Further Into the Temple

New page here!

So, a further look into the sprawling Temple of Romanova (and an inside joke for Doctor Who fans).  Not sure if I'll do another page before getting to the reason as to why Lady Delphae had refresh her memory, but soon we'll see WHY she come to the Library.

Taking classic Greek & Roman architecture and trying to combine it into an Amazonian Jedi Temple .... slight headache.  Dunno how many times I re-worked the central library chamber.  Probably about a bazillion.  Maybe more.  Not sure at this point. But, I finally decided to letter this page and be done with it though, after spending way longer than I should have over the interior layout and finish.  But alas .....



Until next time,

Excelsior!

Cut Scene (back at it again)

Well, it's been a little while since there has been any updates, but here is a new page!

Take your time.  Re-read the last few pages of the "current" chapter is you need to.  We'll wait.

Ok, now that everyone is caught up I'll continue with my rambling....

So, the cut scene.  The story transitions to the Temple of Rovanova and Lady Delphae.  The Amazon oracle has a premonition of what may come that tickles her memory of past adventures?  She must search the journals in the Library.....

This page has been done for quite some time, collecting dust on my computer's HD.  I had finished it about the time my mom was hospitalized, and it was just down hill from there for months.  After the funeral I just didn't feel like being creative, and kinda stayed there for a bit.  But now, I'm back, so I'm going to try and get back on track (somewhat) with the comic.

I have been motivated, in part, by my daughter and her friends asking to run a D&D 5E game for them.  So, of course, it had to be set in the Arcane Compass.  Thus, the Daring Tale from the Arcane Compass was born.

Since I like to have all my ducks in a row, as it were, I decided to use both sites (here and there) as a library resource.  And since I haven't updated the web comic, figured it was time I got off my lazy butt and did so.

There has been A LOT of changes in the world in the past year - one of the bigger ones for the comic book world is the passing of Stan Lee.  You will be missed Stan, but thank you so much for all the imagination fuel you have provided.


This one is for you Stan -

Until next time,

Excelsior!

Nearing their destination

New Page here.

After their trek through the Dragonspine Sierras, the Kêl’torï highlands, and into the Frostlands, our heroes finally arrive at the village of Norrvik.  But are they in time?

Mostly content with this piece.  The multitudes of different background was a bit of a headache, but the majority of them are borrowed from actual nature photos (mostly from the Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Greenland areas).

That, and I just noticed a mistake in lettering graphics.  Dang.  I'll try and go back to correct that here in a day or two.

Until next time,

Excelsior!

Once again into the ..... journey

You might need a slight recap of whats going on here ... so I'll do a brief summary.

Our heroes were commissioned by a ranking officer in the Golden Cross to escort to individuals from the Frostlands, one gnome named Wilhelm Roscoe Triggerbolt and one human simply named Ralock, back to their home village of Norrvik, with a medical package to help the village's chief administrator's daughter, Sѷara, with her debilitating dreams.  They have been traveling in an ox drawn wagon, across the Kel'tὂri lands, through the dwarven stronghold of Stoneport, back to the Frostlands.

So, that's where we are finally with this new page.

So, it's taken a while.  Like six months a while.  As you can see from the last post, as verbose as it was, it wasn't a good winter for me or my family.  And, while this page has been patiently waiting on my harddrive, I just couldn't find the motivation to get back to it.  But now that I have, hopefully I will be able to get back into some kind of schedule again.

Kinda happy with this, kinda not.  The happy part is that I finally got to use the CGI Stoneport that I had worked on so long again.  The bad part was, after getting thing situated in the panels, I had to go back and do a design modification to the fortress (but no biggie - just don't know why I didn't think of that before hand).  The other bad part is I'm kinda rusty with the drawing and coloring and such.  Outta practice slightly.  But that will take care of itself before long.  So, enjoy! 😎


Until next time,

Excelsior!

Spring Equinox - 2017 (warning! very verbose and lots of photos)

Wow.

Almost five years since I began this blog/encyclopedia.  Wow.  And about 17 since I started drawing the Arcane Compass.  You'd think I would've made more headway by now ....

Excuse # 71 - I've been busy; life has thrown me a huge curve-ball; and I've been working on other things.
(And excuse #21 - I'll ramble all through out this and probably not make much sense).

Way back when, like about four decades ago, my mom introduced me to the old '66 Batman t.v. series, quickly followed by comic books.  It's totally her fault.  Giving such an impressionable youth, with an over-active imagination and the desire to create, such material.  In ways, more expensive than crack-cocaine .... I think I made my first comic book shortly there after.  A simple thing, really - just a bunch of stick figures, drawn on notebook paper (I only had a pencil to work with, so no inking) and lovingly bound with three short pieces of yard (I had to have a little help from mom).

