Idol Archer

Hiatus Notice

2006-09-16T16:40:15Z

I doubt this bears pointing out, but IA is on something of a hiatus for the moment. I just haven't had time or motivation to work on it. I was in an art slump all summer which I'm semi-sort-of-almost coming out of now, but.. Yeah. Believe it or not, the next new page (not of the rewrite) has actually been half-done lying around my clipboard for probably like six months or something. Yeah, sad. I kind of wish I had an art team that I could just dictate to and then they'd go and actually whip it up.. sigh. ;P

Anyway. My main excuse is that I'm in law school now, so.. Yeah. I can't really say when I'll work on the comic next, but I don't want it to die because I want to tell this story, dammit. I'll work something out. But yeah, for now it's just kind of sitting around until I figure out what to do with it. Forty or fifty pages in over five years doesn't exactly bode well. But we'll see.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking with it and leaving me notes and pestering me to update. It makes me happy that people care. :) And I promise I'll get this damn story out one way or another.

♥ ♥ ♥
Kai

a decision to make, and a talk about copyright licenses

2006-05-01T04:12:58Z

This might be a kind of long entry, so it's getting lj-cut. Only the first part is important to the comic; the rest is just me ranting.

Part I

First off.. Aggghhh. I know I haven't updated since.. Oh, February, was it? To say things have been hectic.. Well. I'm graduating in.. One week and two days, I suppose (there are two ceremonies, but we'll go with the earlier one), and I've been struggling to ensure that I get my last couple of requirements done and I have the grades necessary to graduate. ;P Japanese in particular has been kicking my ass, as always. (I'll be graduating with a dual degree in Political Science and East Asian Studies.) In even more exciting (and terrifying) news, I was accepted to my top choice law school - UT Austin! - and will be starting there in the fall. I'm currently looking for somewhere to work in the summer before I head off to Austin.

You can probably see where I'm going with this. I'm busy already, and law school is.. Well. Law school. I adore IA, and desperately want to see it unfold, but when I examine the situation realistically I have to ask how I'm going to have time when the current new page has been sitting half-finished on my scanner for the last.. month and a half?

So.. After giving it a lot of thought, I've started seriously reconsidering something I've been resisting literally for years. I've started wondering if I shouldn't just write the damn story.

I'm not exactly stellar about keeping up with writing projects, either, but my success rate there is infinitely higher than that with comics (and art in general). See, I'm just a really, really slow drawer. A relatively very simple page takes me ten hours. Even assuming that I could draw a page a week (which, as you can see, hasn't been happening), with about 45 pages a chapter and at least 13 chapters of the story planned, that's.. Over eleven years. And IA isn't the only story I want to tell - believe it or not, some of the characters go on to do things after the main story's been told. So it just seems.. Utterly impractical. I look at webcomics that update at least once a week with 4-6 pages per update, and I'm just completely in awe. I can't even fathom how they manage it. (Cough, cough, Inverloch.)

So.. Even assuming a fairly slow pace.. I could write an entire chapter in the time it would take to do a few pages. It would be so much faster. It's not ideal at all - a lot of the gags rely on visual humour and facial expressions (and chibis and sweatdrops and the like), but I would really like to work on my narrative anyway, and it would be an interesting challenge. IA's supposed ot be an epic fantasy anyway, right? So.. Basically, I'm asking you, the reader, what you think. I assume I would lose a large portion of my readership, because people who read comics don't necessarily want to read original novella. But I figure I'll lose an even larger portion simply by continuing to never update, and.. Mostly I just want to tell this damn story already. I want people to know about all the things that happen to these characters, and realise the depth and complexity of each and every one of them. I've barely been able to skim the surface of the characters in what I've drawn so far, and I haven't even touched the plot. I just want this story to go somewhere. I would really like to make it illustrated, to, perhaps with at least one illustration per chapter (and the option to add more later, of course).

What do you think? Honestly. Would you continue to read? Would you have any interest at all?

Part II

All of that aside, I'd like to rant on a totally unrelated topic, and that's the Creative Commons copyright licenses. You see them all over the web, and I've noticed a slew of webcomics recently slapping them up on their pages, but are they really worth the pixels that represent them?

I personally think not. As I mentioned, I'm going to law school next year (this by no means implies I'm an actual authority on this matter) and intellectual property is one of the areas I'm strongly interested in. In the US, anything "once created from originality through 'mental labor' is instantaneously considered copyrighted to that person."* As of 1989 (when the US signed the Berne Convention), you do not need the © symbol to appear on something for it to be protected; however, officially licensing something helps greatly establish that you do have the original claim to a work. Copyright holders have the exclusive rights to their works, including making a profit from it, but here is where the CC license first starts pissing me off.

