Daniel Lieske Blog

Welcome to The Attic!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-05-06T13:30:56-07:00

Since mid-April I was working on a new section of the Wormworld Saga website and today I'm finally finished. I'm happy to announce to you:

The Attic - Discover the Secrets of the Wormworld Saga

I'm frequently asked if there is a possibility to access the special features from the Wormworld Saga App without owning a tablet device. Well, there hasn't been - until now. The video above gives you all the important facts about the new website and I've also setup an info page with more detail. Put in a nutshell, you get all the content from the app inside your browser only that you're not asked to pay a fixed sum per chapter but a yearly subscription fee instead.

I've been toying around with this idea for a long time now. Right after the release of the Wormworld Saga App I started to discuss a web version of the app with the developers because after a short time it was pretty evident that there were a lot of people who'd love to see the special content but just didn't own the neccessary tablet device to run the app. However, the additional investment wasn't something I could afford and I didn't want to start yet another kickstarter campaign for something like that.

It was in the end of last year that it dawned on me that it couldn't be such a big deal to bring the content from the app to the website myself. Exporting an Artwork and Prelim version was a straightforward thing and the author commentary popups weren't rocket science either (I found a free java script for that in mere minutes of online research). The artbook content was already formatted in HTML so it could directly be displayed in the browser. The biggest hurdle actually was to set up a system that would control the access to the special content on the website. I had really no idea how to do that.

And that's when I had my big breakthrough. I new how to bring all the content to the website and it was only the access management that was blocking my way. I'm running an online forum for over ten years now and a forum basically is nothing else than a system in which registered members can access a database to post comments. The forum software was a free script that I had installed back in the days and I figured that there also must be scripts out there that handle stuff like subscriptions, membership and limited access to content. And you BET there's scripts for that out there! The big problem actually is to find out which one of them is suitable for your needs.

I've spent weeks of research and nearly had settled on a solution when I stumbled over another system which ultimately became my script of choice. If anyone of you should be looking for a subscription system my recommendation would be amember from CGI-Central. It was easy to install, easy to configure (with very basic CSS knowledge and a little bit of trial and error that is), and the price of $170 (for the basic version) is really fair considering that you're getting a highly advanced system in which you can set up different products and maintain the user database (including payment processing, email messaging and everything). I'm really happy with the script and the costumer support (a part of the script caused an error on my server and a fix for that was provided within a few days).

Well, and now everything is up and (hopefully) running. Instead of having to make a big investment into a "web app" I only had to invest about 200€ and three weeks of coding to set everything up. I'm really curious to find out how many people will join The Attic. If you're already using the App there isn't a need to subscribe because you can get all the content inside the app for a fixed price and keep it for as long as you want. But for people that are interested in the content and don't have the means to download the app, The Attic is a great alternative. And it actually is a good deal because for the initial subscription fee of 9€ your're getting the special content of the current 5 chapters (which alone are worth 15€) and at least two more chapters that will be released within the next 365 days.

I'm also starting to think about stuff that would make The Attic even more interesting for fans but these things will have to wait. I've had enough of coding and scripting during the last three weeks and I'm happy to start my work on Chapter 6 now. God, I will have to create a TON of concept art for that chapter. Good for you to know that now there's a place to find it! :)

The Wormworld Saga featured in Spirou Z

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-04-26T02:39:39-07:00

The Belgian comic publisher Dupuis is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its extremely popular Spirou magazine by launching a digital version for tablet devices. Spirou has always been a backbone of Franco-Belgian comic culture and I feel extremely honored to be able to contribute to this new chapter in Spirou's history by having Chapter 1 of the Wormworld Saga featured in it.

Another exciting news comes right along this appearance: The Wormworld Saga Print Edition will also be published by Dupuis which means that the french version will soon enter Europe's largest comic book market. I'm looking forward to all the new readers that will be able to discover the Wormworld Saga through these new channels!

Intermission in Austria

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-04-18T01:42:32-07:00

Last year, on Frankfurt Bookfair, I was invited to have a signing session at the Vienna Comix comic convention in Vienna, Austria. It was my first signing event on a comic convention ever and, as you can see above, my work was even featured prominently on the convention posters. It was really a great event and I was surprised how many fans I've got in Austria. My story even seems to be liked among the imperial troops from a galaxy far far away!

I really enjoyed the convention. I met and talked to great people and I even received a fantastic fan artwork:

Many thanks to Önder Tasdelen for this wonderful original pencil artwork featuring all the main characters of the first 5 chapters of the Wormworld Saga. I'll keep it in a save place!

The convention issued a limited edition of 111 numbered prints of the last panel of Chapter 1 that were only available at that day on the convention:

I received 20 of these prints for my own disposal and created a special limited edition with Wormseal stamp that is now available in the Wormworld Shop as long as stock lasts.

