A fresh new page is here.
Our heroes encounter the more pragmatic side of the Kël’töri culture here. Or perhaps it's just a jealous patrol officer trying to intimidate the stranger hitting on his crush. Either way, it could turn out rather messy for our heroes ...
Still playing around with the foreign accents and languages format. Not entirely sure I like the way this one played out. I think I may have to go back to the drawing board, as it were, and tinker around with some other ideas. Any suggestions, ideas, or comments, please leave them below.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
The encyclopedic treasury of the Arcane Compass
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Monday, August 29, 2016
How time flies
Or not. A new comic you say?
About friggin' time. Or rather, past time. Motivation - who developed this elusive idea, what?
Now, on to our heroes and their story -
Our heroes pick up where we left off from the Daystar Bridge (after the ominous little cut-scene) and their arrival at Faerie's Crossing. The story gets started with their experiences in the Kel'tori Highlands, and the slightly insular culture there-in. Will the heroes speed along on their time sensitive mission? Will they arrive in the Frostland village of Norrvik with the crucial medicine in time?
As for updates, I will admit that I have worked on all I rambled about last time, I just haven't quite finished them all . Yet. But, the good news is, I'm about three pages ahead in the story line, so unless something drastic happens within the next month, there will be new pages to read every week.
EDIT: I remember one thing I was wanting to discuss/relate to you avid reader - that of accents in speech bubbles. Decades ago when I first started the whole small press comic book endeavor, I want to portray accents with different fonts. Great idea in theory, horrible idea in execution. Having different characters speaking in different fonts made for difficult reading.
So that idea was scrapped.
Over the years, I've read quite a few comics where either the creator or the letterer tried to capture the accents phonetically. As above, a great idea in theory. But having to try and translate what the character is saying, difficult at best.
From these attempts (both mine and other creator's) I've learned that reading flow is much better than trying to be impressively fancy. Then some time earlier this year (or maybe last year - time is so difficult to quantify it seems) I came across a genius that solved this problem!
Ever though I can't find the article that discussed this new method for simplifying accents and different languages, I thought it ingenious! I found it here, in this article, from Blambot's facebook page.
(this section is from the bottom of the article)
Because of this, I'm going to play around a bit with the different accents and languages. This is where the green outline plays into the bar wench's speech balloons. I do encourage discussion about this, and any helpful or insightful ideas are more than welcome.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
About friggin' time. Or rather, past time. Motivation - who developed this elusive idea, what?
Now, on to our heroes and their story -
Our heroes pick up where we left off from the Daystar Bridge (after the ominous little cut-scene) and their arrival at Faerie's Crossing. The story gets started with their experiences in the Kel'tori Highlands, and the slightly insular culture there-in. Will the heroes speed along on their time sensitive mission? Will they arrive in the Frostland village of Norrvik with the crucial medicine in time?
As for updates, I will admit that I have worked on all I rambled about last time, I just haven't quite finished them all . Yet. But, the good news is, I'm about three pages ahead in the story line, so unless something drastic happens within the next month, there will be new pages to read every week.
EDIT: I remember one thing I was wanting to discuss/relate to you avid reader - that of accents in speech bubbles. Decades ago when I first started the whole small press comic book endeavor, I want to portray accents with different fonts. Great idea in theory, horrible idea in execution. Having different characters speaking in different fonts made for difficult reading.
So that idea was scrapped.
Over the years, I've read quite a few comics where either the creator or the letterer tried to capture the accents phonetically. As above, a great idea in theory. But having to try and translate what the character is saying, difficult at best.
From these attempts (both mine and other creator's) I've learned that reading flow is much better than trying to be impressively fancy. Then some time earlier this year (or maybe last year - time is so difficult to quantify it seems) I came across a genius that solved this problem!
Ever though I can't find the article that discussed this new method for simplifying accents and different languages, I thought it ingenious! I found it here, in this article, from Blambot's facebook page.
(this section is from the bottom of the article)
Because of this, I'm going to play around a bit with the different accents and languages. This is where the green outline plays into the bar wench's speech balloons. I do encourage discussion about this, and any helpful or insightful ideas are more than welcome.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Off to a slow 2016 ....
A new page, finally ..... here.
A little tardy for the new year, but here we change locations for a cut scene. A little bad guy time never hurts the story's development, right? Wonder what the "geodesic expansion algorithms" are? Or, more importantly, when will they show up in the story again? And what is that glowing cube?
Perhaps laying the ground work for future expositions ... or, maybe, some plot threads?
Having a slow start to the new year, but hopefully this year will see the completion of this current story arc, and a lot of updates on the web site. I plan on greatly expanding the Cartography and Encyclopedia sections, and hoping to upload more content to my deviant art page. I guess we'll just see how motivated I am for the rest of this year.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
A little tardy for the new year, but here we change locations for a cut scene. A little bad guy time never hurts the story's development, right? Wonder what the "geodesic expansion algorithms" are? Or, more importantly, when will they show up in the story again? And what is that glowing cube?
