The War of Winds is an epic fantasy/sci-fi story that
spans in total, about 3000 years. The current story featured
by this site details the end of the war between the
Four Winds, hence the title.
This work is available both as an online graphic novel (webcomic)
but its original form is a written novel. The first
book of a planned series is complete at 24 chapters, while
the comic is barely into chapter seven. I am also planning
several prequels to this story, as well as several sidestories.
Comics are uploaded on Mondays, usually with something extra
on Wednesdays, for more information, read the Site Features
section.
Update notices for The War of Winds may be found at the following
places: Online
Comics, TWCL,
Piperka,
and also the new RSS feed.
The Four Winds are not a legend as the people have come to believe.
Created by the gods for the sole purpose of protecting the land and
people, even the peace they brought to the First Days could not last.
After all, peace is only that small interlude between wars, and there
has always been war. Just ask the gods.
The adventure begins in the midst of the battle that exiles the Wolf,
the North Wind-the only one of the Four whose power and strength rivals
that of his brother, the East. With the Wolf gone, the Dragon, the East
Wind, is free to put his own plan in motion, and bring upon the second
rising of his Empire that the North had crushed a millennium ago.
The few who survive the battle are doomed to be drawn back into the
fighting, even if the world has forgotten how it all began. Tired of
dodging demons, bounty hunters and assassins sent by the East, they
have no choice but to fight back, but quickly find out neither humans,
nor the more powerful race of melded man and beast called the Ayenroki,
have a chance of surviving with their own power. The only way is to
find the fourth Guardian, the North Wind, and once again even the playing
field. Even stalemate is better than defeat.
Features
There are currently 3 features updating on this site. The
schedules are as follows:
The War of Winds: Monday
Cast Q/A: Wednesday
Not Alone: Thursday (alternates monthly with Cast Q/A)
The Written Story: (No longer public except for excerpts)
The War of Winds:
The War of Winds was first seen online on April 26, 2004.
The first pages were horrible. Truly horrible. Seriously. Many have
since been redone, and will continue to be redone as I get to them.
This story has currently has just entered its fourth year online with
more than 250 pages.
The comic is updated in full-color RGB mode in high-quality jpeg
format. While loading time may be slower, I refuse to sacrifice quality
for the sake of speed (though I do apologize to you dial-up users).
This comic is and never was meant for print. Pages are not kept to
any specific size and style changes frequently. I have a webcomic,
not a print comic. I like to take advantage of that fact.
Each comic page generally takes 12-20 hours to complete, with 2-4
hours spent sketching, 4 hour inking, and 4-6 hours coloring. There
is a short and poorly-fashioned tutorial on how I once colored n'
stuff, once upon a time, here. As of
March '08, I bought a graphics tablet (6x11 Wacom Intuos) and am working
on the transition to a truly digital creation. A new tutorial based
on a recent wallpaper can be found here.
There is also a comic guide that summarizes each chapter in a pseudo-comic
form, available here. Information about
the world in which this comic takes place can be found here.
Cast Q/A
This feature was first introduced in 2006. I forget when exactly,
but it was a successful attempt to foster audience involvement. One
question is answered per week as a mini-comic, usually in a comical
manner, though some have been rather serious. There are currently
over 30 Cast Q/A comics available in the Q/A archive.
Not Alone
Not Alone is a side-comic that updates on Thursdays on alternating
months. For example, it updates in October, and then again in Decemeber,
but not in November. It started August 2008.
The story follows a young girl named "Relan," as she comes
to grips with visions of faraway places and the" monsters"
that live there. You can find Not Alone here.
The Novel
It has always been my goal and dream to one day see The War of
Winds published as a novel—never as a graphic novel. I originally
started the comic as part of a project to teach myself to write better,
because if I could visualize it, if I could see how the characters
interacted, I hoped it would help me. I think it has. Unfortunately,
it has also made my rather odd sense of humor even worse...And delayed
me finishing the novel, because making webcomics is very addicting.
Seriously.
Currently, The War of Winds is going through a serious editing
process. It is a complete work at 24 chapters and 500-something pages,
but with multiple locations and characters, there are 66 chapter installments,
with multiple parts per chapter. However, the story is NO LONGER public!
If you want to read it, please register at the forum to view the private
areas. If you don't want to do that, you're going to have to wait
for the comic, or until it's on the shelf at the bookstore.
