Ugh, sorry for so many blogs so close together. I didn't think I'd actually get things done this quick! I don't think I'll be posting another for a while now that this project is finally complete (at this stage.)

The early pages are uploaded and ready to read!

Everything reads LEFT to RIGHT until The New Deal (Act 5/6) & Opposition (Act 6/7), which are old chapters and read right to left. Once you hit "Awakenings," it reads left to right again, as that's the act where I made the switch I have put reminder pages before each of these to indicate which direction to read. I apologize for the confusion! I changed the direction to my native language so I could better focus on my pictoral story telling, which I decided would probably be easier the way I was taught to read. 

As I complete redrawn acts, they will be uploaded here. However, unless someone wants me to announce them, I'll just quietly replace the old pages, as I am not changing the order in which they occur from here on out. I may be splitting up some of the longer acts to shorten them, and re-number acts as I go along. Chapters and numbers are going to be a little confusing for a while, but I *think* I caught most of them and at the very least (not on the pages) changed the headers for them.

If I missed something, or you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask :D

Thank you again, and have a nice rest of the weekend everyone!


~Blue Dragon

Good evening,

I am posting this blog as I've gotten a handful of new subscribers, and I am not sure where people are in the story. If you are all caught up, this message probably won't effect you. You're welcome to read and comment, though, if you wish :D

As of today, Acts 2-3 will be in a major upheaval as I update the old pages. For two years (since Aug. 2018), I've been working on fixing all my old pages. This extended not only to the art, but also many elements of the story telling. During this process, I changed the order of events to make more sense for the readers.

So what am I doing?

What used to be Act 3 here is now officially Act 2 (well, up to page 19). I moved this scene, because it better introduces the first "flash forward" to the future we see. I've also extended this "flash forward." I've added an entire 28 page act to go into more detail about one of the important characters in this comic (Odysseus). He acts as the reader's guide through what has happened in the future, and his story was an important element that was missing in the original version. And what was once "Act 2" here on Comic Fury, is now primarily the new "Act 4."

So what's the issue?

It's going to take me all weekend to get pages in order where they belong, as I'm trying to replace old pages so as not just delete all them and their comments, because I value my readers' input and the time they took to comment. I'm trying very hard to delete only pages that I cannot reasonably replace. This is a pretty major under taking, but I've gotten Act 1 completed and reading from left to right. But fixing the other two acts, and uploading an entirely new one, is leaving the early pages of this comic in madness and disarray.

So why this message?

Just to give new readers a head's up, so they know I'm aware of the missing and mismatched pages, and that I'm trying to get them updated as fast as possible so as to get us back on track and smooth things out. I am working on this all weekend and intend to have the pages fixed and up and running by Monday (ideally). If you were in the middle of one of these acts when I began my work, I sincerely apologize for the disruption!

So thank you for your patience!!

Seriously, anyone who is getting uprooted from this, I am sorry. I had to do it at some point, and I purposely left Dark Horse out of the Halloween Crossover exchange this year, because I knew this was coming soon (and I wanted to do something different, too, since I never submit my doggo comic :3). Thank you for understanding, and please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or just want to yell at me for this while you were reading D: I know I have quite a few silent readers, and even though we don't talk much, I appreciate you!

Take care,

~Blue Dragon

I haven't written a blog in a while, but since I was unable to post last week, and the same is looking to be true for this week, I wanted to give you readers a head's up, without posting a page.

As you may know, my partner and I had to travel back to Illinois on Sept. 14. My parents are older, and I had to help my mom with paperwork she didn't understand, as we finally were able to get my dad's health decline diagnosed. TMI, but he has muscular dementia. He should be in a nursing home now, but we know several people who had their homes taken by the State and sold to pay for putting a person in a nursing home. My mom, sister, and nephew all live in that house: if it was just Mom, she'd say "fuck it" and move into an apartment, cause she's sick of the upkeep. But it's not. So there you have it. 

So I had to discuss and help get started the process of transfering everything over to my mother's name (which, we found out my dad hadn't done, even though they'd been married for over 49 years--I don't want to get into it, but he should have had her name on the house to begin with).

Needless to say, this has been something preoccupying my time. We just got back home last night, and while I'm excited and ready to get pages done, there's a lot that we need to do to get settled back in (unpacking, grocery shopping, cooking, etc). I am motivated to work. We are entering an important crossroads in the story.

