Tuesday , March 31 , 2009
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All images Copyright Benjamin Carver.
The Point Guardian is hosted on Comic Genesis,
a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics
It's done! The last issue of Point Guardian is completed, inked, uploaded, and in the queue! It's been quite a ride! 1500 pages, 5 years... and a lot of great friends.
Speaking of friends, expect a little something later on this year. Quite a few of the other superhero webcomic authors and I are working on something I think you all will like.
Alright guys, I have the final comic's script written, final cover drawn. All that's left is drawing the final issue.
It's hard to say goodbye the this world I created, but I find it more acceptable the closer I get to the deadline. I'm going to slow down a bit, and make this final issue
truly spectacular.
Also, I must say how I find it odd how much the world tries to cry, scream, that heroic heroes are 'outdated' ideas, that the concept of good men are
'unrealistic'. The comics industry has been darkening quite a bit for the past 20 years, something that I find utterly disgusting. More people would rather read about
such 'heroes' as 'Jerk McPowerTrip' because it's more 'realistic'. It's dark things like this that inspired me to create Point Guardian in the first place. A comic, which
I might add, has been called 'The Greatest comic nobody's reading' and 'with a reading frequency that becomes downright addicting' by a few reviewers. Of course, as another
reviewer of mine might add, sometimes, love just isn't enough.
A big thing to keep in mind is that Point Guardian is, essentially, a gigantic labor of love, celebrating what I love about real superhero comics and a learning tool
for me, forcing me to constantly update day to day. Of course, I'm the first
to admit that the scope and intent of what I want to tell and what is finally put on the web may become very different things due to time constraints, lack of actual ability
on my part, and many other things that are obvious to this learning process. Learning process, labor of love, hobby, second job... Point Guardian's been a lot of things to
me in the past 5 years.
I never intended to make the big time with Point Guardian, get a contract with a major publisher, sell the characters for profit, etc., and it astonishes me how many
people doing this try to take this format and comic form far beyond it's intended scope. Well, anyways, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
It's been hard to cope with... my comic, Point Guardian, is going to end soon.
I've had a 2 month buffer going on since at least 3 years ago, and Point Guardian's end is going to be released next March, so I only really have until the end of January.
Point Guardian has been a part of my life in some shape or form since 10 years ago when I first started creating it. Now, I've been drawing it for five years and I'm hitting a stopping point. However, with something that was such a big part of my life gone, I found myself unsure of things in life.
For a few days, I was quite annoying to several of my friends(sorry guys!). I was panicked, worried, almost sick. Now, I'm quite a bit better, coping with the idea, the reality that Point Guardian is pretty much over.
It's been a great ride, almost 1500 pages, and a commitment that lasted longer than a college degree or a marriage.
Well, I rarely get many words of praise or kindness for doing Point Guardian. In fact, my entire readership is
only around 200 readers! Considering I've not missed a single update in 4 years, and I have over 1200 pages online,
I guess it would be nice if I had a 'good job!' or 'keep on trucking' once in a while. But getting praise was never the
intention of Point Guardian, so I guess I can't really complain.
But then, something AMAZING happened. I check my 'stats' on Comic Genesis occasionally, just to
see who's been linking me and how many readers I have, and what do I see?
This Post on a comic blog called
Mind Leak. I must say, after reading this blog post, I remembered all over again why I started Point Guardian
and I feel a renewed energy in drawing it. The poster of this blog, Dan, is truly a great individual if he could find the time
to read my creative effort, and praise it. Thank you, Dan. I tried to find Dan's e-mail address on both his blog and his
MySpace page, to personally thank him, but I am unable to find it. Dan, if you read this, please e-mail me. Thanks
The last year's been kinda rough of me. Death, struggling with getting my second comic up and running, appearing in one podcast and trying to run another, etc. Sometimes it feels like it's barely possibly to even draw the one page a day. Well, first off, I have updated the Previous Issues page. I have also updated my Fan Art page with an excellent drawing of Ultra, Psi-Kid, and Clarissa by the super talented Aisaku.
Sadness seems to be a big part of my life this year. My mentor died this Sunday morning of a heart attack.
His name was Wayne Howard.
I first knew him in a chatroom as "Eagle-1", but he has taught me many things about how
to carry myself as an artist, and a human being. It was his influence that pushed me to have the update schedule that
I still to this day carry out, and my inking style, influenced by his own. He taught me to use a brush to ink,
but he taught me so much more about myself and where I should go with my art, and how I should grow as a person.
Thank you Wayne.
Life has been going really well lately. I have done a lot of great work comic-wise the past few months, created some very fun illustrations in the past couple of weeks, plus I have been starring on a web pod-cast regarding webcomics.
Also a note guys, I love hearing any comments regarding my comic, please be sure to use my forum. Also, my other comic, Hero Academy, has been going again for about a month. Please check it out!
Well guys, I'm really sorry I couldn't have kept the Sketchbook Sundays up. It was fun the very short time it lasted, but as things happened in my life(my cat passing away for one, some legal issues, etc), it just didn't seem as important.
Also, my second comic, Hero Academy, is going to start again. The artist I was working with, Ivan, has had some personal issues of his own, including a death in his family, so of course a hiatus was only right until things started going right for him.
I've been sort of on autopilot for the past two months, and I hate being that way, only half alive. Well, it's over now, so I guess it's like they always say, 'get busy living, or get busy dying'. I'm ready to live again.
Boudica, Warrior Queen, a soon to be appearing character in the comic. I've always had a soft spot for strong feminine characters that embody something grand and pure and noble.
In sadder news... my cat's dying. The vet gives her only a few months left of life, and recommended I just make her as comfortable as possible.
A new concept I'm introducing. Every week, I'll try to sketch something new and different and post it on Sunday.
But come on guys, don't just stare at the drawings, talk about them, here, on the forums!
That's right, I've decided to get up and redesign the Point Guardian website. No new features planned(as of yet), but I will be looking into building some sort of RSS feed. If the site doesn't look right, just hit the refresh button.
But come on guys, don't just stare at the new site design, talk about it, here, on the forums!