A Blog Less Painful

I strongly suspect that a lot of my problem with blogging is logging in and dealing with the UI. So I just grabbed a Firefox (Yes, I still use Firefox, Chrome is too minimalist for me. I like buttons like, everywhere) add-on called Scribefire Next (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scribefire-next/) As having Echofan has gotten me tweeting more often, I'm hoping this will get me to blog more often. Not to figure out why right clicking isn't working...

Thoughts on Descendants #52 (Scenes From a Changing World)

I don't normally do this, seeing as 'Scenes' is still ongoing, but I am making a good faith option to blog and for once I do have some thoughts that I'd really like to share on the subject.

Scenes From a Changing World is different from most issues of Descendants because it's very explicitly broken into multiple short stories. This isn't exact;y new; the Annuals always worked as check-ins with the characters, Giant-sized became this way accidentally when I lost the thread of the frame story, and Some Day In May (Special #4), was something similar. But this time, I didn't just tell different stores, but in different styles. I'm not sure how it worked for the reader, but jumping from 'Fanon' to the upcoming 'Snick-Snap' was definitely an experience to me.

You Win Again, Internet.

As my sporadic postings here suggests, I'm just not a blog person. When I write, I prefer it to be a story. This whole format where I just say things is foreign to me. I'm much more comfortable speaking through characters, or through forums.

But blogging is the best way to communicate with my readers and goddamnit, I really do want to do good by them. So the plan is to do this twice a week at least. I can't promise quality, or entertainment, or any sort of schedule, but I can promise to try.

Also, I'm deleting all the ugly update stuff that came before because jeez that was a terrible idea.

Introducing New Comic Wednesdays, a new feature at descendantsserial.com

Dear readers,
As I've been saying hinting, the time has come for a change. The universe the Descendants inhabit is getting bigger and now it's simply too big for a weekly schedule.

For the past two years, each issue of The Descendants was separated by two weeks of stories from elsewhere in the setting; most recently the Liedecker Institute series and The Whitecoat and the Second String.

But when the current issue ends, a third miniseries will be forthcoming; The Spider's Seven. I feel that almost a month between issues of the main series is something that many of you, especially those who aren't interested in the other stories, are not willing to put up with.

The solution: I'm adding another day to the schedule. The Descendants will still update every Monday in the a.m. And on Wednesdays, the day you also pick up your actual paper, sequential art comics, you can also check out the newest issue of a Descendants-verse series on the following schedule starting this coming Wednesday, February 2nd:

First Wednesday - Liedecker Institute
Second Wednesday - The Whitecoat and the Second String (miniseries*)
Third Wednesday - The Spider's Seven (miniseries*)
Fourth Wednesday - Descendants Presents...**
Fifth Wednesday - TBA

*miniseries obviously run until they end. Upcoming minis include: Vorpal: Gyre and Gimble (working title)Liedecker: Life and Times Part 2 "The Apprentice"

** includes sneak peeks at works, especially scenes from in-universe entertainment including "Malady Place", "Imago", "Live Metal" and "Taskforce: Earth" as well as other projects such as the Descendants prequel "Descendants Prime" and the Descendant-verse vampire series "Whitepine Hollow".

I hope this change goes well and to the enjoyment of all. If you have questions, concerns or suggestions, feel free to comment on the blog or on the community (which I know looks dead, but if you post I will answer).

Aside from that, the new site continues to take shape and proofreading back issues continues. See everyone in February for the first update in this format: the Lidecker Institute Annual #1

Commentary: Descendants Giant-sized #1

Descendants Giant-sized #1 'Slices of Life' is sort of an odd duck in the series. Much like 'A Magitech Crisis: Epilogue' it exists in one of those strange places that's too big to be a oneshot and too small to be a full issue. It also comes chock full of important events and little touches that didn't have much of a place in any of the other issues.

Discussion of the importance of this piece to the whole Confluence arc and why 'Giant-sized' under the cut.

Commentary: Descendants #36

Descendants #37 'Of A Feather' revisited the character of Elizabeth von Stoker, AKA Freaque, and introduced a new set of characters, the Outliers. It also served as the first issue of Descendants Volume 4: Confluence and, as it happens, the issue least connected with the overall Confluence arc.

So how did these new characters come to be, and how did 'Of a Feather' become so divorced from Confluence? All that and Peter Parker Syndrome under the cut.

Commentary: Issue #46 Post-Game

As mentioned before, I have a long and complicated history with the character of Juniper Taylor (Zero). She was created to be a character vastly different than what she eventually became and escaped a terrible fate purely because I developed a soft spot for her. This in turn led me to constructing one of the series's longest running subplot, namely: Who is Juniper Taylor.

The clues were spread out over nearly three volumes and all led up to a resolution in Descendants #46 “The Juniper Chronicles”, which is impressive for a plot that was something else entirely for most of Volume 1

So what was going to happen, and how did things wind up the way they are now? Find out, under the cut. Warning: Spoilers for Descendants #46