Blog 1: The Webcomic on the Edge of (a) Forever (Hiatus)
Added 2021-08-05 04:01:02 +0000 UTCI've been meaning to do this for a while as threatened but as usual, took a while to get around to it. I'm hoping to follow this post up with a few more soon about the inner workings, behind the scenes and history of Exiern.
First things first, unexpected interruptions have knocked the update schedule out of alignment and at this point, I'm thinking we'll just make the next page update next Monday the 9th of August 2021 and make up the deficit as soon as we can with a two updates in a week.
That's also a chance for us to segue into the first of the topics to be covered behind the scenes which is how perpetually precarious this whole enterprise is!
Also, don't forget that we're updating daily here at
with the original Exiern pages as written and illustrated by the original Exiern creator Drowemos back in 2005 and 2006. Lots of characters and subplots which got streamlined (a polite way of saying excised) from the latest version of the webcomic on this site as illustrated by Exiern's first professional artist.
On that note ...
Basically, we've been very fortunate with our artists to date. After stumbling onto our original artist quite by accident (after trying to find them and failing) almost two years ago, not long after that Luis (formerly referred to as Antipus) had to stop making pages for us for a while.
Very luckily, because we'd recently just stumbled on Studio Katsumi (formerly Studio Boom), we were able to just continue updating weekly. However, if we hadn't been so fortunate, well that would have been a very different story and in all seriousness, we could have ended up on indefinite hiatus.
Which as we all know where webcomics are concerned can easily turn into a permanent one. It's a fine line between being a webcomic in its 16th year with at least one new story page almost every week and an increasingly old front page with no clear sign of a new page in sight!
My experiences in trying to an artist (any artist!) to make even one page of a new Dark Reflections title (Dark Reflections: Chaos - more on Dark Reflections generally soon!) were not successful at all for over a year. So we would have had the same problem with Exiern if we abruptly needed a new artist.
Still, the precarious nature of Exiern hasn't changed and as we've also all been experiencing, we've since found ourselves in an era of major global disruption and it's reached as far as us (a few time now actually even if it hasn't always been obvious thank goodness) with events related to it indirectly throwing the update schedule off track.
We're presently trying to drag things back onto schedule and make up for lost time. I'm confident that we eventually will but we just haven't managed to do so just yet. As you can imagine, if the main comic is affected like this, there will be knock on effects with Patreon. We're trying to fix that too, please bear with us, we're working on it!
I guess the point is, it really does drive home how perpetually precarious things are!
On that note, we will be covering how Exiern costs more than it does to make and with my current work contract coming to an end in about 6 months or so and with no guarantees as to what comes next, money as well as artists (and the money to pay the artists) is another issue that ties into being able to update regularly and frequently.
Don't worry, we still have enough funds to keep going for quite a while yet but it is something we need to at least highlight as another thing that is also in the balance that relates to keeping this webcomic going. So far so good in the artist department and at least monetary resources are enough to not have to call an abrupt stop due to funding issues either.
That will be the next post coming soon but for now, to recap:
Likely going to defer the next Exiern page to Monday the 9th of August 2021.
We'll make up the missed page as soon as we can with two pages in a future week as soon as possible.
Dark Reflections: Chaos is also likely going to have to skip a week as well to also help it get back on track but I'm not quite sure when yet. This week's delayed page will be posted as soon as it's available (currently in draft stage).
We're working on more material for the Patreon as well and hope to have more as soon as possible for there too.
Well, that's it for now but another post about the inner workings and past of Exiern very soon - as well as what's happening with updates for the present day as well!