This is the moist stringent license the CC offers, the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5. It claims anyone is allowed "to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work," provided they "make clear to others the licence terms of this work." But if you look at the list of rights exclusive to a holder of a copyright by default, they include the following rights:

to produce copies or reproductions of the work and to sell those copies (including, typically, electronic copies)

to import or export the work

to create derivative works (works that adapt the original work)

to perform or display the work publicly

to sell or assign these rights to others

Emphasis mine. (Source.) By fair use, you're typically allowed to make copies of copyrighted works for private use (typically defined as less than 10 copies), but you're not allowed to publicly display the works, etc, without explicit permission. According to the CC license, I would be able to print out your work and display it at, say, an art gallery at a convention, or use it to generate sales at my booth, and there's nothing you can do about it. You've given me permission to display your art for whatever.

Unfortunately, obtaining an actual copyright license can be a hassle, you have to pay for it, and typically the work you wish to copyright has to be completed first, making it useless for those who publish their works piecemeal, such as webcomic artists. So to some, it seems the CC license offers the perfect solution; however, note that the CC has about the same (or perhaps less) effect legally as if you were to just write your own copyright notice. Even if you submit details of your work to CC, it doesn't have the same validity as a real license - for one, in a real license the government retains a copy of the copyrighted work, so it's the surest protection there is that it was created by the holder at or before the time it was alleged to have been. There's only been one case as of yet involving an artist who claimed copyright under a CC license, and unfortunately it wasn't in the US and we have only the precedent set by Dutch courts. Essentially, a guy sued a paper for publishing some pictures from his Flickr site, and the ruling was that the paper would only have to pay restitutions if it did it again.* Yep, that's some protection! The guy had the Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike license from CC, which even specifically stated that his works could not be used for commercial purposes. Yes, it's only one ruling (so far), but it's a disquieting precedent.

In short, I find the CC license a rather useless endeavour, designed more to promote feel-goodness in those using it than to actually legally protect their intellectual properties. You can be assured that a CC license will never appear on the pages of any of my works, but you can be equally confident that each of my works belongs to me and that my rights to those works will be jealously guarded. The only exception I allow is for derivative works, as per the typical webcomic's rules: Fanart and fanfic are delightful, and fancomics are good so long as they remain fanworks and not, say, attempted remakes or the like. And all must be properly accredited if displayed. I'm sorry if this makes me seem like a hardass to some people, but I am utterly respectful of the works of other artists (and writers) and expect to receive the same level of politesse from others.

Copyright is really not such a complicated thing, though enforcing it can be. It's largely a matter of hoping to god you're never the target of blatant theft, because it's almost impossible to come out of such a dismal situation unscathed. I've seen countless artists like hardartist become hardened and cynical after incidents of theft, and I'm particularly sensitive because of the initial popularity of talasiths (due to my adoption site and later the RPG Tannas Hollow) and the number of people I noted at the time creating their own talasith or talasith-like characters and then using them in everything from other RPGs to their own comics. I'm flattered to be so inspirational, and I can't say anything about the talasith is particularly unique - long ears (though to be fair, I thought they were quite original when I designed them, never having seen Lodoss War or the like), fae, part animal. However, I've worked extremely hard at developing my own mythology, history, geography, and everything else for this world and these characters, and it still pains me somewhat to see characters with designs similar to my own, even when I know there isn't even the slimmest possibility that theft took place. (I guess I could also take that as a sign to strive for more original character designs. XP)

So.. There's my tuppence. I'll be extremely interested to explore this topic further in law school, but until then, I remain completely sceptical of the powers of Creative Commons.

omg another update?!

2006-02-20T06:04:20Z

New page.

Don't know if I'm going to stick with this or not. I love the look of my "coloured" (greyscale) pages, but this was faster.. Even if the top panel killed me. I ended up resorting to chibi just because I couldn't manage anything else. Sigh.

In any case, lemme know what you think about the b&w thing, I'm so indecisive.

Please please please enter the contest~!

v-day special + new contest!

2006-02-15T03:23:48Z

Valentine's Day Special is up!

There are also four new pieces of fanart, a new poll, and a new contest. This time around, the contest is for fanfiction. Any type of fic you want. Prizes include having scenes from the story illustrated and art commissions from moi, so please check it out! The deadline is March 31st, so you have a month and a half to work on it.

