WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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27 comments
Hey, do you remember the last time I wrote a blog post when I was at a crossroads?
Yes, I'm talking about [that one](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1020/the-end-of-peppercarrot-and-my-next-project) where I announced the end of Pepper&Carrot at episode 42 (in four episodes from now) and also the start of the Mini Fantasy Theater comic project.
That was months ago, and, oh dear... a lot of things didn't turn out the way I thought they would.
I wanted to give you an update on that, but I changed my mind so many times in the last few months that I felt too disoriented to even feel confident enough to write down a blog post about my webcomic journey.
Now I feel like I'm moving in a new direction, and it's one that's sticking with me. So let me explain.
## Mini Fantasy Theater's success
I published [10 "Mini Fantasy Theater" comics](https://www.davidrevoy.com/tag/minifantasytheater) weekly from April to July. They were a total joy to make and I was really happy to read the huge feedback they generated.
To give you an idea, [the first episode "Morning Routine"](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/112326417383527500) has been shared more than 1269 times on the Fediverse. [Episode 4 "Accessories"](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02erfX3EEjf91c2bpqDqmz3QMPWAdSpooBjqf2jZ22h325Ae7xGrCS4NZPhG6TSucSl&id=100069321226386) got over 31K reactions on the Facebook page. Later, [Episode 8 "Carnivorous Plants"](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8Z47gmMwMq/) got 11.2K likes on Instagram.
I never got that kind of metric with my episodes of Pepper&Carrot or my illustrations on social media, ever. So I was excited that I had finally found a way to expand my reach to a new audience. It also felt rewarding to think that I was finally on the right track.
So I was, and still am, pretty happy and confident with this webcomic format:
- The format suited proprietary social media algorithms.
- Scenarios were easy to produce, I got a big package in advance.
- Episodes were fast enough to produce, once I was motivated with an idea I could start and be sure to publish it the next day. Amazing.
- The audience responded positively, the comments section was interactive, and Mastodon turned out to be my favorite place to publish first because I could quickly edit and hot-patch my little bugs.
## Designing the website, translation system and infrastructure
In July, I decided to take a break from production after the release of the 10th episode of Mini Fantasy Theater. Ironically, episode 9 and 10 were about Art Block, see [episode 9](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1036/art-block) and [episode 10](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1037/accept-yourself).
Still, I had 10 comics finished and I felt like I had a strong base to start designing the project's website.
But the website quickly grew bigger than I expected. I was somehow convinced - and with good reason - that I had to make it better than Pepper&Carrot from the ground up. Convinced that a better core system, a better way to share sources, and a better website would solve all the difficulties I have in maintaining Pepper&Carrot.
I had a lot of intense brainstorming and trial and error during July, but despite all my efforts I ended up designing a translation system that was pretty close to the Pepper&Carrot one. The attribution database? Pretty close to the Pepper&Carrot one. The project needs it's own font directory? No, let's just reuse the Pepper&Carrot one. And almost the same pattern for the "contributor documentation", the patronage system, the about page, etc... etc ... ... ...
[video]data/medias/2024-09-29_MiniFantasyTheater_website-demo.mp4[/video]
_Video: The Mini Fantasy Theater website (not finished)_
## The Turning Point Revelation
And then, I could finally see the obvious pattern: **I was just making a clone of Pepper&Carrot from scratch**.
It was different in appearance: a different format, a different name, a different release schedule, but at its core I was just reinventing the wheel and it was so similar to what I already had.
This revelation completely blocked me and I put immediately a pause on the Mini Fantasy Theater website.
I was looking for answers, and I knew I needed time to put words about why I was so bugged to make a duplicate of Pepper&Carrot.
## Unraveling my thoughts
Luckily, summer was here, and the time of family visits and summer vacations gave me an easy excuse to put all that aside and forget a bit.
I just spent a lot of time drawing in my sketchbook and on my home DIY to-do list: I installed a stove, cut firewood, and built a shed for it. At least, I made huge progress on getting a warmer house for winter, less dependent on increasingly expensive electricity.
Thanks to this side-step, I was able to take distance and put better words on why I had this block on the Mini Fantasy Theater website.
I think now that Mini Fantasy Theater was just my way of getting away from Pepper&Carrot. Pepper&Carrot probably felt too big, too complex, and too hard to manage at one point, and too rigid to find any creative freedom in it.