Vienna Comix wasn't the only reason for me to travel to Austria. My friends from Video2Brain invited me to record new video training material at their studio in Graz. And man did I record! I spent nearly two weeks in the studio and my first task was to create a long comprehensive introduction to digital painting in Photoshop. In 8 hours this training will contain a detailed description of each and every tool that I use in the digital painting process and the techniques are later demonstrated in three illustration projects - a digital drawing (of a sailing ship), a colored digital drawing (a dwarf portrait) and a digital painting ("The White Palace on the Red Planet"):

The second big task was to produce a comprehensive video training about the creation of a comic page. For this training I had the idea to create a page from an imaginary "Captain Orion" comic. In 8 hours this training is going to show the complete creation of the page including rough composition scribbles, preliminary drawing, inking, coloring and layout of the word balloons:

And then, on my last day in Graz, I was able to record a very special video. My task was to create a painting completely out of thin air, without talking too much about my painting technique but concentrating on the creative process. I started with a completely abstract composition and discovered a scene that was hiding inside it. The painting that came to life in this video is "The City at Ruby Mountain" and you will hear me talking mostly about the story of that place that unfolds in my brain while I'm painting. This creative journey was completely documented in a 2 hours video and I'm really looking forward to it. The only downside to all that is, that the trainings were recorded in German language only. Right at the moment I can't say anything about possible translations.

Now I'm back home and before I'm going to start my work on Chapter 6 I will make another adjustment to the Wormworld Saga website that I've been planning for quite some time now. If everything works out like intended, it will be a huge thing. I'll keep you updated!

Chapter 5 now available inside the app!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-04-08T12:40:01-07:00

Finally we've managed to publish Chapter 5 inside the Wormworld Saga App. We're over a week late on this and I'm really sorry about that. I don't even want to bore you with the filthy details of our failure. Let's just say that the only way to make sure that a new chapter will launch simultaniously on the webside AND the app is to wait with the release until all the data for the app is ready and tested. This will mean that it might happen that although I might be ready to launch on the website I would need to wait with the launch until the app developers give their green light. I'm used to launch right at the moment when the last touches for a chapter have been done. This time we launched on Sunday and the last adjustments to the layout were done on Saturday so there wasn't much time lost. I anticipated the app launch on Monday which also wouldn't have hurt much. Well, the one positive aspect of a delayed launch inside the app is, that it gives me the chance to fix all the typos that the readers of the web version point out. It's not easy to update a chapter inside the app so we really have to make sure to find as many typos as possible before the launch. This might become a bit of a challenge if we launch simultaniously.

However, there it is - Chapter 5 inside the app. The Collector's Edition comes with a new artbook item that has added a new page to the artbook index!

"The Making of Chapter 5" features a gallery of color studies that I painted for Chapter 5:

And I've written up some info about my use of color schemes into which I've put particular care during the production of Chapter 5:

There's also a bunch of sketches in the article (Raya's room, the waterfalls, the transport ship...) and I've also gathered some info about the higher resolution that I produced this chapter in. So, it's a nice artbook item and as always it's accompanied by the artwork and the prelim version and the author commentary inside the chapter itself.

Chapter 5 - Call of the Worm Mountain

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-03-31T14:18:04-07:00

I proudly present Chapter 5 of the Wormworld Saga Digital Graphic Novel!

Go read it at wormworldsaga.com!

My first thought before the writing of Chapter 5 was "how am I ever going to fill a complete chapter with the few things that happen in this part of the story?" All I had in mind when I started to work on Chapter 5 was that we would have to see the Great Celebration and that Jonas and Raya would have to travel to the Worm Mountain. I already juggled all the stuff in my mind that would happen in chapter 6, 7 and 8 but chapter 5 was quite an empty thing for me. But then I started to realize that Jonas must have been in a horrible mental condition after the revelations of Chapter 4 and that I would have to give him a chance to express his feelings. And as I started to write the dialogs between him and Raya I found out how much there was to talk about between the two. In the end I even had to hold myself back because the chapter grew and grew before my eyes and without anticipating it, Chapter 5 became the longest chapter of all so far. I finished my work on it with the good feeling that Jonas and Raya are on the same page now and that they are prepared for the adventure that they are facing.

There's also progress on my personal adventure as a graphic novel author. It's still a struggle to make a living from something that you're basically giving away for free. Fortunately there's a growing group of fine people that supports the Wormworld Saga and with their help my wife and I were able to fund the development of The Wormworld Shop, which is also officially launched today. We invite you to visit the shop and see if you find something that you like. We invested a lot of time and effort into the development of the products and tried to price them fairly. We're running the shop on ourselves without any middlemen so every sale will directly support the Wormworld Saga 100%. On a sidenote: customers from outside the European Union save 19% on every order because in these cases we're not accounting for VAT.

You might also have noticed that I've made significant changes to the wormworldsaga.com website. My impression was that the website really got clutteres with all the text and flag icons and I changed the structure so that the chapter icons would be in focus again without anything distracting from it. I'd love to hear feedback from you. There's another important update planned for the next few weeks (something very cool indeed!) and so I would be able to take your feedback into account and tweek everything for the next update.

Alright, after the chapter release is before the chapter release! I'm hoping that you're also excited about the upcoming Chapter 6. I will start working on it as soon as possible.

Chapter 5, Final Artwork Completed!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-03-25T14:08:54-07:00

I've just finished illustrating the final artwork of Chapter 5!

