As has probably been obvious for a goodly long time now, Dark Places has fallen into inactivity. This is for a variety of reasons – initially because I’d started a new job which used up a lot of the time and energy that had previously gone into making the comic, then later because I realised that I’d become lost and a little burned-out on it. Each page was taking a lot of hours to draw, and I was having a hard time summoning up the enthusiasm to continue. I do appreciate that right in the middle of a chapter is by no means a good place to make such a discovery, and for that I can only apologise. I’d like to returns to [i]Dark Places[/i] eventually, but I’m not sure when that’ll happen. I’m very grateful to all of you who’ve kept checking back in the hope of a new update and leaving messages of hope and anticipation; I’m also very sorry to keep disappointing you, and feel it’s best to (belatedly) clarify exactly how things lie at the moment.

In the meantime, if you’re still interested in following my work I’ve been working on Dungeon Grind, which has proven to be a much-needed change of, well, everything. Short-form, humour, relatively quick to make, it’s quite a different animal from Dark Places and has used different creative muscles. It does have kobolds in it, though, so I guess it’s not entirely dissimilar. That’s where I am at the moment, in any case.

Sorry, no page update this week; between work and a very busy (and enjoyable) weekend away there just weren’t enough hours in the week.

Next Wednesday for certain, though! Seriously.

Things will be in a slight state of flux for the next week or two – I’ve recently landed a part-time job at my FLGS, so there’ll be a period of adjustment while I balance that and the comic.

In the meantime it’s likely that I’ll be needed for more than part-time hours in the immediate future, so there may be some disruption in updates for the duration. My apologies in advance for that, but be certain that Dark Places will return once things settle down.

EDIT: Since interest has been expressed and print-on-demand makes things easy, the Bear With Me t-shirt has been added to the selection of eminently desirable merchandise in my my Zazzle store. It’s available in light and dark flavours.

Work on the next chapter continues apace, and I’m aiming to kick things off next week. In the meantime here’s a random bit of scenery from the world of Dark Places.

High in the Plains of Gwethyas, travellers wandering from the King’s Road may encounter what looks to be a strange outcropping of rock, grown over with lichen and heather. Many such stones lie fallen and half-buried across the rolling landscape, but enough still stand to trace the outline of a massive circle fully ten leagues across.

No one knows who brought the stones to Gwethyas, only that they are incredibly old – ancient when the Fey Courts raised the rings and avenues of Kollmoor to serve as gates for their armies, long predating even the hilltop caer-tombs of Koghbrannow. That many of the stones are worn smooth by time and exposure only hints at their vast age, as no tool forged by man or dwarf can mark their surface. Despite this many of the stones still bear carvings of grimacing figures, hunched and threatening.

The hardy folk who graze horses and cattle on the plains shun the lands bounded by the “Gurnstones”, claiming it to be a blighted and unclean place. They refuse to take their herds within sight of the stones, as any animal straying into the forbidden region is abandoned, or even driven off should it attempt to return.