I fixed my scanner over the weekend (turns out my using the scanner at home over winter break had buggered everything up.. weird, but at least my scanner wasn't broken!), so the new page will be up shortly. It's being delayed by three things: 1) Law school applications, 2) the fact that we have a quiz EVERY %^&@ING DAY in Japanese, and 3) that all my other classes have decided to have papers due and tests all around the same time. And, of course, I'm working as usual. (Sigh.) But as I've cryptically mentioned elsewhere, I think I've hit on a way to make the pages go by faster.. hopefully everyone won't hate it. So as soon as I get this week's worth of junk out of the way, I'll work on getting the new page up. In the meantime, please check out the contest! Our last one was a total failure, and I still owe the prizes from the first.. It would help if I could take all my fabrics/sewing stuff to school with me. -_-*

So! Happy Valentine's Day, and please enter the contest!!! (I'm going to keep mentioning it until you do. :D)

update!

2005-12-11T00:40:01Z

New page. I hate it. I think the more time I'm forced to spend working on something, the more I hate the outcome. (My inking pen magnificently died in the middle of it and I've been weeks getting off my butt and finding an art shop and getting a new one.)

New fanart - a four page doujinshi - and another new page of Second Chance. Ignore KLM's comments about the art, they're all wrong. It rocks. XD

www.idolarcher.com

I should confess part of the reason I'm being so slow is that I've been sucked up by Harry Potter again and I've been fanart-ing my little heart out. I justify it by pretending drawing ANYTHING is good, even if it's not IA. Sorry, guys.

New Page! New art! New new new!!!

2005-11-15T05:42:55Z

..A post?! From Kai?? OMFGBBQ~~!!!

That's right, this can only mean one thing: THERE IS A NEW PAGE.

So it's really "just" a cover page, AND it's from the rewrite.. who cares? New page! Go!

And, God help me, there will be a new page NEXT weekend, too! (Assuming I'm not too busy fangirling Harry Potter.) And the weekend after that! And after that! IDOL ARCHER LIIIVES!

..Ahem. There's also some new fanart, but not as much as I suspect I actually got during that hiatus. If you sent something in, and it's not up yet, please please PLEASE resend it. Godaddy may have a few advantages over ADDR (my new and old hosts, respectively), but e-mail is NOT one of them. I essentially went months with no e-mail as anything sent to kai@dokuja got bounced back. Yaaargh. So PLEASE send it again and accept my apologies!!

And, in terms of even MORE newness: NEW SECOND CHANCE. There's more to come of that, too, with every IA update. Be excited.

AND, because I'm the Kai that keeps on giving, NEW ART. Don't die of shock, please. There's a little doodle from class in the gallery just because I thought it was funny (Gothic Lolita Fennel? I need to turn that into a full picture), AND if you click to vote for Idol Archer on Buzzcomix, you can see the "thank you" picture for getting FIVE HUNDRED "fav't of"s on OnlineComics.Net. 500. Wow, guys. The thank-you art features Linden and Ayla's new, more coherent designs, so check it out.

So.. There you are. I'll update the poll later, and think about starting a new contest (though I still owe the participants from the last contest their prizes.. maybe I should just offer art 'til I get this sewing thing down XD). 'Til then, hopefully you have enough to tide you over. I'm going to go pass out now. Wheeee!

idolarcher @ 2005-03-26T00:28:00

2005-03-26T06:29:03Z

Page 28 is up, and I apologise for both its lateness and lameness. Clicky.

The first page of Second Chance is also up: Mo' clicky.

I also messed with the "about" page because I disliked the current format and wanted to go back to Q&A, as well as clear up any possible remaining confusion as to how the comic is made. (On that note, I finally uploaded and linked that "how to" page I made awhile back.) Also added is a really random page on the main talasiths and their animal traits which I apparently wrote up some time ago in some kind of painfully sober stupor.

Unfortunately this will more than likely be the last update before the hiatus as I'm leaving in one week. I'm sorry it's so late, but I've been extremely busy - not only in getting ready to go, but in doing a million stupid things I've got to do before I go. For instance, I spent half of today cutting out foam crawfish. ..Yes, really. My mom just opened her own shop in February, and I've been painting signs for it and occassionally helping with weird random things like that. (There's a big crawfish festival here in April.)

IN MORE INTERESTING NEWS, the "guest comic contest" has officially begun! Please don't procrastinate until the last minute with entries - the idea is to be able to pose them on a rolling basis, so the earlier you get them in the happier Kai will be. Of course, you have until August, but I'd rather get the entries spaced out than get them all the week before the deadline. That'll give people time to read them before they vote instead of throwing them all up at once. XD;

What else..? I must admit I've shamefully wasted some time with this, too:

I have Fox, Fennel, and Talyn done too, and Ghost and Dokuja half done. What are they for..? Nothing, really. Just my own amusement. I might make actual sprites too. They're good timewasters for when I have to be on the computer anyway.

