Hey there! I’m still kickin’ and creatin’ and I’m participating in NaNoWriMo 2019, and of course I’m basing my novel in the WARBAND universe. It’s a prequel featuring Magus Ferox, before she became a Magus. She’s younger and angrier than ever, and I’m having fun writing it. For right now, you can find it on Patreon and DeviantArt, though I want to figure out a good way to also host it here on the site. I wonder if I should just toss them into blog entries? How do? Does WordPress give any shiny options for updating special sites or chapters or something? I have no idea. XD
For now, here’s those chapters! I’ve done 3 so far as of this writing:
Hey, everyone! I’ve been mulling over some thoughts about the progress of WARBAND and considering a hiatus. Yeah, I know… I did the same thing during chapter 1, I put out about ten pages and then quit for a year. xD Hopefully this time around it won’t be so long.
The $10 tier Patrons will still see posts from me, I’ve got them queued up all the way through August but I’ll be holding off on posting comics till I get my act together with the writing.
I recently hired a content editor at Mythcreants and had a conversation with Oren Ashkenazi, who looked at chapter 1 of Warband and had some nice feedback for me, as well as some hard truths… His first bit of advice was to not lead into the story with worldbuilding exposition. I’d had a handful of friends tell me the same exact thing, but I disregarded the advice thinking that the humor of Gwilyon being slightly drunk and belligerent would keep it entertaining while he rambled about the world setting. Oren pointed out that the opening was weak because it didn’t have a conflict or a reason for a reader to get invested, so that could be causing folks to put Warband down before really giving it a chance.
In the interest of starting the story with a conflict and getting readers hooked, Oren advised that I start the story in the first dungeon they run– which would be… chapter 2, Warlock. This means that I’ll be basically scrapping the first chapter and starting the series with Warlock. >_< But I’m really serious about crafting a solid story that I’d be proud to put into print and flog at my local comic-con. I need to be 100% confident about my story before it goes into print. I probably jumped the gun by starting the drawings for chapter 1 before I really had the story solid, I can’t make that mistake once I’ve put down a bunch of money to create physical comics.
With Warlock becoming the new chapter 1, you might see scenes appear twice if you’ve been following the comic so far– namely, the scene with Micah and the red spirit on page 19. It’s central to the plot and will have to be worked back into the story, same thing’s gonna happen but just under different circumstances. My next steps will probably be to add a page or two to the beginning, something to buff up the opening of Warlock and really make it feel like an interesting beginning. And then… basically take Warcry offline, because it’s technically no longer canon. I might keep page 20 onward around, as sort of a silly chapter 0 prologue, but scrap everything before page 20. The bits where Gwilyon is chasing Micah around and trying to electrocute him counts as a conflict, right? XD After that… I’ll be working on my writing.
My aim is to get the writing for Warband completely airtight before I even start drawing again, so there’s no more shenanigans with scrapping drawings. From the beginning I’ve been saying that I need to have solid writing before the art starts, but apparently it wasn’t solid enough… I need an adult to read my stuff first before I go hog-wild with art. xD Because in the end, even though I’m writing this “for my own entertainment” it still needs to make sense to others if I’m gonna flog copies of the comic to an audience.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to join a writing circle! It’s called SNOUP, and their focus is on high fantasy comics and novels. Taralen is an old buddy of mine, and when she heard I was having trouble with my writing kindly invited me into the writing circle. SNOUP will be helping me out with beta reading and writing critiques.
In the meantime, as always, you can still currently read the old pages at Warbandcomic.com, and my Patreon will still be around even though it might be a little while before I start posting up new pages. It can be found at https://www.patreon.com/magusferox and it means a lot to me when I see people who dig Warband enough to support it, it’s a real thrill to know that it’s a worthwhile thing. Also a big reason why I want to get it right, for the folks who have put their faith in me from the beginning. You know who you are, you mean a lot to me!
Hey everybody! If you’ve been paying any attention to the blog portion of my site, you’d see I’m always posting up artworks I’ve done for my highest tier patrons, the $10 guys.
Well, this month I’ve decided to change things up, and the $10 tier reward won’t be an art reward anymore. The guys on the tier have already got their due rewards for April so no worries there, they’ve been notified and can change their membership anytime this month if they’re not on board with the new rewards.
So, what are the new rewards? I’m switching over to “exclusive content,” meaning there’s stuff going up on Patreon that’s not getting posted anywhere else. Illustrations, concept art sketches, short stories, just about anything I’ve kept under my hat all these years when it comes to the development of the Warband world setting, and script writing. There’s plenty of these to go around, I’ve currently got $10 tier rewards queued up to go online every Wednesday all the way till August. xD If you decide to join the top tier you’ll get your money’s worth, I’m making sure of it!
The biggest feather in my cap is that, as part of the $10 tier, you’ll also get access to my D&D materials that I’m making based on the adventure that the Warband characters are going on. The “Arcane Door” multi-tiered trapped door is already online, and then I’ve got plans for maps and other traps that show up in the Warlock’s Tower. I know I’d previously offered up my D&D materials for the $5 tier, but nobody’s on that tier yet and I feel pretty good about boosting it up to the $10 tier because I’m putting a whole lot of effort into these materials.
On that note, I would also like to mention something that a friend told me recently. They told me that Patreon is not a storefront; it’s a tip jar for showing appreciation to the artists that you love. I can get behind that idea, but I really feel like I’m making it worth the while of anybody who’d like to subscribe.
From a lot of folks’ status updates and journals that I keep seeing on DeviantArt, it seems like Eclipse is pretty much a dumpster fire of an update. I get it, change is bad– makes you want to run for the hills and find someplace else to get your eye candy, right?
Well, worry not my friends. If you’re out in the wild wild web looking for more WARBAND it can also be found in ALL of these places!
http://jennymckinney.blogspot.com/ – HAHAHA this thing still exists?! What is this 2012 looking-thing?! XD It’s mostly just reposting from Tumblr or reposting from my Twitter or the main site.
https://www.twitch.tv/magusferox – The Twitch, which… I really want to stream again, but still can’t pin down a good time for it.
https://mastodon.art/@magusferox – Mastodon, a Twitter alternative if you wanna stick it to the MAN and roll on a federated social media
https://www.wysp.ws/magusferox/ – The Wysp, which is the big frequently-recommended DA alternative and has a fun “suggestion” system that puts new art in front of you for random commenting and faving
TL;DR – – JESUS CHRIST I HAVE TOO MANY WEBSITES COME VISIT ME
I mean, not actual Jesus Christ– I mean YOU, dear reader. Let me know if you watch/follow/subscribe anywhere, and I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for you and return the favor. I’m pretty much “magusferox” everywhere I go, so that’s one way to find me too.
Lub ya, hope you keep on lubbin the ol’ WARBAND and enjoy some Snow Elf antics from time to time.
WARBAND 