Angel Armor/Lightbringer Blog

Updates resume Wednesday

2009-06-15T02:26:00.001-07:00

What it says. Lightbringer returns on Wednesday June 17th. ^_^

We have a new artist!

2009-02-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

Well, for those of you still paying attention, I'm proud to announce that Lightbringer is going to have a new permanent artist! And he is so awesome that of course I'm going to link to his Deviant Art page for you to check out his work.

Now, he's not going to be starting right away, since of course I had some awesome volunteers for guest pages. Still, we're getting back on our feet! And yes, he takes commissions, folks. ^_~

http://chadrocco.deviantart.com/

Call for Guest/Permanent Artists

2009-01-25T03:01:00.000-08:00

Hey, gang! Yeah, hiatus is still going on, but I figured why not ask for some guest artists and see if anyone would be interested in finishing up some more pages of the storyline? I'm looking into some other avenues in that department for getting a new permanent artist, since while I love to write about Lightbringer, art for him just takes too much time.

As such, open call to anyone who'd be interested in becoming a permanent artist or just willing to do some guest art for the rest or part of the current storyline! I'm keeping the once a week schedule for now, so not a lot of work necessary! E-mail if interested!

Hiatus

2009-01-14T19:24:00.001-08:00

Well, that "switch to Thursday" plan went over like a lead ballooon.

Look, the problem is that with everything else in my life, I lack motivation to work on Lightbringer when I really should. I was hoping to at least get through this storyline before I did this, but sadly that's what it's come to - well, either that or doing black and white and frankly I don't like going down that route.

I'm still interested in doing the writing portion, but the scenes I WANT to draw are always too far off and they take far too much time. As such, hopefully I can either find an artist who wants to step forward or at least get motivated again come February, when I'm taking a drawing class for college, so at the very least I'll become a BETTER artist even if an unmotivated one.

What about Crossoverlord, you ask? I will still be doing my art duties there, few as they may be. It was my initial idea, I got everyone together, and I made a commitment to it and damn it all if I'm not going to stick with it, especially since the others are carrying so much of it already.

New Update Day

2008-12-31T00:07:00.001-08:00

You know what? Screw it - new update day is Thursday. Wednesdays are my day off anyway so I can get crap done on it.

Another day-late (but also something to entertain)

2008-12-09T19:58:00.000-08:00

You know what's really bugged me about the fact that I've had to delay two updates by a day?

This issue I'm actually scripting, since I figured knowing how I wanted the panels and dialogue to go would make things go faster. But that's not the case, since I have jobs now taking up my attention in addition to my last final of the semester being tomorrow and I need to study for it.

However, to tide you over, I direct you to That Guy with the Glasses, a website primarily home to humorous video reviews of TV shows, movies, and video games. Why do I bring this up? Because now I'm doing reviews for them, too. Except I do it about bad comic books. Check it out! While the majority of my videos aren't up yet, they do have my Top 15 WTF moments of bad comics and my review of the awful Marvel book from the 1980s called "US-1."

Might be a day late

2008-11-25T20:56:00.000-08:00

Hey, guys, due to a number of factors the update on th 26th may be a little late (i.e. it'll be on Wednesday, but might not be right away).

Revolution of the Mask

2008-10-09T01:06:00.000-07:00

So, this is kind of late, but ever wonder what it'd be like if you had my writing but not my crappy artwork?

Well, come take a look at Revolution of the Mask, my first foray into semi-professional (i.e. paid) comics.

It's an e-comic, available for a paltry $0.72 if you purchase it through Crux or Lulu and released through Brain Scan Comics. Check it out!

Sooo, I've got a tablet now

2008-08-19T15:40:00.001-07:00

Yes, as the title says, as it's my birthday, my parents saw fit to provide me with a WACOM Bamboo tablet, size 5.8" by 3.7". Needless to say I'm excited about the possibilities it presents before me (particularly in the hopes of speeding up my drawing). On that note, however, it'll take some time for me to get used to it, so don't expect any big changes right away.

Some Updates

2008-05-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the new storyline has begun! Just a reminder - new pages after this point will be every Wednesday until I can get enough buffer to justify more than once per week. However, to help things out, there's always the Crossoverlord! Link in the "Champions" Dropdown.

