Comments For ARW Page 476

I guess sneaking all the way to the top was unlikely but they didn't have to bring the whole army down on them. This battle could take a while.

Sorry for the delay. I'm a whole day late which is the latest I've ever been. SO much has happened this week that has just killed my chances for getting this page done on time. The biggest thing was that my computer has been acting up. I'm afraid that it may crash for good one of these days. I should get it repaired but I don't really want to be without my computer for a week.

I know, how about a filler week. Send in comics featuring my characters and I'll put them up while my computer's in the shop. How about that? I could use a bit of a vacation. Otherwise, I may have to do my own fillers while the computer is in the shop. Post a message if you're interested so that I know how many people are making fillers for me. Thank you.

Comments For ARW Page 475

I guess no one though about getting a map to this place. It might have been better then being told to go up. There are likely guard stations all over the place, so a map may not have helped. Of course, if they knew where the guard stations were, they could have avoided just wandering into the room.

Sorry the color version took so long. My computer decided to be temperamental for some reason. First I couldn't get it to start and then I lost my wireless for good. I have to plug directly into the Internet in order to post this.

For some reason I've been off my schedule all week. I've been trying to get a new page for Dungeon Legacy done, but I just can't find the time for some reason. Now my regular comic is suffering. Something is very wrong and I don't know how to fix it. Even my regular habits are off kilter. I need a vacation.

Comment For ARW Page 474

Horese is as commanding as ever. What plans does she have for the swine girl? She may have more then one reason to want to stay behind.

Lots of details on this page. Redrawing Penny over and over was bad enough, but having three people on her back just made me more work then necessary.

A couple of odd errors have crept into the artwork that you may notice if you look closely (click the image for the larger version). I'll give a reward to anyone that can find them (there are at least three errors).

I have been given a last minute commission that needs to be done before the end of the day. I better get to it. If I get it done in time, I'll work on a Dungeon Legacy page for tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll see you Wednesday.

Comments on ARW Page 473

Wonder what's keeping penny? Swimming through sewage can't be good to her feathers. Is she going to be alright?

Painted the walls and pool this time. Makes for an interesting look to the page. Maybe I should paint backgrounds more often.

I tried to make it look like Racheal and Toi were in mid- transformation in the second panel. It is interesting how their clothing appears from under the fur. It's all part of the magical effect of the tokens.

My neighbor asked me to change the taps in her bathroom yesterday and it took most of the afternoon to do. I needed a long nap afterward, so that pretty much killed my day. Fortunately, I was able to get this page done before noon today.

I'm going to work on some Dungeon Legacy stuff for the rest of the day, unless she calls me back.

Tonight, I'm hoping to join the "The Sequential Artists' Pub" podcast. This is a new group that was started to allow sequential artists to get together and talk about their craft. They get together twice a month, with tonight being the first open meeting. Two weeks ago, some artists got together to discuss the idea. This included cartoonists Jerzy Drozd (www.sugaryserials.com), Krishna Sadasivam (www.pcweenies.net), and Mark Rudolph (www.cvcomics.com). The call starts at 10 PM EST (7 PM PST), if anyone reading this wants to join in.

Comment For ARW Page 472

Flying up a waterfall through a whirlpool has to be a harrowing experience for anyone. Hopefully the others will make it through safely.

Painting the whirlpool was kind of fun. I kept this page simple because I was working on a page for Dungeon Legacy today as well. It is really tiring to try to do five pages a week. I may have to rethink this.

Not much else going on. See you Friday.

Comments For ARW Page 471

The final assult has begun. Who will live and who will die? Will this place truly be Racheal's tome or will she finally get her wish and go home?

I though this page might be a little tricky, what with all the characters and stuff, but it really wasn't that bad. Most of the characters are in their animal forms and those were easier for me to draw.

In case you haven't figured it out, Racheal and the others now have the ability to fully shift into their animal forms and back again. That's why Toi is a cute little mouse and Racheal is a house cat. I'm skipping ahead in the story so that I can end it sooner and focus on my new webcomic. We'll just say Horese trained everyone and leave it at that.

The clouds were painted using a big fluffy brush. Not quite as fancy as the pre-rendered clouds I was using but I have more control over the shapes. It's hard to get clouds right.

The next Dungeon Legacy page should be done on Tuesday. I hope to do one on Thursday as well. I think I'll do Two a week and see how that works out. The sooner I can get ARW done, the sooner I can get the story going. Right now I'll just see how many pages I can do in a week.

Comment for Dungeon Legacy page 1

Wait, what's this. What happened to the newest ARW page?

Well, In case you weren't paying attention or are new here, I need to explain that this is the first page of a new webcomic I'm making called Dungeon Legacy. It is a fantasy based on the new Dungeon and Dragons forth Edition which will be released today (June 6, 2008).

In case you're wondering where the color is, let me tell you that it took a day and a half to draw this page. That's more time then I've spend on any page for ARW. If someone wants to color this page, then please do. I could use a colorist to help me keep up with my production schedule.

Edit: I really felt this page needed to be colored, so I said what the heck, it's too late to work on a new ARW page. I'll just color this and be done with it.

Comments For ARW Page 470

Going out the hen's butt of Ulta mountain. Sounds painful. If you remember the first time Obitckert told the story (way back in the first chapter) then you'll know it was.

Still getting ready for the grand opening on Friday, so I decided to just do talking heads for this page. As soon as I sketched it out I realized it just wouldn't work. The page was too dead. I could have redesigned the page using Wally Woods 22 Panels that always work, but I decided to take a different route.

In order to speed this story along, I decided to show the top of Mt. Ulta, since the characters are about to spend a lot of time there searching for the fountain. This is a good way to set the scene without taking up a huge panel doing so.

Enough set up, it's time to get into some action.

Remember, Dungeon Legacy opens on Friday. I'll see you there.

Comments For ARW Page 469

Looks like Horese has revealed her master plan. I don't think anyone is really surprised. Angel and Ann are certainly not happy about it.

This page was much easier then the last two. I started it much earlier then usual and so got it done in good time.

I still surprise myself sometimes. Panel five shows a nice scene with Angel and Ann. I like the way they actually look like they are upset at what Horese said.

Horese really looks upset in the last panel. It's not like I'm doing anything different, it's just all this practice.

The good news is that means my new webcomic should look great. I'm going to be very busy this week getting ready for the grand opening on Friday. I might end up putting Friday's ARW up on Saturday. Or I might put them both up on Friday. It just depends on how much I can get done this week.

I added a new post about Social Marketing on my other blog: Social Marketing Websites

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.