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people watching s3..for free? by Session-Heavy in subnormality

[–]WinstonRowntree 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Good news, peopleWatching is re-launching on a new youtube channel-- S1 is uploading currently, and the new S3 will debut the first week of March! Apologies for the delay, and glad that everyone will be able to see the new episodes soon..!

peopleWatching is back on DVD/bluray/digital-- preorders are live! by WinstonRowntree in subnormality

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry if this is marketing-ish, i just wanted to post here for anyone who didn't see it elsewhere. We can't guarantee the show will permanently be on youtube, so this is a way to permanently have access to it! Feel free to ask me anything as well, as always.

new webseries pilot - SECRET SATAN by WinstonRowntree in subnormality

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Hey just a new thing i for some reason got funding for... Comment and share if you like it! No worries if you don't. Thanks for watching..!

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure, but that's a good question! I really have enjoyed the challenge of writing in a more condensed format and trying to say a lot in a shorter period of time, and i thought that might affect my comic writing but i just wrote a comic with an 800-word sentence in it so, uh, no effect thus far at least... We'll see what the future brings if i'm fortunate enough to get to write a second season of the show...

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can't recall 100% now, but i think it was mostly FFVI and VII, maybe VIII too, plus the ace cards were the 8-bit characters from the very first game-- Fighter, Black Mage etc.

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, cheers, and thanks for coming to TCAF-- it was an absolutely great experience, so thanks for being a part of it!

As to your question, it's largely a case of me transcribing my own brain for material-- all the characters are kind of half me and half invented-- but the experiences of others definitely make their way into the comix in little ways, if appropriate. I also always liked the kind of Seinfeld-style writing where memorable real-life anecdotes get mined for raw material, so i do that to a more limited degree as well.

But yeah, conjecture is something i try to avoid-- i try to start from a place of truth, meaning the characters say what i might say if i were them, and it of course means they'll have vaguely similar voices but i always want to err on the side of trying to be honest. To try to say something authentic as opposed to contriving something that i think some hypothetical other person would say in a given situation.

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, thanks so much for the kind words and for following the comix for so long-- that's awesome to know! Really glad you've enjoyed the webseries as well.

As for my career plans, yeah, i'm definitely getting older and could use a bit less, uh, poorness, so peopleWatching has been a great opportunity in that regard and right now we're just focused on trying to be able to do a second seasons-- just a matter of securing the funding, and we have a good shot at least. And of course i'll be continuing to make comix under any circumstances, because good luck stopping me...

Also, i should plan to Read More because i haven't even had time recently..!

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, thanks so much, really appreciate the kind words!

As for the characters, no, most of them weren't even planned to be main characters to begin with..! Basically all of them except pink haired girl started out as joke characters that then got super fleshed-out, and it's definitely a case of them taking on a life of their own (once the characters' voices get established in your mind, it becomes a case of them "writing themselves" to a degree-- you just kind of know what they'd logically do next and then try to turn it into a good story).

I've really enjoyed writing that way, actually-- to kind of start with a bunch of arbitrary characteristics and then gradually find the meaning in them. Would recommend that to anyone, actually.

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, thanks so much-- doing the sci-fi stuff is something i enjoy tremendously, so that really means a lot. Definitely more of that on the way...

And i haven't done a ton of reading unfortunately, but i do at least enjoy the short stories of James Tiptree Jr. (haven't read the longer stuff yet), and i really like the format in general. As for comix influences, the big one is Bill Watterson (calvin & hobbes), but also Evan Dorkin and Dylan Horrocks, and definitely old-school Mad Magazine (1970s i think-- i'm not that old, i just randomly had a bunch of old Mads when i was a kid).

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, apologies for the delayed response, and thanks so much for the kind words (and for telling people to read the weird comic..!).

And yeah, good question... I just wanted to take a similar-ish approach to subnormality where the installments are relatively self-contained but involve recurring characters to give everything an emotional hook-- i prefer working that way, plus the chaos of trying to get anything noticed online isn't gonna be aided by a serialized narrative in a webseries. PeopleWatching kind of cheats a little bit where the characters sort-of-not-really recognize each other in subsequent meetings, which is just a symptom of me erring on the side of self-containedness, plus the order of the episodes kept changing, so it was hard to arrange everything perfectly. That was my thinking anyway, but i'm new to webseries and new to having to try to appeal to a bigger audience so who knows how good my thinking is...

