Soul Guardian

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Tue, 14 May 2013 22:07:10 -0700

FIVE page start to Volume 3! A little narrative from Ren...and then a surprise. (See RSS feeds for more!)

Ah late pages ah. Anyway. I think it's a result of lots of STUFF happening in the last week, and...five pages. I dunno if that was stupid of me, but I think pages turned out pretty decently and five pages with only an hour late isn't SO bad I guess.

=D So what do you think of the mobile fortress? ...when I originally sketched it...it looked like a NASA shuttle sitting on the top of........a car garage. But I altered it a bit. It's pretty huge, with a docking bay among many many other things. ...I guess I gave it away that we'll see the inside of it. Friendly inhabitants, at least. But you'd havta figure that...if Kalev had coordinates to warp to, there'd be someone there waiting.

In any case! I hope this update was worth waiting for. (: Four more pages next week! ...Hopefully on time. I'll do my best! Have a good week!! And thanks for your continued support!

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Tue, 07 May 2013 20:55:33 -0700

Navigation 13 Cover! I MAY have taken things a bit far coloring this...but it was fun! (See RSS feeds for more!)

Navigation 13 Cover

That was a fun week as far as "page" was concerned. When I have the TIME navigation covers are fun to work on. That's probably why I did a little more with the coloring than I normally do. It looks more like one of my regular colored pieces for my portfolio like that! It's been a busy week. I've got school stuff to deal with tomorrow...It's HIGHLY unlikely I'll be able to get into summer classes but that's okay. (: I'm making full use of my summer. I'll start pestering you if you follow me on the blog or tumblr in a couple weeks with promo art for my book. I haven't set an exact DAY yet but, the release is late July! I'm moving forward pretty well with final edits to the copy, but there's a lot more to do, honestly.

I'm sure I'll whine about that later. So it goes, I suppose. So! Next week, pages! So so very much to reveal still! Yet I feel like I'm spilling secrets left and right! Since you've read this far, I'll tell you something I haven't told many people. This volume, actually, was supposed to be the end of the series. It's as far as I've planned, navigation by navigation...anyway. But the series will be a bit longer. Hopefully before summer's end I'll get the art in the beginning looking a lot mroe like the art at the end. I've already edited the lineart for the first 8 pages of Navi 12...which the edited version is only up on Tapastic right now, but I'll put it up everywhere soon. Lots to do...lots to do. But! Hope you like the Nav cover. Look for a preview of next week's pages on TopWebcomics...maybe Friday? You'll see the preview on here though. And thanks so much for voting for me on there!!! I really appreciate your support!

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Sat, 04 May 2013 22:49:19 -0700

Website update Part 2 complete! New volume covers, a new archive, a new navigation system! Every page has a little something new! (: (See RSS feeds for more!)

Volume 4 Cover!

PHEW! That took much longer than expected. But it was very very much overdue. To expound really quickly on what the updates are...the archive page is simplified, the links to the navigation summaries have also been simplified...though I haven't written two of them. I added an actual profile for the artist...myself, into the etcetera page...and the whole design of every manga page has been completely redone. It should load faster because I've completely exited the world of tables--which if you're familiar with html, I learned AFTER I built the website that they slow down page load time. The way I've designed it now should help.

As for the pages as well, I've tested a LOT of pages before I went live with them and the new..."jump" style drop menu between pages should work on all browsers. I've checked on the big 3, as well as my phone...though that's also Google-based.

Still two more weeks before we're officially back to the regular schedule though, since next week will be the Navigation 13 cover. I'm kinda glad. I have orientation for engineering school next week. Not that it'll be difficult. It's just they start checking everyone in at 8am, and I don't like 8am...let alone the 6am it takes to BE there at 8am.

OH! The one other thing I can say about updates to the website. One thing I'll be chipping away at all summer is redoing lineart for the entirety of volume 1. I can't say for certain after that....but I'll be working on every page. I've learned just how important lineart is through drawing this much of it, and just how bad mine is. I've also noticed a lot of how DIFFERENT the lineart can be between different manga. And you can look at different chapters of mine and see me trying to emulate different ones of those styles...badly. But the early pages HAVE to be redone if I'm ever going to get volume 1 printed...which is a goal of mine. I'll have to go to a better publisher, because the poor paper quality just doesn't work out, but neither do the low res images. Or the publisher that stops the presses because they've never heard of manga before. Anyway. Enough flashbacks.

Have a good weekend!! (: Even if you didn't read this far...I don't blame you.