So! There's all my long, drawn-out news. Unless something happens between now and Friday, except my next update to come from Japan!

Dun dun duuuun...!!

2005-03-17T19:45:20Z

It's now official!

Idol Archer has moved to www.IdolArcher.com!

Please update your bookmarks and links, thank you. ^^

Now, on to updates:

The Valentine's Day Special is finally up. Check it out!

We now have several new sections, including downloads and a special page for IA doujinshi/guest strips. Related to this, IA now has its own ongoing doujinshi, drawn by the marvelous Kuja's Little Mage and available here.

We also now have a forum, as well as an oekaki board (finally! *_*), which will hopefully encourage more of you to poke your noses in and comment. XD

There's a bunch more fanart, by wonderful artists like Kaiyu, Cat, Susan Starr, Kuja's Little Mage, and of course, Duo. I highly recommend you go see if you haven't already.

And finally, the Valentine's Day contest is over. When I closed it, I thought we only had four entries, but it turns out Faye's had been lost in the mail. ^^; In any case, I didn't really want to award three out of four contestants (that just sucks), so everyone is getting a keychain for their awesome entries. :D (I am a benevolent dictator, see?) Which means.. you really should have entered! But there's always next time. New contest will be announced shortly once I figure out what I want to do - there's a thread in the forums dedicated to the topic.

The shoppe section may take awhile to open simply because I can not be making and selling merchandise while I am in Japan (where I will be from 2 April to 2 August), so it may be the end of the summer before that is actually fully up, my apologies.

In any case, I hope there's plenty of stuff to keep you entertained for now, and thank you for reading! ^^

idolarcher @ 2005-02-21T09:42:00

2005-02-21T15:53:45Z

If it's not one thing, it's another.

I've been very dissatisfied with my host lately (ADDR) and recently got an e-mail from them informing me my credit card had expired (which it had). However, the e-mail linked directly to the form where you input your new info, and I don't know about you, but I'm highly suspicious of this type of setup, since it's completely possible to do domain masking and all this other nonsense. I've been thinking of switching to Go Daddy (of superbowl fame) for awhile, since they're so unbelievably cheap (that's how I got idolarcher.com), so I wanted to know how much longer I had in my contract with ADDR. You can't get this info via their Control Panel, so I logged on to one of those "live chats" to ask about it.

The guy was really rude, I thought, and completely unhelpful. I said I'd been thinking of switching, and his response was "I'm sorry to hear you're planning on changing services" or some other crap that showed he didn't give a shit. Frankly, I don't see why I'm paying InterNic so much to register my name and why I'm giving ADDR my ten bucks a month when they don't offer subdomains or board support, and they want to charge an extra $5/mo to get mySQL. (You get allt his for the same price with godaddy). So, long story short, I'm going to change hosts.

Unfortunately, this means everything gets wiped and I have to reupload everything from scratch, and I'm not sure how long the actual switch will take. (Less than a week, I would think.) Dokuja.com will likely be down at some point during that. The upshot of all this is that Idol Archer may disappear for a week or so, I'm not sure, so I don't see much point in killing myself to update it when it'll likely be down. (Scanner situation not resolved, and I'm working full time and helping my mom with her store on the weekends, so time has been scarce. Thank you everyone for your suggestions on where to get cheap scanners, but I already have one, I just don't physically have it in my possession. XD)

So.. I'm thinking rather than wasting time uploading all the IA stuff onto dokuja.com when it's going to move soon anyway, I'll skip that step and try to get the new layout together so I can just skip directly to the new domain.

I'm sorry if allt hat sounded like a commercial for Go Daddy, but I've been really impressed not only with what they offer but with their service. I strongly recommend against ever hosting with ADDR, as they have limited options and you have little access to administrative stuff, and their customer service majorly bites.

The short version of all that: Dokuja.com might be down for a little bit, until the move takes effect and I reupload everything. IA will be down a little longer, probably, until I can get the new stuff up on idolarcher.com. Thank you guys for being so patient; I feel like an ass, espcially when I'm leaving in five weeks. But I'll try to sort everything out as quickly as is humanly possible. (And I only have two more weeks until I leave my job, so..)

