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Important Notice!
posted by Mike Renner | Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
So, this is kind of an important announcement.
As of this update, Fetch Quest will be going on an indefinite hiatus. This is primarilly for Alan's sake, as he's... well, let's just say that the guy's been working non-stop on this comic for a year and a half now, and he's earned something of a brief respite. This is not to say that this will be the end of Fetch Quest, as there's still obviously a really big frickin' cliffhanger here. So it will continue once Alan's up to the task of continuing.
That being said, I think it's high time we make a change in the update schedule again.
I know this is probably ill-advised, but all things considered, I really believe that this comic reads better taken a chapter at a time. With the dual needs of taking some pressure off Alan and my own thoughts on this comic... we will be resuming updating by the chapter rather than by the page. The trick here is that we will also be updating as things get done, which means that updating might be a lot more inconsistent now. I apologize in advance, but some sacrifices are going to have to be made to maintain the artist's sanity. In the meantime, I'll try to work on something to update regularly while we get Fetch Quest rolling. I have no idea what it will be yet, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that I'll probably have to be doing the updates from now on, either way. =D | | |
The Saga of Lionel's Doom And Despair
posted by Mike Renner | Sunday, March 28th, 2010
I assure you that Lionel got enough cool moments to make up for how mistreated he must feel right about now. I think these two could have a really proper fight scene, too, but I figure that doing it this way could remind people that Saffron is really frickin' strong and that maybe Lionel isn't as strong as we've made him out to be.
Not to say that Lionel isn't skilled, but... well. Things happen. XD | | |
The Saga of the Missed Update
posted by Mike Renner | Thursday, March 18th, 2010
So, Alan forgot to put up page 9 of this chapter, and I suspect it's because he's still trying to get used to this whole "hey, we post two days a week now" thing. Geez, must I do everything around here? XD
Sorry if it's taken this long to get to the point where someone is trying to beat the hell out of someone else, though. It wasn't meant to feel this long originally, but... update schedules and all that. Can't really help it. | | |
Silence, infidel!
posted by Mike Renner | Sunday, February 28th, 2010
I have no idea what you're talking about, that image has always been there since the chapter started. Clearly, you must be crazy to question my absolutely perfect maintainence of this website. | | |
On our update schedule.
posted by Mike Renner | Sunday, February 21st, 2010
As of this post, we are reverting back to our former Mondays and Thursdays schedule. Rejoice, humans! | | |
More updates.
posted by Mike Renner | Thursday, January 14th, 2010
I took down the ads. I figure nobody will miss them. The site already looks better without them, anyway. | | |
Updates.
posted by Mike Renner | Thursday, December 17th, 2009
First of all, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention artwork I put up in the Artwork section lately.
Also, Megan drew a new icon of Shiori, which I will now be using since I consider her the new mascot character. It's been a long, full life for Sleeping Janice With A Kitty On Her Head, but alas, it was time for a change.
Shame that I hardly update my own frickin' site enough for it to be seen regularly. =D
Oh, I'm still tossing around ideas for an overhaul of this site. I can't imagine I'll have time to work on it any time soon, though, but I'll try to keep you guys posted if needed. The Christmas holiday is coming up and if I can manage it, I'd like to devote some time towards a redesign. We'll see how it goes. | | |
That's the end of that.
posted by Mike Renner | Monday, November 16th, 2009
The forums are gone. They're not coming back. Don't ask me to bring them back, I'll think of a different system. | | |
It's been a while...
posted by Mike Renner | Sunday, October 25th, 2009
...but I finally get to start updating the Fetchwiki again! Yarr!
It's been quiet lately, at least from my side of the fence. A friend of mine thought that Alan took over the comic because I was so quiet. He's an idiot, but he meant well. =P (Hi, Nate, don't hate me even if you are an idiot. XD)
It's nice to have the main characters finally start meeting, especially after four straight chapters of no Saffron and three without Nephilim, though. Although I do spend some chapters away from the major characters, ultimately, they come back at some point. For example, this chapter has a lot of Saffron, Nephilim, and Felicia in it. And the next one will have some different characters in it.
The challenge is to keep all of these characters interesting and together, while moving the story along. Right now, we're just putting everyone together. Eventually, the plot will settle in. You'll know it when you see it. | | |
No, I am not dead.
posted by Mike Renner | Sunday, October 18th, 2009
I didn't mean to stay quiet for this long, but working a warehouse job sort of saps your will to do anything, I gotta say.
There's new artwork in the artwork section of the site by a handful of artists. I'll be updating the Fetchwiki when the situation calls for it, but I have some of those articles written already. And that, sadly, is all of the new stuff concerning Fetch Quest right now. Damn. | | |
Schedule change.
posted by Mike Renner | Thursday, August 20th, 2009
Sure would've been nice for Alan to have mentioned this last night, but we will temporarilly be switching to a once-a-week schedule on Mondays. This, hopefully, will just be a temporary measure.
