I finally got around to doing something I’ve been wanting to do and made an update to the Characters page. The page in its previous format kind of…sucked? So I made a bunch of new key art for the main characters and some banners to go with them. I think they look rather nice myself.
Hop on over to the new and improved Characters page and check out everyone’s updated bios!
Just a quick sneak peek at what I’ve got cooking for Issue 3. I’m really fond of this new pen I made in Clip Studio! It’ll take some practice to get the line widths consistent, but I’m really digging the visuals.
A few life updates:
I’ve been hammering away at commissions, so I haven’t had nearly the time I thought I’d have. Either way, I’ve made time here and there to get back to work on the comic. Sure, it sounds like empty promises, but there have definitely been Electric Fencer-related things going on behind the curtain.
I’ve been working on that new-ish style for coloring, and it’s been showing a lot of promise with how quickly I can get illustrations completed (the image of Elliott and Andrew as children above was worked on and completed in only a couple of hours).
Work (the 9–5) has gotten to be a little hectic and draining to the point where it’s actively getting in the way of producing the comic, but for the month of October, I’m going to focus on getting back on track despite the situation. Electric Fencer Issue 3 will be up a bit later than I initially intended but it’ll definitely be worth the wait.
Speaking of which, updates on Issue 3: I wasn’t especially happy with the direction it was going and I figured rather than going forward and simply hoping the comic levels out, I decided to start from the beginning, but this time with better knowledge and more tools in my belt. The new coloring style practice has been a result of that effort. Additionally, Issue 3 will be our first BIG issue with it being a whopping 36 pages as opposed to our usual 24. I wanted to really give the characters a chance to show what they can do as well as touching on some other bits of character development before we go full swing into the adventure.
Tags have been added to each of the pages make your favorites easier to find. I’m new to this SEO business (I imagine some SEO guru out there is saying, “Ooh! He said the thing!!), but here’s hoping this little update will help each new page or post gain some traction and more people can find them.
The layout of the front page has been changed as well and now there’s a background to make the site not feel like you’re looking at a wall. There’ll more of these types of cosmetic changes in the future as well.
While you’re waiting for Issue 3, why not reread the series so far from Issue 1? I hear that’s a great way to build hype for a new season of TV, so maybe it’ll work here? We’ve also got our three articles in the Extras section—Sestius? Wait, What?, What is Klein?, and It’s a Fairly Large World, After All—covering some element of the worldbuilding for Electric Fencer. I promise you won’t be quizzed on it, but they’ll all play some role down the line in the narrative.
I’ve been out for the summer, but not necessarily on vacation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My day job has been keeping me busy, as well as commissions. I’ve actually been suffering from a slight bit of burnout from these two things, but even worse, I’ve been dealing with creative constipation in the sense that I really want to work on Electric Fencer content that will push the story forward, but I’ve had a ton of other responsibilities that have set me back. Mental health has also taken something of an asswhooping these last few months so all I’ve really wanted to do was sleep or play video games. I got back into World of Warcraft, which has been a lot of fun. If only a soul-sucking timesink could help get comics done…
So while I haven’t been as active in this space the last few months as I’d like, I do have some excellent news: I have an appearance this month at the West Virginia Pop Culture Convention (WVPopCon) from August 27th to the 28th! During our appearance at 3 Rivers Comicon back in early June, the showrunner for WVPopCon approached us and invited us to purchase a booth at the event. We’ll be there with books, stickers, buttons, prints, and the like for sale.
Speaking of books, we’ve begun printing hard copies of Issue 1 to sell at conventions. We’re still figuring out what we’ll do to make them available for sale through the site. Big shout out to the mad lads at Greko Printing and Comix Well Spring for always turning out super high quality prints for us in such a short time and just being super cool about it.
I’ve also been working on doodles and sketches moreso than I ever have in the past, and I’m thinking some of that will be coming forward in Issue 3. I’ve already informed our writer that I’d like to go with a simpler visual style than the ultra detailed shading we had before, and the results I’ve been toying with have been coming out pretty nicely. Have a look:
This means that Issue 3 is going to be restarted to employ the new art style as well as fix some minor inconsistencies brought about by the original way we were going about it. The goal is to still have something out by mid-late October at the absolute latest, but I’ll keep you all posted should things change. With this style, I’m hoping to be able to finish the art for each issue much more quickly than before.
I think that’s about all I have for now, but I hope to be back with more updates before long. See you then!
Best caption gets a high five at my next convention.
Speaking of which, I’ll be at 3 Rivers Comicon again this year from June 4-5. I was a late addition, but I’m glad to be there nonetheless. If you’re in the Pittsburgh area this weekend, come on by and say hi.
Hello! It’s been a minute. I’ve had public appearances and a lot of freelance to tend to over the past month, so it’s been a lot quieter here than I intended, but I finally have the first bit of supplemental material I promised. It’s a world map and with it comes a new article in the Extras section, It’s a Fairly Large World, After All. Unlike the other two articles, this one will be ongoing and info on new continents and nations will be added as we continue. Our first bit is a rundown of the continent of Laurentiis. Check it out.
Page 24 of Issue 2 has gone live, and with that, Issue 2 has come to a close. Thanks for following along thus far! Issue 3 is going to be great.
As previously mentioned, the comic itself is going to go dark for the next few months while I catch up on life stuff and progress on Issue 3. You’ve actually already seen a couple of shots of the next issue (the profile pictures for the distortion beasts are lifted from Issue 3). Here’s a few more, sans context:
As you can see, I went with slightly warmer, more vibrant colors and the characters are more expressive. This is actually the first issue of Electric Fencer that will be done 100% digitally. In previous years of my creative career, I started with traditional pencil and paper art, then scanned everything in and inked and colored the sketches. Switching to this method of production, I feel, has made for a more impactful and dynamic comic.
I’ll be back soon with more updates. Thanks for reading!
Last week, Page 22 went up and this week, the penultimate, Page 23 is up. We’re getting ready to give these electric dogboys the business.
With this, I think it’s also time to announce that the comic will be taking an extended break until later this year to catch up on real life work, commissions, and such. I’m aiming for somewhere between October and December…er…I mean August and October (the real world months, not the Electric Fencer ones) for the debut of Issue 3. I’ll have details closer to the date, but fret not, this space isn’t going to just be dead for the next four months. I have a number of updates planned, primarily aimed at content for the extras section, and some side content. Maybe a behind-the-scenes look at some things too. In the meantime, of course, Issue 3 will be worked on. I even have the first several pages ready.
For next week, Page 24 will go up and as a bonus, just to show you guys that I’m not just making shit up (as Elliott would put it), I’m also going to share some panels from the next issue to show you all what you can look forward to when we come back.
Until then, I’m going to get some very well-deserved rest.
Today on Page 20, we learn about distortion beasts. They look like giant magical eldritch good boys.
Giant magical eldritch good boys.
They’ve also been given their entry on the Characters page, with a bonus entry for Boss Distortion Beasts. We’ll be meeting these guys in proper soon. The characters page also received a slight change to how each character is numbered. Nothing big, but I foresee we may need the hundreds place for the number of characters at some point in the distant future.
Remember those strange green glowy things from page 22 of Issue 1?
They make a return today on page 19 and we get just a little bit more information about them. Page 18 also went up last week.
Issue 2 will be wrapping up soon and we’ve got some announcements of things coming to the site over the next few weeks coming soon. Stay tuned.
Issue 3
