V09 – Pg39
And that’s the end of issue nine. It seem Pendragon has had enough and wants no part in anything further. A bit of a downer, I know, but when you’re at the bottom, the only way is up, right? Where will the team (what’s left) and the comic go from here? Find out on February 4th 2015, when issue ten launches!
Next week, we’ll be running a selection of choice cuts of webcomic ‘trailers’. These are comics I read and heartily recommend.
Like this page?! Please consider giving it a upvote on Reddit. Thank you!
Explaining VANGUARD
What’s this post about? Well, before the second arc of this story begins, I thought I’d spend a little bit of time explaining my working methodology/ideas behind what I’m trying to do here.
Design:
When I first came up with the concept of VANGUARD and started designing the characters who’d be part of the team, I was presented with some interesting design challenges. I presumed that, as the team would be simultaneously be public figures and special forces soldiers (or sorts), that alongside their ‘super suits’ they’d otherwise be dressed in combat gear. As I’m sure most Governments would do, they’d garb ‘their’ meta-humans so they basically looked like walking flags. This is not true of every Government meta-team in the book though (Eagle-5, for example).
Story:
With the story that’d i’d planned to tell, I made a decision early on that the reader would never really see what the antagonists were up to. Only in the first/last few pages of an issue would we get a glance of what they were up to. I stuck to this rule in hopes of showing that our protagonists were facing a huge, unseen threat, that never really identifies itself. We know that there is an evil plan of sorts that being played, yet have only glimpsed aspects of it. What is the ultimate goal of this plot and who is behind it? This will be a challenge that the characters in the upcoming comics will have to uncover and confront. I’ve planted many seeds within the nine issues that have already run. These will story threads will start bloom as we progress further into VANGUARD ‘arc two’.
Characters:
With telling such a fast paced story, where the characters are swept along in events that seem to unfold fast than they can deal with, characterization suffered a little. Not everybody ‘arcs’, something I’ve identified and will be addressing in the future.
Well, onwards and upwards! I’m constantly trying to improve the storytelling and my artwork. I’m also glad to see that readers are enjoying what we’re doing here and should you have any questions, about the comic/story, fire away!
Dan
MrHades
Edited by
Gary Cohen
No, not White Post! You know what happens out in White Post?!
i don’t what happens?
Heh heh! It’s where all the cool kids hang out, isn’t it 😉
Epic chapter
Thanks Eric. I’ve kinda set the bar high in ‘epic-ness’ in this chapter. Going to have to go some to top it, I think.
Thought I had things figured out, then chapter nine happened. Maybe next issue we fast forward 10 years or so perhaps? Honestly, no clue where things go from here.
Interesting. A jump forward in time?
Nine Chapters of enthralling and heartbreaking story, brilliant.
Questions –
Will this be the end of “Volume 2”?
If so, when will it be available?
And then, why can I only get a print copy of a UK comic via a US website? For shame!
And finally, I thought of a way it can get even bleaker: Woden is in fact simply having drunken delusions, and there really is no Hern or special child…
Glad you are liking it, Richard!
This mill mark the end of volume two in book form. I’m currently working on making the second book right now. IN regards to getting it printed here in the UK, I’m currently talking to two printers. I’m hoping to have a UK version ready and printed soon. The cost of shipping from the US via KaBlam costs as much as the book itself!
The Comixology version is also going through their approval process. Will let you know when that’s good to go.
Next issue will start with a whisky bottle being emptied, Woden burping and the whole incident being a alcohol induced dream 😉
All good news, thanks!
The internet is great of course, but I do like my words on paper and my music on little plastic discs, still.
Me too, Richard, me too!
I actually stopped reading during Christmas but came back cause I forgot why. Now I remember. I really don’t understand why you killed off most of your characters. It was a good story, and I understand sometimes characters even main ones have to die. But you killed them off for no discernible reason other then to mess with your readers heads. For me that’s a major “I’m done” moment. Which leads to my questions at to what was your reasoning that these character had to die?