I can't really describe how I feel now. It's always such a weird feeling when there is no next panel to work on. For the last 3 months I've worked through the seemingly endless list of panels. This chapter was HUGE! You can see in the illustration above that it's by far the longest chapter of all. And I painted in in a higher resolution than the other ones (because of some HD goodness that's going to happen in the near future). And the illustration above does not even show the full height of the chapter because just before the last milestone I added 4 extra panels that I felt were neccessary. The interesting thing is that, judged by the working hours, this chapter wasn't much more work than Chapter 3. I worked 332 hours on the final artwork of Chapter 5 and 305 hours on the final artwork of chapter 3. That can mean only one thing - I've gotten faster!

Ok, there's still some stuff to do now which will keep me busy all week. The layout has to be done, the extra content for the app and a substantial website update has to be prepared. Yes, the look of the website will change considerably. I've got to do something against the clutter and visual noise that has built up there. and I've got to paint the cover illustration of course. But everything is under control now and I can savely commit to a final release date:

Chapter 5 will be released on March 31st at 10:00pm German time.

I thought it was a nice idea to set the launch date on Easter Sunday. It's a little bit like the Christmas launches that we had with Chapter 1 and 2. I soon will install a countdown on the website so that you can easily see when the time has come no matter in which timezone you are.

And I've got another announcement to make. Remember the kickstarter campaign that we launched with Chapter 4 last year in August? My wife and I have finished our work on the webshop that we funded through that and together with Chapter 5 we will finally launch The Wormworld Shop!

Now, that's going to be exciting. I really can't wait to get all this stuff online.

And although there normally are no preview images on the last milestone update, I've got a little something for you. The panel contains spoilers so I can only show you a slice of it.

Sunset at the River of Life

See you in a few days!

Chapter 5, Milestone 4 reached!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-03-07T05:58:44-08:00

Today I've reached the 80% mark of the Chapter 5 final artwork production. I feel happy to have reached that mark and I'm looking forward to the last 20% which will include some very challenging artwork for me. I'm super pumped about finishing this chapter now! The editing process for the German and English version is nearly finished and I've already done some important steps towards a new website design for wormworldsaga.com. At the side, my wife, my brother in law and I are busy doing the finishing touches on the new Wormworld Shop which we now plan to launch together with Chapter 5. There's a release date forming which I can't announce officially yet (there are still some uncertainties about it) but currently it's pretty save to say that we will see the release of everything this month. It's about time!

And here's the preview artwork of this milestone:

As you can see, our adventurers make camp and, sitting at the sunstone bowl, they find some time to talk. I always love these "campfire talks" in adventure stories. They give the characters great opportunites to express their believes and mental conditions (remember the campfire scene of "Indiana Jonas and the Temple of Doom"?). And there's a LOT for Jonas and Raya to talk about after everything that happend in Chapter 4. As a positive side effect, this milestone was about 20 hours less work than the preceding ones because in dialog scenes I can reuse a lot of artwork in the backgrounds as the camera switches back and forth between the characters.

Well, it looks like the next milestone update will happen at the finish line. Can't wait to reach that!

Chapter 5, Milestone 3 reached!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-02-15T05:59:48-08:00

Slowly the finishing line for the Chapter 5 production comes into sight. A bit over 60% of the illustration work is done now. Before I start with the fourth milestone I'm going to work over the prelim and prepare an English version that I can hand over to the translators so that they have enough time to work on the core translations (English, Spanish and French) that will be published simultaniously as soon as the chapter is ready.

Well, not much more to say so we might just as well head over to the preview images of this milestone:

The journey continues on the river.

That's much more convenient than climbing giant trees!

I enjoyed the work on the chapter tremendously so far. There's so much extraordinary artwork that I can't show you just yet because it would spoil a lot of the special events and locations of Chapter 5. But I'm also enjoying the more mundane little scenes like the ones above. I love travel shots and I wished I could do much more of them. I guess I could paint a whole chapter without a single word balloon - just impressions from the journey. Well, of course that would bore a lot of readers to death so I try to find a good measure for incorporating these scenes.

Alright, on to the next milestone!

Chapter 5, Milestone 2 reached!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-01-25T08:09:27-08:00

It's time for the next milestone update! A little bit over 40% of Chapter 5 is now illustrated. Originally I planned to reach that point last Friday so I'm 4.5 days behind schedule right now. While that's not so good news it's noteworthy that the delay of the second milestone is not due to the extaordinary length of this chapter. It started one day short into this milestone because January 1st was a Holiday. Another day was lost because I visited the publisher Tokyopop in Hamburg. I consider that day a good investment into the future of the project though because I spent endless hours with the CEO of Tokyopop developing new ideas to bring the Wormworld Saga forward. Then I experienced a super frustrating Photoshop crash which destroyed the work of another full day. And last but not least I spent about a day to figure out a nasty problem whith Adobe's Creative Cloud service which inexplicably switched all the software I'm subscribed to into trial mode. So, while the delay is annoying, there's a good chance that the next milestones will be reached within the timeframes I scheduled for them (two weeks each). Well, if life doesn't continue to put obstacles in my way that is...