With Mini Fantasy Theater, my hope was to create a webcomic project that would be free of all of that. But building the Mini Fantasy Theater website, the scripts, and the translation system only reminded me that I was just recreating the same structures, leading to the same difficulties.
Worst of all, in a hypothetical world with Pepper&Carrot and Mini Fantasy Theater website and infrastructure side by side, I was on the verge of having to double my maintenance time budget: with almost all the mechanics under the hood being duplicated.
## Finding a way
But a little time and distance did wonders, because I was finally able to study, identify and face those difficulties. I soon realized that I still had a lot of options open to me.
Also, many of the good ideas I had from Mini Fantasy Theater's infrastructure, creative freedom and release step were not lost, I could backport them to benefit Pepper&Carrot. All in all, this Mini Fantasy Theater experience was an eye-opener to see what is essential and what is not to protect my productivity and creative process.
I could just merge the Mini Fantasy Theater episodes into a section of the Pepper&Carrot website and keep everything on a single website, maybe just behind a new menu. And also the project could just use the same repositories as Pepper&Carrot without too many duplicates.
## Facing up to the ~~dragon~~ difficulty
I then looked back at the big writing effort around the idea of making an 'ultimate ending' for Pepper&Carrot. I was in my 5th rewrite and it was taking shape, but it just felt "not in the spirit of Pepper&Carrot". It took me months and months and a lot of rewrite, which is why the 5th version...
I started to ask myself: why do I insist on writing a plot? Why make the story center around revenge? Why it always end like a [Shōnen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dnen_manga) in a epic fight?
I probably did this because I felt a little trapped into making episodes that justified the "lore" the project had accumulated on [our wiki](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/wiki/index.html). But I don't want to tell a "good versus evil" story. I don't want to have a plot or a conspiracy that my character has to unravel.
I just want to make fun of that through the character of Pepper and Carrot; both lost in a fantasy world that doesn't work as expected. I want to use this device to expose this false "good versus evil" dichotomy. I want to show that our usual training and enjoyment to read plot, conspiracy, and drama in fiction may not be the most useful way to exercise our brains in our recreational time.
So I took a big breath of creative freedom, a new white page and started a 6th rewrite from scratch and got something much more fun, original, upbeat and bright. This version was a complete departure from the 5th Shōnen's plot-driven ending with long fighting episodes against Wasabi. I could write a funnier Pepper, questioning her world and dealing with her fantasy of wanting to be in an epic story, while her reality is more or less as boring and complex as our reality.
This rewrite also has a consistent ending for book 5 and better reuse the new characters already introduced for this future book: the Phoenix of [episode 37](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/webcomic/ep37_The-Tears-of-the-Phoenix.html), Brasic, Fritz and Vinya of [episode 38](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/webcomic/ep38_The-Healer.html). All in all, it gives a more philosophical growth curve to Pepper.
## A vision that lasts
I then traveled to [the signing in Norway](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1044/photos-of-raptus-comic-convention-2024-in-bergen) with this mindset, and it was a great experience because I kept the bright vision of Pepper&Carrot in all my signing sessions and got a lot of positive feedback.
This vision has stayed with me ever since!
So, Pepper&Carrot is still my dream project and I am grateful to have renewed my passion for the series. I don't need to refactor it deeply, I don't need to open a new series. Sure, having a short format at hand is now cool for sometime publishing quick comic strips. But that's all.
## Future plan
I have deleted Pepper&Carrot episode 39 beta "The Bedtime Story" and closed the thread [three month ago](https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/webcomics/-/issues/254#note_2107826). This 11 page episode was pretty far along and had about 120 hours invested in it. But it was also confusing and very far from the spirit I have for Pepper&Carrot now.
So I'm going to start this episode 39 from scratch − again. But sacrificing some bad steps to keep the series high quality is worth the effort, I think. Even though it is heartbreaking to get zero income for all the work that has been done and is almost ready to be published... But quality comes first! In the upcoming production report on my blog, you will hopefuly read more about the making of this new version of episode 39.
As for Mini Fantasy Theater episodes, I'll take the time to merge them into the Pepper&Carrot site and create new ones from time to time. They'll be fully translatable and use the same [repos and group](https://framagit.org/peppercarrot) as Pepper&Carrot for the technical part.