Also, I've updated the Storylines Link with a better tabled interface as well as giving solicits for the next three storylines!

Good News and Bad News

2008-04-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a reveal, eh?

Okay, now here's a briefing. As some of you are aware, it's difficult with my busy schedule to get comics out these days. It was easier when my artwork sucked and I wasn't shading, so I could churn out a whole bunch of pages in a single day without breaking a sweat. These days, the standards are higher both for myself and for you all. As such, sacrifices have to be made in order to keep the comic functioning.

I don't want to go on hiatus again. It loses readers and kills forward momentum on the comic. As such, the good news is we won't be going on hiatus. However, we WILL be switching to a once-weekly schedule after the Second Anniversary Fanart. I know, I'm not happy about it either, but this just makes me rededicate myself to making every page FRICKING AWESOME to make it worth your while. Once I have enough buffer, we'll go back to two or three times a week.

As such, following next week's Anniversary celebration, on Monday we'll have the cover to Issue 12 and then on Wednesday and every proceeding Wednesday, we'll have new pages.

OOH! And while it's still a work-in-progress, I'm making revisions to the Cast and Storyline pages to make them a little less unwieldy and I'll be posting up some new preview soliciations for future issues! For the Cast page, no more separate pages - all one page with the history marked down and a headshot of the character.

We're still celebrating!

2008-04-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder to people that while the official anniversary was April 15th, the official celebrations for Lightbringer's second anniversary won't be until after this storyline finishes in another week! As such, I'm still accepting giftart from anyone who wants to do a guest page(s) or just a quick pinup. Thanks!

CROSSOVERLORD

2008-04-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

This is what I've been building to, folks. That symbol that's been appearing (and will make one last appearance)? The Smiling Man's cryptic statements? Hell, the Smiling Man himself? All will finally be revealed:

CROSSOVERLORD! Two years in the making - a webcomic crossover event starring Lightbringer, Dasien, ANT, Mind Mistress, and Dead Debbie of Indefensible Positions! Cameoing dozens of heroes as they wish to be added! For now, right-click and create a new window for this:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/crossoverlord/

Drunk Duck also has a mirror at: http://drunkduck.com/Crossoverlord/index.php

Comic Genesis Mirror site to come!

STARTING APRIL 15TH!

The Upcoming Second Anniversary

2008-03-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

As some may be aware, Lightbringer will be turning two in about a month. Obviously the storyline's going to cross into that, but I still want to celebrate the event once Issue 11 reaches its conclusion. As such, I'd love to have some guest art and guest strips come in. Think of it this way - I'm only on the beginnings of penciling Issue 12 and while I plan to have it all ready by the time Issue 11 is completed, at least you won't have another hiatus spring up in seven weeks. ^_~

Lightbringer Resumes March 10th

2008-03-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

Hiatus will end in one week. Set your calenders!

MORE Updates!

2008-02-22T00:18:00.000-08:00

All righty! The good news is that I have finished penciling the 22 pages of Issue 11 (wow, regular comic-length even!) The bad news is that I've been devoting so much time and effort to drawing the pages that I haven't gotten around to doing anything else with the inking and coloring. As a result, it's still going to take me awhile to get through that. Still, I'm thinking I'll just speed through it as quickly as I can and then I'll announce once I'm ready.

In other news, frequenters of the forum may notice things look a little different. The host provider for the Comic Genesis forums have done an update into a new version, so things are going to be a bit shinier from now on until they get everything working the way they want.

Hiatus Update

2008-01-26T00:58:00.000-08:00

The update is... there's still a hiatus.

But the good news is that I am making progress. I'm halfway through drawing the issue and I've got three pages that could be put up (but I'm not going to... sorry. ^^; ). Let it just be clear that the comic WILL return, so stay tuned and discuss any topic you'd like in the forum! Heck, send me some guest storylines or fanart to make things go easier!

Here's an idea - what would you like to see in a future storyline? DISCUSS!

Merry Christmas! ...And Hiatus?

