[LotF] rant: A Conclusion That's Been A Long Time Coming

Legend of the Four

Hey guys. Long time no see. Work, San Diego wildfires, and life in general have been keeping me away.

I've had a conversation with Reverie recently (She's been with LotF almost since the beginning.)... And I've decided to do something that I've been debating with myself for over a year now.

I think I needed to talk to Rev' to finally come to this. Everyone else I've mentioned it to is a family member or one of friends who are my siblings in all but blood. In other words, biased. Rev' is my friend. In fact, she is one of my oldest and favorite online friends. And I want to remain friends with her. But, unlike everyone else I mentioned this to, Rev' and I met and became friends because I as drawing LotF. We've never met face to face. She's been with the story from the get-go and has a lot invested in it, but in a way completely different from Jenni and I. Jenni and I have a lot invested, but we already know how the story goes. So I needed the kind of opinion on it that only Rev' could give me.

I love Legend of the Four. It's been my web comic baby since July 2001. However, six years later, the story isn't written out in exacts, but I do know the general plot line all the way to the end. I simply don't have the time to update on a regular basis and draw the things I get inspired to do at random. At some point, I lost the drive to finish LotF as a comic.
The story is long, and I finished telling the basics of it in my head a long time ago. Basically, I'm not going to be able to get back to doing more than one page a week at most, and at that rate, I don't know that I'd ever finish the story. It's a daunting concept, and it makes sitting down to draw it page by page even more intimidating. The beginning of the story is a twisted mess, and I can't stand the early art at all.

So I've come to a hard decision. I will be ending LotF. There's 3 pages left in the current chapter that I've already thumb-nailed. I will finish drawing and post them in the next couple of weeks. After that, I will begin the process of finishing telling you guys the rest of the story. It won't be full prose. It will be outlines and sketches, snippets of dialog, and the occasional finished picture (my cover art quality or better). It will probably take me a couple of months to get it all down on digital paper and up. But I will finish telling the basics of the story before I shut LotF down forever.

I will most likely continue drawing random illustrations on my Deviant Art after I finish the story, but I don't want to keep leaving it hanging, and I can't see myself as capable of finishing it in my lifetime at my current rate and method. So this is my solution. I expect to have everything finished before April of next year, probably earlier, but I'm being overly generous given my history, and that I may want to get elaborate with some scenes.

Thanks to all of you for staying with LotF so long, and I'm sorry I won't be able to finish it the way I originally wanted.

I've discussed several times with Jenni re-telling the story as a novel and attempting to get it published. I may still do that at some point. Tell the story right, and have a plan going in. I know I'll probably never stop drawing Derce' and Mainyo completely, but their adventures as a web comic are going to come to an end.

~ Lycorne
ElfGrove Studio @ DA
Legend of the Four