Comparing Contest Conclusion!

The Page Comparing Contest is officially concluded!

Thank you very much to everyone for participating - we received way more entries than I expected! I was expecting maybe ten, and over sixty flooded in! There were a lot of people who put a lot of very careful scrutiny and consideration into their entries - but in the end, of the handful of entries that covered every change, only one was the fastest, and Ian will be getting the free-books prize.

However, we received so much great effort and involvement that I can’t bear to send everyone away empty-handed after playing. Even though we’re out of books, Liz pointed out the obvious: We’re not out of book downloads. So everyone who participated will be getting an e-mail soon, with links to a free Volume 1 & 2 download! 8 D

Thanks again to everyone for playing, we hope you had fun! For posterity, here is the list of changes that we were looking for in the entries. And I hope, after going through this list, everyone can appreciate the grinding pains that we went through improving the second edition‘s continuity. And that Whip now has ears.

Entire Page: Color is a bit more saturated, so font and word bubbles are a bit thicker.

1st Panel: Ceiling planks face different direction then before.

Krin’s eyes are now orange.

Outside planks are seen to the far right, between the wall gaps.

Door handle and hinges are on opposite side of the door.

Randy now has a stripe on his shoulder.

Food on the far left table is now colored green.

Krin’s face has yellow eyebrows/dots colored.

Spoons have been added to all tables.

Randy’s hooves are colored.

Gorse has an eyebrow.

Randy’s pants have pocket details.

Food is colored green at Gorse, Randy, and Krin’s back table.

Second Panel: Paige has a spoon now.

Third Panel: Paige has a pocket added.

Whip’s ears and fur tuff have been added.

Spoons have been added for the characters.

Fourth Panel: Extra space in Paige’s dialogue before “I”.

Paige has a pocket, with lines moving pocket over.

Sixth Panel: Mace’s dialogue is moved to include a space.

Seventh Panel: Paige’s dialogue has capital I and extra space before I, and capital I in connecting word balloon.

Whip has added lines and color to his chest tuff.

Compare Contest Page

Annd, the contest is on! Once again, just list the differences between the original and new versions of this page. The rules and stuff are listed in our older blog post: http://vividstuff.blogspot.com/2010/08/compare-contest.html

Once again, contest entries must be e-mailed to us: dreamkeeperscomic@gmail.com

DeviantArt, FA notes, Twitter messages, or replies to this blog can't be counted, as it's easier for us to keep track of everything in one e-mail.

We'll announce the winner in another blog tomorrow evening - in the meantime, thanks for playing, and I hope everyone has fun!

Compare Contest

Riddled with minor errors, the old Dreamkeepers books have been cleaned and polished for their brand new second-edition release. But now for the challenge: can you tell the difference?

If you've got an eye for detail, then you could win some second edition copies!

Right here in our blog, we'll be posting up an image of a graphic novel page - the 'before' version, and the 2nd edition 'after' version. The moment we post them up, the race is on. Compare the pages to find the differences - the first person to e-mail us with a list that details every change will be the winner!

The winner will receive a free physical copy of Volume 1 and Volume 2, the 2nd editions.

The pages will be hosted August 25th, Wednesday night, at roughly midnight Eastern Standard Time. Once you finish your list, e-mail it to us here: dreamkeeperscomic@gmail.com with 'Compare Contest' as the subject line. Bear in mind, the first list we receive won't necessarily be the winner - only the first completely correct list which specifies every change. Be sure to get detailed with your description. Saying "Narp changed clothes" is vague and may not be enough. Saying "In panel 2, Narp's shirt now has three buttons instead of two, and his pants now have a seam line" is specific and points out the exact changes and their location on the page. Hopefully this contest will illustrate to first-edition book owners what kinds of fixes we made, and whether or not they personally will feel the need to own the second edition.

Well, that's it! Once we receive the winning entry, we'll post it up for all to see and the contest will be over. See you here this Wednesday night!

Sneak Peek #15: Carsplosions and Shinies

Sorry for the delay since our last 'Behind the Scenes' - yes, we're still alive. Rumors of our death, and of Prelude postings being performed by automated Cartoon Drones (TM), have been highly exaggerated. (Although if you know where I can find any of those Drones, drop me a line.)

Things in life, like cars, and friends, have been exploding lately, and that can be distracting. Not the cool ball-o-flame movie explosions, but the "Oh, this car isn't moving anymore" kind. Well, it was inevitable - we'd just put the finishing touches on our custom duct-tape decals.

The style was such an affront to all that is holy and good that I suppose divine vengeance was unavoidable. Oh - the extra panel of buttons on the dashboard were, of course, birdcalls. To think they didn't come standard. We had to install the mini disco-light too. Here's one final salute to our little car, on which someone wrote in majestically irremovable material "Your Car Is Win!," and which improbably got us to and from many a convention. Here's to you, car.

But on to more mobile things! Despite our lack of postings, we've still been moving forward on V3 work - in fact, if we're not posting, it usually means we're that much more absorbed in our coloring. Pages and scenes are continuing to come together:

The lighting setup in our nightclub scene has been especially challenging and fun! It's always a good day when I'm debating how many laser-effects to include in an image. Though there are still some tweaks to make, the strip club scene is nearly complete.