PS - I feel bad that the V-Day special is so delayed (it's going to be computer coloured, so I'm really stuck on it until I can scan), so.. would anyone care for a short written story to tide you over? XD;

And as a final note - I have almost 50 gmail invites sitting around, does anyone want one? (Just reply with your e-mail address if you do. <3)

idolarcher @ 2005-02-14T12:45:00

2005-02-14T18:46:51Z

Okay. I have no scanner. This is not such a good thing. I tried doing a temporary replacement V-Day pic with my WACOM last night and -- er, it sucked. So. No scanner = not good. I'm working on it. Sorry for the delay. D:

Love,
Kai THE HABITUALLY LATE

updates!

2005-01-31T02:02:56Z

I'm feeling lazy, so for the most part this will be copy-pasted from the info box. XD; (Yes, there is a new page, but it's not really - it's a cover page. Sorry to everyone who was waiting for Fox and Caol to start making out, or something. XD Link for you!)

I have some awesome news to announce soon, but I need to get my stuff together first. Unfortunately, I'm working full time at a temp job for 6 weeks to raise money for my trip to Japan, so I've moved updates to Monday so I have a chance to work on new pages over the weekend.

There's also a new contest entry - please go check out the contest if you haven't already, there are cool prizes and everything! XD Also, as a sort of spoiler to my "big announcement," here is a lovely forum and oekaki board! :D Please use them!

..And I am never, ever drawing a coffin again. XD

updates!

2005-01-16T08:02:40Z

New page, new poll, new links. Check it out.

Also, I'm announcing the first ever Idol Archer Fan Contest! This first one is a themed fanart contest, but in the future I hope to do all sorts of different things to give everyone a chance to win something. :D

The prizes for the current contest are an IA plush character keychain, an Idol Archer t-shirt, or custom artwork, which I think are all pretty cool. You can read up on contest details here - please enter, or I'll feel like a total ass. XD

[Edit] Contest link is fixed. Whoops. Also, note that the deadline for entries is February 28, 2005, so you've still got plenty of time!

idolarcher @ 2005-01-07T23:10:00

2005-01-08T05:10:35Z

Here's the reason that there was no comic last week (and likely none tomorrow, either):

My Dad's birthday was yesterday. He doesn't have any pictures or anything of the ship his dad served on in WW2 (actually he has very very little of his dad's to begin with - he died well before I was born), so I thought he might like one. (There's some glare in the picture that I couldn't avoid - turning flash off made it hard to see. Oh well.)

This is also very clear evidence of why I do not paint, and why I dropped out after Art I. Real media, bah.

idolarcher @ 2004-12-25T01:54:00

2004-12-25T07:54:41Z

Oh man.

So first off, we have a Christmas special: Click me. What the hell does it have to do with anything? I have no idea. I just suddenly wanted to draw people tango-ing.

I really wanted to do a mini-comic like I did a few years back, but I honestly could not come up with a thing to draw. (As evidenced by this totally nonsensical offering.) I tried for days to think up some cute little plot, and I got nothing. The replacement pic was done at the last minute, which is probably obvious - but ADMIRE THOSE TREES. I DREW THOSE TREES. IN PAINTER. I ARE SO PROUD. (Seriously, the trees are my favourite thing. Weep.)

Ahem. I have taken way too long to say in lieu of a mini-comic from me, you get an even better gift: hot, pumping yaoi action, courtesy of Mirre!

Seriously, you think I'm joking? She made an eleven page yaoi doujinshi for
IA. I am still speechless. It is gorgeous, and hysterically funny (I think). It's Caol/Talyn, since they seem so "popular" right now (alright, we all know Kai secretly likes Talyn best.. sigh). It's really, really good. So go read it. Why aren't you reading it yet? Go!

Me? I've read it enough times for one night, I think (if that's possible). I need to get to bed before my sister (who is 18 but acts more like 8 sometimes) springs into my room shouting "WAKEUPIT'SCHRISTMAS!!!"

Merry Christmas, all. :D

[Edit] FHDRFGHDFHBGD ADDR [dokucom's host] was down last night. [insert long string of swearing] FTP kept messing up but.. yeah. Apparently it DIDN'T work eventually. In any case the new stuff is up now.

Off to open presents~~ :DDD

idolarcher @ 2004-12-19T11:26:00

2004-12-19T16:26:50Z

Is it bad if I see that Ian J might be offering plushies soon and go "ACK! NO! Me first!"?

So, with that in mind, I offer you a prototype of the "secret project" I've been working on.. My apologies for the plush semi-nudity to follow.

idolarcher @ 2004-12-15T23:57:00

2004-12-16T04:57:58Z

Sorry, no new comic; but I thought I should make a quick note of WHY and WHEN, since those are the two questions people ask most.

