…and happy new year, all! Another year’s passed! In no time, Millennium will be almost a decade old!

It’s been awfully quiet here these last couple of years. Not without reason, especially this year. I actually had to get through quite a bit of crud! Lots and lots of unstable ground, cropping up right after I’ve dealt with past difficulties! But I honestly do believe I’m better for it now.

I’ve got some more things to take care of (priorities have become pressingly more important since a few months ago). After that, updates! And a format change! The format change is what I’m really excited about; it’s new ground. I boxed myself in with the way I do comics. It’s actually kind of stubborn as well as unnecessary. I want to have fun again!

Speaking of that, I actually made many more changes to the upcoming parts — things that make way more sense than some of the stuff I stuck to for so long. I thought about it for most of this year. I don’t want to write things out of some feeling of obligation (well, I have to write THIS so they know THIS and THAT), because none of us will enjoy it. It just has to flow! Trying new things started this chain reaction of other-thinking. Lucky for us!

It was hard working on the next scene because I didn’t want to. It was same for the prologue of my other comic. Why do I keep doing that? No idea! But that problem should be pretty much done with. :D

These WERE the upcoming pages. Why was the next scene hard to work on? Because it was almost completely unnecessary. Millennium’s a bulky story, but at least the “extra” scenes in later parts are things I’m actually looking forward to drawing. Getting to the point is imperative right now.

Anyway, I feel safe in saying you’ve got a good deal to look forward to because I’ve already begun working on stuff. So hang with me, and thanks for sticking with!

2012 will be a year of reconnecting with comics. I love comics these days. They excite me. I submitted to Aftershock earlier this year, which is a beautiful book with impact. I’ve still got to wrap up a short story I did originally for an anthology, as well as guest pages for Union of Heroes. I’ve gotta do what’s priority, as always — job-hunting in the quiet times was keeping me as busy as if I had a job, and portfolio’s pretty important — but I’m going back to the time where my comics were retreats and pleasures. And it’s reason to be excited.

Much love to you this coming year!

I had been meaning to update news here for the longest time. Things have been difficult around here; over a slow process, I’ve overcome a lot of roadblocks impeding productivity and growth (I really had to acknowledge them), and just as soon, they were replaced by other, much bigger roadblocks of a different nature. Had to make some tough decisions; still making some. A lot have to do with work (or lack of) and my priorities as far as life is concerned. Managing time like this is difficult, to say the least, but it’s tempering me for the future, as I see it.

This is starting to sound like a “hiatus” announcement. Well, it’s not! Online since 2003, can’t stop now! Though, until further notice, you can consider Millennium in Development Mode. Among the things I’ve acknowledged is my general will against doing art, despite my desire to. That makes it hard to make new pages of either of my comics right now. But in the last couple months, I’ve discovered ways of actually structuring and motivating myself in spite of external factors. Though the external factors are important, too. (And apparently once you turn 25, your body goes to poo!)

Millennium’s more than script and page. There’s a lot more in-between, I’m realizing. The next step’s finally come, and I’m glad you’re here reading this. You’re probably ready to see things; ‘specially those of you who voted “2004″ in the current poll. :D I’ll make a habit of posting concept art here more regularly to get you revved up and keep this space occupied.

I’m really going to be working on making my comics the things I want to make. Not those extra things that’re taking up so much time, but those things I love doing in the midst of everything else. I’m getting the juices flowing again; I’m feeling them. It’s good, it’s nice!

Which brings me to this: redesigns. Ronou’s taken one more redesign that will see its way into the comic as soon as I have time to edit the current pages. This is the last time I’ll majorly redesign her. Probably.

What’s funny to me about Ronou is that, when I think about how “he” was before, Ronou was really an ambiguous kind of character (with a name that, in this world, is unisex). I love Ronou to death, and “his” personality remains — because with this redesign I literally changed but 1% of the script. This new incarnation of her makes the comic a lot more interesting for me, and even makes a few things make more sense, which is good. The characters were boring at the start, either purposefully or because of my very limited skill back in the day. They’re finding themselves by now.

And I’m glad.

See, some things have been going on, and life’s not exactly going as planned. The last few years I’ve battled general fatigue, bad hardware, and a lack of discipline with regards to working from home, but right now I’m countering things that are mostly out of my control. Wish me luck, and I’ll continue to do my best!

