I did it! you thought I was gone for good there huh?
Wasn’t bothered making a title page for this one, I feel it kinda wrecks the flow.
This Part is called “Friend”
on February 8, 2013
at 5:08 pm
Hey everyone!
It really is about time I made a follow up to my last rambling about what I want to do with Between Worlds and what’s in store for the future. I’ve left it ultimately too long to reply to people’s comments, questions and concerns so do forgive me for that.
I first want to say that although my feelings are largely the same now as they were back then, progress isn’t as fast or as immediate as I had originally planned but I do feel that it’s for the best as the last thing I want to do is rush into redrawing a whole chapter when I’m not quite ready.
So first of all, I just want to let you guys know what my plans are as of this moment.
The redraw is still on, but as a rule, new updates are first priority up until the end of part 5. I would ideally like to simultaneously redraw part 1 alongside it (and I do actually have a few pages done already) But the first thought in my mind is, I want to work through a few skill issues I still have before I go ahead full steam. When part 5 is done, I’ll be working to complete the part 1 redraw and then I’ll be releasing a printed volume of the whole work as it stands. I’m not sure how I’ll go about it regarding funding, I may do a kickstarter, I may just do it privately, I have no idea where I’ll be financially at that point (which is likely to be next year at the earliest) But all my focus from now on is to polish up the entire archive up to be of the best possibke quality to make an awesome package at the end. Now, when I say polish the entire archive, I’m not saying that I’m now going to redraw the entire thing, but I will be taking some time to basically give it all a once over, a clean up, fix any continuity errors,spelling mistakes, egregious anatomy issues, etc. I’m also going to reletter a good proportion of the archives, possibly looking into finding a new font. Basically, there’s a ton I want to do until I’m totally happy to release it in print.
So that’s all that. to conclude, allow me to respond directly to each comment the last post recieved. Hopefully the awesome folks who left feedback will still be around to read!
@Ruth Redmond
Thanks so much for reading, I really appreciate the feedback and it always makes me so happy that people can get through such a relatively massive archive in a short amount of time! I really hope I can continue to improve enough so that I can put together an awesome book, to the best of my abilities anyway <3
@mimi & Bex (as you both said the same sort of things)
Hey girls! Thanks so much for your continued support, and sorry I got real shirty way back then. I had an awful habit of only focusing on what was not being said to me and instead, I really ought to focus on what IS being said. It’s so easy for a webcomic artist to lose faith in the caring of others as a lack of response can sometimes indicate a lack of caring, but in my older and wiser years I’ve come to realise that’s all wrong! <3
@Glenn
Thank you also for your everlasting support. You have no idea what it means to a haggard old artist like myself. I do wonder sometimes where I’d be without you or the other stalwart readers of my strange little creation.
@mfj
Thank you so much. I do hope I haven’t driven you away and more of thr “silent majority” are still here with me.
@Ciarán
Hey! Thanks loads for your compliments. Art is a funny thing you know. Webcomics, even funnier. It is very hard for me to keep updates on a rigid schedule, mostly as I have to always be on the lookout for paid work which sadly will always push projects such as this to the wayside. That said, with regards to my priorities within the comic itself, the new updates have first priority. Any redraws come second as although I want to bring the overall quality up, I also want to keep the story moving and not allow it to stagnate.
@haley
Thanks so much haley! And I really hope you’re still around! <3
@rockyracoun
Thank you so much! It’s still a bit of a pickle to me as to how exactly to handle redraws. I’m very aware of the dangers of “gearge Lucasing” the comic over and over ad infinitum… it’s a worry, but in the end all I can do is my best.
And to all others who commented here and there throughout the comic, THANK YOU! It’s always an amazing honour just to recieve the time it took for someone to make a comment, my heart never fails to leap out of my chest to see a new one. So again, thanks to all of you.
on March 19, 2012
at 12:37 pm
Hi guys.
So as you all know, I’ve been on a bit of a break to sort out some health worries and to refocus on this project among others. It’s brought me to think about this project as a whole and the future of the comic as a piece.
BW is terribly important to me. Probably a bit too much so. I find it hard to think of life without it. It encapsulates the core of my ideals in storytelling and even though I don’t necessarily believe it’s gonna take over the world any time soon, I do want it to stand strong as a representation of who I am and what I do.
