Fourthiversary
on June 3, 2015 at 11:11 pmJune 4th is our comic’s birthday. And this time, it’s not just ANY birthday… it’s The Fourth birthday.
For this long-awaited occasion, I’ve made a number of improvements to the site over the past month. Read on to find out about them!
Smilies
Make a face! From now on, thanks to Victor’s web wizardry and my attempt at pixel art, emoticons you post in the comments will convert into sprites of our characters! Here’s a guide; just take out the spaces!
= : )
= : D
= : (
= : o
= 8 O
= : ?
= : cool :
= : x
= : P
= : |
= ; )
New Site Pages
Quite a bit of new content has been added to the website, including:
The New Reader Page – An intro to the comic and its world that newcomers can click on to get a quick idea of what we’re all about.
Reader Characters – located under the “rewards” tab, this page displays characters that readers have created after a much-appreciated donation.
Cast – while this page isn’t new, it’s been totally redone with new art, tweaked descriptions, and more info!
Title Pages
I consider this the centerpiece of our Fourth anniversary celebrations. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Each chapter now has its own title page! They’re done in a minimalistic style that I think provides a nice contrast to my normal art. You can see them all, and jump straight to the full-size version, on the Chapter Jump page under “Archive”.
Fan Celebration:
Ok, I’ve been working my butt off so I don’t think we’re going to update tomorrow after all. But if any of you guys make something in the next few days, I’ll add it to this post before putting it up on the Fan Art page! To start us off, here’s something from longtime reader Lin!
From reader Gabrielle:
A work-in-progress from illusions-and-mayhem!
From Aelandia!
A little bonus
Well, after years of hinting at its legendary existence, I guess it’s about time to show this. Sigh.
Yep, there it is. My first concept art for this comic. Proto-Skärva.
WHY
Fun fact: I never consciously changed his face shape, it just evolved as I continued to practice drawing him.
So, there you have it! Happy Fourthiversary!
this is a test of the : cool :
Take out the spaces between the colons
AH. THE SMILIES. I was wondering what you were up to!
holy- …Proto-Skarvs. he’s actually kind of interesting? i’m just not digging the Sephiroth hair.
Yeah, he’s kinda grown on me over the years, although I feel he’s a completely different person than the sharkbutt we know today.
He’s like the weird cousin no one talks about.
Also he kinda looks like Mewtwo.
COURTNEY YOU CREATED MEGA EVOLUTION BEFORE IT EXISTED
Mega Mewtwo S
Congratulations and happy anniversary!
*Skärva looks at the comment section*
–“Derk, Lorelei, stop slacking and get back here! We have a castle to traverse!”
The new title pages look lovely! I especially like the page for “A Midsummer Night’s Scheme”–between the tree and the colour scheme, the whole thing is rather to my taste. ^_^
… Aw, I messed up my Skärva- and “tongue”- emoticons. I should perhaps have checked whether their letters were capital or lower-case… >_<;
That line should have looked like this (presuming that I get it right this time): :x–“Derk, Lorelei, stop slacking and get back here! We have a castle to traverse!”
… Nope. Oh well. ^^;
I fixed them with my magic. You don’t want the tongue smiley to be winking, or that might create some strange Floyd/Slice hybrid.
= ;P
Also, the
didn’t work because you put a dash immediately after it. The smileys need to stand alone, I think. :x- That prevents them from popping up in the middle of words.
Aah, thank you! ^_^
I suppose that I’m more used to emoticons that are parsed a bit more aggressively, being converted even when beside other text. Of course, that sort of parsing calls for care that an emoticon doesn’t appear unexpectedly in the middle of a section of text when certain combinations of characters are used.
Oi! Happy anniversary! I can’t make anything right now on account of mechanical malfunctions, ugh. The card I use to transfer images around fried and I have been swamped with work…
That would make a great stained glass window. Is this the first time we see Derk’s back facing us? Slice looks a bit purple.
Congratulations! As a longtime reader (circa late 2011), I’d like to say thanks for the years of entertainment, and keep up the good work!
Also digging them site updates. The new cast page is lookin’ pretty snazzy.
Oh! And I got a piece of fan art coming your way either tomorrow or the next day. Line art’s done, just gotta add the colors.
Ah, thank you so much! I’m looking forward to it! And thanks for sticking with us for so long!
Here’s the piece: http://aelandia.tumblr.com/post/120900845933/lord-tiberius-skarva-megalomaniac-and-main
cool
Forgot the colons…
Happy Villainous Anniversary!
Love all the new things, and hoping to get some fan art done in between school and homework. I love your comic and am excited to keep reading!
Aww, thanks! We’re glad you’re here!
Been a great comic for four years, and looking forward to more. Also something that came to mind lately, the number four in some cultures is considered bad luck and is specifically connected with death. I don’t know if you thought about that when making this comic or not, but considering sharkman is going to fight the gods themselves… there’s already ghosts and zombies in this comic so it’s not like you’ve avoided death.
Well, I’ll just say there were various reasons why we chose it, but I hadn’t thought of that one. (Although I knew about four being associated with death, at least in Japan.) It’s a cool bit of unintentional symbolism, though!
What? Sprites of characters? *resist urge to use all in one sentence*
*failing*
I present… MY FAVORITES TEAM.