First Milestone Complete!!!
The first milestone for my comic, Scionia, is finally accomplished. Achievement Unlocked.
The completion of Chapter I: A Hero Born has arrived, as we are taken through an introduction to the where and when of it all, establish our main character Eleron, and even pitch him against one of his first foes, Sinjiro Kinjo. A match that finds Eleron unprepared and raises more questions than it solves answers.
And so we lead into Chapter II: Ellania, which has now moved on into the production phase and will be coming soon. As before, sneak peeks will be released on the work that will be done for this chapter, as the story begins to evolve and become all the more interesting. Personally, I can't wait to release the next chapters and let people in on it all, taking them through the adventure bit by bit.
As of yesterday the last pages to Chapter I have been added, a total of 7, being the largest update till now, and also featuring almost twice as many illustrations than all previous 13 pages did, summing up to a much harder task in all. An extra additional artwork has been added as well from the Chapter II title page art (nothing too special - the good stuff is still on it's way).
The Difficulties
They tell you that "If you want to do something right, do it yourself", and after trying a multitude of things in the past, you reach the point where this begins to hold more and more true inside you. Especially for those that have a vision, or a dream, or even an idea that they want to bring to life. Even more so for people that know how (with regards to technical aspects) and need only to find the missing pieces to it all to simply just do it.
That is the part they don't tell you. A lot of research is needed to cover aspects that no one can honestly come to know of unless they go out there and do it. And as hard or as slow as the process might be, it all ends up being an equally great part to the journey as everything else. The attitude is simply that, "Just Do It" (man, I should get paid for this, I'm finding great advertising material for Nike here.)
The difficulty is sometimes just that, not giving up. And there are perhaps many reasons that can rise to tempt you or to make you believe that giving up is an option. It seems that if anything can go wrong, it will. That is the second thing they usually don't tell you about doing something yourself, or pretty much doing anything that you truly want/love. The answer to it all however is just one: Giving up was never an option!
Indeed this was the case for me, giving up was never an option, and I was never tempted by the idea of giving up. That being said, everything that could go wrong did (probably everything, I don't want to test the gods with what challenges they may have, thus dealing me with an even harder hand for my next milestone). Delays due to the plain and simple fact of a small budget, or not making any profit at all from the work, something that everybody in such fields goes through when setting out for something new. Bills have to be paid, mouths fed, and of course other work will bring such personal projects behind.
The next line of difficulties are usually technical. This happens to everyone. Something simply won't work, will stop working, and at times not only bring you back in your time, but also (worst case scenario) bring your work back forcing you to do it again! That didn't happen to me on this project thankfully, but something like that needs only happen once for one to learn. After losing years of work (yeah, it was painful and I was young) you learn that no amount of backups is ever too much. You almost become hysterical with regards to this.
So the forces of life, seeing that you have taken so many precautions, seek to use technology against you in every other way possible. Ok, I am a computer geek as well, so my workplace is working the way it should most of the time (fingers crossed it stays that way), so I am pretty prepared right? Wrong. Something will always go wrong. And it did. The only thing that I couldn't control struck, driver problems with my Wacom! And absolutely no way to reverse them! I know right? And I mean NO way, many older drivers some also dating as far back as 2 years ago, system restores, I even formatted the whole PC with several OS options. It simply didn't fix.
That is much worst than any internet problem, or hardware problem, ect (not as bad as loosing work but close behind). I had to pretty much learn from scratch how to draw digitally, and in a matter of a small time as well. Not an easy task at all.
Life is even funnier though, I went through a hand injury as well, dislocated bone, on my very drawing hand itself ^_^
Cool, right? Not to mention that all the above strike together as well. Time management, fund management, learning to draw again, and an injury, all together just to help each other out. Oh, and all this on a piece of work that was hard on it's own as it was. Trying to establish the main character, create a fight scene, find new balances on how the colours and all the technical/artistic things of the comic come together, and drawing new and more daring comic illustrations (for me at least it was a new, especially for a comic), adding up to a hill that seemed so hard to climb.
