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22 June, 2009 New page! Gosh these full pages do take a while to draw. I have been waiting to do a comic about the scarf for a while. It's my favourite inanimate object in the whole comic. The idea of an immortal scarf just amuses me. 16 June, 2009 Comic update! It's a new chapter, although I haven't got around to drawing a title page yet. That'll come soon - I just need to figure out what it should be for this chapter! You just might have noticed the format's changed a little - that's more or less a direct product of my work for college, where I was working with A4 pages. I found the action sequences and general pacing to be much easier, which is why I've decided to make the switch in Balance, too. The 4-panel style is decent for comic timing but doesn't really lend itself to more action-oriented scenes. 11 June, 2009 Okay, so the "updates back to normal" thing did not work out so well. I am still busier than I thought at college, although that should (cross fingers) be over by the end of this week. I'm not officially free until July but my timetable should get a lot emptier soon. The project comic I've been doing for college - "One More Burning World" or PHP5, will probably get posted at some point after my assessments are over. This site's not exactly high-traffic but I don't think having my assessed work go effectively public domain before it's marked is really a good idea. Anyway, about the comic! As plot goes, this one doesn't really advance it at all, but I felt the Lysandra story kind of needed a full stop. This is hopefully the point at which I stop focusing on her so much - her brain is in one piece, now, more or less - and start moving the story forward. In other words, you just read a 150-page character introduction! :-D 30 May, 2009 Okay, it has been a while so here is a comic! I kinda hit crunch time on my college project which resulted in me getting very sick of drawing comics for a few days. Updates should be back to normal now, though, and hopefully I will have another one done soon - the next comic is the last in the current chapter! Rachel is totally being shifty at the moment. When she ISN'T looking grumpy as hell you know something is probably up. 20 May, 2009 Comic is up! It is now the 21st but the comic was posted 18 seconds before midnight so it's all good. This was meant to be a Monday comic but I was kinda exhausted all week. 16 May, 2009 I have posted something, but it is not a comic! Sort of! I've been working on updating the early parts of Balance. It's not an art upgrade - rather, it's more of a consistency upgrade. So far, I've completed updating Chapter One, and the archives have now been re-posted! The biggest change is probably that I've redrawn nearly every face with the new round eyes. There's also a fair amount of dialogue that has been rewritten - mostly I have just attempted to clear it up and make the storytelling less of a trainwreck, but there is one major retcon. If you don't want to read the chapter again, it's in this comic - in the old version, it was implied that John and Jay knew considerably more about Hybrids than everyone else. In the new version, they're clueless. There's a few other changes to the panels, things that irked me; the highlights are:
Some of these changes slightly break contnuity with things later in the comic (brown pants included), but it's likely I'll update the rest to match. 11 May, 2009 Sunday Update when it is nearly Tuesday! However my update on Thursday pays for this somewhat. I went through the archive and checked - there is definitely supposed to be a window in both Rachel and Alex's rooms. I guess the housing part of the base is not underground. I really need to get a map or something drawn up, it is getting confusing trying to keep track of all these identical corridors. Soon I promise they will leave the base! Because I'm sick of corridors already. Adventure ho! 07 May, 2009 Surprise update! Hooray! There will probably be another one on Sunday/Monday as usual. 03 May, 2009 Comic! Newspost! I forgot to do a newspost for the last one. I hope nobody missed the comic because of that! I was originally going to have 1-2 comics detailing the conversation between Fourteen and Lysandra, but this way is much more fun! I am still trying to sort out the pacing of this chapter. 20 April, 2009 Woo this is the first time Rachel has been seen with new-style eyes! And they're better for her, because she now has the ability to glower sullenly at people. Er, good for her, I guess. 12 April, 2009 We return once more to the pale-green hues and bad food of the Force Cafeteria! Their cause is just but their taste is terrible. Update: Angry Rachel replaced with Armageddon Helen! 06 April, 2009 Comic. And back into familiar territory: corridors, offices, and Force Alpha! Something is likely to explode in the near future at this rate. I will probably be performing a major Archive Screw now Lysandra's mini-arc is finished. It'll likely end up at the front with an extra page to lead into it, then I'll need to rearrange Chapter 6 to make sense without it. 23 March, 2009 Yarr, 5-panel comic. One day late. You see it takes one extra day to do that one extra panel. I am lying. I am undecided about moving this short arc to the start of the archive. It is important for establishing the character, but parts of it might have to be rewritten to make sense if they are to be placed before the rest of the story. There is also the issue of the art shift! 