Hey there!

I am just sending this message to anyone reading only the redone/revamp of Dark Horse (or anyone wanting to see changes). Main story is the same, but I've been not only updating art, but tweaking things...like, you know, having Rin actually TALK about the nightmare sequence in the previous chapter...so that it's somewhat relevant and not just out of the blue, then gone again XD XD

The pages following Act 5 are going to be in a bit of a disarray as I'm updating the old with the new again, but I hope to have this process done in a couple hours :D It's only 26 pages, so hopefully I can go pretty quick :3

Also, we update as usual today, but I promised one more web short, so there's gonna be a post at 5:45pm (I have my account set to Pacific, but it posts sooner o_O), and the actual update at 6:00pm.

I hope everyone has a safe and lovely weekend!

Blue

P. S.

Here's a sample of changes (old first, new later):






Annnnnnnnd final sample of Act 6 revamp/The Uninvited:



Enjoy! And feel free to check it out when it's updated (like I said, should be done by Saturday, May 15, if not sooner :3)

Hey everyone,

Just a head's up. I have one last "Web Short" planned, but since Brad's getting his stint out tomorrow, there's not going to be a post.

I'm going to have two posts next week: the last "web short" and the cover for the next act. I will post one on Wenesday and the other on Friday.

Thanks for your understanding! With any luck this will be the last big event for....a while? I'll see ya'll next week :)

~Blue

 

I'm sorry to write this. I know if I pushed myself, I could get the timeline ready for Friday, but my partner's been having gallbladder issues for years, with the newest spell hitting him on his birthday back on Feb. 17, 2021. Then, the week of February 21, he had upset stomache, but was able to keep things down. By Monday, he was sick vomitting anything he ate. We thought he had the flu or food poisoning, because I don't eat meat or animal products, and the only difference in our diet was eggs and chicken that week: I was not sick, so we ruled out the flu and thought it was food related illness. 

I tried the BRATs diet, but he kept getting sick, and he kept putting off going to the Urgent Care because we don't have health insurance (he's been getting interviews, but one went bad because the gallbladder attack was of course during his second interview test). By Friday I set the appointment for him and made him go to the urgent care.

Long and the short, last Friday/Saturday morning we were at the Urgent Care all night until 8pm or so, and they sent us to the ER. He had a blockage which lead to his gallbladder being removed Monday. I brought him home yesterday (against my better judgement), but this morning at 7:30 he fell unconscious and cut his chin open, and I have been at the ER literally since 8:00a (I had to rush the dogs out and let the ambulence take him ahead of my coming).

So while all the characters are colored, and the timeline scripted out, I am too goddamn exhausted to work on anything today. I am sorry, but I am just so drained.

This year...last year...everyone I know is just falling apart. It's getting really fucking hard to keep positive. It's kind of a lot...I have up until this point been able to keep up, but everytime I start to catch up some major catastrophe happens. I have to focus on caring for him at the moment. I know you will all understand, but I wanted to send this message because I know there are comments I haven't been able to keep up with, and I feel bad for not being able to respond.

I don't think this will be a long hiatus. I am just going between the hospital and coming home for our dogs who can't be locked up on all day. I am finding it hard to squeeze in working (though I'd been juggling it pretty well up until today). Today was scary. I don't want to share the details, but I have no one to talk to, so I'm writing this blog. I mean, I could call my mom, but she's dealing with caring for Dad, and I don't want to stress her more.

I project to be able to post something next Friday. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and sorry for this long drawn out blog. I would like to think of myself as a private person, but I guess not. This year has taken a toll on that.

Thank you, and take care.


Blue Dragon/Ashleen

I will *hopefully* not make another blog post for a while (I don't want to intrude too much into people's time XD).

So between my *slight* understanding of copying and pasting coding per everyone else's instruction, and my partner coming over and taking pity on my attempts to follow Kyo's instruction, we were able to install the integrated comment box Kyo coded a while back. And with my partner's help, we made it kinda pretty :3

But I'm unsure about how glaring white the box is against the darker background. We tried in several places to darken the text that's part of the comment box (the embed html option, and the black text  "Leave a Comment" section outside the box).

As far as Brad can tell, it's got to do something with Kyo's code for the comment box, and we could not change the font color no matter how we tried XD (He's more of Python coding dude than HTML.) So instead we looked at Luzbug's website (she's amazing, by the way, go read Krazy Noodle Massacre!) and inspected her code to see how she did it. Long and the short, we ended up settling on a lighter colored box so the black text would stand out. But if it's hurting people's eyes, I know now how to tweek the box colors, and I can manipulate that if it's something that you readers want :3

So just let me know if the boxes look horrible and are making your eyes bleed.

Thanks!  And thanks for reading :D

~Blue Dragon

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