Millennium News!

Comic Creators Alliance - 2011

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:13:24 -0800

Happy New Year! The Comic Creators Alliance is back again this year with the same goals as before -- to aid in ceasing human trafficking for good!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead

Monday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creator's Alliance--a group of over eighty comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won't end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here's what we did: each creator contributed an original Brady Bunch-style bust of one of our own female characters and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The wallpaper features characters from lots and lots of online comics of many sorts! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper! This year you can even buy a print! The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th - 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House - two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.

To learn more about the Comic Creator's Alliance visit comicalliance.weebly.com. To learn more about the problem, visit love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

Happy Holidays and New Year!

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 13:59:31 -0800

Ronou and Chains (from my other comic) wish you a happy holiday!

As always, my holiday message comes late. Sorry! My holidays are always boring, but this entire month kind of waylaid me in ways I didn't expect, and not all of that was good. Still, things are relatively okay here! And I hope you had a great holiday!

The Game Plan for making pages that I mentioned in the last newspost is still in effect, and my nose goes to the grindstone starting Saturday! A new year approaches and welcomes us!

In the meantime, please vote while you can; and I've added Facebook Like buttons underneath all the pages in the archive, next to the orange share button. Like away! Thanks for still dropping by in spite of the lulls!

The Story Begins Again

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:59:52 -0800

...but not without changes. See the Page Notes for more about the fact that Ronou is now a lady! And check out the Characters page now, too. I redid Saber's profile image on top of updating Ronou's. I might have tweaked all of their text at some point, but it'll be a little bit before Sabby and Sarn reappear, anyway.

So yes, it's just a cover page, after all these months of waiting (I'm so sorry, I can't believe how long ago I posted the last page, and there wasn't much there, either) -- however, I've got the majority of the rest of the Prologue thumbnailed already and am making ready to sketch. I've also modified the first 9 pages color-wise because some things were bothering me...as well as fixed obvious things that needed fixing as of this update. You might want to read again to see.

It was Millennium's 6th birthday on the 3rd of November, and it hasn't gotten very far since it began. But I have a Plan now, thanks in part to Tracy of Goodbye Chains (fantastic comic).

Here's the plan:

You may know that I have two webcomics. One webcomic is time-consuming, and two are utterly so. But I don't want to quit one or put the other on a hiatus, even after so much deliberation on it.

So, I plan on alternating months spent working on pages for them. Starting January, I will only work on pages for one comic. February, I will work on the other comic exclusively. And so on. (Side art and other things for either comic can be at any time; I don't think I could manage limiting that.) Updates will still come once weekly, with however many comics I finish/am close to finishing determining how many pages are added per update. I think this is the best way to keep any consistency, and I hope it goes well. I plan to work fervently. In January, I start with this comic.

And, put simply, if I don't finish very many comics in one month, there may be fewer updates. If that happens, I still won't break the routine. I've just got to go with it.

For both my comics, planning is way ahead of the game, but execution is a big hang-up. I want to get over that.

Also, I've still got to finish page 14 here. Yes, it's unfinished; it still needs shading and hilighting. Sorry that it's still un-done!

I thought an actual update would be better than a birthday image or something else this year; I hope that proves true. It felt good.

On that note, if the feed import starts working, you can check Millennium updates on Tumblr now! Not to mention the Twitter and Facebook links, right below the comic up there. There's also a Sharing button below every page in the archive. I much appreciate your looking/sharing! There's an official DA Club, too, but I'm admittedly kind of bad at maintaining those things. It's there if you'd like to join, however. :D

Oh, and I'll update the vote incentive eventually. But for semi-interesting things, go to my personal Tumblr, where I've posted a few thumbnails of upcoming pages. (And yes, I'm signed up at almost every popular-in-NA website you could think of.)

Before I forget again (sorry! orz), I've been meaning to plug Shishinkontan, Rekka's next comic. It's based on Japanese mythology, and I like that. :D Start reading it in its infancy! It's going to be the actual definition of the word "epic".

In other news!

The whole job thing keeping me from being comics-productive is no longer relevant, and while I am seeking (actively and often), I can devote more time to comics in the meantime. My job this summer did manage to get me a very good computer; I now have one decent enough to handle my quality needs with regards to my comics now. Also as important, it's no longer an agonizing pain to design websites with every PC window lagging, or design or do anything for that matter. I'm grateful.