In the illlustration above you can see that I replaced the Christmas tree from the last milestone with the Ankal Aasha idol. The second milestone consisted mainly of images from the "Great Celebration". They were a joy to paint and the following preview panels represent only a tiny glimpse of what's waiting for you in Chapter 5:

The sun is setting and the inhabitants of Ankal Aasha prepare for the Great Celebration.

Jonas and Raya join the crowd on the townsquare.

Ok, let's hope that the next milestone runs a little bit more smoothly. I'm looking forward to it because it will lead our heroes out of the ancient city of Ankal Aasha and into ... the unknown. :)

Chapter 1 Available in 24 Languages!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-01-22T12:12:10-08:00

The latest addition to the translations of the first chapter of the Wormworld Saga is the Arabic version. You might have noticed that I've stopped announcing each and every new translation here on the blog. I only do it in special cases. Now, this translation No. 24 is special in that way that its flag is now filling the last empty spot for translations of the first chapter on the wormworldsaga.com homepage. There literally don't fit any more translations than that into that space. Ok, maybe I could squeeze a forth row of flags into there but it already looks very cluttered so I'm not going to do that. No, with the upcoming Chapter 5 I'm going to give wormworldsaga.com the redesign that it desperately needs. Not only because of the many translations but also because of the growing number of chapters. I won't spoil anything for you now but let me just say that in the future there can be an unlimited number of languages and the chapters will be presented much more prominently.

The Arabic translation is also special because it is the first translation for which we mirrored the layout of the Wormworld Saga:

It gives me a complete headache when I look at my work that way and you might just check the Arabic version out for this wonky effect.

So, my thanks you out to Khaled Al Sabouni for his translation work and once again to Ivan Berov who did a wonderful job solving this puzzle and providing the layout for the Arabic version of the Wormworld Saga.

2013 Kick-Off

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-01-02T12:59:21-08:00

I wish everyone a happy new year 2013! I hope you all enjoyed the Holidays and those special days between the years where one starts to think about the events lying behind and the challenges waiting ahead. Just like last year, I'd like to kick this year off with a comprehensive overview of the Wormworld Saga project, where it stands and where it's heading.

First of all, the most amazing thing for me is, that during 2012 I was able to dedicate my whole time to the Wormworld Saga. I didn't have to take on any commissions in order to fill financial gaps. The only commissioned work I did last year was the variant cover illustration for the first issue of 'Finding Gossamyr' and that I honestly did for the pure enjoyment of it. Being able to invest all my time into the Wormworld Saga resulted in some great progress of the project. 2012 saw the publishing of Chapter 3 and 4, and the first images of Chapter 5. And I was by far not the only one working hard to bring the Wormworld Saga forward. It starts right of with my wife who dedicated most of her free time to develop the products for the Wormworld Saga Treasure Chest kickstarter campaign which was successfully funded just a few months ago. The good guys at Robot Media brought the Wormworld Saga App to the Android platform and a feature on Google Play attracted nearly 150.000 new users for the app in only one week. And then there's the incredible people of Tokyopop Germany who did a wonderful job converting the German version of the first three chapters of the Wormworld Saga into a beautiful hardcover book which had a great debut on last year's Frankfurt Bookfair. All these achievements wouldn't have been possible without the support of all those fans out there that were spreading the word, giving encouraging feedback, and supported the project financially by donating, buying prints, and supporting the Wormworld Saga on kickstarter. A very special 'thank you' goes out to the voluteering translators who have translated the first chapter of the Wormworld Saga into over 25 languages now and are continuing their work to make more and more chapters available in all these different languages. The very fact that most of these translations are already layoutet and published is due to the staggering efforts of a single man: my volunteering layout assistant Ivan Berov, who did the layout on ALL translations that were published in 2012. I can't even say how many translations that were and how thankful I am for his help. I'd like every single person addressed in this paragraph to know that your support means the world to me and that I'm seriously not able to express the level of gratefulness I'm feeling towards you all.

Being able to write these lines helps me tremendously to prepare for the challenges of this new year. My goal is to keep working full-time on the Wormworld Saga and to present you the chapters 5, 6 and 7 before the end of 2013. Together with Robot Media I'm going to offer an HD version of the story inside the Wormworld Saga App. And together with Tokyopop I'm going to approach publishers all around the world to make the book version of the Wormworld Saga available to you in as many languages as possible. These are the major goals for 2013.

The biggest challenge in reaching these goals will be to secure the funds for the whole year. I've never talked much about the financial situation of the project since its start two years ago. The last thing followers of the project might remember, was my pitch video for the Wormworld Saga App kickstarter campaign in early 2011. There I explained that my plan was to live from the earnings of the app as soon as it would be published. As far as that goes a lot of the fans are likely to think that the finances of the project are secured since the release of the app in October 2011. Well, that's not at all the case. Funding the last year was a pure adventure with a lot of luck and modesty involved. I won't go into the details just now because the first months of 2013 are already funded and I don't want to raise an issue before there actually is one. The app is generating money and so are the books. Foreign book deals might add to that. This month my wife and I will open up the Wormworld Saga Shop in which the fans will find lots of opportunities to support the project by buying merchandise and collector's items. It will be very exciting for us to find out how all these sources of income will develop and how far they will carry the Wormworld Saga. If there should arise a problem I will address it early enough in order to find a solution together with the fans of the project.

