For most aspiring webcomic artists, the third chapter is often the make-or-breaker. The majority of the indefinite hiatus/abandoned webcomics (including one of my own) have stopped around this point, usually halfway in or near the end of the chapter. I'm hoping that this does not happen here, especially since I've been really looking forward to this one. It starts off slow, but it will eventually pick up and take a different direction from the previous chapters.

Moving forward, I have mapped out a strategy to keep myself from falling into the same downwards spiral that I did in the past. It's important not to overwhelm oneself with making your comic look too spiffy to the point where every page is a struggle, and I've come to value vague impressions of detail over actual detail. Illusion is an important aspect to writing comics if you want to be able to work fast. At least, that's what I believe nowadays.

Anyway, this chapter will be exploring a location and lore outside of the comfort zone of long-time FFIX fans. This really is the make or break for me, because I don't know how well it's going to go. Will people be intrigued by what FFIXGaiden has to offer and stay to learn more? Or will they cringe and click away, deciding that I'm an idiot weeb fan that needs to stop before she gets ahead of herself... Moreover, will I be happy with my own product or will I end up feeling horribly embarrassed without any outside influence, just like with that one failed attempt? Will I be motivated to power forward or will I get fatigued and lose the ability to care? Who knows what's to come. But I hope, BOY do I hope, that this goes well and I'll be able to keep going.

Thanks to everyone that's been following thus far. I hope you enjoy chapter 3!
 

So, I finally broke into the second chapter. Hallelujah! Party time! Confetti and stuff! And then, we rest.

Or I'd like to think that rest would be a part of it. In fact, rest is kind of a requirement for me at this point, as I'd been delayed for a few weeks by what was at first a massive lack of readiness to move forward, and then a hand injury which is still kind of going on. I pushed through, but it was quite a struggle to get that first page out. I haven't even had enough time to finish preparing the rest of the chapter (though it SHOULD have been more than enough time). I'm going to have to keep a close eye on my hand and not stress it too much, so as not to fall into the same pit as before.

Anyways, that's enough griping for now. With Chapter 2 under tow and Chapter 3 on the horizon (Visible, but still quite far-off), I'm feeling a lot more confident in going forward with this story. I might take some time to create Extra pages for character profiles and other such trivia, and I'm going to be working steadily on improving the layout of the webcomic's site. For the most part I'm feeling perfectly comfortable with the general appearance of the whole thing, but there are some things that have been bothering me and need to be ironed out (one such thing being Firefox compatibility with the content width).

Meanwhile this chapter might prove useful for introducing those who have never played Final Fantasy IX to its world and inhabitants, as there's gonna be a lot of exposition-- hopefully not in any jarring manner-- not just through dialogue, but through the events that unfold. It will also provide some theoretical conclusions to pockets of vagueness in the original game's lore. Such as the Mist and how it effects people. Because I always felt like that needed some more explaining. Additionally, there's gonna be another character introduced in this chapter that I feel will be incredibly popular with frequent readers. So keep an eye out for that.

I'm going to keep doing blog updates at the beginning of new chapters like this, so as to make the blog section actually worth looking at. Sort of. So, look forward to that! See you next chapter~

So I decided, what with today ( I mean yesterday ) being Final Fantasy's anniversary,  (ignoring the fact that I wanted to do this on FFIX's anniversary, but of course I suck at due dates so whatever works, eh???) I would finally go ahead and start legitimately posting the pages to this... Fancomic? Doujinshi? Whichever. Anyways, I was working on the theme for this anyways and--- I mean, it feels unfinished. So I'll probably go back and tweak it every now and then as I go along. But most importantly, Alleyway Jack finally will get his story told . That is-- a story that I, a flaky sadist that chose Jack as her #1 Muse, wrote for him.

Keep in mind, this isn't a happy story-- but if you really look at FFIX as a whole, you'll see that it's kinda freaking dark. "Chilidish Chibi Style" be damned. I gotta point out also that you will not be seeing any of the main protagonists of the canon story for a long while. If you want to know what makes it FFIX without those well-known characters, you should look no further than Jack/Gil himself, the environments, and the inhabitants. I did my best to alter my art style over the years so that it at least vaguely resembles that of Toshiyuki Itahana (the man responsible for the character designs) so that it feels a little more genuine. Whether or not that actually works-- we'll just have to see.

Lastly, don't expect frequent updates, at least for a while. This is a hobby after all, and I'm definitely not going to be earning any money from a Fancomic. I have a busy schedule-- a job--- other hobbies to juggle, etc. I'm also notorious for dropping things like a hot potato, but.... I honestly hope it doesn't come to that.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy what I have in store!