009 Interlude - Xanadan

Hello! Thanks for sticking with Hexenringe and making it through the prologue. No lost limbs or anything? Just a shoe, here or there? Good to hear.

Before I blather on about this and that, I'd like to talk about the ADMAD 100 Santas Project that we're involved with. ADMAD stands for Artists Do Make A Difference and the 100 Santas Project is their first charity endeavor and supports fundraising for humanitarian efforts in the Philippines to help survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan. The idea is simple. Artists are asked to contribute illustrations of Santa to the ADMAD Facebook page hoping to have 100 or more by Christmas. This page will be used to promote the ADMAD fundraising page where people can donate directly to the Mercy Corps charity. If you are an artist, please consider sharing your Santa art. There are already several wonderful works up but we still have a long way to go before Christmas. For everyone else, please visit the page, 'like' the art that speaks to you and seriously consider giving to the charity. Spread the word about ADMAD and spread the love.

Back to the previously scheduled blathering.
Now that the prologue is done, we're ready to jump into the first chapter. If you'll allow my indulgence, I'd like to talk a little about the experience of writing a page-a-week longform comic. I knew that it had special challenges, but it wasn't until I saw how things read with a week in between each ep. that I realized what I had gotten myself into. I started to second guess my pacing at first, but then I went back and looked at other longform comics and realized that there isn't one particular approach that dominates. Many longforms are paced much slower than Hexenringe and still bring in the viewers week by week.
I deliberately slowed the pacing of the prologue - not to pad or to give the creators more time, but because Tomoko had created some great characters and I wanted to give them plenty of space to live and breathe. You can expect a wild ride if you stick with us and I will change up the pacing as necessary as I feel fits the story. Also, you can expect some fun extras here and there starring some of the more fascinating background characters.
Speaking of such characters, most of the characters of Hexenringe were outlined by me in notes to Tomoko, but sometimes (like in the case with Rockin' Heroman) I just wrote "a hero" or (like in the case of The Blarg) "a monster" and Tomoko would come up with these wonderful designs filled with energy and personality that make me want to use them again and again even though they were only made for a particular scene. I'm reminded of Popeye, who was a walk-on part for the Thimble Theater comic strip and went on to star in the whole damn thing! The characters you see above (except for the very regal-looking woman) are all from Tomoko's incredible imagination and highly-skilled pen. Tomoko will be posting her preliminary drawings and other such stuff on her new tumblr, so please give it a follow and all the likes.
Though we are creating this story for the love of the medium, it just doesn't mean as much without you, the dear readers and so allow me to once again say "Thanks!" and we hope you continue to enjoy Hexenringe - actually, I'm sure you will, because things are about to get cray-cray.