The Sleeper's Den

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 186

2015-11-16T22:24:00.001+01:00

*~*~*

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes. Pellinore, fascinated by the fact that Arthur has succeeded in pulling the sword from the stone where everyone else has failed, proposes a deal. He will support Arthur's claim to the High King's crown and put an army at his disposal. In return, he asks that Arthur give him and his people land. Arthur makes his Jutish and Irish allies swear an oath. Meanwhile, Cai and Arthur's parents are worried sick, and begin to notice some funny business in their own house...

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 - 28-31 - 32-35 - 36-40 - 41-44 - 45-47 - 48-50 - 51-53 - 54-57 - 58-60 - 61-64 - 65-66 - 67-69 - 70-73 - 74-75 - 76-81 - 82-84 - 85-87 - 88-90 - 91-92 - 93-97 - 98-101 - 102-103 - 104-108 - 109-111 - 112-114 - 115-119

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

1-3 - 4-6 - 7-9 - 10-12 - 13-15 - 16-18 - 19-21 - 22-24 - 25-27 -28-30 - 31-33 - 34-36 - 37-39 - 40-42 - 43-45 - 46-48 - 49-51 - 52-54 - 55-57 - 58-60 - 61-63 - 64-66 - 67-69 - 70-72- 73-75 - 76-78 - 79-81 - 81 - 82 - 83 - 84 - 85 - 86 - 87 - 88 - 89 - 90 - 91 - 92 - 93 - 94 - 95 - 96 - 97 - 98 - 99 - 100 - 101 - 102 - 103 - 104 - 105 - 106 - 107 - 108 - 109 - 110 - 111 - 112 - 113 - 114 - 115 - 116 - 117 - 118 - 119 - 120 - 121 - 122 - 123 - 124 - 125 - 126 - 127 - 129 - 130 - 131 - 132 - 133 - 134 - 135 - 136 - 137 - 138 - 139 - 140 - 141 - 142 - 143 - 144 - 145 - 146 - 147 - 148 - 149 - 150 - 151 - 152 - 153 - 154 - 155 - 156 - 157 - 158 - 159 - 160 - 161 - 162 - 163 - 164 - 165 - 166 - 167 - 168 - 169 - 170 - 171 - 172 - 174-176 - 177 - 178 - 179 - 180 - 181 - 182 - 183 - 184 - 185

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 185

2015-11-08T23:26:00.002+01:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 184

2015-10-25T20:39:00.002+01:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 183

2015-10-19T12:51:00.002+02:00

The lack of any new pages the past fortnight is entirely due to Microsoft and their wonderful new product, Windows 10, for which none of the things I need to plug into my computer seems to have a proper driver. Yay.

*~*~*

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes. Pellinore, fascinated by the fact that Arthur has succeeded in pulling the sword from the stone where everyone else has failed, proposes a deal. He will support Arthur's claim to the High King's crown and put an army at his disposal. In return, he asks that Arthur give him and his people land. Arthur makes his Jutish and Irish allies swear an oath. Meanwhile, Cai and Arthur's parents are worried sick, and begin to notice some funny business in their own house...

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 182

2015-10-11T20:56:00.003+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 181

2015-09-20T21:24:00.003+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 180

2015-09-13T20:59:00.002+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 179

2015-09-06T20:25:00.001+02:00

Well, that was a hiatus that - well, I did foresee it, but it turned into a sort of comic holiday. I do hope you are still here and ready for more story.

Meanwhile, school has resumed and, as decided at the end of last school year, the idea is for me to produce both new and old pages every week. The old pages will be supervised by my art teacher (who seems to be looking forward to the whole thing); the new pages are the usual, and they are my own requirement. Last year I broke off working on new pages between September and December, because I couldn't combine them with school, and that really made me unhappy. This time around, I have to find a way to work on one old and one new page at the same time.

The old pages will be revamped and corrected (some parts need to be entirely rewritten/rethought to correct the pace and storytelling), but they aren't going to be the neatly inked and watercoloured affairs I had in mind at first. Instead, they will be done in the same style as the current pages. This should allow me to keep the sketchy freshness and to draw fairly quickly.

And now: back to our new characters. Because we can never have enough characters!

*~*~*

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes. Pellinore, fascinated by the fact that Arthur has succeeded in pulling the sword from the stone where everyone else has failed, proposes a deal. He will support Arthur's claim to the High King's crown and put an army at his disposal. In return, he asks that Arthur give him and his people land. Arthur makes his Jutish and Irish allies swear an oath. Meanwhile, two people are sick with worry...

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 178

2015-07-26T20:14:00.000+02:00

Sorry about the lack of update last week! I'm still struggling with the writing of this part...

*~*~*

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes. Pellinore, fascinated by the fact that Arthur has succeeded in pulling the sword from the stone where everyone else has failed, proposes a deal. He will support Arthur's claim to the High King's crown and put an army at his disposal. In return, he asks that Arthur give him and his people land. Arthur makes his Jutish and Irish allies swear an oath...

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 177

2015-07-12T21:14:00.000+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 174-176

2015-07-05T20:07:00.001+02:00

Annnnnd we're all caught up! Three pages this week, as promised ;).

*~*~*

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes. Pellinore, fascinated by the fact that Arthur has succeeded in pulling the sword from the stone where everyone else has failed, proposes a deal. He will support Arthur's claim to the High King's crown and put an army at his disposal. In return, he asks that Arthur give him and his people land. But for Arthur, matters are not that simple...