And I'm grateful for people checking in and still reading. Please do let others know about the update, and that this comic isn't dying; and I appreciate it! Here's seeing you again soon.

Status of the Comic

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:03:14 -0700

Hi everyone! Actually, this is more like a "status of me" news update, since the comic itself is doing fine (planning-wise). Obviously it's been slow around here, and I'd like to thank anyone who takes the time to come by and check out the comic in spite of its seemingly dead appearance. For comments of anticipation and the occasional vote, I thank you! I can't say I deserve much of it right now!

Much like before I began my job, right now I'm trying to pull together some semblance of regularity, as well as make some form of income to sustain my natural human desire to buy things (and pay debts...not so much a natural desire), along with seeking a new job -- one that hopefully won't end with an entire company's downfall. (That may sound bad, but I can assure you I'm not great enough to cause an entire company to fail. ;D) I seem to be doing good on that regularity thing right now, so I'll be applying that to the comic. I'm honestly afraid of screwing up the next parts, but at the same time I need to be less of a wuss. Onward and inward!

Bid Away, Right Away!

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:01:46 -0700

Click here or on that banner to be taken to the ebay bid page for Millennium's gulf auction piece!

There are soooo many good pieces up. Bid away! It's all for a good cause!

In other news, it's looking increasingly like I'll have more time to work on comics in the coming weeks. So I'll be doing that! Yay! I reread Millennium's prologue the other day (that is, what's to come after the current parts of the prologue) and got excited for it all over again. Woo!

Moving Forward

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:36:57 -0700

Ever so slowly. This is comic weekend for me, though I'm more than likely to be waylaid by friends and family re: Independence Day. We'll see. I should be able to get in some real comicking anyway.

This news update is about the Webcomic Auction for the Gulf!

Namely, I've submitted my piece, and the auction for it will begin on Thursday. For the record, it looks something like this. I say "something like" because I actually touched it up a little more after scanning it (and because it looks better in your hands rather than scanned). This auction is intended to benefit cleanup for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill through the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund, and has supporters from many other webcomics you undoubtedly read, like Dr. McNinja, Girl Genius, and Nedroid.

It's the nicest pic I've drawn in a while -- although I've done a lot of mental planning, some sketching, studying, and a bit of writing these last few months, I've admittedly drawn extremely little until just the other week. I feel like I can actually look at stuff fresh now. And I greatly enjoy sketching in sketchpads and books again. It's with that notion that I hope for updates to keep being more consistent once they start again.

Gulf Auction

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:58:54 -0700

Hello pals! This is a news update to both my comics. I meant to give a little update much, much sooner, but I kind of didn't want to update without anything new to say. Suffice it to say, I'm still busy. But, while it may be far from a perfect model for webcomic updates, this adage has often proven true in my life: "slow and steady wins the race." Putting aside that I don't really like turtles (except sea turtles), I evidently can identify with them! All my goals have been slow in coming, but were very rewarding once achieved.

Anyway, speaking of sea turtles, undoubtedly you've heard of the gulf oil spill incident over the last two months, even if you're nowhere near it. Thinking of ways to contribute to it, this comes up: the Webcomics Auction for the Gulf of Mexico! If you'll recall the last webcomic-related auction I took part in, it also requires your response to be successful. So I'll be drawing two original pieces, one for each of my comics, Millennium and Lovefeast, to be auctioned off as part of this.

The proceeds will be donated to the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund, which is being managed by The Baton Rouge Area Foundation. That's something I can get behind! So look for things to get started in July.

On another note, I appreciate that you've still been checking in, and new people have been reading every day. Don't forget about this comic! It'll still be here! (Snag the RSS feeds!)

Heads Up!

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:52:29 -0700

Hello! Things have been kind of quiet on all fronts here, so I figured it's about time for a news update.

First of all, if you participated in the Easter Egg hunt, the eggs were on pages 86 (old archive) and 4 (new archive)! I actually was planning on shading them but ran out of time. I still might.

I think it was kind of silly for me to expect to be able to update a mere week after work began. My body took its sweet time rebelling on me for forsaking its late-night orientation, but I think now that it's warming up and I'm really getting in the swing of things that I'm gonna be in ship-shape. Yay! That means more energy, more motivation, more pages soon! But I still have to finish up my anthology comic (whose deadline was delayed a couple times between now and December, all much for the better), which is finally making progress. I also took care of some other things that would have taken a big cut into my time -- prospects that, while very promising and fun, didn't offer me more than what I could already achieve. (Too bad it took this long to realize! I don't intend to downplay my own personal projects.)