Perhaps laying the ground work for future expositions ... or, maybe, some plot threads?
Having a slow start to the new year, but hopefully this year will see the completion of this current story arc, and a lot of updates on the web site. I plan on greatly expanding the Cartography and Encyclopedia sections, and hoping to upload more content to my deviant art page. I guess we'll just see how motivated I am for the rest of this year.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
Saturday, October 17, 2015
A little late, I suppose ....
New page - here! I hope you have a wide monitor, because it's a double page whammie.
Picking up where we left off a couple of months ago - the rest of the conversation between Faust and Tander - and the journey across the Daystar Bridge into the Keltori Highlands.
As a meta note - the Daystar Bridge is called such because of the distance it covers - about 20 miles, to be close to exact. Or, in other words, just about a whole day's worth of travel.
Pretty content with this double page spread. First time I've ever done a layout like this. I did so to capture the whole bridge in one shot. Even though there isn't much in that to denote scale, I feel like the accompanying panels convey, at least, a part of that scale.
Next up - our heroes encounter with the Keltori natives.
Until then,
Excelsior!
Picking up where we left off a couple of months ago - the rest of the conversation between Faust and Tander - and the journey across the Daystar Bridge into the Keltori Highlands.
As a meta note - the Daystar Bridge is called such because of the distance it covers - about 20 miles, to be close to exact. Or, in other words, just about a whole day's worth of travel.
Pretty content with this double page spread. First time I've ever done a layout like this. I did so to capture the whole bridge in one shot. Even though there isn't much in that to denote scale, I feel like the accompanying panels convey, at least, a part of that scale.
Next up - our heroes encounter with the Keltori natives.
Until then,
Excelsior!
Saturday, June 27, 2015
After dinner ...
New page here.
After dinner refreshments and relaxations. And a revelation from one of the main characters. Wonder why Faust would be dwelling on such thoughts? Only time may tell, eh?
I like this page - half text and art. The text is, of course, a basic info dump to fill in the small details and give some cultural clues. The mountains, the ocean, and the beginning of a sunset - I enjoyed working on this lots. Almost therapeutic. I was hoping to depict the majesty of this area that should be conveyed. My finished piece is almost as good as my mental image.
Next up will be our heroes' journey through the Keltori Highlands.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
After dinner refreshments and relaxations. And a revelation from one of the main characters. Wonder why Faust would be dwelling on such thoughts? Only time may tell, eh?
I like this page - half text and art. The text is, of course, a basic info dump to fill in the small details and give some cultural clues. The mountains, the ocean, and the beginning of a sunset - I enjoyed working on this lots. Almost therapeutic. I was hoping to depict the majesty of this area that should be conveyed. My finished piece is almost as good as my mental image.
Next up will be our heroes' journey through the Keltori Highlands.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
Friday, June 19, 2015
Meeting the family
Current page is here.
Our heroes finally make it inside the Strold to meet the family. And the other dramatis personae located here. Wonder why I took the time to introduce all these people?
I like this page. The stonework background was a royal pain in me arse, but I really like the way this one turned out. The only thing that I'd change is to do more shading.
Til next time -
Excelsior!
Our heroes finally make it inside the Strold to meet the family. And the other dramatis personae located here. Wonder why I took the time to introduce all these people?
I like this page. The stonework background was a royal pain in me arse, but I really like the way this one turned out. The only thing that I'd change is to do more shading.
Til next time -
Excelsior!
Sunday, June 7, 2015
A glimpse inside the Addakhan Strold
New Page here.
Our heroes get to see what is within the giant glass dome of the Addakhan Strold. The dome was built to protect the courtyard and the fruit grove from the continual downpour from the waterfall, and to protect the trees from the harsh mountain climate. And, I suppose I should stop with all the sage like drivel. and let you enjoy (I hope) the new page.
I enjoyed this creating this page. I've been waiting quite a while to do these drawings, as I've had the ideas for the Strold's interior in my sketch books for years. Some of the figures are also a slight tip of the hat to the old 8 bit games of old (SSI's Gold Box games). All in all, a fun page to draw & color.
Til next time,
Excelsior!
Our heroes get to see what is within the giant glass dome of the Addakhan Strold. The dome was built to protect the courtyard and the fruit grove from the continual downpour from the waterfall, and to protect the trees from the harsh mountain climate. And, I suppose I should stop with all the sage like drivel. and let you enjoy (I hope) the new page.
I enjoyed this creating this page. I've been waiting quite a while to do these drawings, as I've had the ideas for the Strold's interior in my sketch books for years. Some of the figures are also a slight tip of the hat to the old 8 bit games of old (SSI's Gold Box games). All in all, a fun page to draw & color.
Til next time,
Excelsior!
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