Comments For ARW Page 468

Balap is going to have a hard time living with his treachery. At least everyone is on the same side again - or at least seem to be.

The previous page was bad enough, but drawing everyone around the table was murder. I though it wouldn't be too bad because there was less detail in the smaller images, but in many cases I drew more then just the head - especially with Ann in her dragon form. I was a bit disappointed that I had to draw Ann again in the second panel. If I had been thinking ahead, I would have rearranged the sitting order to prevent that from happening. I also thought that the word balloon would cover Racheal in panel two, but it was smaller then I had planned. Usually drawing the word balloons is the last thing I do (I write out the words freehand at first), but in this case the last thing I did was draw Racheal.

One week from today, Dungeon Legacy officially opens it's doors. I've got a lot of work to do to get ready. I better get to it. I'll see you on Monday.

comments For ARW Page 467

Here they all are for the first time. It took a long time to get to this point. Now we can finally find out what this is all about.

Although regular readers would have heard the name Georgena before, this is the first time she has showed up in the comic other then a shadowy form on page 313.

This is the very first time Peniniya has appeared anywhere. In fact I had to name her for this page. Wanda was also named for the first time when she appeared a few pages back. However, I just used the first name that popped into my head with her.

Peniniya's name took a little longer. I wanted a name that really fit her. I though of Henny Penny but thought better of it. I looked through a book of baby names and found the perfect name. Not only is Penny short for Peniniya but Peniniya is Hebrew for hen.

Since this page is just a bunch of heads, many of which I've drawn before, I figured I could finish off this page very quickly. I failed to factor in the fact that there were twelve people and two of them have never been drawn before. I sort of modeled Georgena after Miss Piggy but Peniniya was a totally new design. Also I had only drawn the new forms of Angel and Ann once before and ended up redesigning them as well.

This page is interesting because you can see a lot of my cartoon influences in the drawings. I took some time drawing and redrawing the portraits using some of the techniques I've learned in school. As I said, I though I could do this page quickly and so put more effort into each drawing because of it. You'll also notice that I put the highlights back into the hair.

You may notice that the page works as a whole. I took some time arranging the direction the characters are facing and where the eyes are looking. Horese and Slara really dominate the page because of this. It helps there their panels are bigger as well.

I added some new information to my Dungeon Legacy development blog. I had hoped to post regular updates on my progress but I really don't have a lot of progress. I wrote a lot of notes about the story and characters but I don't really what to spoil anything by releasing that data. It's nice to have some flexibility to change this as well.

As I've said before, Dungeon Legacy is based on D&D 4ED and I plan to create character sheets and other information that will allow you to use my story in a D&D game session. I'm hoping to get gamers interested in my comic and capture part of that market. I'll also market to people interested in Fantasy novels and short stories.

Someone else had the same idea because there is a webcomic being displayed on a fantasy/ Sci-Fi book website that started just last week. There is only one page so far as the comic only updates one Fridays. I'll have to see if I can get my new web comic on the site as well.

Comments For ARW Page 466

Are we actually going to finally find out what happened to Racheal and the others? Come back Wednesday and see for yourself.

I got to draw the early version of Racheal again. This time it was a little easier since I had the last picture as reference. Note that panels four and five are recreations of panels two and three on page 29 (Wow, that is pretty early in the story).

Balap looked very different on that page. He had a very beastly look for some reason. He quickly lost that look - it's gone in the last panel of that same page. I can't remember what I was thinking when I designed him. Perhaps I wanted to suggest that he might be a danger to Racheal in the first two panels and then made him look like an innocent child in the last panel to show he was the complete opposite of dangerous. Later on he revealed he was dangerous but in a different way.

I really should be working on Dungeon Legacy today, but "On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness" beckons me. Maybe I'll just play for an hour ... or eight.

Comments on ARW Page 465

What's this about Balap? Why would he do anything Horese would ask him to? Is there something he hasn't told us? Find out on Monday.

Yeah, that statue of Horese doesn't really look like her. She's trying to make a statement and look sexy at the same time. It is a bit pretentious, isn't it.

I had a hard time scripting this page. I just needed a transition from Slara and Balap entering Horese's domain to entering her audience chamber. I originally thought of having a long series of scenes showing them traveling from one end of the place to the other, but I thought that would be dull to read and would be a lot of drawing as well. I decided to save myself a lot of work and just have them take a quick portal to Horese.

