As you may already know, Meganeea, the graphic novel, is on hiatus while I try to finish it in its original format– as an illustrated novel. I will update this sticky post regularly to show the progress of the book. I am working on it every day without fail!

Current page count: 204| Illustrations done so far: 8 inked; 2 pencilled; 3 rough sketches.

Last updated on Monday, November 12th, 2008.

I’ve got two important pieces of news to give. The first one regards the recent deletion of all pages/profiles made for Meganeea on social networking sites. The second one is to announce a hiatus –sort of. Read on.

Recently, I heard a program on NPR about the rights one gives away when creating accounts and/or profiles on websites such as Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites, even by using Gmail. While I don’t remember the specifics right now, it was unsettling enough to make me feel very uneasy about all those pages I had recently created for Meganeea on Hi5, Xanga, Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, and others. So, though regretful because of all the lost time and work, I have deleted each and every one of them. Sorry, but I couldn’t rest easy otherwise.

That aside, a few days ago I dusted off the original MS Word file for Meganeea. If you’ll remember, before I began to work on this graphic novel, I got it down as a book, but stopped a little before I was halfway done for a number of reasons, the most important of them being that I felt the writing was boring and mediocre. I also believed that a graphic novel format would serve this kind of story better.

When I looked at the unfinished book again last week (with the purpose of using some of the plot points there in the graphic novel) I found the manuscript, surprisingly enough, to be interesting and fun to read. Not sure what changed, but I immediately began where I left off and hit 152 pages just yesterday.

Following my instincts, I’ve decided to put the graphic novel aside for a couple of months while I continue to work on this book. With so much of it already written, the possibility of finishing it before the end of this year seems real. I’ve begun to illustrate it, as well.

Due to this change in plans you will not see preview updates until further notice. For now I am leaving the graphic novel website as it is, but if I find myself finishing the book, it will then be revamped entirely to reflect that.

Please be sure to watch this blog for further developments.

Thanks!

-Marina

Pages #23-24 of chapter #1 are now available for viewing. Click here or on the image above to go directly to page #23. Alternatively, click here to go to the beginning of the chapter.

-Marina

Sorry for the lack of updates –I have been quite sick. See this past week’s posts at my LiveJournal blog for more on that.

Anyhow, now that I’m fully functional again, I’ve returned to work with a vengeance, and let me tell you –it’s been quite a productive weekend!

Firstly, there is a new addition to the gallery of Colored Drawings, featuring Zad and Lazlo:

Takeoff

While that’s all you can see right now, I’ve also finished two more pages (just need to add them to the preview), sketched and began inking a third one, and worked on the script for the rest of the chapter.

While there won’t be further pages added to the preview once the first chapter is completed, I am nonetheless eager to finish it. Not only because I would like to print this first chapter via Lulu and put it up for sale, but also because of the changes that will come with chapter #2. Can’t say anything about that yet, though.

More to come!

-Marina

Yesterday the proof I ordered from Lulu (of the first chapter of Meganeea) finally arrived. I am very pleased!

The line art looks very sharp, nice and crisp, the paper is thick and glossy. My only gripe is that the full bleed pages show a couple millimeters of white at the top (they bleed properly at the sides and bottom) even though the originals I sent had no white in them. Maybe I didn’t use the right size? It was 6″ by 9″, though. I’ll need to look into this and fix it.

For now, take a look below, and remember that you need only click on these photos to can see a much bigger version of them on my Flickr.

A "proof" of my comic, printed by Lulu.com.

The best part is the screen tone. My biggest worry was that the screen tones may show moiré, but they came out perfectly as you can see in the image below:

Look how nice and sharp the screen tone came out! =D

I am still undecided if Lulu will be my final printing choice. I will, however, give it serious consideration.

This aside, I apologize for the lack of new pages, but I have just been busy. I am working in two new pages simultaneously at the time and have made edits in some of the older ones. I plan to use less screen tone and more pen and ink for textures and balance. And I am also thinking about the possibility of hand-lettering my graphic novel.

Stay tuned for more news!

-Marina

There’s been a Facebook page for Meganeea for a little while now, but I completely forgot to post about it on the blog. See a screenshot below:

The page features a gallery, discussion board and more. So, if you really like Meganeea or just want to be notified when the preview is updated, please become a fan on our Facebook page! =)

-Marina

Over the course of this past weekend I’ve set up profiles in various social networking sites to generate a little extra buzz. Now you can add Meganeea as your friend in the following sites:

• MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/meganeea)
• Friendster (http://www.friendster.com/meganeea)
• Squidoo (http://www.squidoo.com/meganeea)

And also on Facebook –although I couldn’t get around having to put my own name there. But, the purpose is the same! You’ll find my Facebook profile here.

-Marina

Images added:

• “Me On My Shoulder” (Soraya; under Colored Drawings)
• “Some Landing…” on Lazlo’s profile.

Also added 4 new pages (#19-22) to the Preview.

-Marina

I worked like crazy all week, and the new website is finally up and running as it should, sooner than expected. Now there are some widescreen wallpapers available for download, as well as a few new images in the gallery.

This coming week 3 to 4 new pages are to be added to the preview. The first chapter will be done soon! Then there won’t be any new pages –you’ll have to wait for the first volume to be released.

Enjoy!

-Marina