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Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:16:15 -0700

Welcome to the new homepage of Soul Guardian Manga! (: The homepage and some updated character profiles will debut this week!
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Navigation 12, 136

Wow! Somehow everything's finished and up on time! (: I really like how this new homepage image turned out. It's a bit fancier than the ones of the past, but honestly I should be making fancy images...they're lasting for a year!! It's only a LITTLE update this week. I've almost finished some clean sketches for the volume covers, and the new page navigation will be up next week too. I dunno if I'll finish updating the profiles for the planets...I've got finals to study for.

Still a bit brain fried from the physics test today. You could tell walking into the room that everyone had been studying. Everyone looked tired, guys were all unshaven. Just...generally. The chapters for one test covered interference, relativity, and early quantum theory. Heh. Quick! What's the rest mass of a proton!

I'll stop. LOL Anyway. Thanks so much for supporting Soul Guardian. It feels weird to only update with this much but next week there'll be a LOT more!

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Tue, 16 Apr 2013 22:31:28 -0700

5 PAGE conclusion to Volume 3!! Can Kalev finagle one more escape?
[ Thanks so much for reading all this time!!! ]
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Navigation 12, 136

WHOA LATEST POST EVER. Maybe...I think. Except for the weeks where I've postponed until it's light out where I am. So! I hope you enjoyed Volume 3! Thank you for reading it! I think it turned out pretty decently. Wrapped up one or two plot points, introduced some long overdo characters, and...brought back some old favorites (for me anyway). I THINK the art's getting better. I hadn't written this rant until now because I was comparing my drawings of the little shuttles I've put the characters in. Specifically when the characters first arrive on Tartau (where Jutta lives/works) and...now. There's a BIG difference. Mostly in quality, I can't seem to draw ships that are that different. I don't want to draw giant pill ships and most other spaceship designs center around the fighter jet variety. So I'm kind of left out to dry. And I'm so BAD at it...so it's hard.

So! The downlow...did I just say downlow? It is late. Anyway. Downlow about the next few weeks. Next week the website will be moved over to the new server/host and I'll debut a nice new fancy homepage among a few other things. The week after will be more updates to the site, big updates that make it a lot easier to get around, and more information about backstory like planets available. And after that we're back to normal, one week of covers and then pages! Thanks SO SO much for reading Soul Guardian I really appreciate it. Can't believe I left this till now but I also wanted to say thanks for all the TWC votes! It means so much, and it really helps to draw a little attention to the site, and maybe some new readers! (: I'll see you next week!!

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Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:36:29 -0700

4 MORE pages of action! Ren's encounter with Vidar gets a BIT dicey...
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Navigation 12, 132

Well that's shameful. Pages were DONE! And I got so caught up in something else I didn't post them. Although it actually turns out I was working on the new homepage image for the updated Soul Guardian website that'll start debuting in two weeks. That's what I'll be doing INSTEAD of posting pages. Updated character profiles, snazzed up navigation between pages, new homepage image...and a new host, which will prove tricky, I know. Because it always is. But it'll be better because I'm paying for hosting and I know a tiny bit more code now. And once that's all done, the next week will be some dumpy sketch covering for the volume 4, that freaks me out, volume 4...cover, and then a navigation 13, also freaks me out...cover.

OH! And! Next week will be a FIVE page update! I absolutely refuse to dump it into 3 and 2, it just doesn't work that way...and, I forgot that I added an extra page after I set my schedule. Ha. Gotta love it. This is what I get for working alone. Nobody to tell me about my mistakes. (: Anyway, thanks for keeping up with me!!

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Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:08:56 -0700

4-pages of action! Go, go! The faster they run...the fewer people they'll have chasing them...
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Navigation 12, 129

Hi there!

I wanted to post on the homepage "Kalev, tackle attack!" but. I stopped myself. I'm not sure if I'm proud.

Anyway...I think the theme for this week is...I am BAD at sequencing action. But I'm trying! And at this point it's kind of necessary. You can't spirit a body out of a political party easily without damned good reason. Don't get me wrong, it's possible. But everything was just, wrong. It was almost as if the target knew he was being watched, and tried to make it difficult...Is that possible?

Given the state I left things off in...apologies for that, this was as many pages as it was physically possible for me to do in one week...and this much was difficult...Now, after my run-on sentence. Given the state I left things off in, it's going to take them a BIT longer to make an escape. Even AFTER they find their ship. Security HAS been alerted. Dun dun dun.