In the last few months I often wished that there were a point of security to reach. A point from which on I would not longer have to worry about the financial aspects of the project for at least some time. I guess I have a pretty naive image of the life of comic creators in my mind. I slowly start to accept that insecurity is part of the concept of an author's life. Something has to balance the advantages, right?

Alright, so let's get this year going! I didn't expect to make it through last year and it somehow worked out anyway. Why should it be any better this time? It's an adventure after all!

It's comforting to know that I'm not on my own on this one.

Chapter 5, Milestone 1 reached!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2013-02-15T06:02:13-08:00

I'm happy to announce that my plan to reach the first milestone of the Chapter 5 final artwork production worked out smoothly. And without further ado - here are the preview panels from the first milestone for you:

Hey, how did I get HERE?

Why do I get the feeling that this is a girl's place?

For those who bother about my technique I'd like to share the fact that Chapter 5 is going to be a bit different from the preceding chapters. The old chapters were painted in triple resolution which means that panels like the ones above, with a final resolution of 640x240 pixels, would be painted in 1920x720 pixels. However, Chapter 5 is painted in quadruple resolution so the panels above were actually painted in 2560x960 pixels. The reason for that is that I'm preparing to offer an HD version of the Wormworld Saga inside the Wormworld Saga App in 2013. Fortunately, the added resolution does not slow down my progress but has a cosiderable effect on detail crispness. I really like the new workflow and I think that it will enhance the look of the Wormworld Saga further.

It really is a good feeling to have set the foot into the production and reaching the first milestone before the end of the year. The last few months were really exhausting and I'm looking forward to at least a few downshifted days next week. I just realized that this will be the first Christmas since the launch of the Wormworld Saga that will not bring a new chapter. I'm feeling a bit sorry about that but on the other hand I'm also feeling releaved that I don't have to worry about launch issues over the Christmas dinner this year.

I'm off now. I wish everyone a merry Chrismas and a happy new year!

12-12-2012

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-12-12T03:05:14-08:00

I just want to drop you all a short notice that today is the 12th December 2012. This means that all prints ordered from the Wormworld Saga Print Shop today will be dated "12-12-2012". It's noteworthy that this is the LAST occasion in this century to get a triple date on your print. O_o

And to make this extra attractive to you I'd like to announce that you can now also order the three posters from the last kickstarter campaign for 15€ (worldwide shipping included!):

So, head over to the print shop and get yourself a special treat for Christmas!

Chapter 5, Title Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-12-06T11:27:01-08:00

Just like you, I've been waiting for this update for a long time now. Over 3 months have passed since the release of Chapter 4 and I fear that a lot of you are already waiting for the next chapter being released at the end of this month. Well, that's not going to happen. What I can announce today is, that Chapter 5 is written and illustrated in its preliminary version and that I have decided on a title for it:

Chapter 5 - The Call of the Worm Mountain

I can give you a couple of reasons for the delay of Chapter 5. September started with three weeks of vacation during which I maintained the Wormworld Saga Treasure Chest kickstarter campaign. Right after returning home I headed to Frankfurt Bookfair to promote the release of the first Wormworld Saga book. In the following weeks my work was frequently interrupted by interviews concerning the book release and my wife and I started the production of all the fan items that were successfully financed through kickstarter. Just have a look at this:

Currently we're right in the middle of sending out this sweet stuff to the incredible backers of the kickstarter campaign. In January we're going to open up the Wormworld Shop in which then everyone will be able to get these items and more. Rest assured that this will be properly announced when the time comes.

But it would only be half the truth to say that these things alone caused the delay of Chapter 5. A major reason for the long time it took me to finish the writing of this chapter is, that it was a very hard chapter to write. Ironically, I started my work on Chapter 5 thinking that it would be a very easy chapter to write. I got over all the complicated legends and myths stuff in Chapter 4 and now I would only have to send Jonas out into the Wormworld, right?

WRONG!

When I started writing Chapter 5, I noticed that I made very little progress each day. I was really slow. Something was holding me back but I didn't know what it was. I just wanted to continue the adventure after all the talking in Chapter 4 but somehow I couldn't move on. Then I realized that it was Jonas who couldn't just move on. I had devastated him. I confronted him with a mission that in his eyes was absolutely impossible, unthinkable even. How could I expect him to just pick up his stuff and walk on? It was really hard work to cheer the little guy up and give him a reason to go on. When he finally was ready to continue his journey, so was I.

There were more issues like that. Without going into too much detail right now (I'm going to spare that for the 'Making Of') I must say that never before I've spent so much time on writing and rewriting dialogs. After having finished the prelim now I must say that Chapter 5 is a very important chapter. It looked so harmless on first sight but it was a lot of hard work to write.

And it's going to be huge! As you can see in the milestone chart above, it's going to be a lot longer than any chapter before it. It even dwarfs Chapter 3 which is really intimidating for me. I've got a lot of spectacular art in mind for this chapter and now that it's completely written I can't wait to illustrate it.

