Over here I’ve been tracking my progress toward keeping a robust daily routine I call “Dragon Hour”. It’s working quite well. I set a target in the form of a percentage of a page I want to complete each day, Mon-Fri. I track it daily and try to keep it above 100%. I know that sounds geeky as hell but it has been an effective way for me to reign myself in and get some real comics finished.

The other element has been switching the format of Zyn Dweomer. It has shifted from a color web strip to a black and white print comic (with pages being posted here, chopped up appropriately). This works for me. I like the look, I’m more comfortable with the style, and I can finish more pages. Plus I’ve always wanted to do a full size comic book series and I’m a self-publisher at heart.

Anyway, it’s going well. I’m over my 100% target at this moment.

Soon I hope to start making announcements about the first print comic. I’ll probably put together a “year one” collection of all the color strips as a sort of issue #0, then follow it up with the first issue of the proper series. The print comics will feature color covers, which I am really looking forward to creating. Also, I plan to include a back-up “worldbook” feature in each issue to give you a sort of classic RPG-inspired catalog of all the stuff that appears in the comic.

You know the most awesome thing about drawing digitally is the ability to immediately fix mistakes without leaving any trace. And not just by erasing stuff. When I’m drawing a complex panel with several figures I will usually have to resize some of the figures at some point. I love having that ability. I can draw Hurke next to Naola and he might come out too small or too big. Just a quick lasso around him and I can make him any size I want.

That rocks.

Here’s some fanart I did for Chuck Whelon’s Pewfell Volumes 1-3: Full Color Omnibus Edition! Do check it out. It so rocketh.

Six strips into this thing and I still didn’t have a name. I was hesitant to name it after a character or a set of characters or even a setting. I want to keep it loose, but I do need some kind of direction. And the Brothers do seem to be it. So Assassin Bros. Unlmited it is.

Font is Gorilla Milkshake © Nate Piekos of Blambot.

Started doing these little strips a few weeks ago. I still don’t know what they are going to be called. Probably fits into the Zyn Dweomer mythos, but not sure how just yet.

Ok, so I’ve been working on Zyn Dweomer as a full size comic book. Naturally, I don’t have enough time or focus to simply knock out page after page so it’s slow going. But I do have quite a bit of work finished. So I decided to start posting segments of each page in weekly installments to try and get the webcomic back on some kind of regular schedule.

For now there are new episodes scheduled well into April! Each Monday, right here, you can follow the adventures of Westwood Company and experience the unfolding world of Zyn Dweomer!

So rock on.

…but I am not going to rush it.

Have a great holiday season, everyone! I know I plan to. I’m drawing, I’m alive, and I have an awesome little family. Life is good.

Joe and Ed worked up their own killer version of the character Zemmla. So far she’s only appeared in a drawing I did, but I think she’ll make her way into the comic at some point.

The new full size pages are in the works and I’m pleased to say they are looking sharp. At least I think so!

I’ll post some teasers here and there. Pretty soon I’ll announce a re-start date and begin posting weekly updates as much like clockwork as I possibly can.

I’m geeking out here, hope you like it.

It has been a while since the last new strip. I apologize for the delay, but some things should not be rushed. I’m in the middle of a major upgrade to the comic – changing format and, to some degree, overall approach. This is not something I take lightly, so I’m taking my time and making sure it will rock.

The current format is great but now that I’ve had the comic going almost a year I feel the need to stretch my legs. The strip format isn’t giving me the storytelling room I’ve been craving for a while.

The new format will be at the traditional comic book ratio. I’m going that route because I want to start approaching the comic in chapter or story chunks rather than continuous strips. I’m using the traditional comic book as the “container” for those stories and chapters. This also means that with the end of each story I can produce a printed issue of the comic, which is very exciting to me. The print comics will be available through ComiXpress.

And that is just freaking cool as hell. Right?

More soon.