And that's a wrap ....

Finally, the end of this back story - a little late, as seems to be usual, but the finale of Bacardi's back story.  Aside from the editing mistakes that I've found in the last 12 pages, they also reminded me that I was using Paint Shop Pro 5 to do the graphic editing way back when.  My, how technology has changed.

The new chapter will start tomorrow; I'll try to have it on-line around midnight EST, or so.  I'm thinking that I need a new schedule to post comic pages, something in line with my real job schedule, so I might also use a calendar for dates & times that new pages will go on-line.

As ever, I hope you enjoyed the story, and I look forward to sharing some of my creativity with you.

A VERY late update ....

First off - apologies for this late update.  I know, almost an entire month.  I also know that the regular story should be started by now.  My only defense is that it's spring - motorcycle weather, lots to do, and a super cool girlfriend to spend time with.

On with the story ......

There are two more pages in this Tales story, so if I stay on schedule, by next Wednesday (May 1st),  Chapter Two of The Adventure Begins will go on-line.

B&W pulp action ...

Wow.  I hadn't looked over this story since it was originally published.  Kinda embarrassed over the typos.  Ah well, it was a learning experience.  I just hope you readers are enjoying a slight break from the main story line.  There are six more pages after today's, which means about three more weeks til we get started with chapter two of "The Adventures Begins" storyline.

Looking back over this Tales story inda makes me want to do some more B&W stories, which isn't a bad idea....

A flash back

Since I'm taking a break to get ahead on pages, I've decided to post an oldie but goodie - the original small press, black & white, do it yourself, home-made, Tales of Arcanna!!!!

As you can tell from the cover piece, this was printed back in 2002.  Several friends and I had undertaken a small press venture back in 1999, which continued into the early parts of the 21st century.  The format was digest - in other words we took a regular letter sized piece of paper, turning it sideways and folded it in half.  And we were limited to b&w printing - ie, Xerox machines.  And we set some pretty crazy time schedules for ourselves.  But it was a lot of fun and a great learning experience.  Ah, good times, good times ...

Anyways, this will be a 12 page story, giving some insight to the djargr character known as Bacardi, and perhaps why he chose the adventurer's life.  New pages will go on-line every Saturday and Wednesday.  Then, hopefully, we'll be ready for Chapter Two of the main story.

Till then, enjoy this flashback of B&W art refinement.

Epilogue - finally

We, here you have it - the ending of the chapter.  Ominous, no?

I borrowed a couple of ideas from the animation crew of Batman: the animated series for this one - a solid black background, instead of the regular white.  Think I kinda like it better.

I'm going to be taking a break from posting pages for a little while - need to build up my cache of pages before we get started.  In the mean time, I'll be finishing up the web page updates and I'll probably post some sketch pages and such over at DeviantArt.

I've picked up on a few things with this first chapter.  First off - I shouldn't take so long to finish a chapter.  This version has only take a few years to reach the conclusion.  The original tale was begun way back in 1999, we myself and a few friends decided to break into the small press market of comic books.  Then somewhere around in 2005 was when I began this version - the version that I didn't have to edit because I could only have so many pages to tell a story, or had a deadline that I probably wasn't going to meet, unless I cut out some pages.  Then, of course, sidetracked by life for a little while, then here we are today.

Secondly - that I have a bad habit of researching some things too much.  Which leads to me getting sidetracked more that a few times, which eventually leads to me losing track of time.  Which always puts me behind schedule.  So, limit my research, don't get distracted, and stay focused.  Right.

Thirdly - respect. There is a lot of time & work that goes into artistic creations.  Music, illustrations, paintings, writings - all of them are works of passion.  Along with this passion comes a learning curve, especially when you do most all of the work yourself.  Exercise patience, please.  It isn't easy baring a part of one's soul for the world to see and be critical of.

And I'm sure there is more I could ramble on about, but I think this is more than enough for a 4am post.  I hope everyone has enjoyed the tale thus far, and please feel free to spread the word to others that might appreciate my work.  Thanks for reading.

One page to go!

An almost conclusion to the first chapter.  Took a bit longer than I expected.

Kinda happy with this one - needs more work on the colors and shading.  Oh well ...

Next up is the epilogue ...