The tides keep turning. Up until recently, I was drawing for Mysteries of the Arcana. As of yet some of my pages there are still incomplete (without shading), but I am finishing them and a few other projects (freelance and otherwise) alongside working on my comics. Meanwhile, I learned some things about my capacity for drawing comics and got a much better drawing tablet to make the whole drawing experience less painful. Yay!

Right now I have big priorities, which is why some of my plans for comics haven’t moved forward as quickly as I’d hoped. But my vision is clearing, so I think things should come together in the next couple of months.

Meanwhile, take a look. The next page, 00-18, is actually about 70% done, but there’s one panel I’ve been doting on and trying to redraw to make sure it conveys a strong spot in the page, and at the beginning of the story. Here are some rough peeks:

It’s just something I’d like to get right! I believe in this panel! If only I could beam my brain images into the computer!

By the way, there are some interesting things here I think, and also I changed the poll!

With the few braincells I’ve got left, I’d like to tell you right now that I’m currently selling two pieces of art for charity. Check the details in their respective spots, and spread the word, if you would:

Untitled -for Japan- by ~senshuu on deviantART

Who Is Responsible for This by ~senshuu on deviantART

Also, unless ANOTHER big shake-up happens, you should expect page updates next month! YAY!

This is the flag of Gran, the largest city in Seldra and the main focus of Arc 5. Though Gran isn’t really very near to the coast, it’s said that this symbol was born of the people’s admiration of the celestial bodies rising over the ocean.

I’ve been working on completing Millennium’s script once and for all — particularly, general tweaks (especially regarding Ronou’s gender-change), editing some major scenes, revising a few parts that haven’t been touched since 2005, and finally writing in some major scenes. Gran is an important point in the story, and it’s sometimes overwhelming for me to think of — almost an entire arc taking place in a crowded and bustling city. But, I love the place; the more time I spend on it, the more I realize I’d like to visit it. When Arc 5 comes around sometime in the future, I hope others feel the same.

This is normally the kind of thing I’d post at the LJ community, but it’s a good idea to pipe up here, I think, and I’m considering dropping LJ communities altogether, as they don’t seem to be worth maintaining anymore. What do you think?

By the way, I’ve updated all the sections of the Development Art Page (except Spirits, sadly, which I must work on) with a bunch of stuff that I apparently never added there. I did post most of those things to the LJ community back nearer to the time I drew them, but I had always intended to add them on this website as well. Now that that’s done, please take a look at some of what’s in store for the comic. A lot of it is simply-drawn so far, but it went far in making me think and plan out the world of this comic and how everything relates to one another!

I’ve been awfully quiet lately. It’s due in part to some general life instability; while I have been working on the comic (check my own Tumblr to keep up with stuff like that!), things that might make money are always going to take precedent right now. Unfortunately, I need that now more than ever, and have been putting an earnest effort to improve myself and seek jobs. Trying to live off of freelance right now is very hard. I kind of don’t want to, at least, not yet; but I will do what I must. Work on my comics may lag because of it, but I did sketch four pages in a month, which is more than I’ve done in a long time — and in the midst of some generally not-good things, too — so I think my plans are going relatively well. I’ve been overwhelmed lately, honestly, but I think it’s coming out well. I’ll make things work, somehow.

That said, I’m also working on something for Union of Heroes, doing art relating to a recent event, going to a wedding, going to a convention (not as a guest or anything), and this is my month to work on my other comic, so… as far as Millennium goes, it will be slow in April, anyway, lol. Note that I always accept commissions for art and personal websites as part of freelance.

In the meantime, check this out: someone whose old comic I admired has started a new comic, which is expected to be even better. You should go read it ASAP:

Something I should have posted about sooner: the Webcomics Tarot Project rebooted a few days ago! Nearly half of the cards were freed again, only to be re-occupied in a matter of days. That is amazing to me, and I love what the newcomers have already contributed. I’m very glad I started the thing! I’m adoring the submissions.

Since all the slots are currently reoccupied, no one else can join, for now. However, I encourage you to keep an eye on the project, as the artwork being contributed is just great, and the participating comics are all well worth reading.

I actually still need to get my submissions done. The nearly-completed Seven of Wands is actually sitting on my old hard drive — somehow I forgot to back it up in the transition to my new PC a few months ago, so only the old version of the card is available to me — and I need to literally break into my PC and get it out. (I do nooot want to redraw it, as I really liked how it was. XD)

Here are some various stages of my art for the Webcomics Tarot Project:

It actually took me a long time to come up with this year’s valentine. Then, it came to me! A long time ago, Ronou used to have this wacky fountain hair. She doesn’t anymore, but maybe this will bring back memories for some. I’m sorry it couldn’t be more corny. I love corny valentines. There’s a high-resolution print download of this in the Downloads section! Yay!

