"Yes, making AnimatedBuzz.com a popular meeting ground for artists was the plan that I still have for long term," Animated Buzz owner Mario Furmanczyk says of his Web site. But right now, Mario wants to focus on advertising his site and improving his artwork.
One of those improvements comes in the form of the caricatures which have recently bombarded Animated Buzz. That, along with a News section that lets visitors know everything that's been updated has replaced the long-touted Drawing of the Week (DOW).
"You can't be afraid of change," Mario says. "And through changes, as you have seen, AnimatedBuzz.com has become a pretty sweet site. I ditched the DOW because No. 1, It wasn't attracting as many people to the site as I had once hoped it would. No. 2, the damn DOW was hard to keep consistent with. One comic sequential a week may not seem like a lot but eventually you begin to put it aside because you hate to do the work."
The DOW debuted in early last year with random drawings that Mario wanted to feature. One week, it was a caricature, while the next week it may have been a sketch of a horse. Oftentimes in the beginning, the DOW featured a humorous comic strip (click the one below for full size). That was what eventually evolved into Mario featuring weekly comic sequentials. Vampira (later dubbed Famepire) debuted as the first regular series on July 28, 2002.
"I believe that if I create solid artwork along with an interesting enough storyline," Mario said at the time, "people will be anxious to come back to the site to see more of the strip."
When Famepire wrapped, Mario debuted another series in October: Cyborgtica. But it wasn't to be. Before Cyborgtica could end its run, Mario pulled the DOW.
"With the new changes," he says, "whatever I feel like working on, I work on. I'll get back to Cyborgtica sequentials eventually, but I have the freedom to explore different things like caricatures. As you know, the caricatures are a huge hit. I'm glad I dropped the DOW. The new News section is sweet because it lets people know what's new on a day-to-day basis. The DOW isn't the only project that I work on. I have tons! So, the news section gives me a chance to let everyone know about all the updates."
Some of those recent updates have included tutorials for other artists to use. The Animated Buzz online shop is also fully operational after remaining closed since it arrived on the Web site many months ago. Dragon Tears, a children's book Mario was illustrating, is now complete.
"I don't think it will be out anytime soon," Mario says of the book. "It'll take time, but eventually, it'll be offered in the store."
The Animated Buzz Newsletter, another idea that was once a key feature to the Web site and sent out on a weekly basis, has been put on the backburner.
"I've noticed that there hasn't been many newsletter sign ups, probably due to the fact that people are just annoyed by [newsletters] in general," Mario says. "Everyone thinks that a newsletter is spam. Even I delete crap newsletters. That's why I will now only distribute [it] on special occasions. So, when people see the AnimatedBuzz.com Newsletter, they'll think, 'Wow, haven't seen this in a while. Might as well check it out!'
"The content that I plan to put in the newsletter will include new significant updates, special, new [and] important news and products that are in the online store," he says.
Another big feature that used to be on Animated Buzz, but has since been put on the backburner, is the Character of the Week (COW), later known as Character Design 101. Debuting around the same time as the DOW, the COW was supposed to encourage artists to draw their own interpretations of the character being featured and post it in the forums. But the COW was put out to pasture at the end of last summer (Aug. 30, 2002).
Mario says he dropped it due to low participation, but one day, it could make its return.
Today, Mario putting his effort into other areas of the site, such as a recently added artist database.
"So much time is spent on improving skills and learning new things to help improve a portfolio," Mario says on the "Links" page. "Unfortunately, having a sweet portfolio is only half of the formula. Artists need to market themselves. That's why I've decided to build up an artist network that consists of high-quality art-related Web sites for the artists that are willing to go the extra mile for exposure."
Can visitors expect any other new content to debut on Animated Buzz in the ensuing months?
"As far as future updates, there isn't anything special up my sleeve," Mario says. "I just want to keep improving the site's content and continue advertising. It's gonna be a long process, but someone has to market this baby. The world needs to see Animatedbuzz.com, damn it."
So are we to believe that Mario is satisfied with the current look of Animated Buzz and there won't be any major changes to the layout? We all know from last week how much Mario loves to change the design. The truth is, it's always changing, however little it might be. The current version of AnimatedBuzz.com looks different than the one that existed two weeks ago.
"I'm really satisfied with the look of the pages right now," Mario says. "I have been satisfied in general for the past many months. I just need to tweak things here and there once in a while to keep things going."
