Huntresses Attack Monsters --in 2-D!

Scrolling forever isn't what I did because it's big. It makes sense to me. However, I need to respect that not everyone has the same tech, and there's a point where you need to turn the page. I think this strip or next is that point.

I just made prev/next buttons that go on the left side of the screen. They'll show up next time I update.



And yeah, you're right. There's a lot more on my mind than site design. But it was helpful to get the comments so I now know to stop scrolling sooner than originally planned.

 

It's a bit screwy to have the buttons up now, but I decided to publish the site with prev/next buttons and a newest-strip-only page. Of course the existence of the buttons will make more sense once I have a lot of pages.

Under story, you can go to "the latest adventure" or "in the beginning..." and I'll have another subheader for the current page when page 1 is no longer the current page. Three subheaders is what I consider the max. I won't clutter the menu with page 2, page 3, page 4...

 

This week's strip is called "The Road Not Taken." It features a road.



Baldhart lives on the Iron Mountain, which is the literal translation of her last name, Eisenberg. Addison lives in the Highlands because the Lanes are probably sort of like highlanders. I put more effort into drawing places than naming places.

Since Nimue mentioned issues with loading time, this strip will be the first strip on page 2. That's right. The scrolling isn't endless because I ended it at strip #5.

 

Holy crap! My site is being read in 10 countries! Of course the spike was yesterday, before my midnight update to the Story, and the Blog, and the Characters page... and the Portfolio. I hope they'll check back and see all the new stuff.

How do Malaysians even know about HAM2D?

 

HAM2D has visitors from 21 countries! I hope all those people know I update Friday, meaning there's new content today. Check out the Story, Blog, and Characters (People) pages, all of which updated a half hour ago.

EDIT - On a sidenote, I'm pretty happy with my image for the characters page. Normally, I just use a screenshot from an actual comic panel. For the Lanes, I pieced together two images of the dad and edited mom a bit for group-hugginess.

 

Well, there will always be hits and misses, but...

Spoiler: the answer to Devor's question

..."The Princess and the Peas" is the first revelation that the Eisenbergs are "Haves;" the Lanes are "Have-Nots."

Rainbow peas filled with chocolate is an absurd example of the privileged having access to things normal people don't know exist. Baldhart's amazed by seeing something ordinary, like green peas with no chocolate. I don't know what chocolate looks like in the Eisenberg Castle, but it's not brown.

 

@Devor, maybe that was poor use of emphasis on my part. Oh well. To be continued next week anyway.

@Nimue, I set up the first/last images as previous/next since, on a mobile, the prev/next buttons can't follow you making them pointless. Maybe the option to go back isn't necessary since you can use the mobile menu. But what do you think of the final image as the "next page" button. (That option was always there since I created page 2. I just didn't make the frame turn red when you hover/touch until a few minutes ago.)

EDIT - I just have last image as next button and no previous since it's totally pointless on the phone. The previous button is too easy to press accidentally, and that sucks.

 

The Pointy-Helmeted Boss–er, I mean Veep–inspired me. There are a few things that happen in my strip which have perfectly logical explanations. So... new feature on the site: "Essential Questions." If you keep your cursor in the middle of the screen, some panels will turn red and a question will appear.



Huh... I think I'll go edit that now because I didn't consistently use title capitalization, but anyway, this feature will be on three strips including Friday's.

This feature is NOT available on the mobile site. It's way too easy to accidentally click on the frame if you're using a phone.

 

Glad you like it.

I like it because there is so much of the story left untold. As of tomorrow, I'll have an Essential Question for every strip on page 2 (strips #6-9). If you've been keeping up, that means strips 7 & 9 will have new information. I also have a couple characters chime in in tomorrow's EQ answers. It sure is easy to add a character on a whim when you don't need to draw him/her!

For those who know who Nissa van Donk is, she enters the strip tomorrow. I was going to make her the littlest Valkyrie, but I decided that there won't be any divine intervention in my story. (Or at least not so obvious as a winged messenger of a goddess.)

The story still has just Baldy and Addy as mains, but that doesn't mean they won't have others in their adventuring party. Some of the "important people" (see characters submenu) will be the focus of some strips. The Veep will have his own strip for #11 (I think). I don't know if the fantasy high arc will end with a payoff you'd find epic, but there is an endgame I had in my head before drawing anything.

 

The Veep's Iron Office Chair comes with a desk, complete with Tower Shield Desktop.



The story (such as it is) takes place back in the day that desktop meant "the top of a desk."

 

Yeah, strips 3-10 each have a question. I don't think any of them have a straight answer.

Index... coming eventually. (Reply to your PM coming sooner.)

 

I don't know if I should post personal stories on a webcomic blog. But then, there are probably a lot of shouldn'ts that I'm doing on my site, so what's one more Internet faux pas? My blog is about a photo taken ten years ago today.

 

I was going to take a couple weeks off from the comic. Instead, I made a three-part holiday special and drew the 12-25 and 1-1 strips early. The Christmas strip is my third textless piece. I don't know if people like these, but they are fun to draw!