… It ends.
At least for now. On April 3rd, 2010, the first page of Greyhawk and the Starbucklers: Universe on Fire went up. Now, almost three years later, the story is finished. Before that, for a little less than a year, we had run the first adventure of our space pirate and crew, Greyhawk and the Starbucklers of the Caribbean (published about 10 years before as a graphic novel). It was not, however, a rousing financial success, life happened, and future Greyhawk stories remained in our minds.
The idea for a second Greyhawk story began when I visited Largent in August of 2009. We were working on The Wannabe Pirates together, and Largent wanted to start using his 3-D skills on the artwork; therefore, my role as artist on the strip was going to cease. I thought this might be an opportunity to visit Greyhawk again, suggested it and Largent was agreeable. Over the next several days, we hammered out the story.
We decided to keep the horizontal format of the first book, still thinking it gave more of a cinematic feel to the story. The big change was color. Since the first book was printed, it was black and white for economic reason. As an online webcomic, we were no longer under such limitations. Coloring the book was something I really enjoyed.
There were several goals we set for the story. Since Greyhawk and the Starbucklers of the Caribbean was set primarily on earth, we wanted this book to be set in space. Second, we wanted Universe on Fire to be big– to see a lot of places in Greyhawk’s universe. Finally, we knew we wanted to make it personal, and we settled on the idea of Greyhawk struggling to save his first officer, Randarr, while trying to stop a tyrant intent on starting an intergalactic war. We liked the idea that our hero in the end stops the war because he was first of all saving his friend.
How successful were we? Who knows. We’re really happy with how it turned out. In the end, we finished the story. We’re even working on a trade paperback that should be available within the next few weeks, with a print edition only addendum that finishes the story on an even more adventurous note.
Will there be another story? Again, who knows. Website hits weren’t amazing—in fact, they were pretty uneventful—so, it never found a place with a wider audience. That was disappointing. But, that’s the way these things go. Only someone who does this knows the amount of time that goes into a labor of love like this. Quite frankly, I’m savoring that time used in other private endeavors for a while. Maybe in a few years you’ll remember the website, visit and be pleasantly surprised to see a new, grand story taking place. Largent and I have talked about it. There is a whole universe Greyhawk lives in; we see it. We just aren’t making any promises.
So, if you read the story and enjoyed it, found it mildly entertaining—hey, we’re happy. Please consider checking back in a few weeks and ordering the trade paperback. Regardless, thanks for spending some time in a universe we love!
McCrary
Okay, we’ll just shoot right past the fact that I was Not Informed about this online thingy. My question is: How do I start at the beginning? More importantly, how do I link the beginning? And once I’ve done that, how do I read through it chronologically? I mean, all this newfangled technology has me bumfuzzled. Awaiting enlightenment.
Well, Susanna– if that’s your real name– we’ve done 2 stories to date. When you are at Starbucklers.com, if you click on the “first” icon above the page, that will take you to the very first page of the first comic. Congratulations! You’ve got 200 pages ahead of you! This tells of how Rhisha joined the Starbucklers and how they saved the earth. If you only want to read “Universe on Fire,” then you will notice a pull down menu on the right that says “archive.” Click that, select “Universe on Fire” and enjoy!
I know I was one of the erratic hits, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this story. I’m glad I thought to come check if there’d been any updates tonight; I’d been missing the last 25 pages or so of story! I think I’d sort of assumed that since the Wannabe Pirates had slowed, there wouldn’t be any more of this either. I guess there isn’t, for now, but I’m glad it all got to wrap up in the end, and I’m glad of the opportunity to read such a fine, well-drawn story with a fine group of characters. I still have my version of Greyhawk and K’bor’s voices in my head whenever I read this, though less so for most of the others. I may well pick up those trade paperbacks when they’re available.
Scott,
Thanks so much for the comments. Those are the sort of things that kept us going and will perhaps inspire us to do another in the future. There should be news within the next few weeks about the trade paperbacks. God bless!