What a Good Boy Part 1
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand we’re back!
(Not a dinosaur story… yet.)
Sarah seems to be a little camera shy all the sudden.
End of Convention Season Message:
(The Commission Collage!~)
Manifested Dreams is tuckin’ in until January. Here’s a very small collection of some of the more recent commissions that…
a) Weren’t 18+, which is a shame because some of those are the absolute best physical pieces I’ve ever made.
b) Includes a few 2017 pieces that were near the end of the year that I was kinda proud of (BakuDeku fight and Tsuyu. Hero Academia is best shonen)
c) I actually managed to get a semi-decent quality shot of before handing it off.
What does this mean? No more convention interruptions which should help prevent further interruptions in Mastery’s story progression. It also means we’ll be able to finally get the Manifested Dreams online store back open. That means access to all of Ari’s great plush, candles, pride pillows and the like, but also the nifty Mastery pillow with our four girls, the mini NicoMaki pillows because Love Live is amazing, and the “It’s Not Easy Being Min” prologue book! This also means I can finally chug through the remaining commissions that have kept my anxiety at a fever pitch for what feels like the past couple decades.
We had a long talk about future plans for the business on the way back from Youmacon. Lots of potential ideas, but ultimately my goal remains the same. Getting this story out there for all of you. Thank you again for your patience. Your comments have done a lot to help kick my anxiety to the curb.
Halloween Message:
(The Halloween Post’s image)
Youmacon in Detroit this weekend.
Last convention of the year.
So, I live in Pittsburgh. Things have been a little crazy. No comic this week and next week’ll I’ll be dropping a collection of some of the better commissions that happened from the show before getting back to Sarah and company. This should be the last break until the holidays, which hopefully won’t be as full-radio-silence as last year’s.
Uhhh, Ryan? What the heck is going on with Min Hua’s left hand?
Honestly, the whole thing could use more work. It took most of the night plugging away at this to get it where it is because the art block has been pretty intense. That said, morning eyes are way more offended by it than the late night crossed-eyes from yesterday.
Man, Rei had the worst derp face for most of the night. Like… embarrassing, what-even-is-this, levels of bad. Still not exactly happy with it, and I had to cut three characters from the original idea, but I figured it’d be better than just another text dump. <3
There we go. Slightly less bad.
It looks MUCH better. After seeing Greg’s comment at the end I looked at it and thought, “was I judging it too harshly?” and then I saw you’d fixed it. It looks much better now and I can see where you were heading with the previous drawing.
As for the rest of it, it looks pretty great. Rei looks fine, I’m not seeing anything bad anywhere else on the page. That said, Sarah with the flames in an angel costume, huh? huh?
Don’t sweat it, I’m giving you shit. You’re doing amazing work given the crush you’re under.
Ryan, do you knew w why there are so few of the minor characters with head shots, on the cast page? I mean, the art work is already done, …
Totally a case of juggling too much that I’m not getting everything done.
I’m actually not altogether happy with how the cast section and it’s connected per-page portrait system in general looks or works. It’s another one of those ‘things I need to work on.’
Yeesh guys, whine, whine, whine!?
Ryan, thanks for the story. Love the artwork!
No worries on that, I appreciate the feedback, tbh. <3 I'm so glad you're enjoying the ride.
Greg Cotton, this is a reply to your comment. There’s a bug in the code that prevents the last comment from being seen as a reply.
Ryan and I have had this discussion before, and I hope I *never* sound like I’m whining.
Ryan gives me some of the best entertainment I get all week. I hope he
never
NEVER
NEVER
takes any of my criticisms as judging his work. He does FANTASTIC WORK.
There are nuances to these storylines that you don’t see in bestselling novels. His research on story details is deep and accurate. His character building will totally take you by surprise– and then you realize what genius there is in it.
If I tell him he got Min’s hand a little wudgy I do so because I know he cares– you can see that above, he fixed it and I appreciate that and am happy I was able to help. I also care about these characters, and the story myself– I want Ryan to be able to turn this into a book that he can be proud of publishing, and I hope it makes him a TON of money. He deserves it for the effort.
Please don’t take my pissy little criticisms as anything but total appreciation of his work. If I come across otherwise it’s a mistake I made, not intentional.
D’aww. Now I’m blushing.
I didn’t take it badly at all. I was totally planning on fixing it when I got back from work anyways.
Somehow, it’s sunk in that I’ve got some really great people following this story who are way more patient than I deserve. Knowing that the girls are amazing and their story is killer really helped bridge that self-consciousness gap.
Sarah in a flaming angel costume? /fans self
I was going to have Xiu Mei in the background trying to decide on witch or vampire, but time and art block.
It’s good t’be a fan of your own characters~
All-Purpose Guru I wasn’t being all that serious and didn’t mean to criticize the artistic criticism.
Ryan I’m enjoying the story and artwork and I’m loving these characters. I know it’s a lot to do on top of a day job and it’s not going to kill us if you have to miss a week or so now and then. When you finally do the paper edition I’ll be right here to buy it, meanwhile I’ll be checking in on Wednesdays.
Greg,
Sorry, I try really hard to keep it from looking like I’m complaining. No worries.
Its been forever since I’ve posted, but I just wanna say….MY GIRLS ARE BACK ONCE MORE
You sound about as excited as I am to get back to them. xD
When we see them in the story next, things are going to be crazy.
Well, I’m definitely a fan of crazy my dude, just spent time catching up on what I’d missed! Have I always had this picture…I don’t remember setting it…
Smut, you say?
Loads of it. So much. A huge variety and just about all of it was fun to work on.
Hmmm. I am intrigued.
I *really* like the idea that Jackie and Julie are both working on this, normally kids and parents don’t work together well on stuff like this. Just shows that Jackie is pretty well grounded and has a good rapport with her girls.
The fact that Andrew, and to a lesser extent, Jake are in the thick of it says good things about the boys too.
I always love Ash’s “Sh’yeah”.
The word balloon with “I wasn’t sure about all this…” is Andrew’s, right?
Yus~
@Greg Cotton: Yeah, I read your comment and saw that it could go either way. Didn’t know which way the go. All-Purpose Guru is always positive or, if not positive, then contructive. He’s really smart,… really, really smart, and it is best to keep him on your side. Because: Brains!
And we’re here because we think the comic is so well done. There are comics I don’t read because even if the art is pretty, so are comics like Kahmith.com and Masterycomic that have good art and wonderful stories. ‘S why we’re here. Glad to see you are a fan too.
*blush*
My heart aches for Sara. (Sad face with sympathy for heart break)
I love how wholesome this community can be, an argument here ends with both sides apologising and appreciating Ryan’s amazing work!
I know I’m pretty happy about it xD
OMG, *three* pizzas? Oh, right, high school kids. I remember that.
Brought home one of those wagon-wheel Costco pizzas and each kid ate half of it. Ye gods. I had to have a frozen burrito from the fridge for dinner.
I’m only in the late 30’s myself. I can still destroy half an extra large on my own. >:D
I… may regret it later, but that’s what antacids are for!
Wait ’til your metabolism slows down. I swear mine is in reverse.
At this point my wife and i split a small entree at dinner… …and that’s it. I could have saved so much damn money if I had had this metabolism in college.
Oh, I’ve definitely put on some pounds in the past two years. Part of that was because of all those injuries in 2018 (couldn’t walk without crutches for more months than I like to think on). We’re workin’ on that. >_>