15 March, 2009 Comic! Even in the 28th century, there are Barbie dolls. And, of course, there are people like Jessie to pull their heads off. I think in this arc I'm compensating for the fact that the characters wear armour or uniforms the rest of the time by having Lysandra and Jessie and even Tony in different clothes and hairstyles each panel. This is also a helpful visual indication that the events are on different days, but it's also fun drawing a bunch of different clothes. Only two pages of Lysandra's story left, then back to the present (far future) day! 10 March, 2009 A day later, two weeks in a row. D'oh! I'll try to get back to Sundays. If you're wondering about the eyes in today's comic: I spent a lot of time today doodling and character twiddling as I'm working on another(!) PHP comic project as part of my course (again). In all my experiments, I found I just plain preferred the round eyes - the eye style that I've used up until this point are just not as expressive and flexible. At this point, I'm going to run them in Balance for a while and see what people think. Today's comic is not a great place to start since there's not a huge amount of eyes in it. 02 March, 2009 There was supposed to be an update yesterday, but for some reason the site's FTP access wasn't working. It's fixed now, and I'll put up the comics later today - the update will be the first chapter of Questionable Ethics instead of a new Balance page! Update: Questionable Ethics pages are now up! Website update complete unless I messed up somewhere. These took forever to draw, for some reason, and it reflects in the comics - those 16 comics are snapshots of my style over about a year. The story - up to a certain point - is the same as my old webcomic, Dead Lines. The art style is pretty much the same as Balance, although it's sketchy black-and-white instead of coloured; there's actually an in-story explanantion for that, too! The main reason this comic exists is as a side story to develop the character of Marre. Although I originally intended DL to be the start of a bigger story (and it was a pretty dumb story), I'm glad I never finished it before, because now I have the opportunity to go back and give those character a proper ending to their stories. Normal Balance updates next week, and I'll probably do the next chapter of QE in a big chunk too. Hopefully it won't take as long now I've got the plot sorted out. 22 February, 2009 Sandra has a big head in Panel 4. I don't know why. 15 February, 2009 Sunday again! There is something about Sundays. I'm using a much smaller tablet now. The digitizer has a much smaller drawing area, so it's much more sensitive to draw on than the old one. It's taking some getting used to, but I drew a whole bunch of the archive on a simliar tablet, so I can adapt... I have the next week free, so hopefully I'll finally get around to finishing off QE chapter one. It is bizarre reading it so far: since I've worked on it so inconsistently, each page is drawn with months more experience than the last one. I'm still not sure I like the "scribble" style I used, but its fits, since the framing story of QE is that it's being written down by one of the Balance cast. I may shift back to the normal Balance colouring and shading for the second chapter, though. 08 February, 2009 Did I forget to post a frontpage thing for the last comic? I think I forgot to post a frontpage thing for the last comic... Okay there is another comic up! Which is a small miracle since my digitizer has died a messy death. Due to the chance alignment of heavenly bodies this month, today's comic as planned required very little tablet use, so I got it done (albeit not as polished as I'd like). For next week, though, it looks like I'll either have to procure another tablet somehow, or learn very quickly how to make nice-looking comics by hand. So, about the actual comic! Once again, everyone's (ie my) favourite monolithic city makes an appearance, and once again the scale is all wrong, but all that really matters is the impression that it's really big. The name is in French because half the city speaks French and it's actually built in France. The fact that I have the entire British population sharing a tower with half the French population is something that amuses me, for some reason :D 26 January, 2009 It is late but there is a fifth panel! Hurrah! Also I have an idea for the next few weeks that may result in me reshuffling the archive again. There is and always has been a big chunk missing off the front of Balance and the time for me to write that bit is long overdue. 17 January, 2009 With apologies to anyone who was expecting "hey does your mother happen to be a supernatural entity who saved us from certain death"! Update: Holy cow, I'm an idiot. This new scanner defaults to 200DPI and I've always scanned the pencil base image at 300DPI. That explains why all my brushes felt strange and the lines were much thicker than usual in this comic, I think. Update2: continuing my spree today, I have updated the comic pages. I've updated the "story so far" page, fiddled with the cast list, and fixed the top banner on a couple of pages. Updated cast pictures to follow, maybe! 09 January, 2009 And we are back! I blame the 10-day-break on college starting again. I should be back on my usual "no-schedule-at-all-but-regular-ish-updates" schedule now! This one was fun to draw, although it was difficult deciding exactly how Sandra should look. This is the first time in the comic she's actually looked like she does in all the old concept art I had of her, flashbacks excluded. It's odd how having such a strong idea of what the character looks like makes it so hard to commit to drawing her that way. The change in looks is pretty useful though. She's now a lot more visually distinct from Fourteen, which is plenty useful since Fourteen's not entirely gone from the comic yet, as you'll see later in this chapter. You heard it here first :P 30 December, 2008 I think it says "updates weekends" or something under the actual comic. Well, that is a blatant lie and I fail at sticking to schedules! This one's a quick followup to the last one, with a lead-in to the next one. In case you're wondering, the haircut Rachel gave Sandra at Christmas actually did happen - that's what Rachel's getting thanked for in panel 4 :P I imagine it happened with a little less breaking of the fourth wall in the in-continuity version though... 