The secondary purpose is to say that even though *I* do not have new stuff, there are three new pieces in the guest art gallery - by my wonderful liebchen, the ever-inspiring Mirre, and, totally out of the blue and rather flooring, from the author/artist of another very good webcomic (which is updated far more routinely than mine, it seems), DIVE.

So you should definitely check those out.

That said, there won't be a new page until after I get home, because finals are killing me and finishing the next page is not even a notion I can comprehend at this point. I don't know if I'll be able to get something done right after I get home - I might need some time to recuperate - but I'll try at the least to have a Christmas Special up on time, and hopefully new pages after that.

I can't remember if I posted about it in this journal or not, but it's now like 99.9% sure that I'm going to Japan in the spring. I have to say 99.9% because Nagoya hasn't made their final decision yet, but my college (NYU) pre-screens applicants and only two people's profiles were forwarded, mine included. They've never had Nagoya turn down someone they've recommended (though there's a first time for everything, I guess.) I'm not sure what's going to happen with the comic in the time I'm gone (April - Aug/Sep), but we'll play it by ear, I suppose.

The point of all that is to point out that I'm going to have three months of winter vacation instead of a summer vacation this year. Unfortunately I have to get a job to pay the bills (and my airfare and spending money in Nagoya), but I am hopeful that I'll be able to get plenty of other things accomplished. High on my priority list are things like DRAWING MORE, revamping the art section of dokucom, updating commission information, rearranging some stuff.. generally making the site more navigable and user-friendly, as well as linking only to content and not to half-explained story ideas that never went anywhere. It would also be nice to write again, but that's a distant dream.

idolarcher @ 2004-11-14T01:18:00

2004-11-14T06:18:55Z

No new page this week; I've got a cold which led to me spending all of three days in bed, essentially. (And cost me a day at work.. ugh.) But, instead of leaving you with that and nothing more, I actually drew you a nice little picture: Quick link. Ta-da.

[Edit] AND another new fanart by Recca. Yay. :D Check it out.

idolarcher @ 2004-11-10T16:44:00

2004-11-10T21:44:27Z

Whee so. Announcement! (Not a new page, sorry.) I've been giving a lot of thought to the issue of Part I of Idol Archer, and the format in general, and I finally asked some of my friends for advice. One of them, Kels (who has a fair amount of stuff in the gallery) made an incredibly good suggestion, and one that I'm actually going to try to follow.

I desperately want to re-do the beginning of IA, up to about page 13 of part 2. There are just a lot continuity errors and plot problems, and I'm not happy with the way you just jump into the story with very little explanation. (Like, how did Sevrin meet all these people, anyway?) Not to mention the art is just painful. So I've been trying to sort out a way to re-do the opening without affecting the progression of the story. (Though I must add that this will be a completely new script, though nothing substantial will be affected as it'll still match up with where we are now, so it's not as though it's just a remake and people who've read the beginning already should skip it. In particular, it's going to explain how Sevrin met Talyn in the first place... but I don't want to give too much away.)

So here's the deal: Regular updates will continue every week, or as near to that as I can manage. But I'm going to alternate new pages continuing the plot with the remake of the beginning; in other words, for two or three weeks there will be a new page added to the current scene, and then the next week there will be a page from the beginning. I know this has the potential to be confusing, but new intro pages will be clearly marked so it shouldn't be too complicated.

In addition, to further complicate things, I'm changing the formatting a little; rather than seperating the plot into "parts" of about 45 pages each, the story will instead be divided into chapters of about 20 pages. Around nine chapters will make up a volume, and I'll also try to throw in a "special" (shorter) extra chapter focusing on a specific character in each volume. (Much like they do in X, or like the way the Kenshin volumes tend to have an extra story at the end.)

As a final change, I'm going to make a concentrated effort to simplify my pages, or at least have such 'busy' pages appear less often. This will reduce the amount of action (action? what action?) taking place on a single page, which should make each page take less time for me to draw.

So.. there you have it. Hopefully this will go well and not make people too annoyed with me, heh.

idolarcher @ 2004-11-07T23:14:00

2004-11-08T04:14:42Z

Oops!

I am an ass. My sincerest apologies to Kibou Kitsune, Recca, and Angela. I finally remembered I never updated the guest art page. In other words:

Three new pieces of guest art! Check them out!

Fox, Dokuja, and Caol, the resident "hawt stuff" of IA. (It seems. Personally, I think Fox needs a little more nutrition. If he weren't a fruit bat, he'd probably have died of scurvy by now!)

