mjarrett1000

I know I've apologized numerous times for not updating my page for long periods. So I'm going to explain how my life is going at the moment. 

My job is a very tenuous one. I essentially do all the footwork for attorneys in Northern California, which includes process serving, getting depositions, acquiring records from businesses, hospitals, and doctors offices. The bulk of my work has been with records retrieval, but with the rise of digital technology they don't need field reps like myself as much anymore, and they've laid off most of us. I took over the routes formally done by another employee, and because of this I typically work 12-16 hours a day, and a lot of driving from city to city. I'm not complaining, because without the new route, I'd probably be unemployed, or at the very least work only 20 hours a week, and that ain't enough to pay the bills. In fact, it's kind of rewarding working the long hours; I end the day knowing I did a good job and that my employer is pleased with me.  I'm the only employee who isn't working part-time, and instead is the only one working overtime, and for that I'm enormously grateful, but also understand that if I screw up they'll hire a new guy to "help me out", and I'll be reduced to part-time like everyone else. So...I have to work and work hard to keep that from happening. I have no real time left to draw or write. On the weekends, I make it a point to do a lot of nothing because I am wiped from working such long hours. My girlfriend also has Honey-do lists for the weekend that I somehow have to summon the energy to complete.

That said, I occasionally have enough free time to do a small thing here or there. I intend to finish Demon Bride Part 1 soon, and start on an art project I promised a friend. In the meantime, I also am struggling to finish all the Chronicles of Joanna's Adventures. The D&D adventure happened so long ago that I forget the order of how things progressed, and I also have to make up a bunch of stuff so that it makes logical sense in light of all the information online about the Greyhawk world that I didn't have when I had my campaign back in the 80's and early 90's. Also, I'm a bit more educated on culture and real-world history than I was back then, so I have to account with medieval politics and things, even though its a fantasy world. So...I've been rewriting the last few chapters of her adventures on Greyhawk before she got Rifted to the superhero world for a few years. I will continue to delete, modify, and add to the chapters, and in the meantime I have deleted those installments until I'm happy with the final product. The bitch is for me to have the self-discipline to resist the temptation of further modifying a post once I uploaded it to DA. My intent is to say that once it's uploaded, that it's canon and unalterable. Alas, I obviously can't stay true to that and for that I apologize. I try to push the upload to its maximum bit-size so that I CAN'T change it, even if I wanted to. So far that's worked pretty good. So...Part 12 is finalized...I hope ( Joanna's Oerth History, Part 12The Conjurer
      The first Shadow Squad mission was to force a mage to abandon his tower on the mainland near the coastal city of Axeport. Within the tower was a teleportation arch which was attuned to an identical arch recently discovered beneath Admundfort's military quarter, and the Shadow Squad was to acquire the arch in order to make transport to and from the island quicker and easier. After several attempts to persuade the mage in surrendering his tower had failed, the Shadow Squad used overt force to press the issue. The mage was a powerful conjurer, and summoned several monsters of increasing power the higher and deeper they went into the tower to stop the Shadow Squad. Joanna's thieving talents were put to the test, detecting and disarming numerous traps throughout the tower, both mundane and magical. Had she not been a part of the group, most of the traps would likely to have been fatal to the rest of the group. When they reached the top level, the mage made). Am now struggling with Part 13 and wrapping up chronicling her time in Admundfort. (lots of DM's came and went during this time of her adventure's and I forgot to write it all down at the time, relying on my old man memories which fail me more times than not). 

So patience, friends. I'm workin' on it. Feedback is welcome.

Barring unforseen circumstances, Page 17 should be up sometime this weekend, probably Saturday evening. 

Working on Page 16 of Demon Bride Part 1. This may take a bit longer than others, mainly because there's a lot of detail in the panels and a lot going on in each panel as well. Coupled with a busy life (girlfriend, long hours at work, etc), I have no idea when I'll be done, but hopefully I'll have the rest of the day free to work on it. Plotting out the page so it's aesthetically pleasing can be just as time-consuming as actually drawing the panels. Should I make the page six panels or only four? How big should I make this panel, and if I make this panel larger or longer, how will I draw all that's supposed to be happening in the next frame with the limited space left on the page? Can I get the scene all done and leave room for the next scene within the next 6 pages to keep it under the 22 pages that most comic books are? There's a lot to fit in. The script for the comic doesn't always pan out the way I want it to, so I sometimes have to leave out scenes I really wanted to include but have no room left to fit in it. Editing editing editing... 

It's up.

For those who like to download the pages, you might want to wait a while, since I tend to tinker with my work. It always seems to go that way; I "finish" a page, upload it, then later find a mistake (like a misspelled word or something like a piece of it I didn't shade right) or just something I'm not happy with and I mess with it until I'm happy and upload the modified version. I guess I'm just in a rush to get it up.

Anyways, hope you like it. 

Working on Page 15 of Demon Bride Part 1 Page 15. Two more panels to get done. Should be up this weekend.