I may soon start refactoring both Mini Fantasy Theater and Pepper&Carrot to make the merge easier, porting the best technology I found recently, and de-duplicating the tools and libraries used in Backstage. These changes will probably come with an update of the Pepper&Carrot website, but all this will be an ongoing background task with a lower priority than getting back on track with the production of new episodes.
So that's my roadmap for the end of the year. I really want to participate in Inktober this year, but I know that with such a challenge, I might as well invest all the time I can into making this future plan a reality. So, no Inktober 2024 for me.
Thank you for reading and thank you to all my supporters for sticking with me despite the time this whole process takes.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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21 comments
Hey, I safely made my trip back to the south of France after a couple of day in Bergen, Norway, for the [Raptus Comic book convention](https://www.raptus.no/en) where I was a guest.
I had a very good time and signed many Pepper&Carrot books and drew almost non stop, meeting many of you.
Again a big thank you to the one who also traveled to Raptus to meet me. 💜
Sadly, I forgot to shoot the drawings I made and I don't have a lot of photos to share here but here is a small sample I can share with you.
First, I was super happy to find Pepar & Gulrot at the book store, it's always impressive to me to see the books there, ready to browse, especially in another country like that.
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-18_01_raptus-festival-2024-bergen_david-in-book-store_ccby_net.jpg)
I also took a touristic morning, walking on the port of Bergen and I tried to make a watercolor. I couldn't detail this one as I wanted because it sudently started to rain right after I painted in overlay the gray cloud in the top-left corner. Bergen is a lovely city, I totally would recommend it to anybody looking for a nice city to visit (big bonus for the funicular and its amazing top view on the city).
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-18_02_raptus-festival-2024-watercolor-in-port_ccby_net.jpg)
Here is a montage of photos sent by the Raptus festival, You can see Thierry Capezzone, Miguel Diaz Vizoso, Paolo Mottura ; it was super nice to meet them and share the festival with them. Also, a big thanks to the team of volunteers who made this convention possible, I had super interesting discussions with them.
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-18_03_raptus-festival-2024-bergen_collage_copyright-raptus.png)
I also could meet in real life Karl Ove Hufthammer, one of the two translators of [Pepper&Carrot in Nynorsk](https://www.peppercarrot.com/nn/webcomics/index.html) and beta readers of episodes since years. I also met Kazima Sjøvoll , my publisher at [Outland Forlag](https://outlandforlag.no/). Here is a photo of Kazima, Karl and me:
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-18_04_raptus-festival-2024-bergen_kazima-karl-david_ccby.jpg)
### Update: photo sent by Karl:
During the first show, I was blindfolded and I had to draw the portrait of two persons picked on the audience, a third person had to describe them on microphone so I had clue on what to draw. That was fun, and I also failed hard to draw well.
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_Raptus-festival_Photos-by-Karl_1.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_Raptus-festival_Photos-by-Karl_2.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_Raptus-festival_Photos-by-Karl_3.jpg)
During the signing session, I seat near the talented author [Cha Sandmæl](https://www.chasillustration.com/about).
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_Raptus-festival_Photos-by-Karl_4.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_Raptus-festival_Photos-by-Karl_5.jpg)
During the interview, talking about Pepper&Carrot, my carreer and a quick live demo of Krita.
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_Raptus-festival_Photos-by-Karl_6.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_Raptus-festival_Photos-by-Karl_7.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_Raptus-festival_Photos-by-Karl_8.jpg)
## Fan-arts
Finally, I want to thanks a lot [Susilune](https://www.deviantart.com/susilune/gallery) and Elisabeth who gave me fan-arts of Pepper&Carrot. I love them!
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_pepper-and-carrot-at-raptus-festival_by_susilune_net.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-09-15_pepper-and-carrot-at-raptus-festival_by_elisabeth_net.jpg)
All in all, I really hope I'll be able to return to this comic convention in the future.
I had a really good time. 🙂
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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86 comments
I'm grateful for reaching 30K followers who appreciate my art [on my Mastodon account](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy). Thank you, thank you, and thank you for your support!
[Source file here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2024-09-09_My-Neighboor-Mastodon_30K_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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43 comments
🌼 I couldn't help but draw Pepper and Carrot in traditional clothes from Bergen. I'm happy to share it with you!