Reflecting back on the past, I remember the days when all I had were colored pencils, ink pens and magic markers (don't think Sharpie© was around back then).  Even then, I was more of a design illustrator than not (I think that part is dad's fault) - but I remember making some pretty cool pieces - before I was introduced to painting, and years later - Photoshop.

Things have been weird the past few days.  Weird enough that I got to thinking about doing some old-style drawing again.  Kinda getting back to my roots, as it were (but not stick figures on notebook paper tho).  So, I broke out the old coloring pencils and Sharpies© -

Forgot to take a photo during the initial layout part, but here I've already inked it, and I'm putting a hex grid on the map.  Instead of doing it the smart way (which, after doing all those lines and such, you'd thought I'd taken the easy way), I decided to just use the hex pattern I already had (notice the single hex, bottom right corner?) .....

 

 So, after an indeterminate amount of time, I have the land mass and near-by waters hexed; some topographical lines are laid in, and I've started some coloring.

  

Here's a "distance" shot - showing the colored pencils.  No finished shot yet, I'm still doing some color shading and labeling and such - to finish up the map.  Talk about an investment of time ....

However, it'll be a "handmade" map, something that seems to be almost non-existent in the business world today.  I realize that doing a map like this is a huge investment of time.  I started a little before 11am, then next thing I know I'm looking at 3:30pm .... and I'm not even close to being finished yet.

Now, in Photoshop or Illustrator, I'm sure I would've been done with time to spare.

I guess the grip I'm trying to get to is that sometimes, technology isn't your friend.  With this map, I feel more invested in it, more like I've actually done something - instead of making a computer file, somewhere in the megabyte, or gigabyte, range.  Sometimes, the old way, the slow way, is the best.

Now on to what I was being distracted by before this distraction - a pirate ship!  A cardboard, to-scale, pirate ship! Cool, huh?

 

 So, yeah.  I start this a few weeks back, during the lull before the killer storm, I suppose.  It's been a rough time since Thanksgiving Eve, and my adult game is nowhere on spot - hasn't been since then.  Long story short, my mom passed away March 11, after a long medical battle.  So it might take me a little while to get all my weasels at the same rave again.

I think it's good that I'm easing back into artwork, especially touching base on how I started all those years ago.  I do intend to continue with the story of the Arcane Compass.  I just can't promise when that will be.  Don't give up hope, as there are still loads and loads of tales that I wish to share.  It's just that I have a more difficult time finding motivation, and/or time to work on my art.

So hang in there - I know I am.  And you can just bill me for the time you just used to read all this. 😈

Until next time,

Excelsior!

EDIT - right after I posted this, it hit me!  Please, no notes of condolences, no "I'm sorries," nothing of the such is necessary.  Please.  I've gone through enough of those, I'm ready to move on.  Thank you for understanding.

A distraction .... or 12 .....

Ok, so - new year and no new page.  I'm working on them, I swear.  I'm just taking my time (again).  That and life seems to be insistent on not being agreeable all the time.

    As you can see, I'm building Stoneport in TrueSpace (yeah, yeah - I know - 4.0 is like 20 years old), and it's almost finished.  While in the current story line, this location doesn't play a big role, I still want to get it finished (as it'll play a larger role in the future of the current story line).

I found a copy of the last version of TrueSpace that was released - 7.6 - but there's a slight learning curve transitioning from 4.0 to 7.6 - so give me time.

Now, the distractions - (warning - lots of cool videos) - making gaming terrain from cardboard ....

DM Scotty
DMG Info
Wyloch's Armory
Black Magic Craft 
...among many others.


Not like I haven't been stockpiling old boxes & styrofoam for years

    So, after lots of research (see above links), I decided to try my hand at this crafting manner.  Since the outside temperature was below freezing, and since we'd had a few inches of snow, I thought I'd try some basic designs -

    In my defense, I didn't have all the resources that I needed for this - namely all the different paint colors, the water based gloss sealant, or double ply cardboard.  But I thought these basic sewer tiles turned out pretty good for a noob.  Then I guess that the idea of sewer construction grabbed onto my imagination, because what I had planned to do never surfaced.  I had planned on doing some interior pieces - tiles with wooden floors and such.  Yeah well .....

    Years ago I bought a new appliance and it had this cool piece of foam packaging.  I immediately thought "this would be a cool scene for table top gaming" and set about doing something with it.  I made it as far as mixing a cover/sealant for it from thin-set mortar, plaster, PVA glue, and painting most of the inside with it.  Then it ended up in the garage, to be stored, for years.
    Since I was outside yesterday, either bringing in firewood or shoveling the driveway, I noticed this lonely piece just hanging out in the garage.  So, my wooden floor tile project suddenly became a "Let's finish the main villain's lair in the sewers" project.
    The crushing part of this weekend was when I ran out of gluesticks for my hot glue gun.  And the roads were covered in ice.  And it was like 7° F outside *grumble, grumble*

I made it this far at least .....

