messenger_comic

Not much going on this week. I’ve been putting in a lot of comic work in my free time lately, so I’ve been taking a break for the past few days. I’ve been watching a lot of Futurama, which is a fantastic show. I love the robots. :B

There are new previews up in the members-only section of the forum for next week’s page.

The new incentive isn’t up because I’m just not ready. It’ll be up soon. I’ll twitter about it when it’s ready. In unrelated and pointless news, I drew some little link icons for the top of the right-side column so you can quickly link to stuff like Messenger at twitter and facebook. How useful!

Here’s hoping that everyone (who is an American) has a delicious Thanksgiving this week! I know I’m looking forward to it. :9

Well, Aki and Nekos are reunited outside the dream world, but who’s that there with them? (Hint.) Where do we go from here? There will be a preview of next Monday’s page up in the locked section of the forum (you have to register to view it!) sometime tomorrow.

Not a whole lot of other news this week, so here’s the short version of all the stuff that’s been updated:

Fan Stuff: I was going through my Messenger backup folder on my external hard drive and found an MP3 that was made for me a few years ago. It’s the “theme” for Messenger! This never made the fanart page at the time for some reason, but it’s up now.

The Shop: things are all tweaked and looking pretty nice.

The Gallery: A couple of new things up in the Illustrations section.

Other than that, I’ve been working away at the next chapter and I’ve gotten so much done. 2008 was such a busy year for me school and work wise that I never got any comic stuff done. It feels good to have time to do this stuff again, and I’m amazed at how much I’ve gotten done. Hopefully the remainder of 2009 will help make up for that.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Vote if you get a chance! ♥

So up next to the comic page you can see there’s a blue vote button for TopWebComics, which is a website that lists and ranks webcomics by vote. It’s a pretty cool idea, and actually brings in a few visitors to the comic now and again even though my rank isn’t so high. One of the people operating TWC sent out an email recently sharing the story of an independent writer who recently had a book published after being available for free online for several years, and asked to spread the word. I’m pasting some information and a link here to help pass this along even though I haven’t read the story or listened to the audiobook (yet) because I’m a huge fan of the way the internet helps people to make their creative work available to the masses. I did a lot of research on things like this (and wrote about it a lot, ugh) in college, so it’s always great to see social media in action. As someone who is doing somewhat the same, I feel it’s only fair to help someone out for all the times my site’s been linked or passed along to friends. The internet is cool like that.

Here’s some information from said e-mail, and some links to go along with it!

“The president of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four-year-old boy…”

Welcome to J.C. Hutchins’ SF thriller 7th Son: Descent, a novel set in present day featuring human cloning, dangerous technologies, and “beyond Top Secret” government conspiracies. I’m letting everyone know about an exciting publication that started as an online podcast, and now is being sold in stores everywhere. And whats more amazing than a fellow internet creator bringing his works from the free digital format to the printed page, is that he’s still publishing everything for free online. If you want to check this out, listen to the book for free, read it for free, or even buy the book, check out his site over here: JCHutchins.net You could even join the ranks of his online army by participating in Warvember just like I am.

Just a couple of small new things that I’ve put together this week:

The shop is now open! I’ve put together a small shop page with all kinds of stuff, including some original art cards which are a steal at $1.50 each. I tend to draw while I’m sitting around at my desk, and end up with all these little cards that just get shoved in a drawer and never see the light of day again. I thought some people might appreciate them more than my drawer, so here they are. There’s other stuff, as well.

Help Promote Messenger! I’ve been watching my referrals and have realized that most of my readers are students or other college types, so I thought I’d take advantage of that and came up with a promotion page with flyers and bookmarks and stuff you can print and hang up at your school/library/whatever. Bonus: if you take a picture of the flyer hung up somewhere or you with it or something, I’ll draw up a quick doodle for you!

Been working at chapter seven. Making good progress. :B

Regular update Monday. Vote if you get a chance! <3

Uploaded a bunch of miscellaneous drawings today, mostly little notecard doodles. I tend to do these while I’m sitting around at my desk talking to friends or whatever.

[singlepic id=238 w=320 h=240 mode=watermark float=]  [singlepic id=231 w=320 h=240 mode=watermark float=]  [singlepic id=224 w=320 h=240 mode=watermark float=]

See the rest in the illustrations gallery.

Not a lot going on on this page, but no worries: there’s another update coming tomorrow!

In news this week, I’m trying to promote the forums at the request of several fans. As I mentioned in my previous post, the forums have never quite built back up to what they used to be before the comic site was hacked a few years ago, so I’m working on that. I’ve added a new section that’s only available to registered members where I plan on adding sketches, page previews, and other “behind the scenes” extras. As we speak, I’m preparing sketches for chapter seven to upload this week, as well as one-panel-previews for upcoming pages. Come join in!

