Creating Willow’s Grove, the Comic, has become a chore. Now, before you Grovers panic, let me clarify that first sentence. While I have plenty of story left (even when I run into a minor writer’s block, I still find stories to pull out of the tank), but bringing those stories to you is what has become the chore. See, I use a Dell 17″ Studio laptop that I purchased brand new way back in 2007. It is now starting to show its age and I am afraid it is rapidly approaching its end of life stage. What once took only a half hour to produce, now takes upwards to three hours. Between the “not responding” and the lag, not to mention the length of time to boot up in the first place and the launch Photoshop CS3, it sucks the joy of creating directly through my eyeballs.

Now, I had acquired a newer laptop a year or so ago, through a business deal, but as I was setting it up to create on, it had a few important hardware pieces fail, one right after the other, and now sits in my equipment graveyard. So, back to the old workhorse it was, and the long, dragged out process of scanning, inking, coloring, letter, etc. Eventually, it will die, it is no longer a question of “if” but of “when”. It’s going to happen. And when it does, so goes my ability to bring WG to you.

Why am I writing this? I don’t know if many of you Grovers have noticed it, but the quality of the comic is suffering as I cannot sit for hours it now takes to produce one comic. I’ve cut a lot of corners in production, to the point where I look at the finished product and shake my head in sorrow. I thought I owed it to you, my readers, an explanation as to why. If you haven’t noticed, just ignore all that you have read in this last paragraph. If you have, however, I apologize and am trying to find a way to buy a new workhorse. It isn’t easy because, although, like a lot of cartoonists, other commitments get in the way and take money out of the pot that was being saved for the new piece of tech. If only cartoonists were paid like sports stars or politicians…hey! I can dream!

Anyway, Grover, onward and upwards, in the never ending struggle to make ends meet so I can bring you WG for free (don’t worry. I’m not planning on having this comic sit behind a paywall anytime soon…but…heh), from my eyeballs to yours.

Don’t Panic! The comic will continue.