Hello Myspacers! I don't use MySpace much anymore. I'm a bigger fan of Facebook and Twitter, these days, but I wanted to pop in to make sure you all knew about my new webcomic: War. Check out the first episode here: http://skary.net/blog/war-1-do-not-go-quietly/

And be sure you're following me on Twitter for more current updates! http://twitter.com/katytowell

Oh, btw - if you've tried to IM me on here, and I was online but didn't reply... I, for some reason, can't get my replies to actually send. The little arrow goes 'round and around and around, but nothing happens. Anyway, you're welcome to email me at http://skary.net if your messages need a reply.

Katy

Hello, everyone.

As usual, allow me to make my apologies for not updating in eons: sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. And sorry. Sorry! Also: sorry.

Many things are in the works, right now, including a picture book and a novel for middle grade kids. Good things, all, but I'm a busy bee! And I have to admit, I haven't been using MySpace all that much.

But but but! There's Twitter! And I have just set up an account. If you care to, you can find me at http://twitter.com/katytowell.

And if you're a Facebooker, I can also be found here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Katy-Towell/90159216384 (but many thanks to those of you who have started your own Facebook pages and groups. "Prodigal Genius"! Hah!)

Good day!

(P.S. - I'm only disabling comments here because Lord only knows when I'll check them again.)

Greetings everybody!

I have tasty news and not-so-tasty news, but it's still news, right?

First, the not-so-tasty (for you). I'm taking a couple of badly-needed months off. This means no Halloween cartoon. :( But it also means that I can finally REALLY catch up on those things that many of you are probably waiting on responses for (and cursing at your computers by now, I'm sure). I guess that's not really "time off," but that's kind of how vacations always end up being for me anyway. "Relax" was the one word I misspelled at the citywide spelling bee of my childhood.*

This "time off" also means that I can possibly find an assistant to help me out in the future, and when I come back, it will be with a bang like nobody's ever heard before. It might be a little frightening. Please don't soil yourselves. Oh dear.

Now for the TASTY! After much consideration, I've decided (unless I change my mind over the next couple of months. We all know how I am) that my next Skary movie will be.... bumbumbuuuuuum: Claymation. Oh, yes, I know. It's so Burtonesque you can hardly STAND it, and I've tried to avoid the copycat accusations all this time, but gosh darn it. Everybody gets to do it once. This one's mine! Hand me that Play-Doh!**

So, it's break time for me. Happy Halloween in advance, everybody, and I look forward to catching up with those of you who have patiently waited, turning off my auto-responders, and coming back with much awesomeness.

*I lie. It was actually "cellular."
**I'm not really going to use Play-Doh, don't worry.

-Katy

Katy, here, reporting in. I'm still alive. I repeat: still alive. Still catching up and a little afraid of my inbox right now, but I'm getting to it. lol Lots of things are delayed right now, but I will catch up even if I have to postpone breathing, gosh darnit.

I've got a few new things on the way: new calendar soon to be posted to DeviantArt, a new print, AND I'm going to start working on a Halloween short soon. Maybe I'll even get it done in time for Halloween, eh? (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHA! AHHHHAHAHAAAAAAAA... I kill me.)

So, keep checking in for updates! I might actually have one soon!

(As a reminder: I'll turn comments back on when I catch up. Thanks for understanding, everybody!)

If you hadn't already seen the player on my MySpace profile, you now know that I finally buckled to peer pressure and uploaded most of my movies to YouTube. You'll still want to watch the movies in a higher quality format at Skary.net on those cold nights when you feel like getting cozy by the fire with your laptop, bloodthirsty children a-playing on the screen, but some of y'all like to embed the crazy things in your profiles and other online voodoo ya got going on. Now there's a way. (An official one, that is.)

So, check out my channel at http://youtube.com/katytowell. You may now applaud. ...I'm waiting. ;)

P.S. - I'm still RIDICULOUSLY behind on my e-mail. There's just so much. I know that some of you have some questions that really need answering, and I promise I'm getting to them. Please continue to send questions to me via e-mail (use the mail form at http://skary.net/mail) instead of commenting in various places. E-mail's my top priority right now, so you've got a better chance of reaching me there. In fact, I'm turning off comments on new posts until I've caught up. Thanks for understanding!

Thank you so much for all the response to Ida 2! You wouldn't believe how nervous I was about this one. While I still don't think it's one of my best art-wise, the story was very important to me. I can't even tell you why it was important - at the risk of sounding like an ar-TEEST, the Ida character just... you know... spoke to me. And wanted a cup of water at 2 AM. You know how little kids are.

