it’s something Karkat would really want to wear considering ect ect)

- A set of containers for plants, from everything from vintage fruit cans to simple white ones with soft edges to modern glass pieces with dynamic angles.

- A music ‘box’ from Kamakura, a metalic egg with a carousel that winds up with a notably satisfying winding noise and plays the song “Sakura Nagashi.”

-A tiny stuffed Jiji the cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service, complete with replica cage like in the movie (had to be shipped in)

-A small bag of star-shaped sugar cubes from the Milky Way Cafe, as well as  a paper menu of what each astrological symbol’s ice cream parfait looks like.

-A little maneki neko strap charm for good luck

-a whole selection of cat chopstick holders

-traditional Japanese artstyle cats tote bag

True Companions

@clockworkchevalier

-A little Shinto Rosary for good luck

-A white, red and gold t-shirt featuring dramatic imagery of the sun, and samurai. 

-modern glass-and-metal decorative holders/displays

-Vaporwave themed blindbox

-A selection of some of the artsier B-side label stickers (a stoplight where each light is a different picture of nature, a girl slipping into a portal into space, ect)

-A ‘death flag sayings’ blind box (a box with a pin featuring a random speech bubble filled with words that are an in-movie death flag for a red shirt character)

-Hanging polygonal wireframes for holding airplants or other decor in

-A dabbing cat figurine

@lilithinstardust

- A little fabric charm featuring dramatic gold on purple embroidery for good luck

-A ‘folded paper crane’ metal necklace 

-A silver moon hairholder

-A ‘Boy’s Tears’ water bottle plastic cover

-A Lace-up black collar 

-Pastel Aesthetic Cat coinpurse

-An Aesthetic Pastel Letterman Jacket, pink with shiny spikes on the shoulders and the word ‘Bye’ in a big white heart on the back from Wego.

@komorebicalling

- An enamel mug featuring different kinds and scientific names of mushrooms

- A Konpeito Kanzashi from a respected maker, as well as booklet instructions for how to use it to put her hair up.

-A whole selection of frog chopstick rests

-a rusty file cabinet shelf specifically for ‘aesthetic’ gardening (shipped)

-Cute Peek-a-kitty stockings

-Umbrella with a sunny sky inside and the starry universe outside

-A ‘frog’ charm for good luck and returning money

Friends and General

@skyphile

- A box of delicately crunchy white chocolate sandwich cookies called Shiroi Koyubito

@bvllheaded

-Little bowl sets that when stacked, look like a samurai and a geisha

-An off-white T-shirt with intricate japanese decal of mountains

@caligulasantiquity

- A purple tank top with intricate japanese decal of waves

@ghostytrollcrow

- Dark blue starry pillow with little doodle-like stars all over it and a really snuggly blanket that is inverted colors, pale blue with dark blue stars

@dcstrider

-A mug that says ‘cosmic tune’ and features stars that light up when the liquid is warm

-A pencil bag that says ‘cosmic story’ and features some kind of close-but-not-quite-English attempt at evoking a mood involving that, that is moving nonetheless

[thewebcomicsreview]

The Webcomics Review Discord had a Slightly Unseasonable Secret Santa, and I got this lovely art piece by @lumsel, of Jade Harley dressed as my ever-cooking OC Frog Alarmclock!

My own gift was for @ladonsphilosopher, also known as Machina, who wanted pictures, pictures of Spider-Man!

I can't tag this "My Art" because I was just tracing over the original comic cover (Not my fault Aradia has six fingers! That's accuracy, baby!), but it was still a fun way to spend an afternoon and I learned some Procreate stuff making it. I thought I'd do more of this tracey-thing to make memes of players in a Pathfinder game I run but apparently I don't like my meat friends as much as I like my discord friends because I never got around to it.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that The Webcomics Review Discord kicks ass. I'm Commander Daniel, and this is my favorite discord on the citadel.

[thewebcomicsreview]

Popped off a little comic in ~30 minutes, writing each panel after I finished the previous one. Obviously not the ideal way to write a comic strip, there's no joke, and the art is quick and crude even by my standards, but...I dunno, I kind of like it. Frog Alarmclock is an old OC I never did anything with, and I kind of want to make a comic with her, 100% on my own without an artist. My art can always be better, but I feel like I've hit the point where I'm out of excuses.

[thewebcomicsreview]

First attempt at designing Batra/Grandma Frog. I got distracted by a meese in my trash and didn't finish shading it, but it's good enough now for what it is.

I like

The hair covering the right eye like Frog's does

The Batman-style utility belt instead of Frog's messy handbag

The way the gold rings and the neckline make a subtle cartoon frog face shape

But it still feels like it's missing some central design element.

Like, compare to the Homestuck 2 designs, which are super simple to draw and yet instantly recognizable

Or even Frog herself, whose design is much busier yet is still clearly Frog even chibified for a in-joke image like this. I don't want to copy Frog's look any more for Grandma, but I need something that fills the role Frog's suspenders do.

[thewebcomicsreview]

Super fast Frog doodle. I fucked it up initially but Lumsel on the discord server taught me to use the lasso tool and I taught myself about layer folders, so even though it's just a quick "I want to draw something quick before bed while watching a podcast" doodle, I'm happy with it because I learned a surprising amount while making it.

[thewebcomicsreview]

Doodle of a scene from a Pathfinder game where I'm playing as Frog (in an attempt to flesh out the character). I tried to sneak away from some animated dwarven statues we'd angered, but it didn't go well

[thewebcomicsreview]

Your name is Frog Alarmclock. It's a pretty unusual name, but you're a pretty unusual girl, so it suits you. Right now, by which I mean two days ago, you're standing in your room stretching your legs as an excuse to not do your homework.