2007-12-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, first of all - Merry Christmas to all readers! While I would've liked to do what I did last year and post every day this week, sadly it didn't work out that way schedule-wise, so instead we're going to have updates on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas to round out the storyline.

However, on that note, I have once again fallen behind on drawing and making the actual pages, so I have no buffer after the end of this issue. I'm working hard to get the full Issue 11 ready and hopefully with Winter Break I'll be able to do it, but otherwise we have hiatus after Christmas. ^^;

New logo!

2007-11-07T22:53:00.000-08:00

So it hit me the other day that all of the major comics and webcomics I read all have individualized logos using (usually) original font. And here I am usin the Algerian text that, while it looks nice, doesn't really say anything about Lightbringer nor is it that captivating. As such, I took it upon myself to design this new logo we see above. I'll keep this up until I either design a new logo or if people find enough flaws with it to warrant me to just say to hell with it. On that note, sadly the compression ruins the effect of the white outline.

Issue 10 and All

2007-11-02T11:34:00.001-07:00

Well, we have the standard week between storylines right now and I've got buffer through November, but that just means I've only finished up half of Issue 10. ^_~ As such, don't be surprised if we may have to go to another hiatus to get the buffer back up again by the end of December. I think I've got some fairly decent pages and twists coming up for Issue 10, as well as a page that gives my formal apology to pacifism for my earlier statements to the philosophy earlier in the comic.

They're Doing it Again

2007-10-18T10:01:00.001-07:00

Okay, now the insults flying from SomethingAwful.com are just getting silly.

Apparently, Lady Analemma is me ripping off Raven (I presume they mean the one from Teen Titans), even though:
1. I didn't create Lady Analemma, she was part of the villain contest.
2. Her powers are nothing like Raven's.
3. Her backstory is nothing like Raven's.
4. The only thing relatively close to Raven is the fact that she wears a cape, a hood, and has black hair (which even then is a wig).

And once again I'm getting flamed for using a pseudonym for the artwork. Get over it already, I say right in the FAQ that it's me and I admit all the time that it's me.

I wouldn't care as much about this if not for the fact that yesterday I boasted 551 visits, a new record high. Of course, more than half of these are probably from the SomethingAwful.com thread that, once again, they don't even bother to try to address any of their criticisms to me directly. For those who are here and trying to support me and help me improve, thanks. I really do appreciate it.

So, I think I figured out Why

2007-10-13T23:40:00.000-07:00

(Something special for the 50th Blog Post)

All of the stuff about the original plans for the White Death arc got me thinking about why I would want to do a storyline related to it. When someone brought up the fact that I had kind of already dealt with rape with the creation of the Slavers, it also got me thinking about why I would create the Slavers to begin with. Oh, sure, I listed off in the original notes about that one Battlestar Galactica episode that really cheesed me off, but even then, why would the episode make me so mad?

But then a while back I was reading the Lurker's Guide, a Babylon 5 site that had detailed commentary from J. Michael Straczynski on each episode. And once he was asked on a particular episode called "Passing Through Gethsemane" why he'd write a story on forgiving a criminal for their past deeds and why he wrote so respectively of religious figures when he was an Atheist. And he had quite possibly one of the best quotes I've ever seen:

"Which makes the notion of writing a character who CAN forgive momentarily attractive...because it allows me to explore in great detail something of which I am utterly incapable. I cannot fly, so I would write of birds and starships and kites; I cannot play an instrument, so I would write of composers and dancers; and I cannot forgive, so I would write of priests and monks and minbari..."

There you have it. I can't stop real-life human traffickers. So I write a story where they are stopped.

For those from SomethingAwful or YWiB

2007-09-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I figured I might as well get this over with since I got yet another surge of visitors yesterday from SomethingAwful.com and the fact that they link my comic with being one of the worst out there, and that pretty soon it's going to be reviewed on "Your Webcomic is Bad and You should Feel Bad about it."