I'm getting lots of questions about what's next for Skary - if this is the end and so on. Absolutely not! I'm going to take a break from Skary movies for a bit and work on more prints. Remember how I used to do a new one almost every week? And it's almost time for the 2008 calendar. There are some non-Skary things I want to do as well (and I'm taking freelance clients again, by-the-by!) but the Childrin are still tops for me.

In between prints, I'm going to take some time to learn a little bit about 3D. I'm trying to get the hang of Blender at the moment (and failing miserably. That thing's like a spaceship control panel or something). Eventually we'll have 3D Skare-o-vision! Oh, and if anyone has some tips for this total n00b, I'm all ears.

If you've got some 3D pointers for me - or any dire questions - don't forget to e-mail me! I do *eventually* get to my comments, but e-mail comes first. If it takes me a while to get to you, that just means I've got a lot of messages to slog through. I'm catching up, though!

Annnnnnnnnyway. I made some wallpapers n' avatars for ye. See here!

Avatars:


Wallpapers:


P.S. - to the person who thought (and was offended by the idea) that Ida's Luck is a message about the ignorance of religion: it wasn't. I can't make that clear enough. That suggestion just ruffled my feathers so much I had to reiterate my response for the benefit of anyone else who may have come to the same conclusion. Because... wow. No. Jeepers.

Actually, while I'm at it - feel free to discuss what Ida's Luck means to you. I always like hearing others' interpretations. This one seems obvious to me, but hey! You never know. :)

(As always, don't forget to vote at NG!)

(It helps if you've seen this first. There may be some audio syncing issues. I can't tell anymore. I've had one heck of a time trying to get this thing ready.)


FAQ's (hey, somebody's gonna ask)

Who's the narrator?
Tim Jones

Who's the music by?
Mostly Kevin MacLeod along with a performance by the RFCM Symphony Orchestra of Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals VII - The Aquarium". All the music is royalty-free.

Did you write this?
Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, ma'am.

Is Ida based on the character of the same name from The Gashlycrumb Tinies?
(I was asked this a lot after Part 1)

Despite the obvious similarities, it really was just a coincidence. This story was originally set in Depression-era Mississippi, so I gave everyone southern names. When the setting changed, I decided to keep her name as it was because, heck, I just liked it. Remember I said this because one day I'll be super-duper famous and totally change my story. (Yes, I'm kidding.)

Cheer up, emo kid.

I just had to beat you guys to the punch on that one.

Sorry Ida 2's not up yet! My technical problems were tougher to sort out than I thought, and then I had visitors and things to do, and sinus problems... I'm pretty sure Godzilla attacked at some point.

Anyway, I found the problem (Windows Vista is largely to blame, but so is the sheer size of this thing) and have been working on fixing it. I had hoped to be able to finally show this thing tonight, but my allergies have got me down. Depending on how I feel tomorrow, it'll be up tomorrow night or Friday night.

Also, I'll try to catch up on my e-mail and comments over the weekend. I know I'm behind. :( Also - the Christmas Books are a few days late. There was a mistake in the batch sent to me (missing a blank page, which made all the other pages off by one so that the book doesn't make a lot of sense). The printers fixed it and the corrected ones are on their way to you all now (and, yes, they're signed!). I'll probably offer the mistakes for supercheap pretty soon. I guess they're good for parts. lol

What else... what eeeeeeeelse... I know I'm missing some important bit of news. I'll figure it out once Ida's out of my brain. And Ida should be out of my brain and on your screens in a day or two, unless my sinuses climb out of my head and strangle me! (They do that. It's ugly.)

In the mean time, close your eyes and wish, wish, wish. And would someone be a dear and make a cup of chai for me? ;)

P.S. - Somebody uploaded the incomplete version of Ida's Luck Part 2 to Newgrounds, despite my explicit request that no one post it anywhere else. That wasn't very nice. Please don't do that again. (Thank you liljim at NG for taking care of that for me.)

P.S.S. - have yourself a merry little screencap:
 

I fail. Actually, my audio fails. I'm still trying to sort out audio-related crashing issues (any Flash-smart folks have suggestions?), but after today, I won't be at my own computer until Monday. Yipes! But I promised you Ida, so you get Ida... even if only a minute or so.

This is only the beginning of Part 2, so please don't post it on any other site!

http://skary.net/movies/ida2_a.html

(There's no preloader, the audio is low quality, I know. Just remember that you're only seeing a sample.)

I'm sure there's a quick fix, but I'm beat. So are you. The rest is coming next week. If I get a chance to sit down at my PC again this weekend (not likely), it may be sooner.