A Wet and Wild Winter

The newest issue is out!  In this issue we learn the long-awaited origin of Water Wonder, and who he is working for, when an ancient threat resurfaces!

The origin of Water Wonder has been a subplot in the book since issue number 2 and it is finally revealed!  

Here's the link if you want to check it out: Issue54

The new Ultra-Pedia has finally broken even!  What I mean by that is every character now has a page re-done and I have to wait until I publish more stories before I can upload any more pages!   You can find all of them right here: Ultra-Pedia

Here's just a little screen capture of the first page:

Last year I had promoted that I was going to do this in 2026 and on January 4 of this year I uploaded Titan in the new album.   Then this past Sunday, August 16, I actually finished all that I had to do for now, kind of...

What I mean by that - there are a few characters that have appeared in the comic so far that you won't find in there just yet, I did hold a few back as I'll be doing some origins soon and didn't want to give too much away.   I thought I'd do a few Q & A below...

Will new pages be added in the future?

Yes, there will be new pages added when each new issue comes out.   They are usually uploaded about a week after the new issue is published.

How long will you keep uploading new pages in the future?

For as long as I can.  When I did the original Ultra-Pedia, back in 2018 and 2019, I did it in a format that didn't allow for updates.  With these new pages, I can update them easily at any time, so adding to them will be no problem going forward.

How will we know which ones are new? 

On the album on the website, once new pages are added there will be a "new" icon on the folder.  That appears in bold next to the folder name.   Once you go into the album, the website assigns each page a number, and the new pages will have their number in a highlighted box for one week after they've been uploaded.   So, if you've read everything in the past, you can go through and just look for the highlighted numbers and those are the new pages.   Also, if you click on each image, to the right of the image it will tell you the date it was uploaded, so you can get an idea that way too.

Do you plan to update every character again in the future?

Not really, my plan in the future is just to update those that need it.  If a character hasn't appeared again, there won't be any reason to do an update.  I did everyone/everything this time so I can have a format to update again as needed.

Won't the main characters need updates in the future?

Yes, some will need them, but I don't plan to do updates until a few more years have gone by.  I haven't decided yet when that will be, but not for a while.  Updating everyone now took almost eight full months, and while I enjoyed it, I don't plan to do that again soon.

What will happen to the pages when you do update one in the future?

I won't delete anything.  When I do an update in the future, the 'existing' page will be moved into the old/original Ultra-Pedia folder and kept forever.  

Lastly, is this all new artwork?

Mostly yes, as of now there are close to 500 pages and almost all of them have totally new artwork.  There were are a few that I either used the artwork from the prior images (usually for objects, for example Golden Guardian's staff) or a few where I modified some of the original artwork (for example, Diodarius' realm, the original artwork was basically what I wanted, but I edited it and corrected some prior mistakes).  In total, as of this post there are 496 pages published, 2 are just text pages and 489 are all new artwork!  Of course, those numbers will change in the future as all new pages will have totally new artwork going forward.  

Gods of the Earth

I finally finished updating the characters for my Gods of the Earth team!

Way back when I was starting this comic, I knew that I wanted to include the Gods and Goddesses of many pantheons from around the world (Plus one I made up as well).  While I knew that going into the story, I also realized what I didn't know - namely, who the other important gods were of the other pantheons!

I had known about Greek, Roman, Norse and Egyptian going into it, and actually shortly before the project I had begun reading a bit about the Shinto pantheon in Japan, but really my knowledge base was far from where I wanted it to be.  

However, for my story, most of them were just going to appear in the issue, many wouldn't even have speaking roles for their debut in issue # 15.   As I tried to get this list together, I went to Wikipedia and searched for the primary/chief gods/goddesses of the world pantheons and I got a pretty good list.

Next came the task of designing them, which I actually touched on in my last post.  

Since I decided to redo my Ultra-Pedia pages for each character, I went back and revisited each one.  Back when I was doing issue 15, I didn't have the luxury of time delve into each of them, but this time I took several months to learn more.  Not just their stories, but to also get a deeper understanding of what they might have looked like.  The new pages reflect that.  While many look very similar to the way they first appeared in my comic, a few have gotten some pretty serious makeovers to bring them more align with their followers' cultures. 

In the comic today, only a few are currently active, but you never know when more might make an appearance.  

Here is the new bio page for the team:

Character Creation Question

On Webtoons, where you can also find the comic, someone asked me a question, basically asking if the characters were all original ideas.  I did answer him on there, but I thought I'd talk about that.  

My characters: most of the characters in my comic are all original creations, there have been many sources of inspiration for them over the years, but I'll save that for another time, for now through I'm going to just talk about those characters that are pulled from other sources.  I created these characters by myself without anyone else's input.   

The Gods of the Earth, when I started my comic, I wanted it to tie in with mythologies from around the world, something that has fascinated me since I was a kid. I was already familiar with Greek, Roman and Norse mythology, but over the years I've expanded my reading to include many other pantheons. Because these myths and the ancient sources they're based on are in the public domain, I was able to draw inspiration directly from them rather than from modern adaptations. When designing each god or goddess, I first looked for surviving physical descriptions in ancient texts, as well as sculptures, carvings or other historical artwork. If none existed, I researched the culture (clothing and material history of the people who) worshipped them and designed the character in a way that I felt fit that historical setting. Whenever possible, I try to stay close to the ancient sources, but where those sources leave details unknown, the final design is my own interpretation.

Alternate Earth 8, these are actually characters created by my brother when he was younger, but I use with his permission!  We decided together to put them on an alternate earth in the comic and he picked the earth number he wanted them on.  Whenever they appear, it is with my brother's input and guidance.

Fairy/Folk Tales, sometimes I pull inspiration from other sources, again all of these sources are in the public domain as they generally date back to around the 1300's and 1400's.  My character of the Blood-Red Man is an adaptation of The Black Man fairy tale.  My character of Danaë is my adaptation of the Daughter of the Sun fairy tale.   There are other characters that will be introduced soon, I call them "The Cousins Three", they are an adaptation/modification pulling from two fairy tales, the first is Jean de l’Ours and the second is Palace Under the Sea.  

Monsters/Creatures, the last category are the monsters and mythological creatures that roam around in my comic, with more appearing all the time since the Pinnacle Forest was destroyed and the creatures were set free on the Earth.  While some of the creatures were created by me, the majority of them come from centuries of stories from various cultures around the world.  All of them are in the public domain and I try to learn about them and keep the feel of the creature as close to the original stories as I can.

Everything else are totally my creations!

Book in Progress!

One of the things that I'm working toward is writing an encyclopedia for the comic.  That is part of the reason that I'm redrawing my entire catalog of character.  I'm using the new drawings for the individual UltaPedia pages, but the artwork will ultimately go toward the new book.

Here's a mock-up of a random page in of the book.  This is unedited and it's using old artwork, but I wanted to get a feel of how it looks.  

In reality the book probably won't be published until near the end of next year.

Issue 52

The newest issue is up and here's the link: Issue52

I hadn't realized I missed two months!  I knew for this year the book was going to be bi-monthly, but somehow time got away from me - but I'll try to do another issue in June!  I've already started working on it!

Here's a panel from the issue, just for fun:

 

Sneak Peek

I've been busy working on stuff for the comic and while I'm not ready to share a lot yet, I thought I would give a sneak peek of some characters that will be making their debut later this year!