To be Continued...?

August 27, 2007

     I've been having an awful time with drawing lately. I'm now a Canadian permanent resident so I can work for the first time since 2005. Hence, I've been hitting the pavement, so to speak, applying for every position that sounds remotely close to what I've done in the past. Additionally, I'm rewriting my book--about 140 pages into it in fact. And The Forsaken has really taken the back burner I'm afraid.

     On top of all that, we're moving into a new (bigger) apartment on Friday (we're actually going to have room for a dining room table). So it's been crazy. I want to get back to this, I swear, but I'm not sure it's going to happen any time soon. I'm also enrolling in a CCNP course that starts in September, so if I'm working by then, the little free time I have will be a thing of the past. So... I hate to use that wretched H word... but I've gone hiatus on y'all.

Summer Wrap-up

August 8, 2007

     Wow, what happened to July? I take a few weeks off and next thing you know we're staring down the barrel of 2008! Seriously, though, I have to apologize for the lack of updates lately. Don't take it as me resting on my haunches...I'm about 20,000 words into rewriting my novel. You see, I'm the sort of guy that is a lot better at starting projects than finishing them... :(

     I really do want to wrap this chapter up, so I promise to try. You'll notice by the latest update that I've cut a few corners (no color!) and that's to save time. Anywho, thanks for sticking around with me and happy reading.

The Rest of the Story

July 28, 2007

     Greetings folks. The wife and I survived Banff National Park. Saw a grizzly family, a gob of black bears, deer, and bighorn. Then we had a week long visit from the in-laws. It really was a great month all in all and a very productive one, too. We'll be moving into a new apartment next month. 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom and it has Air Conditioning! A definite step up from our current situation. It will provide me with a lot more space to get artsy or write and since it's not on Winnipeg's busiest road, it will be a lot quieter. We are stoked!

     So, here's where I apologize for not having an update this monday. Sorry! One other thing that happened this month was Canada Immigration got back to me and I should be receiving my immigration visa soon. That means it's back to work/school with me. For the Forsaken, that means some serious changes are happening. I want to continue updating the comic as a hobby, but the 25 hour weeks I once was able to put into it are going to be a thing of the past, I'm afraid.

     If you're interested, here's a detailed post on the forums where I go into some detail as to what's happening, what's changing, and why. As always, thanks for reading. I'll try to have an update this week sometime.

On Vacation

July 6, 2007

     We're leaving tomorrow for our anniversary vacation, but the Forsaken should be returning on the 30th of this month. Next week's page will be pushed out on the 9th (so long as this damned server doesn't explode between now and then) and I've put a few filler pictures in the auto-update system that I hope you enjoy. If for some reason the server's down on Monday, please check the forum (it's on an alternate server) for a page mirror thread, as I'll have my good friend Adam post it up for me.

     As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you're all having a great summer.

Summertime Rolls

June 29, 2007

     Summer plans are beginning to catch up with me, so the month of July is going to be a spotty one for The Forsaken. My wife and I will be celebrating our first anniversary on July 8 by driving across Canada to Banff National Park. I'm extremely excited to see the mountains again, but not terribly excited about the drive across the prairies.

     I have an update scheduled for July 2, even though it is a holiday up here, and I'll do my best to get another page in before our expedition, but there's no way I'll be pushing out updates on the 16th nor 23rd. If you haven't checked out the links section lately, I've added a few comics to my favorites and some Forsaken avatar goodies as well. Cheerio!

Ten Monkeys

June 25, 2007

     Gothy McGee artist Jack Carter has reivewed the Forsaken on his webcomic review blog. I scored ten out of twelve chimpanzees! (MUST...RESIST TEMPTATION...TO USE HORRIBLE...APE JOKES) Looks like he only had nice things to say. Thanks, Jack! Your work is more fun than a barrel of monkeys (doh!).

     I know we're all tired of the CG webserver constantly going bananas (sigh), but I have some encouraging news. We're getting a new one! I think the magic date was supposed to be the 23rd, so hopefully it will be up and running by the time this update goes live...as long as the admins don't monkey around too much...(groan)

Taking Garlic from Strangers

June 15, 2007

     Page 23 is three days early; that's because Comicgenesis is actually working right now and there's no guarantee that it will be on Monday, so there you go. Hope you all like the page. I really enjoyed drawing the chateau--it was a first for me. I've never been big on landscapes or buildings.

     Just a few things to address this week. First, the banner up at the top is not mine. It's there because Comicgenesis requires it. In certain regions, I guess there are some inappropriate adverts being shown. Second, a little birdie told me CG is getting a new webserver. I have no idea when, but hopefully the frequent downtime will soon be a thing of the past.

     Oh, and one more thing. Some of the guys on the boards have started writing some fan fiction regarding a few of the "extra" characters you see in certain pages. If you have a chance, stop on by and check it out. Thanks for reading, and always hack responsibly.

Clato Verata...Necktie?

