Prophecy of the Circle

Haha, why do I always do that? I’m always so terribly certain that taking a vacation is going to mean that somehow I keep working, and in fact, I keep expecting that somehow I’ll work five times harder than I normally do. I apologize that there wasn’t anything to show here. I did actually get a ton sorted out behind the scenes and a bunch of important updates have been started. There are footholds where there weren’t any before. The problem is that none of you can see what I’ve been working on at all. Even if you were following my Tumblr (which I started awkwardly using as a journal as well; if you ever wondered exactly how mundane a person I am, there’s your source) you’ll have to take my word for it that I did more than just play old video games, build Ikea furniture, and draw the very occasional bit of fanart for my Tumblr.

…although I suppose playing video games and drawing fanart is…. what a vacation is supposed to be..

All right. Now I’m confused.

At any rate. Things and stuff. I am indeed working on them. Secret projects for ProtC and whatnot.

You will see.

For now, back to bumbling and stumbling my way through the story! Alas, the first page probably has fewer answers than you were all hoping for, considering the confusing chaotic mess that our heroes-so-to-speak had to deal with when I left off…. and Kirie is probably not the character you were hoping to see first thing. Bear with me.

Now before I go, two things.

First, some of you have been donating to Prophecy of the Circle using the Paypal button over the past few months, and I want to tell you how incredibly grateful I am for any and all of the support you’ve been giving me. It was enough all together that when I needed to replace a bunch of my paints recently, I could! And those aren’t cheap colors. They add up quickly when more than one of them runs dry at the same time (and let me tell you, yellow ochre gets a serious workout in my set). Thank you! That is really, really cool! I love you guys. 🙂 I need to say that! You need to know. You are very cool people.

Second, on the order of paying it forward, there’s someone else who needs a hand. If you remember A Mysterious Light in the fanart gallery, and Kirie’s Discovery (which I neglected to post in the fanart gallert; d’oh! I’m a bit behind there… and elsewhere..) the artist of both of those pieces, Andalar, is in need of some extra funds to replace his aging computer. If you’re interested at all, he’s commissionable for extremely reasonable prices. There’s a journal entry with more information over here, at his DeviantArt page.

Again, it’s good to be back! Always is. I hope you guys enjoy the next chunk of the story. 🙂

… but unfortunately I need to go on one. Every once in a while, just like with any job (even if this one is a lot more entertaining than anything I do to earn the rent), a vacation is needed. You have my sincerest apologies that this comes at a cliffhanger ending. I was honestly hoping and planning on being able to push one more scene out before I had to take a holiday from Prophecy of the Circle, but that last set of pages was actually a lot more difficult to draw and write and especially to plan than I imagined it would be and it rather stressed me out and drained me dry. If you imagine that each project I work on comes with a built in battery… this one’s not giving me any more wiggle room. I have kicked it into restarting for the last time unless I give it a rest, and the message on the proverbial screen inside my head is a very clear “Stop pushing buttons. Drop that pencil. Turn it off. Plug it in. Recharge. Go.” that refuses to budge.

Still, it’s been over a year (I do believe?) since the last time I had to take a real break, so that’s not bad. 🙂 I wish my laptop came with that kind of lifespan between recharges.

So yes. I’m taking a month. It’s always been enough to get me refreshed and ready to go for another bout of storytelling, and I’m certain this will be no different. Look for new pages on March 24th, come hell or high water (although where I live, high water is likely to simply be drifts of snow and I can deal with that), where we find out if we do indeed need a new protagonist. The future is unclear.

You can also check back in between if you’re keen, because I might be able to post some extra things here and there throughout the month. If I do, they’ll be mentioned on my Twitter as well. If you have an interest in any of my other non-Prophecy of the Circle doodles, there’s always my Tumblr to keep an eye on.

If anyone ever wanted to see what my comic pages look like before they’re finished, there are a couple of posts about it on my Tumblr.

Last year I posted a page showing off what the pencil work looks like.

Today I posted the inks and colors, without the text, for this week’s page!

Those are the major stages of comic-making, not counting the first step, wherein I make incoherent notes about the script in OmmWriter and then proceed to ignore them almost completely… =P

Wow, about time I posted something here. I’m just not very good at talking about myself, am I?

Annnnnd I’m still not gonna. Here! No, this is something a reader of mine’s been doing, and it is so very, very, very cool. I have to show it off. There’s Eika and Koro cosplay! And it’s magnificent! =D

Tim over on DeviantArt and I have been talking back and forth for a while to get the details right, but here are the results. That is a fantastic interpretation if I do say so, and I am so flattered. So, so flattered. Go see! Go see! It’s so cool. If cosplay is your kind of thing and DeviantArt is your kind of place, I recommend giving him a watch, too. It’s worth it, and he’s a fantastic fellow. He’s also got a Tumblr, if that’s your platform of choice.