In addition, we have removed the TWC voting buttons, as I feel they've served their purpose for now. | | |
So.
posted by Mike Renner | Monday, August 17th, 2009
The new Touhou games are out, and while I can't speak for the shooter, I can sum up my feelings for the fighting game in three simple words and a hyperlink.
Giant enemy catfish.
Don't do drugs. | | |
Chapter 6 starts on Thursday.
posted by Mike Renner | Monday, July 20th, 2009
There is no "end of chapter character bio" at the end of this chapter, so Thursday, we head right into Chapter 6. Which I promise is a lot shorter than Chapter 5.
I'm not sure who should be breathing a sigh of relief there.
Actually, the reason why there's no character bio at the end of this chapter is twofold. The first is that I want to keep some details of Lionel a bit of a secret for now. ...The second is that I completely forgot to write it down. XD | | |
On incentives.
posted by Mike Renner | Sunday, July 05th, 2009
So, the voting incentives will be updated every Monday and Thursday, the same days that we update the site. In actuality, I put up the page one commentary last Thursday... the one for today will probably come up in about two hours from when I put up this post (midnight, central time).
While I can't promise that my comments will be at all exciting, I will at least make them.
Vote every day, though, if you don't mind. XD | | |
So...
posted by Mike Renner | Wednesday, July 01st, 2009
I'd like it very much if you clicked our little TWC icon and voted us up right about now.
What? Incentives?
Uh...
I'll get back to you on that. XD | | |
Cheating death for twenty-six years.
posted by Mike Renner | Monday, June 29th, 2009
Today, I'm 26.
...
Yay?
Oh yeah, here be some Meganart. | | |
This Title Needs News.
posted by Mike Renner | Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Alan will be back from his family vacation long before the Thursday update. Hopefully.
Until then, you're stuck with me and Chuck.
You guys are thoroughly screwed. XD | | |
Rolling Thunder
posted by Mike Renner | Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Shannon for her help today, although she had nothing to do with the comic itself.
Now that the danger has subsided, we can say goodbye to badass Felicia for now and replace her with cute Felicia. | | |
Boom. Headshot.
posted by Mike Renner | Sunday, June 14th, 2009
Maybe it's because I'm not an artist, but I don't get what Alan's whining about with this page. XD | | |
Shiori is love.
posted by Mike Renner | Friday, June 12th, 2009
Since Alan finished the commission, I've gotten a couple of new fanart of everyone's favorite historian... Shiori Hieda Suou. Well, now, I point them out.
Both of these are sketches, one is from Tabby, and the other is from Shannon Murphy. You can view Tabby's deviantart account here, and you can view Shannon's here.
Give them love. | | |
Attention.
posted by Mike Renner | Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
No Sanders' were hurt in the making of this comic.
Except for that one.
He was a stunt Sanders. | | |
Top Webcomics List
posted by Mike Renner | Wednesday, June 03rd, 2009
You might notice a new little button on the left toolbar. It's for the Top Webcomics List.
I would have you click on that icon.
You know, were I in control of your clicking fingers. | | |
An update about updates.
posted by Mike Renner | Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Hey, everyone.
In order to conserve the buffer that we're trying very hard to maintain, the end of chapter sketch will be posted on Monday and the cover for Chapter 5 will be posted on Thursday. | | |
The Evolution of Saffron
posted by Mike Renner | Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Taking nothing away from Alan's amazing work on this story so far, but I wanted to stop and talk about an aspect of this comic that I'm ultimately responsible for: character design. I can't really draw with a pencil and some paper, but I've had the capacity to make sprites instead. So I thought I'd talk about the one character that's served as my "sandbox"... Saffron Lachesis.
I've had the character of Saffron Lachesis since the end of 2004, and I've slowly tinkered with her design as the years went by and I worked out my spriting style. Whenever I tested out a new sprite style, Saffron is usually one of the first characters I end up making. And, of course, I rarely settle for one sprite, I have to make many. Some of the later Saffron sprite sheets got enormous, one of them has an image size of 1000 by 4750.
So, let's get to it.
 The first of Saffron's designs was initially inspired by Lyn from Fire Emblem, and this is fairly obvious from her dress and the ponytail. In order to distance this version of Saffron from Lyn, I gave her two ponytails (one on top of another, kind of like vertical pigtails), a design aspect I stubbornly tried to stick to for years before I settled on a single ponytail.
I knew at the time that Saffron was some sort of princess who was talented at a sword, but I really had no clue about her character even though she appeared in In Wily's Defense at a couple of points. A large problem I had with this design was the fact that it was pretty bland, overall, and she has no discernable place to put her sword (a problem common with all of Saffron's designs until I switched the her sword cane). Mostly, it was a neat design, but I knew probably from the start that I'd have to do it again.