I hope this was a happy day for you! Go out tomorrow and buy some SUPER-CHEAP CANDY!

Due to some undertakings of mine, and other things, page-work is going slower than usual. This is my month to work on my other comic’s pages, also! Consider I’m trying to get work/refine a portfolio alongside this, but the pages shall come!

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead

Monday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creator’s Alliance–a group of over eighty comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won’t end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here’s what we did: each creator contributed an original Brady Bunch-style bust of one of our own female characters and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The wallpaper features characters from lots and lots of online comics of many sorts! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper! This year you can even buy a print! The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th – 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House – two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.

To learn more about the Comic Creator’s Alliance visit comicalliance.weebly.com. To learn more about the problem, visit love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

Ronou and Chains (from my other comic) wish you a happy holiday!

As always, my holiday message comes late. Sorry! My holidays are always boring, but this entire month kind of waylaid me in ways I didn’t expect, and not all of that was good. Still, things are relatively okay here! And I hope you had a great holiday!

The Game Plan for making pages that I mentioned in the last newspost is still in effect, and my nose goes to the grindstone starting Saturday! A new year approaches and welcomes us!

In the meantime, please vote while you can; and I’ve added Facebook Like buttons underneath all the pages in the archive, next to the orange share button. Like away! Thanks for still dropping by in spite of the lulls!

So yes, it’s just a cover page, after all these months of waiting (I’m so sorry, I can’t believe how long ago I posted the last page, and there wasn’t much there, either) — however, I’ve got the majority of the rest of the Prologue thumbnailed already and am making ready to sketch. I’ve also modified the first 9 pages color-wise because some things were bothering me…as well as fixed obvious things that needed fixing as of this update. You might want to read again to see.

It was Millennium’s 6th birthday on the 3rd of November, and it hasn’t gotten very far since it began. But I have a Plan now, thanks in part to Tracy of Goodbye Chains (fantastic comic).

Here’s the plan:

You may know that I have two webcomics. One webcomic is time-consuming, and two are utterly so. But I don’t want to quit one or put the other on a hiatus, even after so much deliberation on it.

So, I plan on alternating months spent working on pages for them. Starting January, I will only work on pages for one comic. February, I will work on the other comic exclusively. And so on. (Side art and other things for either comic can be at any time; I don’t think I could manage limiting that.) Updates will still come once weekly, with however many comics I finish/am close to finishing determining how many pages are added per update. I think this is the best way to keep any consistency, and I hope it goes well. I plan to work fervently. In January, I start with this comic.

And, put simply, if I don’t finish very many comics in one month, there may be fewer updates. If that happens, I still won’t break the routine. I’ve just got to go with it.

For both my comics, planning is way ahead of the game, but execution is a big hang-up. I want to get over that.

Also, I’ve still got to finish page 14 here. Yes, it’s unfinished; it still needs shading and hilighting. Sorry that it’s still un-done!

I thought an actual update would be better than a birthday image or something else this year; I hope that proves true. It felt good.

On that note, if the feed import starts working, you can check Millennium updates on Tumblr now! Not to mention the Twitter and Facebook links, right below the comic up there. There’s also a Sharing button below every page in the archive. I much appreciate your looking/sharing! There’s an official DA Club, too, but I’m admittedly kind of bad at maintaining those things. It’s there if you’d like to join, however. :D

Oh, and I’ll update the vote incentive eventually. But for semi-interesting things, go to my personal Tumblr, where I’ve posted a few thumbnails of upcoming pages. (And yes, I’m signed up at almost every popular-in-NA website you could think of.)

Before I forget again (sorry! orz), I’ve been meaning to plug Shishinkontan, Rekka’s next comic. It’s based on Japanese mythology, and I like that. :D Start reading it in its infancy! It’s going to be the actual definition of the word “epic”.

In other news!

The whole job thing keeping me from being comics-productive is no longer relevant, and while I am seeking (actively and often), I can devote more time to comics in the meantime. My job this summer did manage to get me a very good computer; I now have one decent enough to handle my quality needs with regards to my comics now. Also as important, it’s no longer an agonizing pain to design websites with every PC window lagging, or design or do anything for that matter. I’m grateful.

And I’m grateful for people checking in and still reading. Please do let others know about the update, and that this comic isn’t dying; and I appreciate it! Here’s seeing you again soon.