For some reason I laugh when I hear Balap saying "Whee!" Is it just me?

I'm going to play "Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1" now. I really should be doing some work on my new webcomic but I really want to check this game out. Is that so wrong?

Comments For ARW Page 464

Whoa, Wanda must have grown at least as tall as Birhena used to be. Look at the last page and notice how big she'd have to be to open the door like that.

Do you remember Birhena? The last time she appeared, she had been turned to stone. There are a lot of loose ends like this I'm going to have to wrap up before the end.

In order to show how big Wanda has grown I had her expand right out of the page. She actually dominates the whole page. I'm not sure how clear this is. I tried to use the R's to link the giant image to the forth panel and show how big she is in the fifth panel, but it might have worked better if I actually showed her growing. She is bigger then the chair in panel four then she was in panel three, but this might be misinterpreted as poor design on my part.

I've finally took the time to work on my characters in my next webcomic, Dungeon Legacy. I have a pretty good idea of who they are and how they interact with each other now. Unlike ARW, each character has been designed to push the story forward with character development and interactions between characters. The characters will fight amongst themselves, make plans, and enjoy each others company. Basically they will act like real people, with real problems and expectations. Their back stories will affect the main story line and help you to get to know them better.

I'll talk more about Dungeon Legacy as it gets closer to release.

Comments For ARW Page 463

Slara doesn't realize how different she looks right now. Her hair keeps getting longer every time we see her. On the other hand, dogs are suppose to have a good sense of smell - couldn't Wanda recognize Slara by her scent?

By the way, this is the first time Wanda appears in this comic. Slara is referring to something that's happened in the past. Maybe she'll talk about it later, but right now she needs to rescue her friends. What will she find on the other side of the gate? Come back Wednesday and see.

I used a simple cloud filter to do the fog effect. It was simple and made it easy to do the backgrounds. I got this page done pretty quickly, although coming up with a design for Wanda took some time. I had an idea in my head but it's hard to get what's in your head down on paper.

To see another new dog character, go to my new website at http://www.dungeonlegacy.com and check out Coolie, the groups pet dog. Note that this Illustration is 100% hand drawn with pen and ink. No digital correction or trickery done here. I put up a few more hand-drawn pictures on my deviant art page as well. Check them out.

Comments For ARW Page 462

The final chapter of Alternate Reality Worlds. This is it. After this, I never revisit this story again. Since this is the final chapter, you can expect things to get very crazy from this point on as you can tell from the cover.

Anyone familiar with Japanese adventure games may recognize this scene. There are several platform games and RPGs that use the floating island concept. There are a few Manga and Anime that also have this image incorporated into the story, most notably "Castle in the Sky," a studio Ghibli film. Because this idea is common in Japanese culture, I believe I'm free to use the idea myself as long as I don't copy any specific story.

Drawing this page was easy but the coloring took a lot longer then I though it would. I still got the page done early, but not as early as I though I would. I like how it turned out.

If you look closely, you can see Horese siting on a throne. She isn't much smaller then a typical background character in a regular panel, but because this is a full page panel, she looks very tiny. Compare this image to Slara siting on a throne on page 457.

I got my project proposal done. Now is the long wait for approval. I'm sure my idea is a good one, it's more of a matter of if they think I can actually do it. I have the training and the skill, I just hope I made that clear enough in the presentation. All I can do is wait and see.

Comments For ARW Page 461

Now that they have the satchel, they can escape this world. But what new horrors await them when they return to Horese? Will the gang finally get back together or are they doomed to stay separated? Don't miss the exciting final chapter of Alternate Reality Worlds.

Nothing special on this page. I hope people recognize the scene in panel four as the same area that the group fought the giant lizard in. There is a jump in time here and only that background gives you any clue to that fact. Would a box that said "later" or something have helped?

I have to write up a project proposal today. It's is due tomorrow and so should have been done before now. Sometimes a last minute proposal can be better then one you over think but I still would have liked the time to read it over and make sure it made sense before presenting it.

The cover for the final chapter will be up Friday. It's less then 40 pages until the finale. I only have a couple more weeks until my new web comic starts, which means I'll be doing both at the same time for a while. I wonder what the best arrangement would be? Should I keep ARW to MWF and do Dungeon Legacy on Tu,Th, Sat, or switch the schedules? That's a lot of work and I have other things to do. I guess We'll just have to see what happens.