I’ve been seriously considering how it does that in its current form however. Every time I consider this, there is a big elephant in my room that I’ve been struggling to either ignore, or be cool with. And that is the huge and striking difference between the quality of Part 1 and the rest.
Part 1 is a very different animal to the rest. I created it for my degree in 2009. It was the first time I had not only created a comic in full colour, but I actually taught myself to paint digitally via its creation. It represents a new way to make comics for me. Concentrating on atmosphere and feeling with an air of grandness I’d never ventured into previously. It changed the game for me. I’d originally planned to continue the comic in black and white inks in a very standard way, but due to the reaction I got, I decided to just continue as it was.
However, I started the second chapter just under 1 year after completing part one. I was already a different person at the time. I had learned far more in the way of painting, pacing and dialogue. I stumbled along for the first half of part 2 and made a balls of it but halfway along I hit a new stride. My work made a quantum leap in quality and my methods and philosophy in quality took on a new life. It caused me to look back on part 2 and decide that the first, somewhat shady looking, half of said chapter must be replaced to meet the standards of the rest of the comic. I did so, recieved pretty much no interest and more “Oh it was fine the way it was” comments, which I must say, hurt at the time. I then vowed never to redraw any part of the comic again lest I be faced with the same disappointment.
Time has passed, seasons change etc. etc. and I’m finding myself in the position I’d vowed never to let myself fall into.
Part 1. It needs an overhaul.
I’ll probably be met with disdain for doing this. I doubt anyone will be excited or even vaguely interested in my plans. ( I posted a question on tumblr and twitter to see what people thought and I got absolutely NO response, who needs friends eh? haha!) And it got me thinking even more.
No one cares. People might make passing statements that I shouldn’t do this and that, or as is the case, ignore me completely. I realised that if no one cares, why should I?
The fact is, I have no evidence that this comic is as important to anyone as it is to me. that my fears can just disappear into a sea of internet without even a passing comment shows me I need to take the decision fully into my own hands. I’m going to rewrite and redraw 100% of part 1.
I’m not going to change any of the fundamentals, the story will be the exact same, the same stuff happens. I’m just going to tell it better. Way WAY better. I want to close up a few of the plot holes that gape ever wider at me every update. I’m going to tell far more in a far more economical and effective way and I’m going to make it FUCKING GORGEOUS. And most of all, it will fit, and I will be happy with it.
When my luck changes and I’m not living hand to mouth, I’m going to print it, along with several future chapters into the most awesome book the world has ever known. And I’ll be proud to call it mine.
I can understand if there are going to be naysayers. I understand the “fine as it is” sentiment. But the fact that life is so hard for me right now shows I shouldnt be compromising myself by the past. The original part 1 was incredibly rushed. I was banging those pages out at lightning speed, working 15 hours a day. I had a very tight deadline and really didnt know myself. I didn’t feel then, and I don’t feel now that I properly had my say. So now, I’m going to have my say.
Thanks.
PS: I did this test for a bit of fun yesterday, will that convince people? XD
Zee old: 
And zee NEW!
on March 10, 2012
at 1:48 pm
Hey dudes. Just to let any readers out there know that I’m gonna take a short break from updating.
Comitting full time to a free webcomic is hard work at best. My health has taken a wrong turn recently and I’m finding it hard to keep up to my own standards. So rather than churn out sub par work, I’m going to take a month off just to refocus and get my health in order.
Cheers!
on April 12, 2011
at 9:45 pm
He did indeed call her Lynx
Why? I dunno, cos she smelled bad I guess.
Smelled a bit too bad in my opinion.
“Why Anna..” I hear you cry “What are you on about? your fictional character cannot smell, for she is a drawing that you do several times in different poses with words in a thing beside it, she cannot smell!” Well dear reader, I didn’t mean literally, and by the rules of fiction, she can smell within the story, but I digress.
We are not here to discuss the nasally offensive wafts of a drawing of a girl, but the visually offensive wafts of the first half of Part 2.
In short, I hate it. Hate hate hate hate HAEET!!!
*ahem* excuse me.
