Strength +1
Magic +5
Dexterity +3
Intelligence +2
Now, you may be wondering what I'm going on about? Well, in these following ramblings I will explain... but if you don't want to read to much further I'll let you in on the big secret. Corvink got a new website and store! ::cough:: I guess the title of this blog gave that away didn't it? ::cough::
SO... WHAT'S NEW?
A NEW STORE
The New Store!
Probably the one of the most exciting updates is that the store is now fully incorporated into the main site. When you click the store button now, you'll notice that the website itself doesn't look entirely different. This used to be because I had two different "backbones" installed for the main site and the store. Each of these installs used their own MySQL databases, coding, css, etc. Let me tell you, this was a really mess to keep maintained. Also, as a designer, this always really bugged me. It didn't feel aesthetically as pleasing for me. For you guys, I'm sure, it also it felt a little off putting and hard to find a way back to the original site from the store the way it was.
With the store fully integrated into the blog, another neat feature is the fact that if you add something to your cart a little white cart pop up will show up at the top right of your screen with any items you've added. This allows you to continue shopping or wander around the site with out being disturbed.
The New Cart Button!
Another note has to do with items I like to consider "going extinct," AKA ♥ GTFO. This section is basically for items that are on their final run, like the Cactus Green "Save The Environment, Kill Yourself" Shirts. GTFO simply stands for "Get The Fuck Out" ...of the store and into your hands! I'm not really sure how often items will go here, but when the item has seen the end of it's days and is ready to go extinct I'll let you guys know and list it there.
Finally, one the coolest new features is that Corvink now has an SSL certificate and is able to securely take credit cards directly with out you having to use Paypal! I've been wanting to set something like this up for quite a long time but could not afford to do so until now!
Character Bios and Social Media
New Characters Bio Page
The character's bio page is something I'm also excited about, especially since I've had to take so much time off of the comics lately. Even though I haven't had a chance to work on them (which by the way my tablet is broken at the moment), I do occasionally tweet as my characters. The reason for this is that it keeps me in their mindsets while being able to have them interact and continue to explore them as individuals via twitter. This image shows some of the things I updated for this section (or you know, you can just click the link in the menu bar or whatever). What's new is the links to their social media accounts, a live twitter feed and links to their full character appearances at the individual comic sites.
Ok Great, What's Next?
The new site is all fine and dandy, but when the hell am I gonna get back to doing some art? Well, I must apologize about my absence lately in that department, trust me, I feel extremely guilty about this. As I mentioned above, my tablet somehow stopped working just a few days before San Diego Comic-Con! Because of it's unfortunate timing, I wasn't able to fix it before I left and now that the convention has been over, I've been working full force trying to make Corvink a legit business. This means that I've had to do all kinds of behind the scenes projects that don't really output much visual candy for you guys. In the past few months I've been working to set up Quickbooks (for book keeping), come up with a SKU system for my merchandise, file for a tax ID and tons of other boring things that adults apparently have to do to have their own small businesses. I've also had to redo my office for better workflow and organization, find a new company that could handle my shirt printing, get said shirts printed, design other products I've wanted to make for some time (like the new shot glasses) and get ready for next years convention exhibits! It's crazy running a one man show like this... even though it's based on my art work, I can't ignore the business end of creating or else I can't find a way to financially continue this... catch 22 is that it's put me in a tough spot of not being able to work on art either. Sigh.
Anyway, now that this site is done, I have a few more behind the scenes things I need to get done (including fixing my tablet) then I'll be back on the art horse and riding it into the artistic battle once again!