June 12, 2007

     This week's newsblurb comes a tad late, but that's what happens when you're abducted by a spacecraft full of undead ex-gameshow hosts and then made to watch reruns of Laverne and Shirly until your eyeballs implode. No, really.

     It seems the server outages that have been affecting The Forsaken will not ease up any time soon, according to the Comicgenesis higher-ups. I'd apologize, but I've already done that like five thousand times now. Please understand that nobody's more frustrated by it all than I am (except maybe redwolf and kisai...they get all the complaints from the CG community). If it continues for much longer I will have to go pay for hosting somewhere, though that's a bit of a financial challenge for a guy that can't work. I guess all I'm trying to say is expect it to get worse before it gets better.

     In the meantime, I will also be posting new comics to my Deviantart site. So, if Monday rolls around and you get the fancy-schmancy PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED, go check out my DA gallery and I'll have the latest goods hosted there.

     This last week, I've made a few updates to the cast section (YAY Dorothy!) and I've done some extensive renovations over at the Forsaken Wiki. I don't have a direct link to the Wiki on the site anywhere, due primarily to gross oversight, so I'll see what I can come up with to rectify that. Thanks for reading, and be excellent to one another.

A Venture into the RIV

June 4, 2007

     That fourth panel, however time-consuming, was a blast to draw. You see a smattering of dennies (Ultranet denizens) all running around, some dressed up in virtual costumes, others with colored hair or pointed ears. Everyone is in good shape; the men are all cut and the women have bodies that only exist in beer commercials. My vision of the Ultranet is a lot like today's Internet, that way. On today's standard community message board, every woman is 36-24-36 and every man has to use a pen and paper to calculate his bench-press. God bless the anonymity of the Internet.

     You see that cow over in the fanart feature section? It links to my very first peice of fanart! A gigantic THANK YOU goes out to Simon Dremel of Cojoined Cows for this awesome guest comic. I'll cherish it for all my days! Danke sehr, mein Herr!

     Congratulations goes out to my longtime friend and forum regular, Arcnaver, who became a father (again) on Sunday. You do great work, Adam; she's just as beautiful as your first one.

     As always, thanks for reading.

  Site redesign goes live!

May 30, 2007

   (Edited for clarity. Sorry. It was so badly written I actually got a headache trying to read it.)

     Well... this is it. A page design I'm fairly happy with. Not bad for a guy that tought himself HTML/CSS, eh? Hope you all like it; the feedback I've received so far has been mostly positive.

     You may be wondering what prompted the site redesign. Or maybe you aren't. well I'm still going to tell you! The Forsaken now has forum space over yonder and I needed a nav button to usher you kindly folks in that direction. All in all the site isn't that much different, but I hope it's a tad easier to look at.

    Just in case you don't notice the sultry succubus babe directly to the left, I'm reserving that for anyone who sends me fanart. Aside from filling said space with a thumbnail preview, I'll provide a link to both the artist's site and the full sized work in my fanart gallery. Just giving my readers a chance to network.

     I'll be starting page 21 tomorrow and hopefully I'll have it up on Monday. I spent a gob of time reworking the page, but it was necessary. As always, thanks for stopping by.

  Back to work

May 28, 2007

     I’ve finished the Lucrezia Borgia project, so that means I can once again focus on the Forsaken. Despite drawing and coloring some 15 costumes in the last week *and surviving an unsettling Viva Pinata binge* I was able to finish page 20. You all know what that magic number 20 means, right? At long last, I can petition for forum space.

     However, this creates one little problem for me. I have no real estate anywhere in my logo/banner for a forum hyperlink. So…I guess what happens now is I get to put on the webmaster hat and pretend I know what I’m doing once again. Maybe this time I’ll be able to get the firefox problems patched up, too, since the majority of you are using it.

     Lastly, I’ve committed myself to a new project. I’m going to re-write my novel, which is actually the progenitor to the Forsaken…and is set about thirty years later. I submitted the manuscript to several publishers but I’ve not heard anything yet so I figured I’d tweak on it a bit. I should still have plenty of time to do my weekly Forsaken update.

  A Lonesome Flat

5/17/2007

     However late, here’s Calib’s lonesome flat, page 19. I was able to piece it together here and there between my other duties this week. Now I’ve got one last project to finish before I can really focus on the Forsaken again, but hopefully by next week I’ll have that done, too, and my posting schedule will normalize again.

     In other news, I’ve joined Comicspace.com hoping to do some more social networking but thus far it just seems like a mini-myspace where people befriend you for no real purpose. But who knows, maybe I’ll get its usefulness figured out one of these days.

     One more page will bring us to that magic number twenty. Huzzah! Then it’s forum city…and site redesign city, too, but I won’t get into that. I’ve recently realized things just don’t look right in not only Firefox, but IE6 as well. Sorry for that, I’m an amateur at site design.

