[messenger][messenger] » twc

Comic Update, Extra Pages, Other Stuff!

Bugbyte — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 01:38:10 +0000

Hey comic readers! Huge apologies for the continued delay on pages. I’ve been seriously busy with the new job thing. I’m not sure how much detail I want to get into, but I’m basically working the job I’ve always wanted, so that’s pretty awesome. But by the time I get home I am just dead exhausted, so it’s been interesting trying to find my footing with my comic-making schedule again. But like I said, I will find a way. I am set on finishing this story no matter how long it takes. I am considering dropping back to one update a week temporarily until I can get a buffer together, I just haven’t decided the best way to go about it yet.

Thanks to a kind reader donation, there will be two pages this week! The first is the one that’s up now and the second will be coming on Friday. As usual, the counter will roll over to zero and another bonus page will be available once it reaches $25 again. (Find out more about bonus comics by checking out the Shop!)

Thank you for your patience with my schedule slippage. I am going to put together a note in the sidebar so I (and you) can keep track of how many pages are still owed. It’s my plan to make them all up, I just have to get my life back in order, which might take a little time. Remember, you can follow Messenger via Twitter, RSS, Facebook, or Tumblr to have updates delivered straight to you when they happen! Don’t forget: activity in comments or on the forums are also extremely motivating for me! It excites me when people are interested in my story, so don’t be shy if you’ve been considering joining up with the forum or leaving a comment.

Preemptive Happy Thanksgiving

Bugbyte — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:00:34 +0000

Hey comic readers! There’s a new vote incentive up this week featuring Luke, as I’ve been trying to warm up for drawing him for the next chapter as Chapter Nine starts to approach its conclusion. That, and it seems like 99% of all the incentives feature Eldora, so it’s time for a change!

Please take a second to vote for Messenger! ♥

Voting helps to spread the word about the comic, and you can vote for as many comics as you’d like every day, just once per comic per day. If you’re feeling exceptionally generous, please consider checking out and voting for other Hive comics as well!

Since there won’t be another update before Thursday, here’s hoping all my American readers have an excellent Thanksgiving holiday, and that everyone else just has an Awesome Thursday! It’s hard to believe that it’s already this time of year again, and soon it’ll be winter and Christmas and New Year’s. Speaking of which, if you’re looking for awesome holiday cards, check out these Krampus postcards designed by my friend Misuka!

Check back on Friday for the next exciting installment of the comic!

Bookworm

Bugbyte — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:30:15 +0000

This week’s update is full of books.

There’s a new vote incentive up this week featuring a preview of one of the full-color spreads going into the new book! I’m printing in color this time, and am I ever going to use it. Vote to see!

Speaking of which, I’m nearly done getting the prepress stuff done for said book. I keep getting delayed by things like, uh, regular comic updates, but aside from that it’s all falling nicely into place. Really crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to finish work and get it to the printer this week, and then any delays are all on them.

Additionally, I’ve submitted an exclusive page for inclusion in Webcomics: What’s Cooking? – a cookbook put together by various webcomic artists with the proceeds going to support food banks in North America. This is a great cause and with the support of so many great artists I’m sure the book will be fantastic!

Lastly, I changed some settings to take advantage of things like using Comicrank as part of the RSS feed, so all RSS stuff is now handled by Feedburner. While this should have been a seamless change (and so far it appears to be) it may not have made the jump correctly everywhere. If you use the RSS feed to get updates and have been missing updates for the past week or so, please set your reader to check http://feeds.feedburner.com/messengercomic instead of the old URL! Hopefully this will solve any problems that might be out there.

Thank you for tuning in, and check back Friday for the next installment!

Skeletons Riding Spiders

Bugbyte — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:30:27 +0000

Page was a few hours late due to me spending all weekend working on new pages for the book (which is almost totally done now hooray!) and forgetting that I was out of buffer pages. Whoops. Hopefully no one even missed it. :v

There’s a new vote incentive up now as suggested by chatters in the Slightly Damned chat, where I hang out most of the time when I’m online. Apparently it’s Minecraft related, although I’ve yet to actually play Minecraft so I can’t vouch for that personally. (I did look up an image reference, though!) Enjoy the silly. :B

Click to Vote!

Thanks for reading, and check back Friday for more!

Flyers! Help a webcomic out~

Bugbyte — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:31:46 +0000

There is a new printable flyer on the site you can download and hang up to help spread the word about Messenger. Simply download, print, cut the tabs, and hang it up somewhere for people to see.

Download: (hi-res JPG) (PDF)

Since I’ve started posting pages twice a week I’ve really been trying to get the word out about my comic and build up readership, and one of the best ways to do this is by word of mouth, so if you enjoy Messenger please tell your friends! Voting also helps get the word out! You can vote at TopWebComics, or at a slew of other toplists shown at the very bottom of every page of the site.

Thanks for reading, and your support is appreciated! ♥

Upgrades! New Vote Incentive!

Bugbyte — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:30:36 +0000

Surprise! I had a minor fit of webdesignitis recently and turned the whole site upside-down. I was looking to accomplish a few different goals by doing this, and I think I hit most of them. I was getting really tired of the same dark layout and tried to make something that better reflects the art in the comic itself, which is what it’s all about anyway. I built the new layout using Webcomic’s Archimedes skeleton theme, and it’s the first time I’ve really done a WordPress layout almost entirely from scratch this way. I’m really pleased with the result, and I hope you are, too.

If by chance you do find something that just isn’t working right, please don’t hesitate to let me know in a comment or in this forum thread. I was pretty thorough about bughunting, but there’s always something that slips by.

There’s also a new vote incentive up for now, just a drawing from the 100 themes meme I have not been keeping up with at all.

Please also consider voting for other Hive Comics!

Tricks and Treats

Bugbyte — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:10:58 +0000

This week’s vote incentive is special, because it’s the October wallpaper – and it’s free! Vote to get the link to the download page. This month’s wallpaper features the cast of Messenger dressing up for Halloween as characters from their favorite Hive comics!

Please consider voting for the comics featured as well!

Happy Hive-o-ween! :D

New Chapter Starts!

Bugbyte — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:30:45 +0000

If you missed it, there were two updates yesterday! The last page of Chapter Eight, and the cover for Chapter Nine! If you haven’t guessed already by the cover art, Chapter Nine is going to break out of the routine and focus on someone entirely different – Zavier Kenakobe.

I’m also planning to break away from my own habits and try some new things with the art in this chapter, just to keep things fresh and exciting. If you hadn’t noticed already, I’m going to start posting pages at a larger size, because it’s 2010 and most people have bigger screens these days. (It’s bizarre to think that when I first started working on this 1024 x 748 was HUGE.) The old pages in the archive will stay as they are, because darn it, there are about 200 of them and I don’t feel like resizing and reuploading them all. Sorry!

There is also a new vote incentive this week, featuring the cover art for book 2. It’s still a work in progress and there’s a lot left to go into it, but I thought it could be fun to share for now. :D

(Remember to vote for your favorite Hive Comics, too!)

Not much other news for now. The Story Guide has updated with the conclusion of Chapter Eight, and the Galleries have been slightly reorganized.