For David Gonterman, starting a project has always been full of exuberance. Writing up the premise, finding a place to host, putting together the html necessary to promote it, releasing that first strip - each moment full of excitement and wonder, waiting to see how it will be received by the masses. As the months pass and new pages are drawn up, it can be clear to the Gonterman scholar that the original idea goes through the same process as any long term creative endeavor. It changes, evolves, the author sometimes finding they are led to a place far different than where they began. One just has to look at the life of Adam Packbell to find a clear example. In some ways, Bakabreakers is just a first draft of what would evolve into the novel Lost Boy Found. As such, a number of projects have been left on a cliffhanger as Davey moved on to something new. With each departure from a strip, however, there was always the promise to return, especially if enough people asked for it.
Foxfire was just one of those unfinished comics. The story of Susan Foxfire was laid to rest after 240 installments. Yet as Gonterman redesigned his website for the new millenium, he promised that he would come back to the strip, picking up with “Series 2,” furthering the adventures of Scarlett.
Four years later, he made good on that promise.
With fresh ideas and fresh tech, Gonterman decided to reboot the entire premise. Instead of Jim Goodlow, the cartoonist, finding an alien fursuit, it was the story of Jim Goodlow, police academy graduate, who stumbled across a genetically engineered fursuit. Drawn in by the mystery of this talking fox, the only way he could investigate her origins is if he put the suit on. And so, the story began anew.
The strip was drawn up like the pages from a traditional comic book, as opposed to the newspaper-friendly strip the original was designed for. The villain of Foxfire, Pippkin, was retooled as Scarlet’s love interest, though his snark and attitude were retained. Perhaps most controversial of all, however, was the fact that Jim Goodlow was now a homosexual. On the surface, it may not have seemed that big a deal, but for Gonterman, it was an attempt to prove he had grown beyond his fanfiction origins. Jim was not meant to be an avatar of the author, but an independent character, representative of Gonterman’s growth as an individual since he wrote Blood and Metal and Sailor Moon: American Kitsune.
Over the next four years Davey built a small yet loyal following for his strip. Being uploaded on both DeviantArt and Snowflake Studios, he would receive a number of comments on each post, dedicated readers reacting to the ongoing story. There would also be those ready to point out any unexpected grammatical errors, which Gonterman would then fix posthaste. It became an ongoing process, the author looking to his audience to help him further grow as an artist.
In 2007, Davey began work on the first novel based on the Scarlet P.I. characters, Murder in Main Street USA. Making the first draft available to the public for a short time, progress on the comic strip began slowing. Though he did not want to abandon it altogether, he did feel that his artistic prowess had improved over the intervening years. Completing strip one hundred and twenty three, Gonterman placed the comic on hold while at the same time announcing two related projects. The first, a spin-off starring Magical Girl Melody, a recently introduced protagonist. The second, Scarlet P.I. Remix, yet another version of the main narrative meant to tighten up the story, remake some art, and add a splash of color where applicable.
Murder in Main Street USA would be rereleased, but Gonterman’s attention was instead taken by the remake of Blood and Metal. While two more books starring the fursuit detective would be released - one written by David, the other by a friend - the remake of the comic would not happen. During the preliminary stages of Remix, he became disillusioned with webcomics as a whole, feeling he wasn’t able to grow his audience because of the online reputation that had followed him from the 90’s. Instead, he felt his talents were better suited on the written page. It would be another four years before he made one final stab at the webcomic industry, this time looking back at the character that had been with him longer than he had been on the Internet - Johnny Briz...