  Spiderman 3

May 6, 2007

     So I performed my comic-fan duty of seeing Spiderman 3 on opening weekend. As it turned out, Spidey wasn't the only super-hero to show up. There was also the Obnoxious Bouncing Lady seated next to me, Bronchitus Boy directly in front of my wife, and the dubious Twizzler-wrapper-Wrinkler on our left. Despite the unnerving audience, I enjoyed the movie a great deal. It didn't quite beat out the first Spidey as my favorite superhero movie of all time, but it was about 1000 times better than the last few I saw (Superman, Xmen 3). Aside from a little too much cheese here and there and a super-busy plot, it was a great flick.

     I somehow got page 18 done today. two more and I should be able to get a forum up and running. Also, my readership seems to be growing like crazy. Well, either that or I'm just visiting my own comic like 60 times a day. I really wanted to say thanks to all of you by putting together a succubae pinup/wallpaper series, so here's the first of three.Thanks for reading.

  Happy Mayday

May 1, 2007

     How's this for an eratic update? You see, this is what happens when you get really inspired and focus; you finish a page in two days. Jinkies. I really didn't do much besides draw, mind you, but here you go: Chapter 2, Page 1.

     I have this little problem. I'm a lot like a pushover parent at Christmas that lets the children open all the gifts early. Last week my comic sat in que for like 4 days and it nearly killed me, waiting to share it. There's no way I was going to make everyone hold out for a whole week when this page is already done. I just don't like the whole "que" thing. But this brings us to an interesting problem...

     If you've been keeping up with my little news blurbs, you've no doubt heard me bemoaning all the crap on my plate, currently. You're probably wondering to yourself: how can he push out a page in 2 days if he's so busy. Well, the answer is simple: procrastination. PROCRASTINATORS UNITE! (Tomorrow!).

     Hope you enjoy the comic. Happy reading. --James

  That's all, folks (for chapter 1)

April 30, 2007

     And Mattaus goes down! Chapter one was a blast to draw with all the babelicious succubae and fast virtual action going on in the styxers' personal lives. Chapter 2 was equally fun for me to write because the plot begins to take off and a few inter-character relationships become evident. Additionally, you'll get a better peek at the real world than what you saw in Cleo's Apartment.

     As I've mentioned in the little side cbox whosiewhatzit, the month of May is going to be rather crazy for me with all my other obligations so I may be late with (or even miss) a comic or two. I'm really sorry about this, but it cannot be helped. As unfortunate as it is, the fun stuff is the first to suffer when life gets complicated.

     I was able to do a few other drawings this week too. One was a piece of fanart for Just Another Escape. Kirb said he'd be posting that this week sometime. Also, I finished a concept of Cleo that should be live right now in the characters' section. I'm going to try to do at least one of these a week, so long as it doesn't interfere with the comic itself.

     As always, thanks for stopping in. --James

  Minor Update

April 27, 2007

     Just popping in to add a date on the last news post and let out a cheer because I already have next week's storyboard done (and that's good for me!). It just so happens that page 16 is the last page of chapter 1! However, there is a little bad news to share and that is for the next month I'm going to be working my tail off with multiple projects that all sorta just caught up with me at the same time.

     I am currently working on costume/set design for a local musical, but in addition to that I'm also going to be doing volunteer work for a friend at a convention in mid May. Still more! I agreed to donate artwork for the Manitoba Comic Convention so I really have a lot of drawing to do. I just wanted to put up this little warning just in case May's update schedule gets a little rocky. Please don't give up on The Forsaken! Chapter 2 is going to be much more deep and involving and you'll actually get to know some of the characters a bit better.

Reflex: I promise not to become an ass if I ever getfamous. :)
Everyone else: Thanks for reading!

  Big News!!

April 25, 2007

     Good news on top of other good news! Woohoo! It just so happens that I have table space at an upcomming comic convention!! OH YEAH, BABY! Manitoba Comic Con! I get to meet Darth Vader and Apollo! Time to get my geek on!

     Second on the good news roster: I picked up a little somethin' somethin' today and after spending the day with it I have to say I am in love with this thing. Yeah, I had a 4x5 graphire3 prior to this, but this new pen is 10 times more comfy and the tablet is just more accurate and easier to use. The added macro buttons aren't quite as nice as I thought they'd be, but I'm still super glad to have an intuos over my old tablet.

     Yes, this week's comic is about twelve hours late. Sorry! I just finished it like twenty minutes ago. Why was it so late, you ask? Because aside from the other five bajillion projects I'm working on I actually spent an entire day writing Chapter 2! Shock and Awe! The Forsaken actually follows a script?! Yes indeed, it does. What do you have to look forward to? (Peter Falk Voice) Are you kidding? It's got fencing, fighting, torture, escapes, true love, miricles...

     Lastly, I've registered the Forsaken with a few popular comic search engines, so I hope it will expand my reader base. Check the buttons at the bottom of the page if you're all down with the voting stuff. If not, don't sweat it.