I'd been wondering whether or not I should do this for awhile, mostly because the people who are dead-set in their opinions aren't going to be swayed by anything I have to say on the matter, but I figured I might as well try, anyway. For those unfamiliar with this, Lightbringer has been posted on SA.com's forums before as an example of one of the worst webcomics out there and people frequently post about how detestible I am for it. Well, I'm doing a preemptive strike and responding right here to it, since I really don't want to shill out $10 to join a forum JUST to respond to crticisms. I'd really wanted to avoid this, since frankly I feel that if someone has a problem with someone else's work, they should just confront them about it and tell how they feel. Sure, most of the time they won't listen, but other times they will, like I have when people have criticized me on various things about Lightbringer.

-First, yeah - my art sucks. I've made no secret of this. While throughout various times in the comic I've talked about how I liked how a panel came out or thought something looked awesome... well, of course I would. I'm still new to comicing even after a year and I'm always trying to find ways to improve, so when I think something turned out pretty well, I'm going to be proud of it. That doesn't mean it truly is anything to be proud of, but there you go.
-Secondly - me calling myself a published author when I did it through self-publishing. Yeah, it's not really the same thing, but honestly I didn't truly understand the difference until recently. And only now am I starting to realize all the flaws my books contained and I'm trying to improve upon that in my future writings.
-Next - the trade paperback thing. Yeah, that was really stupid of me. I actually thought I could go back, revise the comic pages with a little better artwork and rewrites, and sell the thing, but honestly my artwork sucks too much for that to work out and I sincerely doubt any such option would work in the conceivable future.
-This one's a doozie. For the regular readers, remember how I had originally planned for Issue 8 to be about White Death and then suddenly it changed into a focus about Hannah? Well, while half of that was to try to respond to a criticism I had been given about how the characters in Lightbringer didn't seem to have any real personality, the other half was because of White Death's backstory.

When I first came up with her, the idea was, in a nutshell, that she was an actress who was raped on stage in front of thousands of people who didn't realize she was being raped. I patted myself on the back for the ingenuity of having such a traumatic backstory for a character... but then I found out about Girl-Wonder.org. And I became a feminist, realizing the plight of female characters in comics. And I posted my idea about White Death and they told me it was a bad idea. And the more people I told about it, the more people told me it was a bad idea, so I realized they were right and I pulled the story.

But then those on SomethingAwful.com found that post and decided to link to it, using it as an example of what a terrible person I was, even drawing the scorn of one person in particular who shall remain nameless even though I have made every attempt to earn their respect. What they failed to do was to point out that in the very same thread they posted to on Girl-Wonder.org's forums, I had posted how bad of an idea I realized it was and asked for advice on how to change it, which the fine people there did and thus I shall be doing the revised story later down the line. I recognize I'm still not perfect in all the details when it comes to treating female characters with respect, something that I'll be pointing out when we get to Issue 10, but I am conscious of it and I am trying to change.
-Something more recent that was posted critiquing me was how I referred to the art I purchased at FallCon was "Fanart." That was most definitely an error on my part, something that someone pointed out to me and I subsequently changed, upon which they suggested I call it Giftart or Guest Art. I know that those who I had gotten the artwork from weren't fans, I just honestly thought that most of those terms were interchangeable.

At the moment, that's all I can think of. I know I really shouldn't care about what other people think of me, but it's important to me that people don't think I'm an awful person even if they don't think my comic's any good. Thanks for your time.

Lightbringer Resumes Monday!

2007-09-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

Good news, everyone!

As we speak, I'm working on the final page of Issue 9- *Suddenly gets kicked by people who tell him to get back to work* -OOF!

Erm, anyway, this means that Lightbringer will once again resume updates on Monday, September 17th! In the meantime, I've got a few pieces of Fanart that I've been sitting on and meaning to get up, so I'll be posting those to hold off the wait. Be joyous, all! At least seven weeks of updates await! Tell your friends and family!

Storyline update... OF ACTION!

2007-08-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

Well, as of this writing I've gotten through half of Issue 9 in inks, colors, and lettering. As such, I technically have three weeks of material for you guys.

But I'm not putting it up yet. ^_~ No, like I said, I want as full a buffer as I can, so I'm still going to wait until I've got all twenty pages plus the cover, thus giving you seven weeks of uninterrupted comics, plus more if I can get Issue 10 up and running. Progress IS being made, people! The hiatus won't last forever!