[→ source file here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/artworks__2024-09-01_Pepper-and-Carrot_in-traditional-clothing-of-Bergen_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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11 comments
Hello, I am thrilled and honored to announce that I will be attending the [Raptus comic book convention](https://www.raptus.no/en) in the beautiful city of **Bergen, Norway from the 13 to 15 September 2024**. As a French comic book artist, it is both exciting and humbling to have the opportunity to share my work with a new audience and connect with other artists and fans from around the world.
None of this would have been possible without the comic publisher Outland Forlag and [their publication of Pepper&Carrot in Norwegian Nynorsk](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article975/derivation-the-norwegian-nynorsk-book-of-outland-forlag) and especially also without Arild Torvund Olsen and Karl Ove Hufthammer who contributed to make a high quality [translation on the Pepper&Carrot website](https://www.peppercarrot.com/nn/). So a big thank you to them as well as to the Raptus organization for inviting me as a guest.
If you are in the Bergen region or nearby, I would be delighted to invite you to join me at the convention. It's also a fantastic opportunity to discover new comic books and meet talented artists. I can't wait to meet you and share my passion with you all!
My schedule:
**Saturday: 17:00** – “Lets talk about European comics”, I'll be part of a panel about creating comics in Europe.
**Sunday: 13:00** – David Revoy: Pepar & Gulrot , an interview on stage about the comic and my other works.
**Sunday: 14:00** – Signing session.
**More info: https://www.raptus.no/en**
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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56 comments
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-08-25_alice-1_by_david-revoy.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-08-25_alice-2_by_david-revoy.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-08-25_alice-3_by_david-revoy.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2024/2024-08-25_alice-4_by_david-revoy.jpg)
Just unveiled a new black sketchbook and have begun an experimental artistic journey. Excited to see where this takes me! 🖤🎨
(click to enlarge the pictures)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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10 comments
Okay, I know: the photo may not make you dream: but this is my first test bench dedicated to Linux graphics tablets, and it's a big change for me.
It's all in my garage, and it allows me to stop doing the kind of tinkering that breaks my main production operating systems on my desk at home (my [catstation](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/112107136708619147)). It's a plan to have fewer boxes, hardware, and wires everywhere while I'm drawing comics, and still have a test bench ready to go. I had to go through some sick decluttering, [yak shaving](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yak_shaving) and be clever with my storage space to dedicate this little corner to this exclusive use: it's not very big at home.
That's why I had to share this photo and this news with you. It is still reduced to the strictly functional: a desk and a bunch of graphics tablets that I had in stock and accumulated over the years.
## Hardware
For this first version, the machine is currently a Purism Librem 13 (2018), which has been retired after years of faithful service (replaced by my two-in-one tablet, a Lenovo Yoga 370, which I use when traveling). The system is mainly [KDE Neon, the developer edition](https://neon.kde.org/develop), Plasma 6 and Wayland.
Among the tablets shown in the photo (top left to bottom right):
- Wacom Intuos Pro L
- Wacom Bamboo Fun Medium
- Gaomon M10K 2018
- Wacom Intuos 3 Large
- Wacom Intuos 4 Medium
- Huion WH1409 (v1)
- Wacom Cintiq 13HD (plugged)
Off-camera (because very large):
- XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro
- Wacom Intuos Pro 4 XL
My latest XPPen Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) is still the one I use full time on my desk at home, for this reason I'm going to plug it very occasionally to test.
You can find tests about these graphic pen tablets on [the hardware tag](https://www.davidrevoy.com/tag/hardware) of my blog.
## The goal of the setup:
The primary goal of this setup will be to test how to setup these graphic pen tablets on GNU/Linux, using only free/libre software solutions.
I'll mainly test the Plasma 6 desktop under Wayland, in different scenarios: different ratios, different drivers, different buttons, and different pressure curves. I'll also test other aspect as color calibration, Krita packages, etc...
This will also allow me to test and give feedback on features as they are developed, on a system that's very unstable because it's full of work-in-progress code.
It's a one hundred percent volunteer beta testing effort to help the developers get through a couple of crises: packaging, Wayland, graphic tablet drivers. Unfortunately, this continues to scare off and confuse newcomers, a situation I've described in detail [in this article](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1030/debian-12-kde-plasma-2024-install-guide).
## Future improvements:
It's still early days, but it's a start. If the setup proves useful and becomes practical, I plan to improve the storage of the tablets: wall hangers, pen holders, packaging and plastic boxes to help preserve them, a better PC for testing, and an improved work environment.
