Nismorack.com

When last you read about my exciting life I had just finished an education in Technical Informatica.

By now I had started on an HBO eduction in Communication Multimedia Design. This was one of the first bridge educations between programming and design for multimedia purposes. It was a mishmash of design, webdevelopment, print design, multimedia creation (in MacroMedia Director) and a lot of marketing.

Through some internet chattery I had met someone who would have drawn the idea for a comic I had. But he was too busy to be able to and at some point I had fun ideas and scripts laying around that I decided to draw it myself. Of course I had horrible drawing skills and I was about twenty at the time. But with some decent books and determination I managed to improve my skill drastically over the past few year. In case you we’re wondering, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards is the shiznit in learning to draw.

At some point while I was still developing my skill I decided to jump into the fray with my comic in 2005. This version ran for a total of about fifty comics before I stopped. It used a bunch of different drawing styles and stories were a bit cramped due to flaky updating schedule. Somewhere when I stopped I was doing an internship at forty hours a week, a weekend job which also had evening slots, and karate training twice a week. It was no wonder I hardly had time to actually draw a comic of any kind.

In 2007 I decided to give it a new fresh start and rebooted the entire comic on December 31st. This started out fairly well but quickly ran into spotty updating schedules as I was also making a brave attempt at finishing school. For future reference, trying to write a thesis, starting your own business and doing a webcomic are all fine activities. Just not all at the same time. Somewhere something had to give which was more often than not the webcomic.

The business I started was doing websites to support my comic career. But it was getting in the way more and not actually making me enough money. So the decision was made to find a job. At the time I was dating the woman I’m currently living with and she moved to a city two hours driving away for school. Since I liked being with her I managed to find a job there, packed my things and moved there quite quickly. Still finishing school I was doing a full time job, getting settled and doing the comic. You can guess where this is going.

Since finishing school was in my best interest the comic game to a standstill as I worked on finishing school. Having succeeded at this I reinstated my comic and slowly built it up again until I went for a five day publishing schedule which I managed to maintain.

Next week the evolution of The House Of Madness and my desire to do new things.

Writing down my origins does sort counter act the whole secret part of the title, having secret in your title makes it look cool. Or not, you decide.

But before I delve into the creation of this new comic, I figured I should elaborate a bit more on where I came from and how I got here.

As a kid I did some drawing, mostly basic stuff and a lot of tracing. I did read a lot of European comics such a Tin Tin, Suske en Wiske, Asterix en Obelix, etc. Most American comic related things came to me in the form as cartoons. But for myself I wasn’t really drawing or making comics. Once I discovered the wonderful world of computers however, the whole drawing thing faded entirely into the background.

Computers were the new hip thing I wanted a career in. I actually considered game programming for a while and making games. After basicschool I headed on to a Technical Informatica school (it’s kinda like college but not). There I learned to program in various languages, how to set up networks and the fact that this wasn’t the career for me. Of course I discovered this in the third year and well, I’m not a quiter.

What I did discover here however were webcomics. Through classmates I discovered comics such a User Friendly, Sluggy Freelance, PVP Online and Penny Arcade. I loved these great witty and quirky comics and was quite hooked. Back then I only needed three days to read through the entire Sluggy Freelance archive. I’m sure these days one needs more time.

There were thoughts of making my own comic like it for the heck of it but since I couldn’t draw to save me I stuck with writing random stuff. Primarily freeform roleplaying on forums. Somewhere at the end of that school I wrote a really short but funny story about two guys living in a house (if I dig up the story again I’ll post it here). This was to be the start of The House Of Madness, though it wasn’t called as such back then.

This was near the end of the IT education where I end this first part of the story. Otherwise this story would be a bit long winded. Next week the second part in the thrilling story of my life. The rest of this week will be used for actual comic related information.