27 December, 2008 Explaining to be done next week! Or I will possibly wander off and draw some other characters for a bit. 25 December, 2008 Christmas behind-the-scenes comic! 21 December, 2008 This comic was originally entirely different. I planned to post it last night, but it just didn't work, so I came back to it this morning, re-ordered the panels, replaced all the dialogue, and removed one of the characters. It ended up as another talky comic, but at least there is the dangling promise of a new revelation next week :P 14 December, 2008 This update comes a little early: the comic is mainly exposition and fluff, but it sets the scene for the next comic. The fact that there's very few characters to draw in it helped, too :P New artangel too! Except I think the angel must've called in sick for the photoshoot because that looks like the authentic Rachel Grey to me. Or maybe she just hacked my site. 10 December, 2008 ...*evil cackle* And the best thing is, he can't kill her because without an Artangel floating around Balance is never going to get done. He's so pretty :3 Sandra next, or maybe Rachel. I still haven't decided what Jay would look like. Today's comic was interesting to draw - I've never shown much outside or above ground at the Force base (which is mainly underground - it begins behind that steel door on the left in Panel 3). I also quickly designed the Free Nations a flag, which is basically the modern-day Chinese flag rearranged. The circle of stars is reminiscent of the modern-day EU, but the colouring and star in the center clearly show that that China is the biggest player in Free Nations politics. 08 December, 2008 The Artangel is cosplaying! Which is slightly odd. I mean where do the wings go for a start? Anyway, new comic tomorrow! Probably! 04 Decemeber, 2008 Chapter 6 begins - chapter title page will be up soon! Today's comic is the return of the minor characters! On the left in Panel 3 we have Random Lackey Guy who apparently works for John, and on the right we have Old Force Guy who seems to have been in the Force since Alex was in training. And I defend my use of "BAG". Maybe to conform to comic traditions it should have some kind of prefix, like "ke-BAG" or something. But that wouldn't fit properly. 26 November, 2008 Welp, that's Chapter 5 done and posted! Onwards to new things. Now I have to think of a title for the next chapter before next week. Unlike the first couple of chapters, though, I don't think I'll have to guess where I'm going with it in order to draw the "splash" page. Plenty of time waiting in the college library for a free computer has meant I've got pretty much the whole chapter written out and even parts of it drawn already. \o/ 20 November, 2008 What better way to end a chapter than with some crude physical comedy? (actually this isn't the last comic quite yet, there's one more to go :P) 11 November, 2008 Piracy runs rampant in these waters yarr I think I'll do a new Artangel soon. I need a red one to match the comic for a while... 05 Nomember, 2008 Comic up! I am not sure if posting on Wednesdays is going to become a habit or not. Anyway, it's good to be out of that fight scene and drawing different things for a change. I'm looking forward to drawing the next chapter! :D 04 November, 2008 Colours for Wednesday's comic are up! Obamaobamaobamaobamaobamaobamaobamaobama 30 October, 2008 Comic! Colours and refinements to follow. I started this one kinda late and I may be away from tablet from a few days straight, so I figured it was better to post this in black and white than go another 4-5 days silent. I went on kind of a binge today in regard to comics. I started off experimenting with drawing the storyboard plans in pen (success! I found I prefer it to pencil), and got a little carried away. I now have the rest of this chapter and three pages of the next chapter pinned above my monitor to be inked in the coming weeks. Anyway, I need to be alive and functional in four hours and sleep should probably happening in the intervening time. See you on the other side! 25 October, 2008 Comics? On my Saturday? Considering trying to find a way to condense the prologue into under 10 pages of comics so I can run it quickly without interrupting the flow of the main story too much. I could run it as a couple of pages of dialogue-heavy flashbacks to avoid having to rearrange the chapter structure and archive again, but I think it's probably better for the story as a whole if I just tack it on the beginning again like I did with Chapter 1. Also I need to finish QE's first half. 18 October, 2008 Really, Alex is just trying to impress the girls. And failing miserably. Maybe if he'd used a ninja rope... Also, it's been a while so just in case: Rachel is referring to this conversation. 11 October, 2008 It are that time of the week again! The weekend. When I update my comic. I say this a lot but I'm still working on QE! It's what I tend to do during the week, since I've got it all scripted and planned already, and the art style (and lack of colour) is a lot easier to work with than Balance's. I'll release the first chapter whenever it's done, but the second chapter will have to wait until Balance catches up, or there'll be massive spoilers! 05 October, 2008 Finally a chance to continue the plot thread I started and left hanging ages ago! 27 September, 2008 All my characters get hazard pay, I swear. 19 September, 2008 Ooookay. Drawing on Mon-Thurs is going to be pretty hard to do, unless my course gets a whole lot less intense after the initial two week induction period of drawing insanely all day. I think I might try for 3-4 comics a fortnight though. Depending on what I'm doing with myself at the weekends, I might be able to do one-and-a-half comics a weekend... But I guess it'll speed up after this chapter or two, because then I'm switching to updating Questionable Ethics for a while and that's black-and-white! :P |
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