Fortunately for you guys the answers may be closer than you think! I now have a Formspring page set up for the comic, I’d like you to ask me… well, whatever you like. Within reason. Mainly about the comic, for preference, since that’s something I know things about. Oh, such things. Such beautiful, terrible things…

Ahem. Yes. If there’s some point of plot that’s unclear, some detail of the setting that intrigues you, or some technical aspect of the comic-creating process that you’d like to know more about, this is your chance to find out. There’s a box, you type questions in it, I answer them. It’s pretty straightforward stuff. I’ll probably even add the especially popular questions to an FAQ on the About page, to stand as a shining beacon of enlightenment for all.

Click link, receive answers.

Chapter 4 begins! Featuring a handful of familiar faces and a newcomer.

This Saturday August 21st I’ll be artist-in-residence for the D&D Dark Sun Game Day at Eclectic Games, my super-friendly super-local FLGS. Come along and check out the return of the Athas D&D setting, and get a character portrait drawn while you play! Or wait, or check out the store’s enormous range of games, or whatever. It’s all good.

So the intended two weeks turned into something more like two months. I fell off the productivity wagon, and fell hard enough to make a crater. I can only apologise for that (doubly so for my extended silence on the matter), and humbly thank you for your patience. This break has, however, given me the opportunity to plot and ponder and make sure the stuff I have in mind is heading in the right direction, which I hope will result in a superior comic for you, gentle readers, to enjoy.

So. I’m now back on the wagon, and I am intending to turn into an unstoppable juggernaut of comic-making awesomeness. That is the plan. I look forward to your company on the ride.

And that’s it for Chapter 3. Thank you to all of you for your patience and encouragement. Dark Places will be on a break while I get the next chapter ready, and maybe even start building up a buffer.

Updates resume! Thank you again for your patience in the interim.

Free RPG Day 2010 and Grand Reopening of Eclectic Games went quite swimmingly, by all accounts, with local and not-so-local gamers visiting to play introductory games of Dungeons & Dragons, Deathwatch and Exalted, or just passers-by dropping in to see what this new shop has to offer. Good atmosphere and lots of fun. And delicious cake.

Huge thanks to Eclectic Games for inviting me and to everyone who commissioned a character sketch from me. Excellent to meet you all and draw your dudes.

The overwhelmingly positive interest shown today means that I will be opening up for character sketch commissions in the very near future so watch this space.  There’ll be an announcement when I’ve got everything sorted out and ready.

Photo courtesy of John Breakwell.

Meanwhile I must say again that the new shop is really nice, stocked with a gazillion games of all varieties and run by people who know and love games and will happily help you find the ideal game for you. Well worth visiting if you’re at all in the area.

Yes indeedy, this Saturday is Free RPG Day, when you can head down to your FLGS and try out a new roleplaying game or two, with quickstart modules and material available for a range of titles for free, that’s eff-arr-ee-ee as in FREE, as in you pay nothing. Pretty awesome.

It so happens that my FLGS, Eclectic Games, are combining Free RPG Day with their Grand Reopening at the new premises (map here). I’ll be there doing character sketches (an example of which can be seen as this week’s interlude content), so if you’re in the area then please do stop by – it’s a short walk from the train station, and they have an unbelievably huge selection of board games, card games, roleplaying games and traditional games.

In comic-related news, I’m pretty much done with the illustration gig and the conclusion to The Silver Chain should resume next Wednesday. Thank you again for your patience.

Thank you all for your patience.

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The little chap is inordinately fond of wordplay, which makes him a lot of fun to write. So many words, so many meanings, so many borderline puns.

Adar really needs to learn when to be quiet.

I’ve just got back to the UK after spending a pretty delightful couple of weeks in Spain. Sun was soaked up, sangrias were sunk, sketches were scribbled.

Unfortunately I didn’t quite get enough of a buffer built up ahead of time, so in lieu of an update today here’s my submission for the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing Anthology 2010. The theme was “dinosaurs”, and since it’s kind of tricky to fit dinosaurs into my comic’s setting I just drew a picture of a dude in armour facing off against some kind of spiky and palaeontologically-incorrect T. Rex-a-like.

Shockingly, this might actually be the first time I’ve drawn a dinosaur.

Just so you know, that gesture in panel 2 is considered to be pretty freakin’ rude. Way ruder than flipping the bird.

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