It’s been a very busy couple of months at my day job and I was really looking forward to a months worth of vacation starting from next week – I had figured I would use the time to get up a buffer of Magellan pages and whatnot.
Unfortunately I’ve apparently sprained my hand through too much drawing and WACOM pen/mouse work/typing (yes, RSI – a mild case, but still, bah). Plus there’s a secondary complication in which I cleverly managed to crack/mildly fracture the knuckle of my drawing hand little finger/pinkie and it needs to be bound for a week or so (I caused that injury two months ago, it didn’t seem a problem at the time but mild pain and swelling has manifested in the last two weeks, probably exaserbated by the RSI, I dunno, and I won’t bore you with the stupid details except to say it’s surprisingly difficult to draw well with this seemingly inconsequential finger bound) .
Bottomline is that drawing is not really possible at the moment (and in fact really hasn’t been for the last two/three weeks – yes, I probably shouldn’t have done those last few pages of Magellan or Dr Spooky, but I really wanted to keep the stories moving along… plus I’m an idiot). I’m going to have to rest my hand from all but light sketching for the next three weeks or so, which is really disappointing – so, no Magellan, no Dr Spooky & Otto and no Crossoverkill pages by xmung until January I’m sorry to say . This is a bummer, but at least my hand isn’t totally wrecked – there’s no sharp shooting pain for example – but if I don’t rest it properly now there’s every chance I will end up being unable to use it for drawing at all, and that would totally suck!
I’m going to use the time to rest up, get the storyline and website sorted out, and also look into making the books available outside Australia and in ebook format… so there are some positives at least. At this stage I hope to start Magellan updates and new Dr Spooky vote rewards from the first or second week of January. I’ll keep you posted on other developments through the site, Twitter and Facebook. In the meantime have a great festive season and a happy New Year, see you for new Magellan in 2013!
Take you time, get better!
Then continue your excellent story!
Enjoy your rest! And don’t try to start again early. Hands are very useful for artists.
Get well soon! Take care of yourself, don’t do stupid things. And have a wonderful holiday!
Best regards, Mister Crowley. Get plenty of rest and don’t stress out. We know you’ll come back to us (or at the very least we’ll follow you in to the afterlife and drag you back).
Get well soon, xmung! Take all the time your hand needs. It’s a lucky coincidence that this happens to you now with christmas ahead and many people stop reading webcomics for a couple of days anyway. So have a great christmas holiday!
Heroic regards from Germany!
thirtyseven aka Arne from Union of Heroes
Give your hand a break. We’ll be here when you get back.
Rest & heal your hand, I’m happy to wait.
Thanks for the well wishes everyone! Rest assured much resting is now ell underway.
resident nerd here to tell you that it may have been the other way around. having a minor injury that causes minor and unnoticeable pain/swelling can make it easier to to cause tendinitis, or arthritis to flare up, and other injuries with similar causes (ex. bursitis).
hopefully you have one of those RSIs as the other causes to RSIs is nerve damage or a type of cellular degradation, and if you do have one of those worse ones let’s hope it is the much less common cellular degradation ones, as that means you’ll recover given enough time.
though i wouldn’t be too worried, a single incident is almost always overuse RSIs (the first mentioned, that heals quickly, and doesn’t come back unless you really want it to). take a couple of extra days off after you feel fine just to be sure it is completely gone, we’ll still be here patiently, aside from the ones that aren’t being patient, but they don’t matter anyway.
Ow, how unpleasant! I hope you can enjoy the holidays otherwise, and get your hand back to normal!
Noooo! Get better soon. Really enjoying the current arc so cannot wait to see more.
No! It can’t be. The stories have to continue! You can’t leave use with the cliff-hanger of Dr. Spooky and company about to get gobbled by the demon that swallowed the Big Bad. What are Maverick and Olga/Gola going to do in Fatima’s mind to get her to overcome her past tragedy? We have to know! You can’t leave us hanging for a month! You have to learn how to use your left hand! And quick! (finish silly rant)
Just in case it is not clear, the entirety of the last paragraph is thoroughly tongue-in-cheek and not serious in the slightest. I love the comics you manage to produce on a very regular basis, Steven, but your long-term health is way more important than our short-term pleasure. Take your needed rest and get well soon.
Seriously, it seems that many of my favourite web comics are going on hiatus because of health/death issues. My prayers are with you for a speedy and complete recovery. BTW, let someone else carve the feast this holiday season. A weak hand and a sharp knife can be a dangerous situation.
Yeah, I’m a bit of a fiend picking the worst (best?) moment to take a break. I really wanted to get to the end of that sequence but it just wasn’t to be!
Good news is that the little finger isn’t broken, and anti-inflammatory meds appear to be bringing down the swelling, I can now do a few things with my right hand which I couldn’t previously without pain. Still a way to go but it looks a bit more positive!
Hurray for recovery! Soon enough you will be slaving away for our amusement once again, Mister Crowley.
Sad but true.;)
Have you tried drawing with your other hand? (just kidding!)
Actually… I have! You wouldn’t want to see the results though lol – I can draw and write passably with my left hand if passably equals a six year old. I have in the past month switched to my left hand for some drafting and plotting to save my right hand a bit. Wasn’y very productive though. Takes ten times more concentration for one tenth the result.
on the other hand you shouldn’t really be using your right hand anyway, so now might be a good time to go through the hassle of learning to be ambidextrous. when i went to ‘a’ school i had a decent amount of time on my hands, and low desk space, so instead of trying to get by with a smaller mouse or turning up the sensitivity on a normal sized one, i got a ball mouse (trackball style, had to buy a mouse anyway), and for the first few months it was difficult, now that’s my preferred mouse type.
Make sure it’s properly healed before you start using it again! My RSS feed reader will be waiting when you get back. Happy seasonal holiday of your choice, and see you next year.
Thanks!
happy holidays, _xmung. i hope someone gave you a chainmail drawing glove!
merry christmas!
(this greetings may be freely exchanged for another holiday greetings at any one of our fabulous locations, extra fee may apply for one of the following: hooker day, stripper day, sex day, chocolate day)