Art by H0lyHandGrenade

[thewebcomicsreview]

So, Heroforge, the site that lets you make custom models of your DnD Characters that you can get printed and mailed to you, has finally made public their color mode, so now it’s a fully-fledged character creator where you can make custom poses.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this is the next Poser. If you can’t draw, have no technical skills, and have $5/mo to get transparent versions of the images (or photoshop), here are a bunch of art assets you can use for like a visual novel or a webcomic. Not a particularly good-looking one (and if you try to sell it you could get in trouble), but I’ve seen worse.

Much worse

And it seems like just a straight upgrade over Sprite Comics, which are kind of still a thing. 

One thing I’m really giving thought to is making a visual novel with these assets, and if I think it’s good then I can commission real art to replace the copyrighted images or just release it freely. I’ve always been half-wondering about rebooting LotH that way, or doing something with that Frog Alarmclock idea. I think there could be a lot of shitty Heroforge Comics out there which is (probably?) allowed under the ToS.

I might also use it for layout planning, like I make a shitty Saffron and Sage page with HF assets and give it to Carlos all “Make it art, art-man!”. I don’t know if it’s any good for that purpose, but it might be fun to try

[thewebcomicsreview]

Tonight on Saffron and Sage, the best combat position is exposition! 

If you don’t remember what Dingo is talking about, Liri reviewed the Spider Spa for a newspaper back on page 73. She gave it 4 1/2 stars, loving the ambience but docking it half a point for the attempted murder. 

I sometimes half-joke that elements of the story are made up as I go, which isn't entirely false (did I have Liri write a newspaper review knowing it would lead bounty hunters to her, or did I make the connection literally while writing this page, and is there a meaningful difference between those two things?), but the priestess of the Time Church being on the outs with the Time Pope is in fact a plot point I've had in mind all along, and I even know who the Time Pope is and what Liri did to get in trouble! Wow! I actually have a vague understanding of the plot of this comic! Sometimes!

Hey hey, have you heard about my Patreon? It’s the hip place to be lately! You can see Saffron comics early, and see Legend of the Hare comics there early too! You can even see some mildly spicy pinups of the casts by artists such as Sabu, Anaugi, H0lyHandGrenade, Carlos Ruiz, and more! I’m also going to try to start posting more of that superhero story and the Frog Alarmclock story up there since that’s a thing people seemed to be interested in and-

Oh shit, I set this up as a stretch goal like two years ago and forgot about it. Okay guess I’m gonna try and interview some webcomic creators. I almost made it through the pandemic without starting a podcast but then someone had to give me a $50 donation! Thank you so much! I guess now everyone can make fun of my awkward attempts to do interviews over Discord while my hungover roommate pisses really loudly in the bathroom next to my room because there’s a pandemic and it’s hard to get studio space r/n, but we’ll laugh and cry together (or, more accurately, you’ll laugh as I cry). 

[thewebcomicsreview]

don't want to sound like i'm questioning your life choices, I'm honestly just curious, how come you decided to make comics? It's clear you like and are good at storytelling, but you also don't seem to be invested in drawing, why choosing a medium that revolves so much around images instead of just writing?

I’ve considered switching mediums, but haven’t for a few reasons. 

1. I....like comics. 

2. 

I lost my job in 2014, and got rejected from a lot of jobs. One day, I got two separate rejection calls in a ten minute period and it just ruined me. It happened that Prequel updated that day, That update hit me in the right place at the right time and help snap me out of a months-long depressive funk long enough to apply for a bunch of jobs, one of which I work for to this day. So webcomics are special to me in a way other things I could be doing aren’t.

3. I don’t think there’s a much of Patreon market for original fiction writing. Obviously the comic hasn’t been working out for me financially, but at least it theoretically could one day and that keeps me going

4. I’ve considered doing visual novels on the theory that I could get a lot more mileage out of my art commission budget that way (Both a LoTH reboot and the Frog Alarmclock thing were going in that direction, as was a “Magical Girl Tactics” visual novel/TRPG thing I was planning with my roommates), but Carlos hasn’t been interested and a lot of my attempts never got off the ground. Webcomics have an instant feedback and constant deadline pressure that other projects I work on don’t, which makes it easier for me to commit to them. I’ve committed more time to any chapter of Saffron and Sage than to any non-webcomic creative project I’ve ever done.

5. I’m just bad at writing scene descriptions, which is probably an easier skill to learn than “drawing”, but still.

6. 

(Top piece was using Gato Del Futuro as a reference on the other monitor, bottom was using Cerebro)

I’m still no professional artist, but I really have been (sloooooowly) improving over the years, I think, comparing my recent art to older stuff. I don’t think I would have kept trying even as little as I have if not for being in the comics scene

7. I can’t quit you guys man

[thewebcomicsreview]

Speaking of the  Webcomics Review Discord, we’ve been spitballing a bunch of stuff for my upcoming new comic project, tentatively titled Once Upon A Twine (Saffron and Sage isn’t going anywhere), and @mashazart sketched out a protagonist for me, Frog Alarmclock. She’s not actually a frog, or an alarm clock, but she is a witch and she is trouble! 

[thewebcomicsreview]

It's 4am, and I've been furiously writing, typing, and organizing Trello cards, but I think I have the outline for a really good illustrated webnovel (like Erfworld or Homestuck 2) set up to work on while Carlos is busy with other projects, and I even got to name my protagonist "Frog Alarmclock" which is just a great name.

Tomorrow I have to start actually writing the damn thing, of course, but I feel good about what I have so far.