    Not like I've done any table top gaming in years (with an exception here and there), nor have I DM'ed any games in quite sometime.  So it isn't like these are going to be used anytime soon, I just wanted to try my hand at building some of the awesomely cool stuff I've seen over the years.  For some reason, I have the sinking feeling that I've acquired another new hobby ...... *le sigh*

  So here are the excuses as to why I haven't posted a new page in a little while.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I must be off to try and requisition more crafting supplies (ie, hot glue gun sticks).

Until next time,

Excelsior!

A Journey Transition

A new page here.

A kinda-like Indiana Jones traveling transition.  Complete with an allusion to a future character (?).  The heroes are traveling (as fast as they can) across the Kêl’torï highlands.  Needless to say, boredom is a factor any time extensive travel is required.


Fairly simple page - most difficult part was resizing the map and adjusting the scale for the panel.  Everything else went pretty quick.  And notice - no accent word bubbles this time.


Until next time,

Excelsior!

..And it's anti-climatic

A fresh new page here.

A tense moment with some of the mildly xenophobic natives, which is saved by another round of ale from the bar.

Still haven't dreamed up a new way to do accents.  The different coloring is nicer than changing fonts, or murdering easy to read text.  Oh well, something may come to mind on of these nights.  Over at, rather pleased with this connecting page - but I did get lazy and only did minimal shadowing and such.  Meh ...



Until next time,

Excelsior!

Our tavern tale continues

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!

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!

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 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!

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!

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!

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!

And the inhabitants within ....

New page here

An initial meeting with one of the Brightstar family, which might be an important element somewhere in a distant future story.  Maybe?  Could be?  Only time will tell....



I get to start revealing the inside of the Addakhan Strold fortress, and the characters that live there.  Pretty happy with this one for the most part.  The part that killed me / took up a lot of time, is the interior stone walls.  They were kinda a headache ....  but I hope you enjoy.

Til next time,
Excelsior!

Entering the Addakhan Strold

Our tired and dusty heroes gain entry into the mighty fortress, having to by-pass the only inn that they've seen since they left Serenity Gulch (much to the objection of their stomachs).  They are only thinking about a hearty meal, cold ale, and a cushy bed to sleep in....

Current page - here.

Pretty content with this page - got to show off the setting, exterior of Addakhan Strold, and a part of the Daystar bridge.  However, I've decided that coloring, and giving texture to, the Boneyard Canyon is a major pain.  Not sure if the heroes will have any more adventures at this setting.


Until next time -

Excelsior!

A waypoint of their journey

The heroes spend a few days getting to know each other as they speed towards the Frost Lands, and finally approach the fortress of Addakhan Strold.  This fortress guards the Daystar bridge entry point into Atlaas.  It is considered a small thorp (regular population: 75), mostly inhabited by soldiers of Atlass, with a contingent of necessary serfs - traders, professionals, and laborers.  It is managed by the Brightstar family, and has been for generations.  This fortress oversees all commerce that goes in and out of the kingdom via the Daystar Bridge.

New page link - Current Page.

Mostly happy with this one - the coloring went rather quickly and am mostly happy with the results.  I have finished the CGI version of the fortress (which the original was lost in the computer crash of 2013), so the next page should be ready on schedule as well.  You can pop over to my Deviant Art page and check a preview of the Addakhan Strold.


Til next time

Well, that didn't escalte too quick ...

And after an extended vacation, we return to our heroes journey into the Boneyard Canyon.  They have made it to the entrance to the creepy canyon that they must travel through, in order to reach their destination.  Will they make it in time?  Will the Boneyard Canyon live up to it's eerie name?  Stand tuned for an answer!




Ok, so the desk combined with a computer idea worked pretty well - until the (expletive redacted) widows 8 decided that it needed to repair sector on the hard drive.  So, like an idiot, I let it.  It then decided to reformat the WHOLE hard drive .....

....thus erasing the five pages, the 3D CGI model of Addakhan Strold, and the playing cards deck in the process.  Needless to say, huge set back.  But, things, as you can see, are back up and running.

Off to a sluggish start

First and foremost - new page!!!

Now the story is back with our heroes, following them on their journey up-river.  The next couple of pages are going to be a Indiana Jone-esque type travel progression (I hope), highlighting key points in their sojourn into the Frost Lands.

The big hang up on this page were the cards.  Far be it from me to use the tradition playing cards deck that everyone is familiar with - No! - I had to make my own.  The cards in this page are the final version (ie, version 6 if you really want to know).  The good news is that (as soon as I finish the face cards), I'll put the whole set on Deviant Art.  Probably in PDF format, so you can print them out (on cardstock) and make your very own Arcane Compass deck of playing cards.

Stay tuned!  Til next time -

Excelsior!