“Anna! get to the point! you’re talking crap because you have a freezing issue when it comes to writing and find it impossible to know what to say when something needs to be said in a professional manner and so instead, bullshit your way along and…”
Yes, yes, I WAS getting there, but you were looking at me funny and…. *sigh*
I hated what I did for the first half of Part 2. Now, technically, a lot of the art was a small step above the art of part 1. And, okay, so I don’t hold Part 1 as my finest creation EVAR!!! No, its pretty rough looking, in some parts its downright ugly…
"You callin' me ugly, beeyotch?"
*whistles with embarrassment*
But even though I feel I could take Part 1 on again and kick it’s ASS… I don’t think I want to. It has a… sentimental place in my heart. I made the vast majority of it in about two months. It came as I started, quit, started and quit again and again on creating the story we now know as BW. I Knew all along I wanted to do a story about a stupid, messed up, and very angry gal with a daaaaark passst! (the originality! IT BURNS!!) But I never quite knew how to do it. Who was she? and more importantly, where was she from?
Every time I attempted to start BW, I got stuck. I made… 6 separate attempts, all ditched. After all those false starts I realised finally what was wrong. I never thought to start at the beginning. Each one of my serious attempts (where I was doing it FOR SRS! about 3 attempts) Starts off in the second city, the bright, hippy, messy and colourful city of witches. There lives, and is settled, a bad tempered runaway soldier from the dark evil city of evil by the name of Juno. Why was she living there? eeeh… I’ll make that up as I go along!
When I started this (and very final) version, I decided, fuck it, I’m going to start in the BAD place! The EVIL DISTOPIA that our tempestuous friend comes from. And that’s where my real passion ended up emerging from. All of a sudden I was creating a world that stole my heart. Instead of making it a typical EEEEVIL NECRO CITY OF DOOOOOM *coughfakemidgarcough*I said NEIN!!! I was gonna make this a world built of romance, everything I love, Art Deco, European architecture, light snow, dark nights and fancy fancy fur.
So I created what we have now, loved every moment of it. Right now, I can’t bear to look at it it’s so ugly, but when I close my eyes, I do love it deep down. It’s my ugly baby.
"oh that's it, you gunna get Lynxslapped"
SHUT UP YOU ARENT EVEN REAL!
*cough* excuse me…
So, that’s Part 1, ugly as sin, but will always have a place in my heart. But what about Part 2? Doesn’t it have a place in my heart also? Well, when it gets into it, yes, from about halfway in I had a vision, I knew what I wanted to do with it. But I got caught where I always do, in the beginning. I honestly hadn’t a clue what I was doing in those first few pages, that first dream sequence. I knew I wanted to have one last hurrah in Minoka, I didn’t realise after Part 1 how much I loved drawing it, creating it from love. I didn’t want to leave it behind just like that. Honourable intentions, sure, but what I ended up doing was a mess. The first page was a mess, even by Part 1 standards. The colours and lighting were sickening and the sense of space and surrounding, the sense of environment was abysmal.
Shite
I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to replace it. I want this comic to be the best it can. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no perfectionist (as I’m sure you can tell XD) But the fact is, in Part 1, I put EVERYTHING in to it. I worked and worked into the night. it was rushed, yes, but by GAWD did I work. From the second half of Part 2 on, I WORKED. I’ve poured every bit of me, pancreas and all, into every page. But for the first half of Part 1 I did not.
This past couple of months, Ive redrawn and rewritten from the cover to page 19. And believe you me, I worked. I worked so hard, one of my eyes sloped downwards slightly… *ahem* injoke, sorry
So I Present to you all, the New, Part 2; pages 1-19
I hope people enjoy it, and more importantly, understand it XD
Anna~
on March 23, 2011
at 12:10 am
Hallo, been a little while, but only a little one
Just a quick post to let you all know whats going on right now.
I’m currently working on something pretty special for the comic, it’s not the next chapter unfortunately, but it’s going to be really really nice, and well worth the wait. I’m already a good bit through it, so I’d say I’ll be no more than a month finishing it off, so hang in there guys!
I tend to post sneaky secret images and things on my shiny tumblr, so if you’re interested, check it oot!