Now that conventions are cleared out and real-life imploding fun-time is over, I'm hoping to really move on the remaining pencils in Chapter 7. If I work fast enough, maybe I could have all the pages drawn sometime in September. That might be a bit ambitious, but we'll see! Updates should be happening a little more on schedule here in the meantime.

Dammit Indi, have some patience! We're only human - okay, fine. Have some "moar" - a random square of snakes. That's what pushiness gets you - this. You're welcome.

Anthrocon Blitzkrieg

Liz & I are back from Anthrocon, and all I can say is, WOW! What a convention!

Actually, I can say lots more stuff - watch me go!

For starters, we sold more graphic novels than I'd expected. I figured, last year we had Volumes 1 & 2. And the year before that we had Volumes 1 & 2. By now, pretty much everyone's had a chance to pick up a Volume 1 & 2, case closed.

Apparently not - Dreamkeepers books were selling like hotcakes! And I have never seen hotcakes being sold, nor do I know what they really are, and I'm now feeling curious and a little hungry. But we sold out of books by Saturday, began sending people over to the 'M&T Comics' booth where our books are carried - and then THEY sold out of books!

We were trying to give out free posters at the time, and being disrupted by selling things was somewhat distracting. But despite our tragic difficulties, we succeeded in the epic 'give away a shitload of free posters' quest, aided by a +5 attack minion. The world now has that much more random color floating about in it.

And Volume 3 - goodness, it turns out people really want it. It seems like everyone and their dog (or everyone as their dog) was inquiring about whether it was finished. On the one hand, it's fantastic that people like our stuff and want more: but on the other hand, it felt like going to school and having no homework to turn in. But instead of just one teacher expecting & asking for the assignment, it's every single person in the entire school. Students, faculty, and life-size spectacularly neon classroom pets.

It feels great to be back at home, and primed for more V3 production. Though we've got a solid start, it's a huge project that won't be done any time soon. But there's only one way to finish an ambitious task - and that's to get crackin'.

This photo inflicted on you compliments of sleep - deprived convention shenanigans and Liz's quick reflexes with the camera. It should serve to dispel the pervasive myth that I am not a jackass.

Sneak Peek #14: 30 pages of progress

I've been drawing fast and furious over the last week or two, and 30 full pages of Volume 3 pencils are finally finished and in various stages of color!

Now, in a NORMAL Dreamkeepers book, 30 pages would be an entire Chapter. One down, two to go. But this is no normal book. Crammed to the brim with story, action, and (soon to be) full color, Volume 3's chapters are a bit more formidable to tackle. At the 30-page mark, Chapter 7 is still only about 2/3rds of the way there.

But fear not - We're on a roll, so the progress should be strong 'n steady from here on out. Plus, we've found a color assistant willing to work with us for free.

Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to be speeding things along much at all.

But despite our lackluster cohort, Liz and I are now working to get some color and glitz layered into the first run of pages. In the coming weeks, keep an eye out for some new finished colors and pencils as we work to complete the Mega-Chapter.

We'll be taking a quick break later in June for Anthrocon - if you're around Pittsburgh, be sure to check us out! We'll have 1,000 posters in need of a good home for anyone that wants them. This'll be your last chance to snag a poster for free, so be sure to show up or send a delegate whom you trust implicitly.

Sneak Peek #13: Demonic Gorgeousness

Finished art, at last! Here, have some evil:

It feels great to finally have some Volume 3 pages complete. We've got over 30 pages of Chapter 7 in various stages of production; Blue sketches, pencils, panel layouts, color blocking. But nothing quite satisfies like seeing a page polished, pretty, and done.

Of course, there will be some minor tweaks on these pages before publication. Occasionally a particular line of dialogue will be difficult to nail down. But rather than bring the entire project to a screeching halt, we use a placeholder phrase and keep moving. To make sure we don't forget and publish drivel, (unintended drivel), the dialogue is highlighted in red.

More pencils and pages are in the near future.

Also for your reading pleasure, we have Miscellaneous News - the best kind!

NEWS! The page comparing contest will happen - I haven't forgotten! I'm just ignoring it right now because A) I forgot about it for awhile, B) We still haven't started printing second editions, and C) I'm happily distracted by Volume 3. Hang in there, I'll announce it on DA, FA, Twitter, and here when I finally set it up.

NEWS! Islamic extremists must now wage jihad against Facebook for it's "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" page. ...This news doesn't really have any bearing on me, I just get a huge kick from watching people issue death threats to Facebook while simultaneously taking themselves seriously.

NEWS! This weekend at ACEN was a smashing success - we actually were able to give away all 1,000 posters packs! I wasn't certain we could - we couldn't even roll & wrap the posters until we were at the con table. 1,000 rolled posters would have ballooned far beyond the confines of our bitty car. The result of these circulating DK posters is still up in the air, but I think it will gradually pull in some fresh readers.

NEWS! Domestic alligator attacks against empty milk jugs escalated by 100% this week... I told you it was miscellaneous news time...

NEWS! DK Posters will be up for sale online sometime after Anthrocon this summer.

NEWS! Prelude is officially in the top 100 of the 'Top Webcomics' site. Thanks to everyone for voting us there!

That's it for now - we're plugging away at Volume 3, so new Sneak Peeks shouldn't be too far off.