Till next week! (: Thanks for sticking with me~! OH! Only two more weeks this chapter. I think I mentioned that last week...but I don't remember. More on what that means next week.

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Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:47:44 -0700

4-pages this week! Kalev appears to have a plan. A good plan...well, that's up for debate.
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Navigation 12, 124

Pages are consistently a LITTLE bit late these days. Though I'd rather them be 30 minutes to an hour late and look...a lot better. Honestly I tend to underestimate the amount of time it takes me to color pages. I'm so used to working in color, that monochrome is very different and sometimes incredibly difficult for me. Though I do feel like the quality of pages has gone up over the chapters. It reeeally makes me want to redo the early pages of chapter 1. Partially because I don't feel I do Venice justice...I'd really like to. I'd also really like to take a "research trip" /winknod...

Any excuse to travel, really. But...since you read this far, even though it's probably obvious...I'll say it outloud. This is the end of the static pages. This section has been challenging enough but the last of the chapter (I just looked..only 3 weeks!) is really incredibly challenging for me. I hope I'll have time to make it into something nice looking. Three weeks sounds really short, but if I think about it...it's 16 pages of action. Which isn't too bad? Probably the most sequential action in a looong time. Seems like for ages its just been 'mystery' rather than action. Kalev hasn't really had to use his skills. I guess he could have, in Amadei...but. That would have been really dumb. Akin to entering a hornets nest. Unarmed. Probably through the sewers.

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Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:09:23 -0700

Wait...what just happened here?? Havta read that one again...
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Navigation 12, 117

SOMEHOW I managed pages this week....it's another big test week, that's the only somehow in that. And I feel like pages look pretty decent, so that's something too, right?

Really quick before I have to get back to work...what the hell?! The LOOK on Kalev's face alone says...a lot. He's really an emotional person, isn't he. He kind of exhibits that you can be an emotional person WITHOUT the need for tears. Given, he's the only person to cry in the series. But..I think most people could summon a few tears finding their mother's half-rotted corpse...Lovely family, aren't they.

So basically I'm leaving you with Kalev's face for this week, but...this is the beginning of the end, so to speak. Not for the series, but for this arc. How couldn't it be when you hit someone over the head...at a party for diplomats...for no real reason. (In a...he gave her his jacket...that menace to society, kind of way.) But, of course, you'll have to wait till next week to watch things deteriorate some more. (:

Thanks, as always, for reading Soul Guardian. It makes it worth the effort I put in knowing you appreciate it.

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Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:21:53 -0800

4 pages this week! Ren really DOES run into interesting things...very interesting.
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Navigation 12, 113

Hi there! They're here...my brain is not. Somehow pages turned out halfway decent this week I think. I'm reeeally trying my best to be more professional about their look. It tends to sacrifice more of my time and brain power, which are kind of on short supply these days but...I'm trying.

I really hope the story is still interesting cause we haven't QUITE reached the action I promised in this chapter. Or excitement. It's probably just confusion at this point. But a lot of that IS cleared up before chapters end, I promise. Which is a good thing since I'll be taking a couple week hiatus between navigations (and volumes...) this time. But more on that later.

Who IS this guy. He's obviously somebody, if he keeps popping up...but WHO. Unfortunately...you'll have to wait to find out. Even if you DO have your suspicions. See you next week!

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Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:04:23 -0800

Ren has a habit of running into interesting things...though whether or not that's a good thing is questionable.
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Navigation 12, 109

Paaaages...finished on time. When's the last time that happened? I can't remember, honestly. I could probably get a DECENT idea based on when I've updated RSS feeds, but. Even still...I am a lazy lazy individual, and worse yet I keep giving myself more work to do! Not a smart plan. But I guess it works out somewhat, since pages are done.

There's a lot of subtlty this week, entirely based on quiet expressions of characters. Sometimes it's just as important what you're NOT being shown.

I think I like how I've turned my general page teaser into a pun. Ren "runs into" interesting things? Ha. Ha ha. Anyway. That will turn into something veeeery interesting next week. This is when the pace of the chapter starts to pick up. Though you might hate me...if only because there aren't enough pages to read at once... I'm that way too, actually. There are some comics I can't allow myself to read immediately because I have to have enough material to hopefully not drive myself insane not knowing what happens next...

Well, after that big embarrassing reveal, I bid you adieu! See you next week!