I have a lot of faith in my comics. Updates will resume sometime in May, after MTAC's storm of awesomeness subsides. You will be happy.

By the way, if you're going to MTAC, you should look for me. I like talking to people. I'll be traipsing around as Momohime from Muramasa: the Demon Blade. I'll also probably be bothering Scott Sava at his table.

Also, I'd like to thank my friend JGray for including my comics in the series of Webcomic trailer plugs he ran before his site relaunch. It was awesome. If you're a new reader here from that, stick around! I'm a bit slow (understatement??), but not for much longer. Exciting things on the way! (And for Mysteries of the Arcana, too -- I enjoyed its first arc's ending, and the new site's slick, with a new arc beginning as well! Go look at that, too!)

The Hunt is ON!

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:05:19 -0700

Hello, friends!

In the midst of further work-acclimation (it's adequately tough to manage time around it), I have news! An Easter Egg hunt is on!

There are two Easter Eggs hidden in the comment sections of the comic's archives. Here's a hint: one of them is located in the archive of the old version, so you have to read through it... that is, if you want to get some awesome WebComic Planet prizes for finding all of them! >D Search well!

(A note: the host was down all day yesterday! But now it's not. Necessary server moves! Everything should be okay now, so read away. Sorry for any inconvenience.)

TGT and DRT

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:38:54 -0700

Day 1 of work passed without a hitch! I'm quite enjoying it so far... and that's a pretty big understatement. Excitement fills me! The only way it could be better would be if I were a morning person (but of course that can't be helped, but can be dealt with). If you missed the news of the slight pause in updates here, check the last news post. That'll get you up to speed!

And now for a few plugs.

I had meant to do this last week, but forgot: TGT Webcomics!

If you've followed the comic closely, checked out past news, or looked at the Author page, you'll have at least heard of my interview on Two Guys Talking Webcomics. It was a delightful experience. I very much enjoy talking to Kurt (and the then super-special-co-host Byron of 1977 the Comic), and listening to other podcasts, even just little bits of them, is amazingly insightful into the minds, lives, and loves of many different webcomic creators. It's one of my top webcomic podcasts, and you should give it a listen if you haven't already.

On another note: have you ever wanted to be a radio supervillain? Or rather, did you have an idea for a villain you'd love to actually hear on a radiostyle podcast? Submit your idea for a radio supervillain and read about where you can get hundreds of hours of free audio drama done by the impression cast of Decoder Ring Theatre, over at topwebcomics.com! "Now in its fifth season, the series celebrates the Golden Ages of both radio and superheroes as it follows the masked protectors of 1930's Toronto through the dark days of the Depression and into the storm of WWII. Adventure and mystery are on the menu, and snappy dialogue, sassy sidekicks and two-fisted pulp justice are guaranteed!"

If any of those things sound like they might amuse you to no end, you should get your rear on over to those links.

We Tried (and Other Exciting News!)

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:04:56 -0800

Whoa! It's still Friday. That means a page!

I know it's been a while, and I'd meant to post this in December. These last few months have been CRAZY, and it's all for good: I've finally achieved what I've been working for in-between this comic's updates. But first, the schedule:

- This page is not finished yet; the background details, some small special effects, and the foreground shading must be put in place. That will be done sometime within the next week.

- We will update with the last page of this part of the prologue (which is already completed) next Friday.

After that, it may be 3 weeks to another month before I am able to start updating regularly again (although I have already started the Prologue cover and re-thumbnailing it), and here's why:

- I finally got a job as a web developer at a quite wonderful company, which begins in a couple weeks. I will have to acclimate to this, but that shouldn't take longer than a week. I'll be on a regular schedule! Yay!

- Because of this, I will be finishing up every other project I have in queue within the next two weeks. This includes the anthology comic I have taken part in. Its original deadline was in December, which is why I was busy then, but its final deadline was pushed back to mid-March. I'm in the process of refining the sketch for those comics and finishing them, which will take almost all my time until then. It's exciting!

- Besides that, there are some other illustration and design things I'm also needing to do. And it's fun! I've gotten re-accustomed to drawing in sketchbooks (all-tablet drawing had gotten me faster and slightly more consistent with drawing in general) and have been doing so regularly with my trusty Col-Erase pencils. Several sketchbooks that I bought years ago for college are finally filling up.