We also actually have a links page like I'd been threatening. Man, I hate writing blurbs for them. I'm terribly sorry to anyone whose comic I butchered through my woeful ineloquence.

idolarcher @ 2004-11-07T17:12:00

2004-11-07T22:13:25Z

New page - Quick Link.

I'm not happy with it, but you know what? I spent all day yesterday working on it, and another five hours today. I have a bunch of schoolwork to do, and I've been irresponsible enough blowing the whole weekend on this. The saddest part is that this was about half sketched when I picked it up yesterday. This page definitely took WAY longer than ten hours.

A Public Service Announcement: If you're going to come and just harrass the tagboard users or harrass me to update, then don't even bother reading this comic. Find another one that updates more often, because leaving retarded messages that indicate you haven't read a thing on the page isn't going to make me update any faster. It's just going to annoy me. (And nasty messages on the tagboard WILL be deleted.)

Also, if you're going to write to me or anyone else who has a webcomic, for the love of god, spell the characters' names right. Especially the main character's. I honestly don't think Sevrin is that hard, yet I still get people commenting and mentioning "Servin" or "Severin" or "Sevren." S-E-V-R-I-N. Yes, I know there is a German name spelled "Severin." "Sevrin" is a French variation. They all share the same Latin root (Severus). No, his name is not a refence to the Harry Potter character, as I didn't start reading those until several years after IA was created (I didn't pick one up until book 4 had been released). But coincidentally, I do very much like Severus Snape - he and Sevrin just don't have anything in common besides a (coincidental) common name root.

And.. yes. My secret IA project has been put on the backburner for schoolwork at the moment, but I'll finish and post about it as soon as I can.

idolarcher @ 2004-10-31T01:17:00

2004-10-31T06:17:30Z

Teehee. Funny story. I got my nails done for Halloween. And as it turns out, it's really #$%@ing hard to ink nicely with acrylics on when you're not used to having long nails. XD

I will finish the Halloween special as soon as 1) I have time and 2) I feel a bit more comfortable in these nails and I trust myself not to mess it up. Until then, enjoy the sketchy version.

Yes, that's Talyn and Fenn in the foreground. I think before I ink this, I need to finish Linden's redesign. His hair is really annoying. D:

Midterms are almost over, so I'll try to have a new page for next week!

idolarcher @ 2004-10-22T08:28:00

2004-10-22T12:28:16Z

I'm alive!

Oi. So, excuse time, right? Well. This is actually GOOD news for me, but bad news for the comic. I got a job. And I started this job, coincidentally, the Tuesday after the last update. So you can see what the problem is here. XD

I'm working at a law firm downtown, which is very very cool and about which I'm not really supposed to talk too much. ;* But it's really a great experience because I'm hoping to try for law school when I graduate, and it's actually paid so I have money to eat. Which is always a good thing. BUT I'm working 18 hours a week - which is more than I've ever worked during the school year before. In addition, for the first time ever I'm taking an additional class to rack up credits (and because, idiot that I am, it seemed "interesting"), so when you combine these things I haven't had much time to sit and draw.

I've also been using a little bit of time to work on a secret project, which is going swimmingly. I'm waiting for some additional supplies from home before I can finish the prototype and put up pictures.

So.. there's my excuse. I'm still trying to figure out how I can make time for IA without going crazy. I have the next page halfway sketched, and I was hoping to finish and post it this weekend except that... next week is midterms. -_-; Oi. So I'm going to TRY to finish it for next week.

I also have a Halloween Special to do, and I'm kicking myself because MONTHS ago I had a really brilliant idea for this year's theme, and now I think I've forgotten it. ;_; At least, I can't for the life of me remember what it was. So I've got to sort something else out instead (and, as a warning, I've had a recent revival of my Star Wars fangirlism, so it may be something related to that).

So.. there's my news. I'm really sorry about the lack of updates, and I'm trying to do something about it. At the very least.. we're halfway done with the semester, right? :D

I'm also trying to figure out a continuity plan for NEXT semester, since it's almost certain that I'll be studying abroad, I just don't know WHERE yet, and I doubt I'll have access to a scanner (and I won't have net access on my computer most likely, anyway).

Anyway. I have to finish getting ready for work now. :D Thank you for reading!

update!

2004-09-11T06:41:19Z

New page went up at midnight, as promised. Quick link.

Also, the special something I mentioned last week is up: Ta-da!

AND, I also have absolutely yummy guest art from Kels which you really need to check out.

