Meanwhile, Across the Sea...

So I came short of 50,000 words in this year's nanowrimo, somehow managing to come in about 1,900 words under.  First time in the last three years I didn't clear the 50k mark.  I ain't even mad.  My main problem this year might have been too much research, too much getting caught up in the world-building and not concentrating on pushing through and not looking back.   I suppose I probably could have finished if I hadn't spent a bunch of time putting stuff like this map together:

Then again, that's part of the fun for me.  Coming up with a semi-believable world to explore and hopefully have the readers or audience or whatever explore it too.  This isn't even a final map.  There are rivers to carve, some mountains need to be moved, and a massive forest to cultivate at the foot of those Northern peaks.  Also, Starshadow Bay is a little bit too far north, so some tectonic shifting may be necessary...

See what I mean?  I blame the folks over at the Cartographer's Guild for this sudden fictional geography fixation, even though they don't know who I am, because I only lurk those forums.

NaNoWriRe? (National Novel Writing Research)

Add a copy of the documentary series "Going Medieval" and I'll be ready to rock this November.  I've been working through the "Song of Ice and Fire" series, and George R.R. Martin's fanatical attention to detail has inspired me to be a little less carefree with the anachronisms and actually make a trip to the library to pick up these weird paper rectangles with words written in them.   Most likely won't be as detailed with the food though.  I don't intend to reach the 50k word count on meal description alone.

Since I've already done a ludicrous amount of world-building for my webcomic "An ArrowIn the Moon", this year's novel is going to be set in that same world.  Drawing a full color comic, it turns out, takes a bit of time and there's a whole (fictional) world out there, ripe for exploration but I won't ever get to share with anyone if I want to keep the comic story moving at a reasonable pace.

The books in the picture are: 

Daily Life in the Middle Ages

Life in a Medieval Castle

Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders

Medieval Underpants is probably the best for writers.  Life in a medieval castle feels a little dry, but it's got good info.  Daily life in the Middle Ages is a good quick reference.

8-bit Assault Loadout

Tribute to retro/old-school gaming.  It was weird working on a quad-core processor in Manga Studio 5 at 125 x 125 resolution.

This design is available at RedBubble on shirts and whatnot.

Game of Thrones isn't back until 2014. You need your epic fantasy fix.

An Arrow in the Moon launches on Tuesday, 08/20/2013.  The intention is for a normal update schedule of Tuesday and Thursday.  It's brightly colored Disneyesque characters in horrible situations.  Maybe not quite George R.R. Martin horrible, but pretty violent.  The opening sequence is a pretty brutal (well, as brutal as my drawing skills are capable of portraying) fight scene, just to make sure people know off the bat that despite my somewhat cartoony style, I'm not shooting for kid's stuff.  Well maybe if your kids were like me and like violent medieval fighting...  But chances are they're not.  You decide, I'm not raising your damn kids, take some responsibility for once.

Sorry, about that.  Come back, I've changed.  Anyway, doing this comic has made me remember how time consuming the whole full-color, draw-ink-color process is, even though I'm doing almost all of the art for this thing on computer.  If I want to even remotely remain on target with this thing, I might be changing the art style after the opening sequence to something more streamlined.

On that note, I think Smith-Micro's Manga Studio 5 is my software of choice now.  I've worked with Autodesk Sketchbook 6 and Art Rage 4 in the past year and this might finally be the full package as far as comic artist software goes.  I'll probably be dedicating my next blog to the annoying journey of frustration that is drawing/painting software.  (I almost tried to install my copy of Photoshop 7, but though better of it.)

You thought I gave up again, didn't you?

Got the post comic-con, back to work, jacked-up sleep pattern for a while there.  The one where you're ripped back into the normal world where you sit a a cubicle and have to catch up to the stacks of paperwork that built up like squatter villages while you were out having fun.  Depressed and tired from playing catch-up and pushing paper for a week, you can't muster the energy to blog or draw or much of anything creative-wise.  Not familiar with that?  You go to hell.

No seriously, don't go to hell.  I didn't mean it.  Here's some concept art from my now very soon to premier webcomic.  You can check out the page I set up at http://anarrowinthemoon.thecomicseries.com

But don't go there yet.  Unless you're a fan of CSS layouts and no content.

An abandoned fortress at the edge of the Ermynnland

Cearynth Covylli, the Queen of Rivers

The crown worn by the King or Queen of Rivers is a living length of Snake Ivy woven into a circlet with a Star Aquamarine at the front.

The Forest is Watching

More symbol design for my upcoming webcomic.

Within the ancient forest of the Aermyn, you are never alone.

The Death Star will be in range in 33 hours...

From the east they came...  Long-haired wildmen, some with beards thickest about the neck area, bearing strange long boxes filled with their curious pictographic literature and detailed figurines of legendary heroes.  Curious beings in elaborate garb and finery modeled from animated cinema orginating across the Pacific appeared in droves, some seeking not so much to witness the spectacle forming, so much as become the spectacle.  From the North and East, South, and West...  From all reaches of the globe they descended upon my coastal city like the Dothraki Horde.  Artisans and merchants sold their wares in the grand hall.  With them came the illusionists from the glittering, decadent metropolis to the North, seeking inspiration for their next work or an audience for their latest spectacle.  For 4 days and 4 nights the festival continued and the City on the Coast pulsed with excitement.  At the end of the fourth day, the festival ended and the curious visitors departed, some to far off lands, some to their normal lives within the city itself.  As the doors to the grand hall closed, some already began counting the days until the next year, when it would all begin again.

I've always been a fantasy writer at heart.

Comic Con is here again.  Pictures are coming...  If it hadn't been for villainy, this would be my 15th comic-con in a row, but circa 2000 or 2001 some foolish manager decided I didn't need the day off.  I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.  Of course not.  That would be awful.  I hate liver.  It tastes like its been used to filter blood toxins or something.

Molorhan Swordbill

This is the emblem of the Molorhan Army.  Never heard of the Molorhan Army?  That's because the webcomic which features them, (written and drawn by myself) hasn't started it's run yet.