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Tue, 19 Feb 2013 21:41:55 -0800

Kalev...to the rescue! Vidar is hardly a match when he can't make a scene.
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Navigation 12, 105

Hi there! (: THanks for keeping up with pages. This is another one of those...not quite happy with pages weeks. Those happen pretty often though, don't they? For the MOST part it's related to coloring. I've never really been able to figure it out, what works for me. I try to look at manga of all different types...and these days to compare between ones still done traditionally and ones done on the PC. The way manga is coloring has really started changing in the past few years, for good or bad...Even the last couple, it's very different. I don't have the energy for beautiful ornate FULL pages, but I read some of these manga with all of this wonderful detail on TOP of a good story, and I want it to be me.

Excuse the brooding. I pay too much attention to everything. It's a fatal character flaw. I'd be the one they kill off cause she won't shut up. Heh. BUT! What's with that, huh? After that dramatic scene, only a couple minutes later Aleit is out in the main ballroom, a good ways away from where she was...just chatting. And she looks fine, doesn't she? Weird.

More...mooore! The plot thickens next week. You have been warned.

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Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:25:52 -0800

Vidar is once again JUST good enough to put a wrench in things...
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Navigation 12, 102

Oh man...ha. What a week. It's a miracle, pages are done! Albeit a LITTLE later than usual, but. I'm...okay with them? This is going to be an EXCITING navigation. To be honest next week is the only calm/slightly blah week of the entire navigation. The rest is good. I promise. Action, finally. This weekend I'll have time to rework things a bit...and, you know...generally work. Not looking for pity but...the reason why pages are a miracle, this week...1 take home test 7 pages front and back solid work...2 in class tests (yet to occur) and one group assignment, to be finished after one in class test. Logic check, how does the professor expect us to finish a test and then work on ANYTHING in an hour and fifteen minute class? The madness. Anyway. This is supposed to be about Soul Guardian.

Not a LOT to tell so far, except that...since Vidar obviously escaped or, was bought back (it is the government, after all), and he's at the party, this means several things...only one of which I will make obvious. He can, and probably will, try to cause more trouble...Until next week!!

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Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:09:55 -0800

New day, new Navigation! And what could the cover mean NOW...
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Navigation 12 Cover

Have to say...this cover was fun to work on. Is it me or does the story seem to be getting darker? I also seem to take on a brand new art style every navigation cover...although I guess it's kind of interesting looking at the progression of them.

Back to having Ren on the cover...though there's no saying exactly who that is behind her. There is the obvious guess to it but, if you think about it, there's a number of characters 'whispering evil'. I like stories like that, with complicated, imperfect characters. Heroes that aren't just big and strong...but are also a little dark, or a little stupid...maybe even a little bumbling. Don't get me wrong. I have always been big fans of the Odyssey AND Pride and Prejudice. But in reality Odysseus and Mr. Darcy don't exist. Not that I dislike a little dreaming.

So! We've got a whole new chapter to look forward to...and, I've got work to get ahead on! Got tests coming up, one on Valentines, actually. Somebody wanted to get me a preseeent~ :D Ha.

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Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:17:47 -0800

This Nav ending is GASP! shocking. It may be good, or bad...depending on your preferences...
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Navigation 11, 98

Sooo...how bout that Vidar. I think I missed drawing him...it's been such a long time. I know he's an incredibly minor character but I've been wanting to bring him back for...a while now. Since I originally introduced him in fact. He's an interesting minion. I feel like things like this, even if they're minor, help to stave off depression. I can't help fighting it...even if it's futile.

Please, don't worry for me. There's nothing significant going on in my life right now...I shouldn't be depressed. I think some people are just more prone to it, whether for their mental state or things that happened far into the past. I'm definitely prone to it. Sometimes fighting it helps but other times the sadness is like a python...the more you fight it the more it squeezes the air out of your lungs.

But really little, wonderful...insignificant things...like drawing Vidar, help. They help me to get through the week though. I notice my grades really suffer when I get like this. Has that ever happened to you? It's just something hard to kick. Anyway, I'll do my best to keep meeting deadlines for next navigation, it's a pretty important one. After that I'm going to go on a few week hiatus. I guess it'll depend on what day the navigation ends as to when the hiatus is, but...I want to spend all the time I'd normally spend on pages revamping the website. I go over all of my pages and they feel incredibly cluttered. I can't imagine as a reader it's relaxing at all to visit this website. I want to make it easier for you, so I'll have to take time off of pages to do so. But I want to finish the volume before I do that...which, if you can believe, is only one more navigation!

Next week is the Nav 12 cover, which may be exciting or horribly boring depending on who you are. (: I hope it's not HORRIBLY boring...at least. Till next week. Try to keep your chin up, I'll do the same.