I think I might have to do away with the "Fav Comics" section of the sidebar. Some of the artists have just.. lowered my respect for them (and by "some," I mean "one") in the sort of way that reaffirms the belief that we really don't need to know the opinions of any "celebrities" on anything. Oi. Plus, I think I have too many "Fav Comics" to link them all there. Maybe I'll actually get my butt in gear and make a links page. XD Lately I have been very addicted to Better Days, which I think is the best furry comic I've ever seen.

Yes. Anyway. Hope you like the new page. ALSO, in terms of an extra sort of surprise, I have a little "How the manga is made" page which I'll link to from the site eventually, which those of you who actually check this journal get to preview here. Yay. :D

update status

2004-09-03T06:38:52Z

It appears that I horribly miscalculated.

See, I am a huge NRftW fangirl. And, thanks almost entirely to this comic and Antonio Banderas, I have become a huge Puss-In-Boots-in-general fangirl. So, you see, randomly about a week and a half ago, I decided to be Puss In Boots for Halloween. For some reason, I figured the costume wouldn't be that hard to put together.

HAHAHA. WRONG.

When I decided this, I had relatives in town from Australia (who you can blame for the lack of update last week - god, they kept us busy). So I couldn't actually get started until after they left, which was last Saturday. Since then, I have spent ridiculous amounts of time in fabric stores, buying a coat-pattern and supplies, and trying to find obscure things (like gray faux fur - WTF. Only one shop in the entire Woodlands/Conroe area had it). I thought we (my mother and I) could just whip the coat up in a couple days, but I was hideously wrong. I've been tailoring as we go and making all sorts of improvizations - it actually looks quite a bit like NRftW's Puss now, save the colour scheme and a few details. It looks terribly hawt. BUT THE DAMNED THING'S STILL NOT FINISHED.

My flight leaves at like 11 on Saturday morning. I have to pack tomorrow (I don't even want to think about that yet) and get a haircut, in addition to completing the whole #$%&ing costume, which at this point is basically: Finishing touched for the coat itself. Addition of really obnoxious-to-work-with trim, and of buttons. Tailoring of ruffly shirt which for some reason is far too big for me, even though it's been sitting in my closet for years. Finish adding stripes to tail, finish top seem, and add belt loop. Finish ears and attach to headband. Finish boot cuffs, which have frustrated me due to a slight miscalculation in their design and which I've been ignoring for about three days now.

Anyway. Long story short, I'm going nuts even thinking of what I have to do tomorrow, so I don't think there's any way I'm going to finish the page. To be honest, I haven't even looked at, I've been so busy. So no new page this week either, I think, with my sincerest apologies.

Now the good news: IA has FINALLY breached the 200 fav't-of marker on OnlineComics! Yaay! :D I'm terribly, terribly happy about this. As a thank-you, I'm going to prepare something special for next week's update. Thank you all so much for supporting the comic!

And if you haven't already, go to OnlineComics.Net and sign up. It's totally free and as anonymous as you want. You can help support your favourite comics, as well as discovering new ones - I've already discovered nine absolutely marvelous comics I wouldn't have noticed otherwise, and I've barely thumbed the directories at all. It's certainly worth a glance if you are easily frustrated by artists who only update once a week and have the gall to miss updates (XD) and you're in need of something to amuse yourself with in the meantime.

And.. there's my babble for now. Maybe I will post a shot of my killer costume in here, if it turns out as well as I hope it will. My life advice to all of you: If you ever decide you want something (like an 18th century men's coat), and think it would be cheaper to make it yourself than to try to find one to buy and tailor - IGNORE THAT VOICE. It will end up being the same amount, and will also drive you insane.

The end. <3

idolarcher @ 2004-08-28T23:16:00

2004-08-29T04:17:06Z

Alright, here's the deal:

This week I have not had much time to work on the comic, and next week I will have even less time, since I am going back to school next Saturday. As such, I've decided that instead of putting up a new page this week and skipping next week (since I doubt I'll have time to draw with all the stuff I have to do, and I'm flying up and doubt I'll be able to post on Saturday), I'm going to skip this week and put up the new page next week instead - probably Friday, but if I get it all done earlier I won't feel too bad about putting it up sooner.

This makes me feel better than rushing to finish this page and then missing next week anyway, so now you're sort of getting one update between when the next two should be. If that makes sense.

Sorry I waited so long to post this; I actually decided this morning, but have been too lazy to log out of LJ and log in again with this name, if you can believe that. XD

Hey - if anyone wants to make IA LJ icons, that would rock. I'll post them in the comm, too - you can get me at kai (at) dokuja.com, as you well know. I keep meaning to make some, but my icon artistry has gone downhill lately and I don't feel up to it.

I still have a bunch of gallery art to finish and put up, too. About time we got rid of all that old junk. Gyah.