I will be posting again next week for sure. I have things thumbnailed, just been too busy, and with the pandemic I didn't want to pull my paper and pencils and pens out and get everything I own contaminated (we are seriously budgeting to build or buy our own bus to move into, so we can make visits without having to interact with society if we don't want to—it's a lot of downsizing, but we're tired of our material objects weighing us down, and have both had wake up calls seeing our families struggling because they don't want to lose things that...for the most part hold no sentimental value or meaning).

I'm sure this is all way too much information, but I've been on Comic Fury since...I think 2015, and most of you I feel I have some type of connection with and felt you deserved to be given a bit of inside information. I am so thankful you all have been with me on this journey with Dark Horse. You give me motivation, inspiration, and encouragement. I honest to God value all the years you've been there for me (this community in general, even if I don't share much personal info on the forums). When I lost my Manga Tutorials community, and had moved away from my friends and family, you all filled a tiny portion of that gap. I've since been able to reconnect with some of my friends and have written coorespondence with them, so I'm in a much better place than I was. But I really appreciate even the short comments, or the comics I've read, or the debates and discussions I've on the forums. This place is truly a forum I kinda feel at home with.

So thank you! I'll see you all next week, and I pray you've been keeping safe and sane.

Best wishes,

~Blue Dragon

Good day readers!

Well, we're about halfway through 2019, and I figure it's about time to roll out and update from my January 2019 goals. Some I mentioned here, some I didn't. But...let's review what all has been accomplished so far for Dark Horse and the Crystal Lotus Chronicles.

• Converted Comic Fury Dark Horse website to HTML and added affiliate links/Patreon/etc buttons to my site (hurray! I don't need to put them in my Author's comment anymore!)
• Created a home website for Dark Horse! And it's nearly complete (I still want to add a "shop" to it, and have a few small updates to make.)
• Created and added my own background to Comic Fury and my main website.
• Created a YouTube account and have updated it every week.
• Participated in several contests and exchanges (on Comic Fury.)
• Reached the end of Act Five!!! HURRAY!
• Flipped Act One AND got it printed for conventions! Also, starting with the Act 3 revamp and Act 6, Dark Horse now reads left to right.
• Worked on improving backgrounds and using more detail in my comic.
• Created my own font and started drawing my own bubbles to fit the style of the comic.

I am always open for suggestions! If you think there's something I can do to improve, please let me know! If there's something you want to see on this site, or on my website, let me know! I love interacting with my readers, and while I of course want to stay true to my story and vision, I am happy to take and review suggestions (constructive) in order to create a better story and improve my own skills. I want to of course please myself with my story, but I want to also to share and add enjoyment and free entertainment for others. Yes, my craft needs improvement. But even looking at pages from earlier this year, I can see where I've definitely improved in some aspects. I've still got  a long way to go! And I'm looking forward to getting better and better.

Okay, let's see what goals I haven't reached, and hopefully I can attain them before the end of the year!

• Create a year's worth of buffer for both the revamp and the Comic Fury version of Dark Horse.
• Taking Whimper in the Dark off hiatus.
• Interacting with more anime/manga related sites.
• Continue building my audience.
• Attend a convention (I've applied for a small one, but I won't hear if I'm in until late August.)
• Get 1000 subscribers on YouTube (this is a long term goal: I know it's not happening the first year I created it. XD)
• Continue improving on backgrounds, details, proportions; work on panel and page layouts to make them more dynamic, interesting, and clearer.
• Work on my storytelling: both visually and  through dialogue.

Thanks to anyone who reads Dark Horse! And thank you to those who support the comic either by reading, donating, advertising, watching my vids (I usually talk about Dark Horse), or all of the above! You guys keep me going, and I greatly appreciate your readership and support!

Take care, and keep on truckin'!

~Blue Dragon

Here's a picture for reading all this XD


 

Hey there! 

I've decided to make this "blog" area more of an "update" section, seeing as I already have a blog on Word Press. By and By, feel free to visit my blog, Cerulean Dreams Graphics.