I'm not going to announce a release date for Chapter 5 just now. As you all know, we're heading into the Holidays and this means at least a few days of caring about other things than work. I hope to reach at least the first milestone before the end of the year though. I'm bracing for working like an ox through January and February and my dream goal would be to release Chapter 5 at the end of February. I don't know yet if this is realistic since the milestones are longer than usual this time. I guess that I will find out over the next two months, at what release date we are heading.

From now on I will keep you updated again about my progress and with every milestone update I will post preview images from Chapter 5. The Worm Mountain calls!

Frankfurt Bookfair 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-10-17T05:50:29-07:00

The magic painting in the illustration was cut out and illuminated with LEDs.

Last weekend I visited the world's largest bookfair in Frankfurt where my publisher Tokyopop and I presented the first Wormworld Saga book. Tokyopop's booth was covered all over in Wormworld Saga artwork and they had prepared these nice displays with the glowing magic painting that you can see in the foto above.

The center of Tokyopop's booth was covered with Wormworld Saga artwork.

I loved watching people - especially children - skip through the pages of the book.

I had signing sessions throughout from Friday to Sunday. When the fair was opened for the general public on Saturday and Sunday the halls got really crowded and many people visited my signing table in order to get a little drawing and a signature into their books. On Saturday we had a short stage presentation where the CEO of Tokyopop, Dr. Joachim Kaps, and I talked about the steps of the Wormworld Saga from a hobby project to a successful webcomic and to a published book.

Many people I met in frankfurt discovered the Wormworld Saga there for the first time.

It was nice to get into personal contact with people.

The brand new Loki plush watched over my signing queue...

... and was also eager for some cuddling to shorten the wait for my younger fans.

Dr. Joachim Kaps and me on our panel about the Wormworld Saga.

Another picture of our panel.

For me the bookfair was a real nice experience. We had wonderful feedback from the people that visited our booth, I met a lot of fans and at the end of the fair we sold out of all the Wormworld Saga books that Tokyopop had brought to the booth. There have been talks with foreign publishers and although there's nothing I can tell you just now, I'm very optimistic that we'll see the book edition of the Wormworld Saga in other countries soon.

Many thanks to the whole Tokyopop team for a wonderful bookfair experience!

SUCCESS!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-10-01T02:04:13-07:00

WE DID IT!

On Sunday we successfully funded the Wormworld Saga Treasure Chest Kickstarter Campaign AND we even reached the second stretchgoal of $20,000 which will provide all backers with a fantastic Paper Toy PDF including Jonas, Raya, and Loki. That actually is something that we didn't dare to hope for 5 days before, when we reached the funding goal.

We're so relieved! Relieved that all the hard work has payed off. Relieved that we've found so many supporters for this project and - to be honest - relieved that these nerve-wracking 30 days are finally over.
You provided us the means to set another leg onto the ground that will help us to carry the Wormworld Saga further into the future. This project is an ungoing adventure for all people involved and you just provided a happy end for the latest chapter of our journey.

And you laid another groundwork for hopefully many more chapters of the Wormworld Saga.

For that we, my wife and I, are deeply thankful!

Daniel Lieske & Cristina Costas

The Last 24 Hours on Kickstarter!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-09-29T12:50:31-07:00

Soon our latest kickstarter campaign will be over. I'm really happy to announce that we've already reached our funding goal (on Tuesday) and that we are now trying to reach some stretch goals that lie beyond the finish line. The first stretch goal has already been reached. At $17,500 we've unlocked Raya as an additional character for the Papertoy PDF and should we reach $20,000 before the campaign ends in 24 hours, we'll also unlock Loki.

Just to make sure that you're not missing an opportunity that won't come again here's a list of items that are exclusive to the kickstarter campaign and that will never be sold in that form again:

The Wormworld Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-09-25T12:17:14-07:00

Saturday, August 18th was a very special day. I packed my car full with flood lights and cable drums and together with my wife and son drove to my brother's house in the country. We met up with the whole family and my good friend Peter Sendfeld who brought his Canon SLR. Our crazy plan was to shoot a movie at that day.

The idea was born out of a whim. When we were holding the first prototypes of the sword replica in our hands, my wife and I thought that it would be cool to create replicas of Jonas's complete adventure outfit. My sister in law jumped onto the idea and started to knit the red turtle neck jumper. We also found a little backback that was close enough to the original from the comic and I cut up a pair of working gloves to round up the whole outfit. Then our attention moved towards my 12 year old nephew Jakob. If he would get a proper haircut...

All these crazy ideas culminated on this Saturday. It was a hot summer day. In fact it was SO hot that filming on the attic was a real challenge for man and material. Grannie's line from Chapter 2 "Why are you wearing that old jumper? It’s much too warm outside for that!" started to make a lot of sense for my poor nephew who was literally soaked in sweat when the shooting ended at late afternoon. I'm really sorry that the script had him running through the forest...

I experienced some very special moments on this day. The whole family was together, everyone was helping carrying cable drums, distributing fog or holding light reflectors. And in the middle of all that stood this boy that looked so familiar. That jumper, the sword, the attic. It was like a dream. I actually could have cried over all this but I didn't want to irritate all the people around me that were so busy and enthusiastic about helping to bring these scenes to life.