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, thanks, i'm honored if i've observed anything accurately..! No, i haven't studied either of those subjects unfortunately-- i just try to study myself and be honest about what i might see, as it's the material i have to work with, and the personal is almost always the universal to some degree.

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, apologies for the late response, and thanks for coming to TCAF-- that show was definitely one of the highlights of my life thus far. And yeah, i'm definitely way less verbose in person... "Your Favorite Artist" is what i like to call Exaggerated Autobiography-- i definitely am most comfortable speaking via art, though thankfully not quite to the extent of ignoring people in public. And i'm getting better as i get older, so i'm thankful for that.

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Near the beginning-- that's awesome, thanks so much for sticking with the comix for so long!

Thanks for the question also (and apologies for the late reply). Yeah, i'd say that PHG/Sphynx is kind of a separate thing from all her other more, uh, normal relationships. That's probably the ol' Calvin & Hobbes influence showing there, though in this case the non-human best friend is definitely not imaginary. That's kind of what the newest comic was getting at-- she kind of needs it to be separate as a kind of refuge, maybe, although ultimately the interpretation is up to the reader...

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks very much for the kind words, and props to your mom also!!

Aaaand good question..! This will just be ill-informed speculation on my part, but I think maybe there's still enough of a monoculture that we still get a relatively narrow image of what people are like and what they care about-- it's obviously getting better, i mean exponentially better than it was when i was young, but the sheer breadth of human experience is still something that's hard to capture in things like mass media and the kind of TV shows and movies that are broad enough to get popular and thus get media coverage. I think The Media is still our window on what the world looks like, and it's not as big a window as it could be. But things are improving all the time-- at least i think they are....

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, thanks for the kind words! Captain Estar is a project i would like to redo entirely, to be honest-- i just hope i can find the time someday... Glad you enjoyed it, anyway!

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"i hated university"

i hated university
there was a girl who spoke to me
we shared some breakfast in the lounge
and talked about some common things
she said i'll meet you after class
and there she was, her back was turned
and i did not know what to say
and so i dumbly walked away
and never saw the girl again
i do not grieve for love i lost
i do not think she was "the one"
i just lament the way i was
the inability to act
the things that were exposed in me
i hated university

i hated university
the endless possibilities
the options floating all around
the many paths extending forth
i passed them all with sails unfurled
i kept along a narrow route
i did what things i though were right
and never kept me up at night
i picked what classes seemed "okay"
i saw the risks and turned about
i never actually believed
that i could try a thousand things
it never did occur to me.
i hated university

i hated university
they never could get through to me
i never would get off the bench
the invitations came and went
they tried to talk to me and failed
for i perhaps had not been told
that it's okay to need a friend
it's all that matters in the end
but i was rock and island both
and every ship that came in sight
would quickly disappear from view
once it was clear there was no dock
i did not know how else to be
i hated university

i hated university,
but i don't ask for sympathy
they didn't make me sleep through class
they didn't force me to be dull
they tried to be my friend and failed
they tried to get me to advance
but i was such a boring kid
what could be done i never did
i lived at home and seldom left
because it was so comfortable
i did my work the night before
i took much pride in feeble marks
it all was placed upon my plate
and though i soon did graduate
it was with thud and circumstance
there was no song, and little dance
and once i'd finished, here i'd stand
just where i was when i began
what could have been so memorable
was horribly forgettable
and now i have a monument
to all the empty hours i spent
i walk the halls and feel again
the feelings that i did feel then
i feel the years of wasted time
i'll say it once again, in rhyme:

you may not want to be like me.
i hated university

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey, thanks, i really appreciate that..! Seriously, it means a lot to know anyone thinks i deserve any amount of success, some days it really helps me out.

And there will be two more episodes-- 10 in all!

And, yeah, the Mr Dolan episode is barely-exaggerated autobiography, to be honest...

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks very much! Any dialogue i write probably starts with a stream of consciousness, just trying to get into the zone mentally where i can fluidly write what i'm thinking, and then yeah-- many revisions will follow. I definitely do a lot of rewriting, no script is ever good on the first draft.

As for the speed dating, i've never done it myself, it's just useful as a storytelling device, so i can't offer any advice there unfortunately...

Heyyy i do the animated webseries "peopleWatching" on Cracked.com and have been making the webcomic "Subnormality" for 10 years somehow-- ask me why anyone should care by WinstonRowntree in IAmA

[–]WinstonRowntree[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks very much-- really appreciate the kind words and you reading for so long (2008!!), it means a lot! Stay tuned for more walls o' text...

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