There’s a new vote incentive up this week, the second in a series of new coloring styles I’ve been trying out for work on Chapter Seven. I’m also willing to take ideas or requests for future vote incentive drawings, so if you have any characters or ideas in mind, leave a comment or post on the forum!

After looking through the script I’ve got going, and some of the pages I’ve got together, it looks like I’m running short on materials for working on Chapter Seven – specifically, Chio-colored markers. I’ve been using the same set of markers for the past six years, and they’re finally burning out on me. I work as a freelance designer, and business has been slow this past month, plus I’m getting ready to move to a new house which has an assortment of related costs. To try and alleviate the cost of picking up the new colors I need, I’ve added a special donation wallpaper to the sidebar. If you donate any amount, you can download a copy in your choice of two large sizes. Picking up a copy of the book would also help out (there’s a coupon code once again this month, use GREATBOOK when checking out from lulu.com to get 10% off your order. I also have an extra copy on hand that I’m willing to let go for $12 + shipping which I’ll sign and draw in just for you!) and I’m also planning on putting some of my original drawings up for sale, since all they do is sit around and take up space in my drawer, anyway.

I’ve been thinking about doing a little side story thing in addition to the regular comic, just for fun. I’ve drawn so far ahead that I literally feel like I have nothing to do other than a little write up for the new pages as they go up. Being prepared is almost boring!

That’s all for now!

Vote if you get a chance!

Certain readers (*coughcoughTypohackcough*) have asked that I try to publicize the forums more and get more discussion going, so here I am, pointing out the fact that the forums are up and running and you should come join them, etc. I’ve taken down the chatbox, because while it was fun, I decided that it bogs down the site too much when it reloads every time you flip a page, and I kind of like having the story discussion attached to the pages themselves in the comments.

There used to be a small, but regular forum group a couple of years ago, but the problem was that my entire site got hacked and basically the entire thing was really broken for a really long time. There were some things I didn’t have backups for, which taught me my lesson about that. It took a long time to get everything put together the way it should be, and I’m still working on it in some places. The forum was one of the things that got eaten, and I was hesitant to put it back up after losing so much stuff. (I’m fairly certain the whole incident came from a security flaw in the forum software I was using at the time – I’ve since changed that and I’m extremely careful about the new one.) The whole thing made me learn my lesson about keeping better backups, and making sure anything I install on the site is secure and up to date. Unfortunately, the hard way.

The new forums are shiny and clean, and I’ve put a lot of effort into measures to keep the spambots out. (Another problem that plagued the old ones.) So I’d like to point out the fact that they’re there and usable, and encourage you to check them out if you’re a regular on the site!

this is just a test for something, please ignore this.

Time for a regularly-scheduled update, with an extra heap of news!

I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween weekend, whether you celebrate or not! I celebrated by making cupcakes and sharing with my family. :3

This week Aki is waking up. Again. Have you ever had one of those really vivid dreams where you just wake up with a gasp? I’m not sure it came through, but that’s the general idea behind what’s going on here. It’s such a strange physical feeling to wake up in the dark not totally sure where you are, I wasn’t completely sure how to convey that in pictures.

As I noted in my last entry, I have enough of a buffer set up for the comic to run every Monday through the rest of November, so I guess that makes Monday the new regular update day. I have a couple of extra pages set up to run as well, although they are more of a surprise. (And to help push the story along…) If you follow Messenger on Twitter or Livejournal, you’ll hear about them right away! There’s also the RSS feed right on the site, if you’re into that kind of thing. There’s also the new Facebook page where you can list yourself as a fan and get your updates right in your news feed!

One of the cast of Messenger made a special guest appearance in Slightly Damned this week! See if you can spot her! SD is a great fantasy comic made by one of my hive buddies, Chu! It’s cute and funny, and the art is fantastic. You should check it out!

Voting! It’s the beginning of the month, and Messenger is already coming in strong at TopWebComics! We moved up about 500 places into the 200s, which is fantastic! Let’s keep climbing and go for a spot in the top 100! Realistically, I know I probably won’t ever get much higher than that, but it’s a great feeling to make even this much progress. Help out by voting at TWC! There are new vote incentives for all of this month, which I’ll try to announce on Twitter to remind everyone. The “theme” for the next few incentive graphics are some of my “behind the scenes” work. I’ve been working on a new way of coloring lately, so I’m posting some of my experiments with that. Vote to check it out!

I’ve also been thinking about doing a little commentary on each page as I post it, but I’m not sure. I like the idea of talking about things as I make them, but I don’t want it to turn into a whine-fest about everything I think is wrong with it.

That’s all for now!

Time for a regularly-scheduled update, with an extra heap of news!

I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween weekend, whether you celebrate or not! I celebrated by making cupcakes and sharing with my family. :3

This week Aki is waking up. Again. Have you ever had one of those really vivid dreams where you just wake up with a gasp? I’m not sure it came through, but that’s the general idea behind what’s going on here. It’s such a strange physical feeling to wake up in the dark not totally sure where you are, I wasn’t completely sure how to convey that in pictures.

