Towner Comics

Mush, Dizz, and Towner reminisce their adventures thus far and look forward to more in the future.

This strip actually originated as a Galletta’s Greenhouse ad in the Palladium-Times, but I repurposed it for the book finale. It works better that way, IMO. It once was a print-only exclusive, but I guess I gave up on the dream of selling books (or put it on a distant back burner).

Hello?

Is anybody out there?

*Pin drops*

*Crickets chirp*

*Insert the hit-and-run webcomic reader rolling his eyes and getting ready to close the page and never come back.*

Why is it that the strip needs to go on hiatus?

Like what you see? Support this strip (buy the book, vote on comic voter sites, check out the ads, write on the facebook wall or in the comment section beneath every comic n this site). When I see this, it justifies the time and energy needed to create it, and create a product worthy of enjoyment. Why does one need to do this if they like the strip? Why can’t I just churn them out endlessly? Here’s why.

For a few years now, this comic goes on an on-again/off-again hiatus. I enjoy doing it and have MANY ideas for stories to tell, but one has to count the cost. How much time and creative energy do I put into something that makes no money? And not that I’m a “starving artist”, as I have two day-jobs — my work at the sushi bar that my wife and I own, my family’s greenhouse, and my work on my other web comic (which also nets no money), and karting club (again, no money), and toy collecting (sometimes makes money, mostly drains my bank account).

Does that mean I’ve abandoned this comic? Not at all. I heavily lean towards making Towner a book series instead of a daily comic strip, as I prefer the format of wide-open panels artistically, prefer to be allowed to tell a story instead of being confined to 1-4 panels, and don’t like my creativity forced into the forced, rigid, unforgiving output of a daily comic strip (what I call gag-a-days, which are great for people with a lot of one-liners and character interaction around said one-liners, but restrictive to the creative juices in telling a broader, coherent story arc that doesn’t need to re-setup the story every few panels with either a cliffhanger or joke). I believe that my comic strip idol Bill Watterson had the same problems with said small panels, daily deadlines, and restricted storytelling and art. What I don’t understand about Watterson,  however, is that millions of people LOVE his strips, and would eagerly buy books if he made Calvin & Hobbes books. I would be 1st in line to preorder it. Me, if I toil over a book for a few weeks, months or years, I have zero people lined up to buy the (0 sales of my Towner comic collection outside of my immediate family and best friend. That’s right… zero as of this writing). Towner comics have netted me $0.00 as of this writing… no, LOST a little money in self-publishing and web hosting (and time away from work). And I have put hundreds and hundreds of hours into it. I enjoy doing it, but one must count the cost. Would YOU put that much time into something that didn’t make any money? Maybe if you had a large bank account, but mine only has money in it when I work at my two day-jobs (one EVERY day, one seasonal).

Want more? Support this comic. Do

© 2009 Christopher Galletta Stevens