Page 200 - The ending, The beginning

And that's all she wrote. For this story.

I thought a lot about the 0. Fool card when I was making this page. The openness and willingness to explore, to leap into the unknown, that the Fool represents and that Grey has learned. The infinite possibilities of the 0, which is both known and unknown, nothing and infinite, at the same time.

People have asked me how I feel about finishing SoG, and it is a strange experience. I am neither happy nor sad about being done with the project. For the first time in my life, something is finishing at a time when I feel that it is the right time. This is a chapter in my life, one that I enjoyed and loved, but its time is over. I cannot explain how it feels, other than "right". I'm ready for a new chapter in my life, and I am grateful to SoG for showing me the way this far. I honestly don't know if I would have lived this long without it. These characters have shown ME the way, the story taught ME things about myself that I never knew. I hope that, in some small way, it may have helped others on their own journeys. I know that it has helped me on mine.

My best regards to all of you. Let's see what these new chapters have in store!

-Robin

Page 199 - Perspectives

While I hate being late, I'm almost glad my computer crashed. I was in a crappy mood the day I was coloring this originally, and as a result the colors on it were just as bad as my mood. After my stunned bout of swearing passed last night, I had time to actually think about how I wanted this page to turn out, and I think it benefited from it. I like the idea of their worlds still remaining in grey tones instead of exploding into colors. Rather, color spreads slowly from them, enriching the lives of the people they're around. I think that's how life often is, when you meet someone who is just...okay with themselves and the world. They're rarer than I'd like, but the ones I have met almost do seem more colorful and vibrant than the rest of the world. Little by little, that energy just rubs off, until you find yourself carrying a little bit of that light with you, and giving it to others.

One day, I hope I can be that kind of person for others.

Page 199 Delayed a Day

My computer is playing the "Let's crash and corrupt your files!" game with me.

I hate this game.

To make a frustrating story short, my computer just took the past two hours of work with it in its latest bout of failure, and I have work in the morning. As such, page 199 will be delayed. I hope to have it up tomorrow night, but my week tends to get unusually crazy after Tuesday, so it may be as late as Thursday.

Wretched technology.

I can at least update the vote incentive (currently updating every Wednesday and Friday) so you can have a gander at that in the meantime.

EDIT: OOOOOR my internet connection could develop a cold (AGAIN) and prevent me from even loading files. WTF DID I DO TO YOU, WOLRD???

Page 198 - A couple cold ones

Because after a hard day's work in a whacked out dream-scape of your deepest unconscious, sometimes you just got to kick back with a cold one.

Page 197 - Remember to visit

I thought of my parents making this page. Remembering to visit is something I get reminded of quite often too.

In other news, Project Minotaur is now OPEN FOR AUDITIONS! Please check it out if you haven't already! Just click on any of the banners for it above.

Page 196 - Things to Remember

I'm really happy with how quickly and how well this page came together. The face and shadows I'm particularly happy with.

ARRRG!

The page is done, but every time I try to FTP it I cannot get it to transfer. I don't know if it's something wrong with the program, the server, my internet connection, or just the %$*& world is out to get me today. I've sent the file to my work email and I'll try tomorrow morning to upload from there. In the meantime, I'm posting today's page to the Gallery (see link on the right of where the comic should be) until I can get the internet to stop being a jerk.

GONE FISHIN' - In Hawaii

I will be away from all internet from January 9th through the 17th. As such, I will not be able to reply to notes or questions during this time. Nor, obviously, to update. I'm sorry things have been so on-and-off the past few weeks. The holidays are killin' me. In a good-for-me, bad-for-my-projects kind of way.

SoG will update again on the 19th/20th, depending on your time zone.

Page 194 - Thank you, for everything

In a lot of ways, this page is also a thank you from me to all of you, my faithful readers. As many of you have guessed by now, Shades of Grey is finally reaching the ending I planned for it over seven years ago. We have only a few final loose ends to tie up and the story will be over.

However, it will NOT be the end of my involvement in comics. I have three projects in the works right now, two of which are new comics stories and one that is an Original Character Tournament (OCT), just released at the start of this month. Which brings me to the focus of this post.

As some of you may know, for the past several months I have been participating in an OCT called Oberon’s Garden. While I expected it to be fun and challenging, there was another element that I did not anticipate. That element was the seemingly-spontaneous birth of a micro-community, from which I have made real flesh-and-blood friends. It was this element, more than anything else, that made me want to start my own OCT project.

Now I have released Project Minotaur, an OCT set in Greek myth with a scifi twist. To put it in a phrase, it’s “godpunk”. While I want this to be a fun and challenging opportunity, I also want to help foster a community that values the same thing I do: Quality storytelling. I want this event to serve as a vehicle to support storytellers, no matter what medium they use, and help them grow. I want Project Minotaur to raise people up to start stories of their own, that focus on character depth and creativity rather than fancy art to cover a lack of substance.

So that is my hope, but it is one that I can’t realize alone. I need your help.

All told, my corner of the internet is a small one. At my latest estimation, there are about a thousand of you, and while that seems like a lot to me, I know it is relatively little in the eyes of the internet. However, if each one of you posted a link to Project Minotaur in your blog, your facebook account, your favorite forum, your website, or even just told a friend, the potential impact this event could have increases exponentially. I have made codes available for you above this box. All you have to do is copy and paste the HTML.

I don’t generally ask much of you, but I have poured a lot of work and love into this project and I need your help, support, and participation if it’s going to succeed.

Please, help me make this event something great.

Sincerely,

Robin Dempsey