I am in the process of updating both the layout of this site, and creating my own home for Dark Horse and the rest of the Crystal Lotus Chronicles. I haven't really discussed Dark Horse  much aside from what updates are coming and such, but a comment from one of my readers got me thinking...maybe I should go into more detail XD

Dark Horse is the first in a four to five part series known as the Crystal Lotus Chronicles (CLC): it's the introduction to our main characters and the world they live in. That said...it is going to be a complete story that can stand on it's own two (four?) legs, but continues into the rest of the series. The website home for my series is still under construction, so please be patient as I have a lot of projects going at the same time. When all's said and done, the main site for Dark Horse, and the CLC will update on a regurlar weekly basis--I may have it update a day ahead of my mirror sites, BUT Comic Fury, Tapas, and Smack Jeeves will all continue to up date regularly. That said, the main site will be updating at REVAMP speed, so Comic Fury will still be the most up to date story wise. This is because I want the main site to reflect what will be available in e-book and in print. 

So Comic Fury is going no where, and will always (in the foreseeable future) be an important site I update. It's become my replacement forum for the now defunct Manga Tutorials site (a place I held very dear, and was super upset when the creator just let it fall to the wayside and didn't even give the community a chance to take up the financial ​burden of keeping it running. Perhaps something happened to her...or maybe she just got too busy. But I remember a lot of moderators stepping up trying to reach her so we could keep the site from disappearing...) ~Le sigh. But...all things must pass. 

Anywho! You guys can look forward to a better...designed Comic Fury Dark Horse page coming soon as I work on the background. If you have any comments or suggestions, I certainly invite you start a conversation here :D 

And thank you for sticking with me on this bumpy road. I'm trying to improve my art and story telling, and I hope you are enjoying it as much as I've enjoyed creating this comic :D

Take care,

~Blue

Hola everyone! 

 

We're getting super close to the end of Act 4, in about seven pages! Only seven pages left to go!! So I thought it was time to post another blog. Also, I have a super exciting announcement to make! Brad and I finally have gotten ourselves together and began work on a comic he'd been kicking around surrounding his dog (and now my dog, since we live together  now.) It's call The Whimper in the Dark, and you can read it here on Comic Fury :D  You can view it here: http://wind.webcomic.ws/. 

Here's a look at how this comic will be be drawn:

If I can get a bit of a buffer going again, I'd really like to start posting twice a week again. I've been working more hours lately, though, and I'm working on a second comic (and planning to redo another comic I'd started on years back,) so I'm not certain I'll have a chance to do that anytime soon. Also...working on re-vamp doesn't help. I need to get back to that! Sorry I'm so slow!! But, there's always a lot going on, so please be sure to stop by now and then to check things out!

I'm not sure that I ever posted this here, but I redid an old image of Rhina a few years back. I intend to redo this again, as I am not happy with her hair. Her eyes are a little off, too. But here's a comparrison for your enjoyment!

 

Until next time, best wishes everyone!

 

Ashleen 

Hey everybody!

 

Thanks for holding in there while I was gone! It's crazy how over whelming things can be when you're moving, adjusting to a new job, and just trying to get your life organized! It also didn't help that since the move, Brad's been using his entire desk a lot...so I couldn't use his glass top desk as my own personal light box anymore (though I do say, I liked the space!) 

 

Well, for my birthday (the 1st of Feb.) he got me a new light box! Er...light pad. It's super cool! I already tried it out with  my technical pens, and hope to do some India inking this week! I really need to anyway, as I just omited a page and reworked some panels that are coming up. 

Since I edited out a page, I thought I'd share it with you all, so my efforts will not have been in vain :) 

Super excited about next week's post! I worked really hard on it, and that's why I ended up scrapping this page here: I just wanted to omit some boring bickering and get more into the action.

 

Hope you're still  enjoying Dark Horse, and have a great rest of your week everyone!

 

~Blue Dragon

Hello, hello!

So a while back, I promised I was working on revamping Act 1. And now I've finally gotten a bit of time to do so! I was so excited, that I've been up til 4 in the morning working on page 2 (the "prophecy" page is pg. 1). 

I wanted to share a little sneak peek of what's to come. I hope you all enjoy it!!!

 

I am going to keep things a bit parallel by making the first page or so colored...depending on what looks best. Here you'll get to see what some of the characters look like a little better early on :D I think a *few* pages will be left as they are, but most of Act 1 is going to be re-drawn. The story will not change, just the layout and of course the drawing style. I am really proud of what I've got done so far, so you can check out the sketches for Act 1 in my previous blog ---> http://darkhorse.webcomic.ws/blogarchive/22181

Thanks so much for your patience! And keep on truckin'!

 

~Blue Dragon~