As I noted in my last entry, I have enough of a buffer set up for the comic to run every Monday through the rest of November, so I guess that makes Monday the new regular update day. I have a couple of extra pages set up to run as well, although they are more of a surprise. (And to help push the story along…) If you follow Messenger on Twitter or Livejournal, you’ll hear about them right away! There’s also the RSS feed right on the site, if you’re into that kind of thing. There’s also the new Facebook page where you can list yourself as a fan and get your updates right in your news feed!

One of the cast of Messenger made a special guest appearance in Slightly Damned this week! See if you can spot her! SD is a great fantasy comic made by one of my hive buddies, Chu! It’s cute and funny, and the art is fantastic. You should check it out!

Voting! It’s the beginning of the month, and Messenger is already coming in strong at TopWebComics! We moved up about 500 places into the 200s, which is fantastic! Let’s keep climbing and go for a spot in the top 100! Realistically, I know I probably won’t ever get much higher than that, but it’s a great feeling to make even this much progress. Help out by voting at TWC! There are new vote incentives for all of this month, which I’ll try to announce on Twitter to remind everyone. The “theme” for the next few incentive graphics are some of my “behind the scenes” work. I’ve been working on a new way of coloring lately, so I’m posting some of my experiments with that. Vote to check it out!

I’ve also been thinking about doing a little commentary on each page as I post it, but I’m not sure. I like the idea of talking about things as I make them, but I don’t want it to turn into a whine-fest about everything I think is wrong with it.

That’s all for now!

Oh dear. What have you gotten yourself into, Nekos?

Please note that the comic will update every Monday through November! There will be some additional surprise updates, as well!

Vote if you have a moment!

I hope everyone has a happy Halloween this weekend! Be safe and have fun!

Oh dear. What have you gotten yourself into, Nekos?

Please note that the comic will update every Monday through November! There will be some additional surprise updates, as well!

Vote if you have a moment!

I hope everyone has a happy Halloween this weekend! Be safe and have fun!

Really, Nekos? Looks like Nekos sort of became the leader of his own little revolution. Oops.

I would like to take a second to thank Philip of Frumph.net and Webcomicplanet.com for both pointing out (and subsequently helping me fix) several glaring errors I’ve been making using ComicPress. I never even realized I was doing it wrong in the first place since it looked like it was working! But now everything runs so much slicker. It is fantastic. Thank you!

I thought it might be worthwhile to mention that I have one extra copy of the new chapter one book floating around that I would like to get rid of, if anyone is interested in having their very own copy. I can sell it to you for $12 (+$3 shipping anywhere in the US/Canada) and I will even sign it and sketch the character of your choice in it before I mail it off. It’s a bit cheaper than buying it from lulu, so if you’re interested, drop me an email at bug [at] messenger-comic.com!

In other news this week, I have a couple of links to put up:

Messenger at TVTropes: This is a really neat site that’s just fun to dig through, so I shamelessly stole the idea from Chu and added Messenger to it. Anyone is welcome to change and add to it.

I’ve been doing a lot of outlining and scripting for upcoming storylines in the comic, and so I’ve been spending a lot of time using Tiddlywiki, which is basically a little wiki notebook thing you can run on your local machine. It’s great for keeping track of all kinds of things going on at once, and it’s free, which is awesome. I used to use this to take notes in in college, since it was easy to cross-reference ideas from entry to entry. It is super handy for comic-writing, anyway.

I’ve added a couple of link exchanges to my links page, hooray! It also occurred to me that I made a tumblr account for art/comic related stuff quite some time ago and never bothered using it. There is also a plurk page now, too, which kind of seems like a twitter ripoff, so I’m not sure how long that will last. I did a whole research thing on social networking in college, but I never much had a reason to play around with it. The comic is now my excuse. I just find it interesting.

That’s all I’ve got for now!

After writing up the character bios for the book, I realized that I never fully fleshed out the character profiles on the site itself like I meant to, so that’s going to be one of my ongoing projects for the time being.

So my question, dear readers, is this: What are your questions? If you could ask any of the characters anything, what would you want to know? I want to add more information that people want to see, to make things more interesting.

Leave me some comments and I’ll get to work on it.

General back-end updates to the site today, just checking to be sure everything still works. I’ve also installed an extra plugin that will automatically port all my news blogs over to the Messenger LiveJournal Community, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I also don’t think I mentioned it when I put it together, but I’ve also made a Facebook page for the comic, so you can add yourself as a fan if you’d like.

In addition to the technical stuff, I’ve also been working to add in some of the stuff that got lost from the site a couple of years ago when it was hacked. One thing I’ve been meaning to add was the Story Guide, which is basically just a running summary of the story so far in case you missed a detail from earlier on. The story is getting longer and longer all the time, and for something that only updates once a week you might need the occasional refresher.

That’s all for now!