Willow's Grove – The Webcomic

I’m sure many of you are aware that I have a book for sale that takes Volumes 1 & 2 of Willow’s Grove and condenses them into one volume. I’m also sure many of you are saying to yourself, “why should I spend my money on something I can already get for free?” Now, realistically, I went into this venture of producing a book, and let me tell you, it is not as easy as you may think putting it together to be ready for print, not expecting to sell 1000 copies, but I did think that I would sell about 20 to 30. To date, and the book has been available since July 14th, I have sold 2, one in the month of July and one in the month of August. But I’m not here to bellyache, I am here to talk to you, my fans, and let you know what is on my mind as to what reasons could justify you purchasing a copy of the book.

1) It will keep Willow’s Grove going

To bring you an update on a regular basis, and you can check the archives and see that I have not missed one single update, there needs to be some form of income to pay the bills, whether it is for hosting, DSL, food in my belly, what have you. Sure, I could hop onto a free hosting server, but for anyone who has done this, you know those services offer very little in ways of bandwidth, extras, etc. Limited services by means of limited bandwidth, also limits the amount of people that can view the site and keep up with the ongoing storyline. If I can’t pay for my DSL, I can’t regularly update the comic, thus limiting, again, the amount of people that can view the site and keep up with the ongoing storyline. Food in my belly means, well, you get it, a dead artist can’t very well update, can they now?

2) Easy reference

If you are a regular reader, you know how many episodes there have been in the nearly 2 years since this storyline started. That is a lot of episodes to scan through to see what I may be referring to in a current episode. If you had a copy of the book, you could skim a lot faster to find the comic being referred to and see what plot line I may have closed, stretched or dangled. It also allows the keen-eyed reader to catch me in some continuity error I may have made and you can jump onto the comments and let me know I messed up so and so, or hey, his hair wasn’t like that or her boobs used to be much bigger and now you are drawing them smaller, what gives?

3) Helping Willow’s Grove grow

This webcomic of mine is but one little fish in a very big pond. There are tons of webcomics out there, some good, some fantastic, some, well, let’s be honest, if they were in your newspaper (if you still read comics that way, I know I do), you wouldn’t give them the time of day, but yet, they have a following larger than I would have ever imagined. Why? I would like to find the answer to that question, but I do know my readership has grown slowly over the nearly two years Willow’s Grove has been back on the internet. This is, in part, because of you, yeah, you over there reading this in the corner. By buying a copy of my book, you will help us grow. How, you may ask? Well, if you have a copy and are on a bus, or a train or a plane, you know someone will look over your shoulder to see what you are reading (the same holds true to video or music, humans, by very nature are curious…in other words, we’re nosy as hell…:D. By them being curious, they may ask you where you got it, thus giving you a chance to spread the word about Willow’s Grove. They in turn, hopefully, will become a fan, which will spawn more fans and so on and so forth. You can be a Willow’s Grove evangelist! Can I hear an amen? This site would be nothing without you and your support. By you purchasing a copy of the book, it becomes bigger and spreads out like weeds or locusts (oh wait, those are plagues…sorry, wrong type of reference there)…it becomes bigger and spreads out like love and puppies (wait, do puppies spread? Well, yes, when they lick themselves…heh, wrong type of picture to paint…but you know what I mean!).

4) Fulfilling a life long dream

I won’t kid you, this has been a dream job of mine since, FOREVER. I can stay at home, work on my strip, and give it the quality it deserves. If I have to work a 9 to 5 job, then my window for producing the strip narrows and the quality goes way down, not only in the art work, but in the story/writing. Then I lose readers and close up shop. Trust me, I’ve tried the other route and it is very hard with the demands of the family on my time. I have been drawing comics since I was in the third grade and let me tell you, at nearly 44 years of age, that is a long time. This business is very competitive, and there are a lot of webcomics out there that frankly are crap, but yet get tons of readers. To see my comic in printed form after being endlessly rejected by syndicates was such a wet dream for me, I had to spend hours, if not days, prying the smile off my face. Try going into a store to buy something while looking like Jack Nicholson as the Joker. See, not easy to do. That is how overjoyed and geeked out I was. By you purchasing a copy, you can keep that grin on my face and make me look silly every day!

5) Prove my family wrong

I so appreciate your loyalty as readers of my comic. It is such a joy to know I am bringing my heart and soul to you each and every week, Monday through Friday. I don’t get that much at home, my friends as the only people in the Grove that shows any kind of interest of what I do are my kids. My wife? Let’s not go there only to say she thinks I am wasting my time. My parents? Sure they tell me good luck, but that is where it ends. They don’t think I could make a living drawing silly pictures. In fact, while I was paying my own way through college, my father, bless his heart, told me something very similar to that when he found out my major was Art. Even though I was paying my own way, he suggested I change my major to Computer Science so I could put food on the table while doing something I absolutely loathe. So, being that he is my father and thinking fathers give good advice, I did this and went into the IT field, where I loathed every minute of it while longingly looked back at my love of drawing silly pictures. By you purchasing a copy of my book, you can help prove my family wrong. As I said, I have sold a total of 2 books…not one of those two copies were purchased by my family.

