First off FYI: Today's vote incentive is a word cloud of the chapter 8 script. If you want a little light spoiler actions go ahead and vote.
Second off please go check out Sarah and my own interview on The Xcentrikz and let me know what you think.
State of the Comic: Year 2
Well over two years of Cwen now. I finally feel we've gotten to the point that people are starting to know the characters and while they have many secrets yet to tell, such as how Cwen escaped from her kidnappers as a child, I hope most of my readers consider themselves to know Cwen, Riddly and Wendy.
My largest mistake this year was undoubtedly the handling of chapter 6. It was out of place. Chapter 6 should have either been chapter 5 or broken out as a series of bonus stories at the end of chapters. If I do more shorts or side stories I'll probably take this second method. As it stands coming after the story build up in chapter 5 it didn't work as well as it should have. I think the stories were fun and the artists involved all did a great job and I hope to do more shorts like that, but I made the wrong call in where to put. At the time I was only thinking of trying to build a buffer for the comic and not of the impact it might have on the flow of the story. If I ever move Cwen off of DD I'll probably re-post it as chapter 5 to try and fix things because I think otherwise chapter 6 turned out really well. My thanks goes out again to everyone who helped with Chapter 6.
On the up side the end of this chapter with the plot twist of Ulric being a younger Lord Attez paid off very well. It got more hits than any other update without ads running at the time. I think that says the story is going well. I decided I really wanted more Lord Attez after everyone's strong response to his second appearance with Sven and if everyone enjoyed it then I think the time travel nonsense paid off in spite of how confusing it was a points.
Sarah's art as it has every year continues to improve. I wish you guys could see some of the great chapter 8 pages. Sarah's decision to go full color on a few pages is very exciting. Sarah says she wants to continue to conserve color for impact but plans to do at least one full color page each chapter.
I've been growing unhappy with the quality of the Witch Queen's twitter and as you may have noticed stopped updating it earlier in the month when my projects picked up. I'm thinking of starting a blog of some sort to simply post short stories as I write them and move some of the old rant stories there so they are easier to find a read. What I'd like to do with the Witch Queen's twitter is to just change it to updating as new WQ stories get finished and then update the stories in a series of 4-5 updates per day until that story finishes. I think the daily updates without outlined or revised scripts is making the stories start off strong but then get lost somewhere in the middle with them limping over the finish line and I'd like them to keep their punch from start to finish. If anyone is interested I'd like to work with a decent artist to give some limited art to some of these stories. I'd really enjoy giving them a cover and few sketches like the old Dragon Magazine stories used to have.
Lastly I'd just like to thank everyone who's stuck with us and thank everyone who is just joining us. The fans of CQ have been really great in terms of feedback and very supportive. I hope year three will raise the bar for CQ and launch us into the top ten here of DD for good. Still if anyone would like to help Cwen grow more in year three then it has in year one and two the best thing to do is to simply talk about the comic, request your favorites sites to review it or best of all do some fan art. Comics get a LOT of hits from fan art links in people's gallery.
Corad: Thanks! And Symus isn't used to public speaking.
taltamir: Yea Sven is just coolest.....
TheTim: I think it looks great either way. Sarah's line art is what really sells the page IMO.
Jonko: I can't wait either for the next chapter. I'll try and get some more side stories for the future. Which characters would you be most interesting in seeing more stories of?
We're super excited about the next chapter, I can't wait! I also guess I agree with you about chapter 6. I was able to read it all in one sitting since I started Cwen late so I found it enjoyable, but I guess people that were waiting for the rest of the story would have been frustrated by the short storyness.
I actually hope you guys do some more side stories soon, it was fun!
Nick and Sarah: Right, just a suggestion. Because who doesn't love a good fade in/fade out?
I'm kind of glad to know it's not going to be all color all the time, though. I'd still read it and still appreciate it, but I'd kind of miss the black and white (or black and white with a touch of color).
nice too see symus taking an interest in something other than jamming her hand into people (in a nonsexual way of course) umm is she blushing? why is symus blushing?
TheTim: Welll, I thought about doing that, but it still kind of depends on the pages for me...and I'm just used to making full color pages at random. =P I might still consider that though...
If Sarah wants to use color on a page or two, it might work really well on the first and/or last pages of a chapter. It'd be like fading into color from black and white, but in reverse.
Amysmom: But she isn't a person as we've established.
Dregs: The word cloud only show how many times a word appeared in the script. The tenticles simply required a little more elaboration in the script then most items.
Hmmm, the word cloud is interesting, but tentacles were deceptively large in the last cloud given their fairly minor part in the story, so I am not sure how far to trust this one.
moosenugget: Thanks! I'm glad Symus has a positive effect on you particularly after she went so wrong with Sven.
SoItBegins: Thanks
ZesuXII: I'd reply but....meh.......
Syethain: Thanks I'll try. Chapter 8 is just finishing up and I'm starting the script for chapter 9 this weekend.
Satanic_Hamster: No just it is just the way her outfit is.
PaulEberhartd: Thanks!
Lilithmae: Oooh Gaia online, I've gotten some good hits from there. Thanks that helps alot. I'm glad to help corrupt family too.
Ancy_baby: We have a huge buffer right now so I can promise a CQ fix every Tuesday and Thursday for you. I'm glad you decided to start posting, it is always great to have a new reader comment.
Well,I'm glad to be here. And I finally got my lazy butt in gear to put a banner and link to this site on my Gaia Online profile;that seems to work. I also got my sister hooked so I'm not longer the only CQ-obsessed freak in the house. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
yeah, I agree that the last chapters were quite confusing. But the plot twists and the humour kept me hooked. :3 CQ is one of the most amusing comics I've read thus far, so keep it up!