Comments For ARW Page 460

Looks like Slara has shrunk down to half her size. She's smaller then Toi now. All she needs is to have fur grow all over her body and she'll become a cute little monkey. How embarrassing.

As you can see the page has nine action packed panels and that's why it's up late. I tried to get it done last night but I was too tied, so I though I'd get it done this morning but I slept in. Even now, at three in the afternoon, I'm still tired. It would have been better if I had gotten to bed earlier and woke up early this morning.

I can't think of anything else to add, except that I'm very busy trying to get some projects done. I hope to secure my future and therefore need to work hard for the next few days.

Comments For ARW Page 459

Oh oh, Rhino man is upset about something. Slara just can't get a break. Well, those spears might break some bones, but that's not the kind of break that she wants.

Monkey Girl Slara. This has been a long time coming. Slara was going to be the snake girl before all that mess with Terra. I don't know how she's going to deal with the change. She has hair for the first time in her life.

Another difficult page done on time. It is late but I managed to get it done before I went to bed. I guess there isn't a whole lot of detail, but it's still a lot of work.

I was offered a few hundred dollars to do a few minutes of simple animation. That might not sound like much but it's the biggest job offer I've gotten to date. I hope I'll be able to keep up with my webcomics at the same time as I work on the animation. I think my new comic will suffer the most.

Speaking of which, my new comic finally has I name [a drum roll please], "Dungeon Legacy." The story of a group of adventures trying to make the world a better place. The new website is currently under construction but I'll give you the web address in case it goes live this weekend. Use the URL "http://www.dungeonlegacy.com" and see if the web page appears.

Comments For ARW Page 458

Slara was trying to get the Monkey token but she didn't want to get it this way. Will she get away or become the next monkey girl? Come back Friday to find out.

This page was much faster to draw then the last one. I don't know if I'm getting better at this or if this page was just less complex. There is still a lot of detail so I much have improved somewhat.

Nothing much to talk about. Nothing interesting has happened since Monday. I'll just have to keep plugging along. I hope to get more done tomorrow. I'll see you Friday.

Comments For ARW Page 457

Join the celebration. ARW had been online for three years today. Starting into the forth year, we can look ahead to Page 500 which is only 43 pages away. After that ARW will come to a final conclusion and I'll start concentrating on my new web comic, which will be starting in another month (June 6th to be exact - the same day Dungeons and Dragons 4th ED comes out, which is what the new comic will be based on).

For now lets enjoy the celebration, although I don't think Slara is too happy with the situation. It looks like the Rhino King wishes to take her as his wife and queen. She might be honored if she wasn't in a hurry to save her friends.

What will happen to Balap? Hopefully as her friend, he might be allowed some freedom. We'll just have to wait and see.

Sorry the backgrounds are a little plain. I spent a long time just drawing all the people into each scene. Crowd scenes always take a lot of work. If I had unlimited time I might have put in more people and had decorations on the walls. As it is, it took 10 hours just to draw everything I did draw.

My foot is starting to heal. It's still painful to walk very far on it but I can get around the house well enough. The swelling has gone down. I just have to wait for the new layer of skin to be thick enough to protect my nerve endings. I'm sure it will be tender for a few more days at least.

Peace, love and happiness to you all.

Comments For ARW Page 456

Who is the Volcano Queen? What difficulty have our heroes gotten themselves into now? The cliche answer is that they (or at least Slara - assuming she's a virgin) will be thrown into the volcano. I wouldn't use that old troupe now, would I.

I would have had this page up last night but several things conspired against me. Not the least of which is that my computer decided to slow down considerably and then stop all together. Fortunately I was able to save, being alert to trouble, but I still lost precious time restarting my computer and Photoshop.

On top of that, I had a second degree burn on my right foot where I had dropped a hot cup of tea. I should have been watching what I was doing and blame myself for the whole accident. I was not the one to boil the tea or to set it on an unsteady surface, but I should have been aware of the danger and been more cautious.

There is a large blister on top of my foot which doesn't hurt or cause me pain. It does prevent me from wearing shoes which makes it hard to go anywhere. It's better that I stay home and rest anyway.