Jakob Lieske as Jonas Berg

Later in the studio, when I was examining the footage that we shot that day, I couldn't believe it. It all came to life and it all looked SO like the thing. This little movie is very special to me and I hope that you'll enjoy it, too.

Here are some more fotos from the shooting. This movie was unlocked by the backers of the Wormworld Saga Kickstarter Campaign and as a backer - among your other rewards - you'll receive a download package of a high quality Quicktime version of the movie together with a LOT more photos and a 'Making Of' video. You can still jump on board until Saturday!

Examining the location and lighting for a take

Me drawing the "Hands Off!" note for the chest

Jonas's treasure chest

preparing the treasure chest for shooting

Fixing the sword on the backpack

Pure awesomeness

Die Wormworld Saga - Band 1

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-09-24T13:51:30-07:00

Today I want to share some images from the production of the first Wormworld Saga Book with you. My publisher Joachim Kaps and Head of Production Martina Stellbrink visited the print facility that produces the book to make sure that everything turns out just like we imagine:

Joachim and Martina inspect a test printing of the cover sheet

Some test prints of the cover sheet

Some printed pages of the book

The fact that they took the time to inspect the printing in person gives evidence of the fact that Tokyopop puts a lot of love and care into the production of this book. The first edition will come in glorious hardcover with special effects on the logo and it will contain a small collector's print of "The Journey Begins" (which you can actually see in the last image above). The book has 128 pages and features the first three chapters of the German version of the Wormworld Saga, an illustrated article about the project, a sketchbook section, and a fan art gallery. I'm extremely thrilled about the book and really can't wait to present the final product on Franfurt Bookfair in the middle of October.

The Wormworld Saga still is a digital comic and I'm completely dedicated to it's native digital form. The massive spreading of the story around the world and the many translations that have already been provided by fans would never have happened without the mechanisms of the internet. The Wormworld Saga App is the way I ever imagined the story to be experienced and I will continue to put a lot of effort into improving it with every update. However, seing the wonderful job Tokyopo has done on the layout and the production of this first book makes me feel very happy. I know that a lot of fans are waiting for a printed version of the Wormworld Saga and I'm really looking forward to reach out to all the new readers that would never have encountered the story in it's digital form.

You can actually preorder the book on Amazon already and it will be released on 4th October. However, if you are looking for a very special edition of the book and can wait just a few weeks longer for the book I'd suggest that you become a backer of the fundraising campaign we are currently having on kickstarter. There you can get a special edition of the book which is going to be handsigned and stamped with the kickstarter exclusive blue Wormseal stamp AND will come with three 15x20cm art prints of the three chapter illustrations. These three prints are also handsigned and stamped, have rounded corners and will never be available with these features again:

The campaign ends this week on Saturday so if you can spare $30 and want to grab one of these gems don't hesitate!

The Final Week on Kickstarter!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-09-22T14:52:06-07:00

It's the final week of our fundraising campaign on kickstarter.com and the total funding goal of $15,000 is slowly coming into sight. We are at $12,029 right at the moment which is a little over 80%

The last week brought some new rewards for the campaign. First of all, at the $10,000 mark, I revealed another freebie that every backer of the campaign who pledges for a physical reward (so, at least $5) will receive - a big sized (7.6cm/3inches) magnetic button:

Then, two days ago I revealed a new poster that I created during the last week which is a replica of the Captain Orion Poster that hangs on the wall of Jonas' room in Granny's house:

You can get this poster for a $15 pledge. And then there's another artwork that I actually just revealed today which is also available through the kickstarter campaign:

You can get this artwortk either as a poster for $15 or as a high quality print for $90. The expensive print is 70x50cm, done on high quality paper, handsigned, and has a kickstarter exclusive blue Wormseal stamp on the back. The poster is slightly different with a logo and a dark frame and is handsigned with a silver marker on the front:

This artwork was created for the German comic magazine "ALFONZ der Comicreporter" which will run a 10 pages cover story about the Wormworld Saga in their second issue which will be published in October.

So, we now have a week left to raise about $3000. You can make up your mind until Saturday evening (German time) if you want to back the campaign. Your support will be greatly appreciated!

The Second Week on Kickstarter

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-09-14T15:38:04-07:00

It's time for an update about my current kickstarter campaign which now nearly reaches the half time point.
Two days ago we reached 50% of the funding goal and we currently have a healthy increase in pledges that fules my hope that we will actually be able to reach the funding goal before the campaign ends on September 30th.

There has been quite some development in the campaign during the last week. I introduced a new reward that you will receive for a $15 pledge:

This info poster features the complete Mandala from Chapter 4 of the Wormworld Saga and it includes detailed information about the meaning of it's different sections.

When we reached the 50% mark I also introduced two additional T-Shirt design that cou can chhose from when you pledge for a reward that includes the T-Shirt:

The most important news, however, is that today I've introduced a way in which you can combine any quantity of items to a custom reward. So, you are not longer restricted to the reward choices that you find inside the campaign but you can set up exactly the reward you want to receive for backing the project. You'll find more info about that on the project homepage on kickstarter.com

So, two weeks left to reach the funding goal of $15,000! It's going to be an exciting time. Remember that there's a special thing waiting for everyone should we reach that goal.