And in the end... you climb it!
The Result
They also tell you that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. This is so true. After climbing that hill, you feel just that. With new hills to climb, new boundaries to pass, new heights and expectations to rise to, you do but one and only one thing in all... Evolve! And it is a great evolution as well. Everything you have learned truly becomes a part of you, you use it, you are faster more experienced more efficient, etc etc etc... In the end you can only but thank the gods that everything happened to you as it did. It made you so much stronger, and now you can do so much more.
The fact of the matter is that life always tests us on how much we want something, how much we are prepared to fight for it, how much we are willing to sacrifice, hence how much we deserve it. And it never gives us more than we can handle. Always enough to push as a little further. All who give in to these obstacles remain exactly where they are. This is not a bad thing of course. It is however for those that want to evolve, to keep moving forward, to reach higher, or to simply accomplish whatever it is they set out to accomplish. Big and small.
These obstacles will never stop happening. If they do, perhaps it is a sign that you should now evolve in something else as well ;) Life is all about growing after all.
Scionia was indeed just that for me. Growing. I am certain things wont get easier, new obstacles will come. But when you look at all you achieve after each obstacle, the result is always worth it. For in the end, the result is what remains, what stays by your side, what is always there, the obstacle simply came and left. And good riddance to it.
Coming Soon - Moving Forward
Chapter II: Ellania is now about to head into it's production phase, and with it new challenges of establishing new characters and new settings as well as other things. Even more, the challenge of finding the right mood for the entire story telling itself, conversations, and so on so forth. I have to admit, I am good at writing conversations in books, but comics are a different story all together, and finding the right formula that works is indeed a challenge in it's own.
New artwork is also on it's way, as is a new menu called Archives that will include the lore of Scionia (as stated in previous update). It will feature categories for characters, locations, timeline events, etc, and will evolve as the story progresses. As new characters are introduced in the story, so will they be added to the archives, whilst new background information on them will be also added as their story unfolds. This should serve as a great way for people to either get deeper into Scionia, or fill in the gaps on anything they might be questioning (provided it isn't a spoiler for future events to happen which will not be included in the archives for obvious reasons). I wish I had access to such lore myself when I was younger for the comics I loved. This perhaps was my initial taunt for adding the Archives menu itself.
The method of "always free online" will continue as the core idea to Scionia. I will be exploring ways in the future for publishing hard copies or merchandising for the comic as a means for more intimate collections to be accessible for those that might seek them. I will not however steer away from the idea of featuring the comic online and free in it's web-comic form.
Lastly, the chapter update intervals will also change for the future. No longer seeking to update on a weekly, or biweekly schedule, the chapters will be updated either in part intervals or as complete works. I do not sacrifice quality for shorter times, so nothing will be released until it is on the standards it should be. However this is not the main reason to my different approach. The truth behind it is that I was not completely satisfied with the way the story was broken up in Chapter I, and seek to keep a continuity in the tale that is fitting to the feeling I want to create. Thus, weekly updates of say 2 pages is now out of the question as it will break it up too much and make it frustrating to read as well. I prefer to come out with say 6 pages in 2-3 weeks or an entire chapter after 4 weeks, and get the feeling of the narration just the way it should be.
Stay Tuned!
That being said, I am looking forward to continuing down this exciting and fun journey, and personally like stated before can't wait to release new chapters and artworks for Scionia: Guardian Angel. It really is something to share the worlds in your head with others.
On a last and perhaps irrelevant note, for those that might seek a different format in reading the pages, I feel obliged to let you know that right-clicking on View All at the chapter menu and selecting open in new tab or window, loads the pages in an almost seamless top-down format where one can simply scroll down through the entire chapter.
Until next time, keep strong, resist, fight! Darkness is only but a means, an obstacle, to new strength and more light.