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters

2015-06-28T20:34:00.000+02:00

Hello hello! There is good news and bad: you may have noticed the lack of update last Sunday, and as you can see, today I come to you not carrying any pages either. That is the bad news. The good news is: next Sunday I hope to give you three (maybe four, if I can make it) in one go.

The thing is, I discovered last week that the dialogue which I thought was okay (having been rewritten three times) was actually not as okay as I imagined it to be, so I had to rework it once more. This proved ... not easy, and then when I tried to visualise it, I realised that I couldn't do it on a page-by-page basis. Mostly I lay out the story one page at a time, but this time around, that didn't work. Which means I am currently working on three pages at once, and I couldn't finish three pages at once. As I have mentioned before, this passage is a difficult one to write. Both Arthur and Pellinore have to be credible, and though the pace of the story may seem glacial to you who read it one page a week, a lot of things are actually happening quite fast if you were to read this as a book or a 'proper' webcomic where you can just click through the pages. So every word has to be meaningful.

So: next week. I promise to work hard and get this done. Even if the weather is going to be very hot -_- (eurgh).

It is *possible* - I don't know yet - that I may have to take a short break to write out what comes next. Because this conversation between Arthur and Pellinore is finally coming to a close, and next there is a Thing. It's a Big Thing and I have only figured out half of it so far (with nothing actually written, just imagined - but I kind of like what I know and I'm rather excited about it!). And after the Big Thing it's back to Gawain. And I know how 'back to Gawain' starts off, but then a lot of Big Things are going to happen that I need to puzzle together.

...Man. I often joke that I will be writing this until I'm 90, but sometimes when I think of all the bits of story I need to pass on, it seems to me the joke isn't actually a joke. It's dangerously close to the truth.

HOWEVER. Here is a tiny little sweet to tide you over until next week. The top two are preppy sketches for Pellinore on page 175; then there is Morholt because I haven't drawn him for a while and I missed him ( ♥ Morholt); and there is Cai because - well I don't need a reason to draw Cai.

*~*~*

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 173

2015-06-14T22:04:00.002+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 172

2015-06-07T21:43:00.001+02:00

Last Tuesday I had my illustration class exam. My teacher Stijn and his colleague Other Stijn looked at my assignments and commented on them. The comments were mainly from Other Stijn, because he, of course, had never seen our stuff before. Other Stijn was none too impressed with my pencilled first page (this one), which he thought looked like an unexciting Christmas card and seemed "quite dead". I told him about my difficulty in determining a style I liked for my comic and showed him my notebook with the pages I post here. And he was a LOT more enthusiastic about those. In fact, he seems to think I shouldn't change anything - that is, keep the colours, keep the format, keep the sketchy style, even publish the thing with the whole notebook look, yellowish paper and all.

Stijn agreed and now says I should go for the comic, in notebook style, next year. He wants me to produce a 'new old' page each week, just like I do with the 'new new' pages I post here. I am not sure yet how he is going to supervise and correct the new pages if I am going to do them the sketchy way, because I don't really see how this way of working leaves room for correction (the reason why it moves so quickly is because all the mistakes stay where they are and I barely use any reference). Maybe he'll have me redraw stuff and do cut and paste? I don't know. In any case, if things really do play out this way, the definitive version of the comic should move along a LOT faster than it has been doing until now. And if I am honest, I am not a little relieved that I can ditch the pencil style ;p.

*~*~*

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes, who challenges Arthur to a fight, gives him a good beating, then wants to be friends. -Right...

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 171

2015-05-31T22:00:00.000+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 170

2015-05-25T13:39:00.003+02:00

Sorry I am late!

Oh, by the way: this is page 170 of Brothers & Sisters, but page 300 of this comic. Woohoo!

*~*~*

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes, who challenges Arthur to a fight, gives him a good beating, then wants to be friends. -Right...

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 169

2015-05-17T22:27:00.000+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 168

2015-05-10T21:36:00.000+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 167

2015-05-03T20:25:00.001+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 166

2015-04-26T18:34:00.003+02:00

And we resume our regular programme :).

*~*~*

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes, who challenges Arthur to a fight. During which the Sword of Kings ... breaks.

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: The Darkest Hour p.1

2015-04-19T21:50:00.000+02:00

I'm sorry, no page 166 today... I messed up my schedule. Instead, have a look at the new page 1 of The Darkest Hour in an all-pencil technique. Like? Don't like? Please let me know!

*~*~*

More Brothers & Sisters next Sunday! (I hope...)

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 165

2015-04-12T19:54:00.001+02:00

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 164

2015-04-05T19:07:00.000+02:00

What's this - is this blog actually getting more readers? I don't know where you come from, but you are very welcome to hang around and read :). I hope you enjoy the story!

*~*~*

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes, who challenges Arthur to a fight. Arthur feels that he cannot refuse - but has he bitten off more than he can chew?

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 163

2015-03-29T22:25:00.005+02:00

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes, who challenges Arthur to a fight. Arthur feels that he cannot refuse - but has he bitten off more than he can chew?

More next Sunday!

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters

Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, p. 162

2015-03-22T21:45:00.001+01:00

-*-*-

Arthur and his men are in Venta, where the Sword of Kings has remained stuck in a stone for ages. And you know what? Arthur actually manages to pull it out! Having freed several British slaves as well as the Irish warrior Morholt, Arthur and his men now try to make it home before they get caught by a Saxon patrol. But they haven't got far when they run into Pellinore, King of the Jutes, who challenges Arthur to a fight...

More next Sunday! (if all goes well :p)

***

THE STORY SO FAR:

Part I: The Darkest Hour

Interlude: The Sword of Kings

1-4 - 5-11

Part II: Sunrise

Brothers and Sisters