Since the sprite came before the concept of Fetch Quest, I may have intended Saffron to have been one of the Angels in IWD, since I drew her at roughly the same time as Kiki and Magdelena, and she was wearing white. Thankfully, common sense won out, since introducing too many characters at once (at a time that I introduced four new characters in a rapid-fire sequence) probably would've been overwhelming to the readers of IWD at the time.
And so, we enter version 2.
 In the beginning of 2005, I began to try and tinker with new sprite styles, besides my safer Megaman sprite style. I tried a number of experiments, this one being the first. The style was based on the Neo Geo Pocket Color fighting games, which I should note is the same style I used for several characters in Tales of Southtown.
At this point, Saffron's sword had morphed into a sort of tuning fork-like blade, which I based on Ka D'Argo's "Qualta Blade" in Farscape, in that it's both a sword and a gun. I really didn't like the look of the weapon, though, nor did I like how lazy I was in creating the sprites of Saffron swinging it around.
As you may also note, Saffron is really still wearing a skirt (especially noticable with her backflip), but her design has changed little since the move to this look. Although it's completely custom (near as I can recall, anyway, it's been four years since I drew these), the backflip sprite was largely drawn with some of Ciel of Melty Blood in mind.
I think the V2 sprites were some of my better work at the time, actually.
 I tried the same style again in July of 2005, but this one came off kind of bad. It was my first attempt at making an iaido-based Saffron, but I wanted to keep the sword separate from the character itself, so a lot of her poses in this style turned out to come without her scabbard and blade. It made these sprites rather difficult to show other people, because it wasn't like Saffron was holding anything when she was posting with her sword.
Swinging invisible swords doesn't really pan out for anyone other than Creed Diskenth.
In retrospect, the V2 sprites were a lot better than these.
 So, in comes January of 2006. I'd just left eWrestling and desired to do something different with my time, so I started working on this stuff again.
Until the advent of the fighting-game based sheets, this was my biggest sprite sheet for Saffron. It was still a little messy and Saffron looks very top-heavy in these sprites, but I was starting to get a feel for sprite animation at this time, and I really liked some of those early sprites of Saffron swinging her sword from her scabbard, even though I'd do them differently today.
 This one was done during the same time period as the V4 sprites. This one was just a quick adventure back with the old "comfort zone", which was the Megaman-based style. I actually made several characters in this style, including the current design of Felicia Whitewind and an old design of Momo Makino.
I have no idea what prompted these sprites, nor do I know why I never made any more beyond this "adventure", as I call it. After all, I like the Megaman style and made many of my characters in it.
 These sprites were done in September of 2006. This was my first flirtation with the Jump Ultimate Stars style, which I would also use extensively with the V7 sprites. It was my first foray into the attempt at fighting game sprites, as I had this silly idea of making a fighting game using all of my own characters from different stories I'm responsible for. Since the majority of my "fighting-type" characters come from Fetch Quest, it slowly became a Fetch Quest thing.
These sprites, being a first attempt, weren't that great, but they're a marked improvement over the previous versions. Unfortunately, I lost interest in spriting not long after doing this and didn't pick it up again until a full year after I stopped working on this one.
 The V7 sprites, which started in September of 2007, were big and extensive, and also based on JUS. They were my first "completed" sprite sheets, with the respect that I had set goals in mind and accomplished them. The "system" was similar to JUS and Super Smash Bros., each character had different attacks based on a direction and a button pressed, but it also had a super meter system that would give you three different levels of stronger super attacks.
Saffron was the first of ultimately fourteen characters I would complete. The others included Felicia Whitewind, Momo Makino, Giovanni "the Fang", Magdelena (In Wily's Defense), Janice (Tales of Southtown), Keime (Tales of Southtown), and Fir (Tales of Southtown). Unfortunately, the quality started to dip when I got into some of the later characters, so I ultimately stopped working on the sprites and I still let the project sit to this day.
 The V8 sprites were started fairly recently, around December of 2008. At this point, I was experimenting with another new style. Although the attacks and mannerisms were the same as they were in the JUS sprites, the artwork was very much different and I really enjoyed working on this sheet.
This was another, different attempt at the above-mentioned fighting game, this time taking on a system very much like Scarlet Weather Rhapsody (only without the ludicrous amounts of projectiles as is typical of a Touhou game). Each character would just have basic combo attacks and a number of special attacks with increasing levels of strength. Unfortunately, Saffron was the only character I actually finished in this style, my subsequent project didn't turn out as well and I ultimately shelved the project for good.
Jesus, this post went longer than I meant it. XD | | |
Hmph.
posted by Mike Renner | Friday, April 24th, 2009
If you do that, Chuck, I'll just blame it on Alan. =P | | |
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