The First Week on Kickstarter

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-09-14T15:37:13-07:00

A week ago I started the Wormworld Saga Treasure Chest Kickstarter Campaign and today we are at about 39% of the fiunding goal. After the boost of the first days we've now entered the middle phase of the campaign and that's traditionally the most nerve-wracking time for anyone who runs a kickstarter campaign. Right now, new backers turn in slowly. If you want to support the Wormworld Saga, please consider to become a backer of the campaign! We've got rewards from $1 upwards.

To stir things up a bit, I've introduced a print to the reward options today. I received a lot of nice feedback for the panel featuring Janaka's tower in Chapter 4 and I thought I might attract some more new backers if I turned it into an exclusive print for the kickstarter campaign:

The print is 30x40cm and printed on high quality paper. You'll receive it handsigned and with the kickstarter exclusive blue Wormseal stamp. The print is available for $35 but you can also add it to any other reward. More info about that on the kickstarter project homepage. My plan is, to add a few more prints to the list of rewards during the next weeks.

Chapter 4 now available in the app!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-09-04T01:22:45-07:00

Chapter 4 is now available in the app. Again we failed to launch the chapter simultaniously with the website and this time it was all my fault. I missed to load two important files on the server and when the developers tried to reach me on Friday evening I wasn't available for an hour and when I finally noticed that something was missing, the developers had already started into the weekend. Never launch on Fridays they say...

Well, but we are a lot closer than the last time and if the trend continues we might finally be able to do it in time with Chapter 5.

Chapter 4 brings two new artbook items and we've now filled up the first screen of the artbook inside the app completely. The first new item is a 'Making Of Chapter 4' in which you find a lot of sketches and also a breakdown of the workflow I used on the jungle backgrounds in this chapter.

The second new item contains more information about Janaka Jiiva's Mandala. I actually put a lot of thoughts into that design and I wasn't really able to expose those to full extend in the chapter itself.

So, "'The Course of Things' artbook item gives a detailed description of the different parts of the Mandala and what they mean. I realize that this information is something that shouldn't be exclusive to the users of the app and therefore I'm currently planning to put the exact same information into a layout that I can produce as a poster and which most likely will be added as a reward to the current kickstarter campaign.

Speaking of which!

Here's a progress update of the campaign. We had a good start on the launch weekend and now we are entering the hardest part of any kickstarter campaign: the middle part. To keep it interesting for the backers we've added the first stretchgoals. You now can unlock signed postcards that every backer will receive for free if he has chosen one of the physical rewards. We've also added new reward options with new combinations of fan items that were requested and we'll basically try to fulfill any wishes you might have. There's a daily update on the kickstarter project page and I'll keep you updated from time to time here on the blog about anything noteworthy that's happening over there.

Chapter 4 - The Shelter of Hope

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-09-01T05:54:24-07:00

I proudly present Chapter 4 of the Wormworld Saga Digital Graphic Novel!

Go read it at wormworldsaga.com!

Chapter 4 marks a very important point for me. From the very beginning of the project I was hoping that I would make it to this point. We find out about the old legends of the Wormworld. The Wormseal is finally explained and we get the first hints on why this world is called the 'Wormworld' anyway. And we find out about Jonas' mission and the obstacles that he's facing.

In that regard Chapter 4 is really a starting point for the story. From this point Jonas will venture into the Wormworld, trying to cope with his impossible task. He will visit the most wondrous places and meet many new characters and creatures. I can't wait to continue the story and I hope so can't you.

As I previously announced, we've got a double launch this time. With the new chapter we've also started a new kickstarter campaign! Now, did you see THAT coming?

I say "we" because I would never have been able to tackle this alone. It's my wife who did the lion share of the work associated with this campaign and it's my wife who will maintain the ongoing development of the fan items and of what ultimately will become the "Wormworld Shop" on the website.

I'm really proud of the items that we've developed for this campaign and I hope you'll like them, too. Of course we've got some of the usual stuff like the shirts and the cap but I even love those because I'm wearing T-shirts and a cap all the time and can't wait to dress up correctly for this year's Frankfurt bookfair. I LOVE the Loki plush into which we really invested much time and care until we had the final result. It's a truely high quality product that we intentionally produce in Germany and not in China like so many others do. My personal highlight is the sword. It's a very cool feeling to hold it and feel its weight and texture. It's the Wormworld Saga coming to life!

And speaking of that! When you have watched the kickstarter video all the way through you've had the first glimpse on something that I'm really looking forward to share with you. It'll be revealed as soon as we reach the funding goal of the kickstarter campaign.

Chapter 4, Final Artwork Completed!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Lieske) — 2012-08-23T12:19:28-07:00

And it's done once more! Today I painted the last panel of Chapter 4. So, I'm ready for the home stretch! Tomorrow I will paint the cover of Chapter 4 and next week I'll do the layout work, the special content for the app, and the website update. We are SO close!

And the cool thing is that you can not only look forward to the release of Chapter 4 next week. We will ALSO launch something my wife and I have been working on over the last half year. I won't spoil anything for you just yet but so much I can say: you will go crazy over it!

The countdown for Chapter 4 will start on Monday!

Oh, I just LOVE this part. :)