## Time investment
This is a background task, of course, spread out over the weeks, an hour here, an hour there. You get the idea. My priority and my working hours at the moment are completely consumed by the creation of the Mini Fantasy Theater website. CSS, PHP, theming, parser, bug fixing... nothing exciting to show and it takes so long!
After that, I'd like to start producing the last episodes of Pepper&Carrot. I don't think my scenario for the last arc (episode 39, 40, 41 and 42) will have a better rewrite than what I've explored over the last month. It's really time to put it down on paper, but I'll have more details on this plan in a blog post later.
**Update 2024-09-24: ** After two month, my setup revealed to be a failure... I spent consistently, weekly, on each wednesday, 1h in front of it: ready to make some testing and I tested so few things. But most of my time went into fighting with the installation of the beta-testing environment: KDE Neon Unstable. In front of so many frustration, I'll probably dismantle it. You can read [more detail about it here](https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/1833#note_1039571).
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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39 comments
Part 1: [www.davidrevoy.com/article1036/art-block](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1036/art-block)
**Transcript:**
A four panel wordless webcomic:
Panel 1: A light shines on a large silk cocoon lying on a bed in a bedroom. A long crack on its surface indicates that it's about to open.
Panel 2: A young butterfly with black wings emerges from the cocoon. She sits up, still partially covered in silk threads. A little lost, she touches her face.
Panel 3: She looks at herself in the mirror, disappointed and saddened by her large, dark wings: she holds a colored pencil drawing of the wings she wishes she had.
Panel 4: When she steps outside, not so sure of herself, she is surprised to find that her unique appearance has fascinated a young fairy whose wings are still small.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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66 comments
**Transcript:**
A wordless webcomic in four panels:
Panel 1: A small fairy with brown hair and ordinary transparent wings (a bit like a dragonfly, but less beautiful) sees a proud fairy, beautiful, with colorful butterfly wings. She's ecstatic at the sight.
Panel 2: Later at home, in front of her mirror, as the sun sets, our fairy looks at herself and her wings, depressed.
Panel 3: At night, she lies down on her bed in a phoetal position, crying.
Panel 4: The next day, on the bed, same shot, but instead of the fairy a huge silk cocoon. It's morning light, and the sun rays are shining on it. This panel is full of hope and announces a future metamorphosis.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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25 comments
**Transcript:**
A wordless webcomic in four panels:
Panel 1 : A warrior descends the steps of a Colimasson staircase. She passes a strange room made of brick and stone, typical of dungeons. We see her in the frame of an arched doorway, surprised by what she sees: in the foreground, exotic green leaves and vines indicate that the room is infested with a carnivorous plant. Also in the foreground is the silhouette of a victim.
Panel 2 : Contre champs, she arrives, alarmed, with the help of a young adventurer whose head is completely trapped by a large bulbous flower.
Panel 3 : As she prepares to cut the vines with her sword, she is surprised: the captive's hands beckon her to stop!
Panel 4 : Wide shot: The flower releases the head of her victim: she's a young elf with a beautiful haircut and a perfect blow-dry. She looks at herself in a small portable mirror. The warrior is stunned.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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34 comments
**Transcript:**
A webcomic in four panels:
Panel 1: A very young knight, poorly equipped (oversized pants, topless, wooden sword and shield, rusty helmet), screams with overconfidence in front of a cave on a foggy night.
> Knight: Master of Dragons! I challenge you to a duel, against ME, the greatest knight the kingdom has ever known!!! My knowledge of fencing is unrivaled!!!
Panel 2: The dragon walks calmly out of the cave, only the large nose is visible while his head is still in shadow. Not a fierce look, but a massive size. He is just tired of this kind of interruption. The knight continues:
> Knight: You're terrified, aren't you?! well, you should be! I'm terrifying! Show Yourself!!! Coward!!!
Panel 3: The camera shows an oversized dragon, the knight is the size of a mosquito, attacking his toenails. The dragon just look at the situation with thinking. And an epic full moon illuminates the scene.
> Knight: Hyah! Hyah!
> Partner of the dragon (off panel, from the cave): Honey, who is that?
Panel 4: A close-up of the dragon, turning his head towards the cave to answer his partner:
> Master of Dragons: It's no one. As usual: an overconfident newbie, victim of overestimating his own abilities. A classic bias in human nature.
> Knight (off panel): Hyah! Hyah!