It's an exciting time in life now, no doubt what I've been looking forward to. I'm completely happy about it! Please do stick around for Millennium's continuing updates, because I'm preparing to take on the Prologue Part 3 with fervor!

Oh, and if you're bored, ask me things anonymously on Formspring. It's strangely fun. I can't even explain why.

On another note, I changed the proportion of the pages starting with this one. They used to be manga-sized 5"x7.5", but now the full-sized page is formatted for 6"x9". They're also drawn at an even higher resolution. I'm not sure how I'll work that out with the first 13 pages if Millennium goes to print (although I think 1-5 were also done at higher resolutions before I dropped down for my PC's sake), but I'll figure it out. This ensures more quality! For YOU!

One more thing! I added a "cameos" section to the Fanart page the other day. In addition to the older cameos of Mune in Return to Eden and Ronou in Far Out There, now we have "classic" Mune in The Apple of Discord! Check it out! Also, I'm pretty sure I updated the Links page at some point.

Summon My Love

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:42:54 -0800

Late is better than never. Apparently Millennium's new motto!

I was going to pretend like I haven't updated in two months and everything was still fine, but that ain't right. I'm still working on the next pages, however. Needless to say, things have taken a slight upturn in terms of work, so I've been keeping myself busy. I'm on the brink of overloading my priorities, so I try to be careful and get things done.

The next update will come soon, and I'm very grateful for your continued readership. I hope in the meantime you've constantly enjoyed yourself with the people you love.

(There's a high-resolution version of the Valentine's card in the Downloads section.)

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, Growly Beast of anticipated webcomic Inscribing Aardi interviewed me. I talk about both my comics and a lot of things relating to them.

Comic Artists Fight Against Human Trafficking

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:22:26 -0800

It's live! The Comic Creator's Alliance, into which I entered Hibiku from my comic Lovefeast, is now accepting donations.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead

Monday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creator's Alliance--a group of over eighty comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won't end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here's what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The wallpaper features characters from The Phoenix Requiem, Girls with Slingshots, Earthsong, Looking for Group, Shadowgirls, The Uniques and four IDW Publishing titles: Fallen Angel, The Dreamland Chronicles, Love & Capes, and The Dreamer, and lots, lots more! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th - 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House- two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.

To learn more about the Comic Creator's Alliance visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com. To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

...

The wallpaper is seriously awesome, guys. Donate for it and know you're also helping a great cause.

Chriiiistmaaaas

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:11:16 -0800

Or should I say, "Hooooliiiiday"? But this post is just in time for Christmas! A crossover with my other comic, as it is now custom to do!

Hope you have an awesome gift- and family-filled one with those you love most!

And if it seems like the only thing I've been adding to the gallery is special-event-themed things for the last several years, you'll be glad to know that more unique art is on the way! In particular, a few interesting and large pieces of art will be manifesting themselves in wallpaper form sometime soon. To see a sketchy preview of one of them, please vote on TWC!

After All of That

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:03:25 -0800

And here's page 13 for the second page in a single week. I think I broke my all-time-low record of four pages a year now (a record originally set in 2007, I think). Yay! Next year let's shoot for at least 52, like intended!

It's been 6 years since Millennium went online, but I think really only two of them count...and not even the nearly-two encompassing the reboot. But that's okay, because I can see what's on the horizon and steer things thusly. Hold on tight! The new story dawns in about 4 pages!

I forgot to mention this sooner, but I updated the Glossary now, along with that Items page. Both need visual aids still. I also updated the slightly-barren but growing Soundtrack and Voices page with an Imeem playlist.

Be sure to go to back to read Monday's news, if you haven't already. Look around the site for some new updated things, and check out the Comic Creator's Alliance.

Not sure what else to say here now, so I'll mention a few comics I just started reading.

Amya is off to a very promising start. Those first pages draw you in especially. I love the lineart. *gush*

This version of Beauty and the Beast, while drawn roughly, really draws you in. The style, though with a sense of incompleteness, stands up on its own, and it's impossible not to get attached to the characters in some way.

Everyone has heard of Cealdian by now, but I'm mentioning it anyway. I love its style. Dialogue is slow, but that's not much to complain about.

Reading such good webcomics is getting me in a real good webcomicking mood lately. And some things changed in my schedule (if it can even be called that), so I will probably get those next two Millennium pages out sooner than estimated. Huzzah!