6) It helps keep Willow’s Grove free to view online

By means that Willow’s Grove is a business, I have to find ways of monetizing it in order to keep it running as a business. By selling a book and t-shirts and such, I can do this. I do not wish to or even want to plop a subscription on Willow’s Grove in order for people to read it. I truly think this drives away the very core of readers I have worked so hard to get over the years. By offering a book for sale or pins or t-shirts or even the opportunity to drop some coins in my tip jar, it gives you, my readers a chance to invest in Willow’s Grove. It allows you to be a patron in my store and help keep it going. I could also go the way of Public Television and have telethons and such and even put up “this comic is brought to you by Simon J. Reader”…and we know how much we love having our name up in lights…it’s an ego thing…just look back at me grinning and jumping and hooting and hollering when my book proof arrived and I saw my comic in print…after 36 years of hoping and praying and wishing, I was finally in print! Buying a copy of my book, if you let me know you have, I can put your name up in lights as a fine sponsor of my comic, OUR comic, as you have now an investment in the product.

The list is actually endless, but these are some of the main points I wanted to press as to why you should buy a copy of the book. If you have made it to the end of this blog entry, I applaud you as I know I suffer sometimes from longwindedness…which is kinda’ ironic as I myself, sometimes can’t finish a magazine article because it is too long. I put the magazine down and push it away saying, “oh, no, no…too long…oh look a kitty!…what was I saying? Oh crap, I forgot what I was going to do…oh great, now I am rambling on to myself in my own mind…ice cream would be nice right about now.”

I do thank you for being a reader and by buying a copy, you help keep what you love going.

Hey there Grovers! I am sure you are wondering where the Willow’s Grove entry in Round 3 has gone to. Well, I received word from Kurt Sasso of TGT Webcomics that there was possibly something out of sorts happening with the voting for WG and he wanted to let me know. I told him that even though I had been campaigning on twitter (yes, I know, rather obnoxiously), Facebook, as well as via email to groups I belong to (which number in the hundreds), that if he felt the votes I was receiving were suspect, that I would rather pull out of the tournament than to have a win because some fan decided to “help” us win instead of us having an honest win. I truly do not know if this was the case or if it was just a coincidence, but I would rather err on the side of caution for the integrity of the tournament than to win unfairly because of unsavory means.

I would like to thank all of you who voted for Willow’s Grove (we did reach about 403 votes) and wish Michelle Van Zandt of Ginpu luck in the semi-finals. Although I am disappointed that it had to come to this as it was a very exciting round, I would rather take a bow than to have a possible tainted victory. If this was indeed the act of one of you Grovers, I would just like to say that although I appreciate your loyalty, I do NOT approve of your methods. If this was indeed the case, (and I don’t know if I ever will know or not) I just wanted to let that fan know what their actions led to. Let Willow’s Grove stand on its own merits and if we lose, we lose, it’s not the end of the world. Integrity, honesty and reputation is far more important to me than winning a competition.

Also, thank you to Kurt for having me in this tournament, bringing this incident to my attention, and having me on the show back in July of 2009. Good luck to the rest of the webcomics still in the tournament! Get out there and vote (fairly)!

Hey, a big thanks to all of you who voted for Willow’s Grove in Round 2 of the TGT Webcomics Tournament! With your awesome voting skills, we’ve made it to the next round! Now, in Round 3, we are up against some tougher competition and I need your voting skills to kick into top gear! So starting at 1am, August 16th, get out there and please, please vote for Willow’s Grove again, every day through August 21st (you can vote once a day up to 12:59am ET) and help us get through to the next round!

The link is the same to get your voting pointers a’clickin’: TGT Webcomics Tournament – http://tgtwebcomics.com/projects/events/tournament2/ .

I thank you so very much in advance!

Vote vote vote vote, tell your friends, your family, your friends family, your coworkers, your coworkers family, strangers on the street, strangers in a Starbucks, Snakes on a Plane, Snakes in a Starbucks, Snakes on the street or in a field or in your back yard (if it has wi-fi and if those snakes in your backyard have access to a wifi capable computing device…you know, they may not be able to type fast with their tail, but they can surf the internet with the touchpad mouse real well! That’s why snakes went out and bought iPads), vote, vote, vote! Then vote some more!

Thank you to all the Grovers who voted for Willow’s Grove in Round 1 of the Tournament! Now we move on to Round 2, so please continue voting so we can make it through to Round 3! The link is here. You can still vote every day this week, so let’s get out there and win one for the Grover! LOL…Many thanks in advance!

Back in July of 2009, I was featured in a podcast over at TGT Webcomics. It was a blast talking about Willow’s Grove, which was only 9 months after its return to the internet as a webcomic in the 3rd attempt to bring it too the masses on a regular basis. Well now, that podcast as well as Willow’s Grove is in a tournament, a Battle Royale, pitting podcast against podcast. Here’s your chance, Grovers, to help Willow’s Grove in this tournament! Go to The TGT Webcomics Tournament Page here, scroll down to bracket 15 and cast your vote for Willow’s Grove! There are many webcomic podcasts competing so if you would, please take the time and go through the many other brackets and vote for the ones you like. You can vote every day, once a day, so please, vote as often as you can and help Willow’s Grove make it through all the rounds!

If you haven’t ever heard of these podcasts or TGT Webcomics, now’s your chance to discover how great & informative they are! You can also follow Kurtis Sasso on twitter for updates on upcoming podcasts and events! Do it! Do it NOW! Many thanks, Grovers!