#guardiancomic

Hey guys! We don’t blog as often as we should, but today we felt the need for a couple of reasons:

First and foremost – thank you for reading GUARDIAN OF THE GATES. If you’re new to our story, welcome, and hope you stay! And if you’ve been reading us for a while, man, you have no idea how that makes us feel. Warm and awesome and gooey, deep down inside. Thank you. Which brings us to…

Second – if you’re a newbie, the grizzled vets can attest: if you’re looking for a linear, easy-to-follow-on-autopilot story requiring little back-reading… well, GOTG isn’t it. The story we wrote and love is layered and rich, and that’s the story we want to bring you.

We knew, given our online publication schedule, that this could bite us. We would lose some people. But we counted on more folks finding GOTG and liking it enough to go with our twists and turns, and read back to get the full experience.

Today’s page is a great example: Kay’s journey – and the message he carries – is the result of the gruesome Attack of the Black Blades back in Chapter 1.

See? You want to read back already.

Because GOTG isn’t just about Nick’s adventures alongside March and Verrigo. It’s also about Kay’s education and self-discovery. And Victor and Helena’s love and sacrifice. And the Council’s duty. And, yeah – even Lucan and Orwain’s knack for being in exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.

That being said, we’re not oblivious to the challenges of reading a story like ours in the way we’re putting it out, and we’ll do our best to help bridge the gaps. But if something ever seems out of left field, it’s a good bet the missing piece is in a previous chapter, waiting to be discovered.

Believe us – if we could post more pages more often, we would. That’s the dream, and a constant source of angst for your humble creators. Until then, we’re grateful for the time you spend with our little burgeoning weekly epic – it’s only the beginning, and we promise you great things to come!

Thanks,

Walt & Mike

Hi guys and gals,

First of all, thanks. If you’re reading this, odds are you’re one of the many folks who’ve let GUARDIAN OF THE GATES into your lives, and that means a whole hell of a lot to us.

It’s crazy to think that we’ve been working on GUARDIAN for more than two years now – the time has flown, probably because we’ve been having so much fun. Sure, there have been long nights and tight deadlines, technical difficulties and bouts of writer’s block, learning curves and growing pains. But after looking back at these first three issues, at more than 70 pages of work, we’ve never been more excited about our story and all the awesomeness yet to come.

Fun fact: GUARDIAN actually started off as a pitch for an animated series. We wrote character bios, drew up designs, plotted out a few seasons’ worth of story and began exploring ways to get our ideas in front of the right people. We quickly realized that we had like a 1% chance of getting a meeting with a Nickelodeon or Disney exec; but we also realized there was a 100% chance that we could get our story out there, on our terms, exactly like we wanted.

And so GUARDIAN OF THE GATES, the comic, was born. We introduced the world to Nick Finch, a kid who never backs down from a fight, especially those he can’t possibly win; James March, a mysterious stranger who protects Nick for reasons he hasn’t yet made clear, maybe even to himself; and Verrigo, a seasoned swindler whose moral compass is guided by gut and gold, to varying degrees.

Their paths are now joined, for better or for worse; their journey treacherous, with no guarantee of safe return. As the architects of their adventures, we’re on board to the end –as their readers, we hope you will be too.

Thanks again, and watch this space – we plan to be a lot better at staying in touch with you guys, both here and on Twitter, FB, etc. And we definitely welcome your thoughts and feedback – feel free to hit us up here or there.

  Onward and upwards,

Walt and Mike