Thank-you to everyone who replied to my previous entry. I figured a follow-up entry would be better than trying to address everything in comments.

I wouldn't ever design my comic with a view to pleasing fans, or try to second guess what would be popular. That said, I wouldn't design my comic to 'avoid' popular elements either. The way I work isn't reactionary, so whilst I enjoy recognising and analysing trends and popular aspects I'm not governed or guided by them. Trying to make a comic solely to be popular isn't really a good idea, especially if you're not being paid for it. ^_~

My comment about Death Note wasn't meant to imply that I was put off Death Note. In fact I ordered Death Note 1+2 from Amazon a few weeks ago, but they sent me 7+2 instead! Argh! XD Anyway, my point is that I quite like the sounds of Death Note and supposedly the storytelling in it is excellent. However, I feel the popularity of DN isn't carried by this factor at all, but rather fandom for the characters. If it was solely by the story then we'd see titles like Dragon Head or Sexy Voice & Robo picking up a massive mainstream fandom, but that's not the case. The fact that Death Note is in Shonen Jump doesn't even mean its really for guys, as its been proven that SJ has a larger female than male readership in Japan. In my opinion it strikes me that the quality of plot in DN is convenient and incidental as much as anything, with more shallow fans not really showing interest in the title for this reason. The rampant fandom is a discredit to the quality of the writing, and even an embarassment to fans of the title. I'm sure I'll like it once I can coax amazon into sending me volume 1.

It reminds me of when my sister recommended that I see the movie 'Fight Club', but she had only gone to see if because she was obsessed with Brad Pitt at the time and was seeing every film he was in, and recommending most of them too. It was many years until I finally saw Fight Club, and I was massively impressed. Sometimes it's nicer to enjoy something without the fandom marring the experience.

I do apologise to anyone that feels that I implied that anything popular was lame. In many ways its more that I think that either a) some lame products are popular, or b) some good products are popular for very lame reasons. I do feel that recognising popular aspects is fairly important, but I wouldn't personally take that approach because its not my style. I'm fortunate that I enjoy a decent fanbase as it is, and I'd strive only to improve the quality of my work both in writing and artwork.

So, back to my own comicking. My comic progress is held up by ordinary struggling-with-story reasons, and not because I am trying to tailor them to a specific audience or anything lame like this. I'm glad that you suggest I don't worry about making it for other people though, and this is certainly my intention. :)

Thankfully yesterday I was able to get over some of my stumbling blocks with the structure of my story and today I've been able to make much more progress with the story and contents in general. I'm going to continue working on the plot of this story tonight, and jot down ideas and thoughts as I go on. I'm aiming to have the story nailed down pretty well by the end of December, so that's my deadline right there. No comic pages, but characters will all be designed by then, and some scenes thumbnailed out.

I'm latching on to comic making as much as I can right now, and phasing out pin-up work for a bit. I'm enjoying working on it. I'm a bit exhausted artistically from recent things, so it is good to focus on story for a bit, but I'm enthusiastic about comicking.