Lady of the Horde

#143

Heh. Nukes, typical. I’m interested to find out what happens next though.

I bet you’re looking more for crits then slavish shows of praise. That’s where I find myself speechless, I really don’t have anything to say except for a few things:

  • Firstly, with so many scene transitions, it is still quite difficult to keep up with the action, and with so many close ups we cannot ever gain any sense of space or placing. So it stays as a confusing amalgamation of actions sequences that have no particular reference point.

I’d advise that you do some zoom out shots to give us an idea of where people are and have less happen in each page. Draw things out just a tad and don’t rush the ending. It helps an aweful lot if your readers can actually keep up with you.

  • And secondly, why aren’t you doing a webcomic or something and making money out of this? Seriously? This is very high quality work and wouldn’t look out of place in any comic or graphic novel publication. If you haven’t already dealt with that, I’d suggest you get yourself out there because you really need to have some kind of exposure. I’ve seen your main site so I understand that you have quite a lot to show for yourself. But why don’t you step even further. Your site can become its own hub for fans with a forum and you can set up merchandise based on your publications which is nice extra income on the side.

You’d be surprised at what you could turn Etherlair into, trust me. The internet moves fast, and you really only need to start something, put effort into it in the beginning, then watch it roll.

Anways, great stuff! Keep it up!

#144

Hi, Draigr,

I am SO sorry for my long absence and the delay in repplying to your post.
i´ve been battling these couple deadlines for the past few weeks and truth is when I finally found the time to sit down and draw, I was usually SO tired I just wanted to sleeep.

Thank you for your post, I really appreciate it. You raise some very pertinent points.

Lady of the Horde suffers from having no script. At first it was fun because it allowed me some spontaneity and it worked for the initial chapters.
As the story progressed, though, I should have sat down to plan the whole thing. As it is, it became this blob of weekly creative bursts that still makes sense within the confines of its own peculiar context but is demanding and daunting for readers to follow.
I´m a few pages away from wrapping the story but when I finally do find the time to sit down and look at this monster of a webcomic, it´s gonna require some really heavy story editing. Oh, yeah…

Good advice on the zoom out thing, I should definitely have done more.
It was with your post in mind that I did this week´s spread, hope it works…

As for me making some $$$… I should definitely think about that.
Not with this webcomic but for my next endeavor, I´m definitelly gonna have to start thinking about the bottom line. :slight_smile:
Wow… I finally managed to use that expression in a phrase, weee. :stuck_out_tongue:

#145

Haha. Nice job. That little snippet made so much more sense, it wasn’t so chaotic. Good job! :thumbsup:

On to pay stuff, as is often the case, this is often affected greatly by popularity. I’d imagine you’d actually have availability for hard publications etc, however, should you do a webcomic style, it’s a better idea to create merchandise alongside and sell that for money, while offering the comic free. If you manage to get it popular enough, not too hard considering your creativity, you’ll be making quite a bit from it.

Though of course, anything like that requires extra help to keep things running smoothly.

Anways, whatever you do for the future, I’m sure you’ll do well. :slight_smile:

#146

Thank you, draigr, you really gave me much to think about.

And thank you as well for checking out my thread, I really appreciate it.

#147

I am so sorry I am not one of the comics dudes, bucause I can’t appreciate this kind of art enough then, but it’s a brilliant work and you deserve a better attention here. Keep posting please :slight_smile:

#148

Thank you, Siilion, I really appreciate your post and comments.

You know, comics is as legitimate art as painting, literature or theatre. If you looked into it, I´m sure you could find a comic title you´d like, there´s an unbelievable diversity of themes, art styles and whatnot for everyone. :slight_smile:

#149

Woo! Two posts in a week! You’re on a roll!

Things are looking verrry interesting. I look forward to each update. Keep it up.

I thoroughly enjoy comics, and follow quite a few different webcomics, all of them very good, but so far as art goes, this one is probably either the best, or second best, depending on your perspective.

So far as creativity goes, this is by far the best.

Keep it up! How much longer do you think it’ll go for?

#150

Thanks, Draigr, I can´t tell you how much I appreciate what you just said, way too cool! :slight_smile:

I have no idea how long this webcomic could go on, feels like I´m just now scratching the surface. So many ideas have started poping up in my head…

#151

Hey Eliseu, i do come by and enjoy your comics although i don’t always comment. You are a wonderful story teller with a great imagination. Your work is always entertaining, thanks for sharing with us!

#152

Hey, Rabid,

thank you for your comments, I really appreciate it.
Know that someone out there is enjoying my story really inspires me to go on pumping new pages. :slight_smile:

#153

Wheee! Another awesome update! I am forever intrigued. How do you manage to do that? Make a single shot that tells us something plotwise, but gives nothing away at all, and leaves us wanted to read it all the more??