Who is KEZ?
Ahh,
the elusive, mysterious KEZ. Firstly, I know you're asking—initials?
No. I sign work in all caps. Normally, it's regular 'ol
Kez, which is a nickname I chose for myself. As for the
obligatory information-- I am female and looking for a
job. I SHOULD be attending med school in fall '09, and
I graduated with a biological sciences degree in May '08.
I also enjoy the martial arts very much, and practice
Goshen Jiutsu, Seven Star Mantis Kung Fu and Pekiti Tirsia.
I'm a big fan of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis,
and seriously wish RDA hadn't skipped out of SG-1, but
I'm an understanding person and won't kill anything over
it. Though now that SG-1 has ended (please tell me I'm
dreaming), I may go crazy...I'm already insane, but I
may go crazy.
Prince of Persia 2 is my most favorite game because it
has the best fighting EVER, and...lemme see. What else?
I also ramble a lot about things important only to myself,
such as how great my dog is. His greatness beats your
dog up anyday.
Thesis? For real?
The War of Winds was my senior honors (creative)
thesis for my undergraduate degree. Specifically, the
thesis dealt with the translation of the written work
into a graphic format specifically for digital viewing,
and why I chose that medium. I strenuously believe there
are not nearly enough webcomics out there that take full
advantage of the digital format and rather, conform to
print requirements. The digital medium is just that--a
medium. This comic was never meant to appear printed on
paper. I do not conform to proper dimensions, resolution,
or colors. I take advantage of "infinite" canvas
and negative space--I absolutely REFUSE to squish hard-won
panels onto small pages, to cut out backgrounds,or to
script to a pre-determined amount of pages.
The digital format is incredibly freeing. My pages can
take any shape, and size. With advances in internet connection
speeds, I can post larger file sizes. With advances in
art software, there is so much available to explore--especially
interactive features and animations. What is possible
and how it's done, or how I go about doing it--that's
my thesis. And as a biology/pre-med major, I'm stoked
about it. Of course, this means instead of studying metastasis
or biochemistry, I am often found fiddling around with
CSS and Photoshop.
So, please think of this site as a gallery for my work--not
as a one-stop shop for a 10-second viewing pleasure on
update days. I'm going to come right out and say it: this
site is about me, my work, my time, my likes. I hope that
those of you reading this who do make a webcomic understand,
and those who don't, that you try and think about the
time and dedication that goes into a project like this.
Those of you who complain about late updates, artist's
rants, begging for donations, those who never ever leave
any message about visiting for encouragement, I urge you
to think about and appreciate the many webcomic artists
out there who entertain you. Because this is real, hard,
work, and most of us never see any money out of it--let
alone any encouragement from those who visit. Please remember
that PEOPLE, not invisible robots, make webcomics. Now
go thither and multiply.
(anyone interested in reading my 83-page thesis may feel
free to email me. Open source, FTW!)
Commissions:
Please visit my new studio site, here,
for quotes and information.
Contact
Email KEZ at warofwinds(at symbol)gmail.com or contact via
AIM "kezhound;" via MSN "kezkay(at symbol)hotmail.com;"
via forum, "KEZ."
I'm a busy kinda person, so, regardless of how mean this
may sound, DO NOT contact me to chit chat. I'm not good at
it. I may just ignore you because I don't have the polite
words to tell you to scram. I have too many projects to complete
in a lifetime,I take 3 martial arts styles and am often completing
website/art commissions. When I'm not doing those things,
I am molding the impression of my backside into an EXTREMELY
comfortable couch, because my brain is often on "overload"
setting. I WILL ignore you to play with my dog.
If you want me to make a tutorial on something, go ahead and send
an email, and I'll get to it when I can. Fan letters make me extremely
happy. Hate mail will be posted on the site publicly so that people
will diss you. At least, that's the plan. Who knows? They may agree
with you.
Link exchanges are A-OK with me, but I will not link X-rated
sites.
Ahh,
the elusive, mysterious KEZ. Firstly, I know you're asking—initials?
No. I sign work in all caps. Normally, it's regular 'ol
Kez, which is a nickname I chose for myself. As for the
obligatory information-- I am female and looking for a
job. I SHOULD be attending med school in fall '09, and
I graduated with a biological sciences degree in May '08.