#154

Hey, Draigr,

thank you for your post and sorry for taking so long to update this new page.
I grew up reading Flash Gordon reprinted comic strips on a newspaper my dad would bring home from work and the one thing I learned from them was Cliffhangers.
Every page should end in a way that invites the reader to see what happens next.
I always try to follow that rule. :slight_smile:

Yet another reason why The Devourer lost the fight before it even began:
Its heart just wasn´t in it.

#155

Oh. Clever, very clever. I’ll admit, I never saw it coming because I had no clue who was where or anything else. Switching between characters so often tends to do that. I certainly enjoy them. But I’ve actually started not even bothering to work out what exactly is going on, I just enjoy the ride. So to speak.

You might want to work on the coherence a bit by creating more spatial context. Where characters are in relation to each other lets us fill in extra little details, like whether the mad person is talking to them self. Or to someone else.

That cliff hangers rule is an excellent one, by the way. I know I apply it in writing as often as possible. It’s very handy in keeping people hooked.

How long does it actually take to do these pages? In reality?

#156

Hi, Draigr,

thank you for your post and sorry for missing my weekend upload by a day.
You are 100% right, things did get a bit messy back there and one page a week doesn´t help simplify matters.
I´ll try to work more on the spacial awareness thing, it does tend to confuse the reader.

I have to confess I have given up trying to time how long a page takes.
My estimatives are all over the place by now but I would venture between 8-12 hours of pencils and inks, plus an hour or more of page composition, grayscale SFXs, etc.
But that chunk of time is divided along the week, there are days when I don´t even touch the page at all due to the workload.

Finally!

Been dying to get these two girls back together again for MONTHS! :slight_smile:

#157

Yo! You still around? I’ve been missing this comic and the random updates you did every now and then. I’ve been chomping my way through dozens of comics these last few months in an attempt to find awesome storylines and concepts - thus getting my own head fizzling - but I gotta say. This one keeps hanging round there. Nothing quite matches the style and personality of your characters and artwork.

On a random side note. Have you considered doing a watercolour page or two. Similar to what was done in Vagabond. The sheer contrast could create a very powerful effect if you time it just right. It’s also very very good for conveying an ethereal feel and tone. Something I believe resonates very strongly with you, with so many explicit and implicit references to songs, orchestrations, memories and dreams/nightmares.

Anways, just popping in to wonder whether you’re continuing this, and what else you got hanging about. I’d love to check it out!

#158

Hi, Draigr,

I am really sorry for my long absence, I got a couple gigs that completely took over all the free time I had in the last couple months.

I can´t tell you how happy I am that you´ve enjoyed checking my story.
I´m only 6-8 pages away from completing this story, so hopefuly, I should be able to wrap it up in the the next couple weeks.

I have thougth many times about coloring the pages, but I´m not very confident about my colouring skills .
B/W is where I ´m more at home…

#159

#160

#161

Apologies for not replying! I’ve been pretty much smashed by the end of uni term and haven’t really been able to do much at all since hols started!

This is truly epic! That last post an awesome cliffhanger! I have no idea what’s coming next (not like I’ve ever had one), but I can’t wait for the next to come up.

I notice that Narkissa is looking suitably evil in the last shot there. Heh.

I notice that your site is down, I take it the traffic wasn’t too brilliant, or something to that effect. A pity. A question, though, how well do you think you’re doing in the comic’s business. I’d imagine you’d want to expand, and with skills like these, you can seriously go a long way - that’s if you haven’t already.

So I’m wondering where you think you’re at. Basically. And then where you’re planning on moving to.

This comic may be finishing soon enough, much to my own pity. But I fairly sure you have a lot of other projects and plans, and I’d really like to see some of your other work.

I can, if you wish, supply you with a list of online hosting comic sites that you can drop some of your free ones on for more exposure if you want it.

Essentially. This is awesome. And it could get a whole lot more awesome if taken to a whole new level. You have to be a certain kind of person to pull off a comic and storyline like this, a seriously brilliantly creative kind of person.

And I wanna see that whole new level!

#162

Thank you, Draigr, I really appreciate your post.
I´m glad you noticed Narkissa´s sinister look in that last page.
It will always be an uneasy alliance, Aeron on one side, Narkissa on the other, both always on the look out for an opening, but these are the closest Nadra will ever come to having real friends - aside from creating her own, that is-.

Sorry for missing last week´s page upload but I got tied up with a deadline.

Lady of the Horde is in its last leg, only 3 more pages to go.
I do have ideas for 2 or 3 more storyarcs but I can´t afford to work on them right now, gotta bgo back to those rent-paying gigs. :stuck_out_tongue:
I´m gonna have a lot on my plate for the next couple months but I´d really like to hear more about these online hosting sites you mentioned, maybe I can get the comic more exposure…?
Meanwhile, I can´t thank you enough for checking the pages, for your feedback and for your kind words of encouragement to keep this going for so long…

Been quite a while since he appeared all naked after Nadra rebuilt his body in the 3rd chapter, so you´ll probably not remember him, but… meet Buster Keegan.

Three more to go.