Most of this art is terrible, and half the story and colors depicted here have been retconned and changed since they originally released, but it is fun to look back and see the progress and see how far I've come. So I hope to any aspiring individuals out there that you find some inspiration in this. - H.M. Johnson

Season 1

Episode 1 - Art (OLD WEBSITE)

I've always been telling stories, for as long as I can remember. I was specifically in the first grade when I came up with David Echoe, though I can track his origins through stickman form even further back. As a young reader I was a big fan of going to my local thrift store and being able to find lots of books for cheap. Coincidentally enough, I would consistently find Nancy Drew/ Hardy Boys (the blue and yellow collectors versions) books, and was a big fan of the size and style of the books.

Of course, I didn't know that much about indie publishing, and at that time, Print-On-Demand wasn't as accesible as it is today. So, my solution was to create a website where I could post the episodes one at a time, which also gave me freedom to take my time, and add my artistic flare. 

Now, you might be wondering why David is dressed in red... The truthful answer is that I remember one day thinking to myself, "Huh, do blue and yellow go together? I'm not sure that they do... what colors DO go together? Red and yellow... I guess." That's how that happened. 

David was always wearing a blue hat as a stickman, it was just that as I developed my skills and drew characters with more detail I began to question a lot of my, "childish" notions. Don't worry, I did eventually fix it.

EPISODE 2 - ART (OLD WEBSITE)

EPISODE 3 - ART (OLD WEBSITE)

EPISODE 4 - ART (OLD WEBSITE) 

EPISODE 5 - ART (OLD WEBSITE) 

EPISODE 6 - ART (OLD WEBSITE)

EPISODE 7 - ART (OLD WEBSITE)

Episode 8 - ART (OLD WEBSITE)

Season 2

EPISODE 1 - ART (OLD WEBSITE)

Character Profiles 2.0

You know, I really thought I did something here. Lol.

Now, creating the original episodes took about a year, with season two being set to release at the start of the new year. The problem I had, a lack of audience not withstanding, is that I had no good way to monetize my work. At the time, my website software didn't have the option to purchase online content. At least, not in the way that I really wanted.

I also noticed that in regards to serial webnovels, most of them were hosted on a larger site, to draw traffic. Think, Tapas, or Wattpad. They had webnovels by the thousands, many of them popular, and they did have the ability to generate an audience, and therefore an income. 

I tried my best to write stories for these host sites, but never really enjoyed the experience. (This is where the North Kingdom came from.) I also noticed that for the most part, if you weren't writing edgy romance stories, then you weren't really getting a consistent or sizeable following. 

So, I decided to take the episodes that I had, improve them, and then release them on Amazon as an ebook. 

Episode 1 (Again)

So, my first publication on Amazon, was Episode 1, as an ebook. The happiness of having created something, and finally publishing it, "officially," was great. However, the more I analyzed it, the more I just wasn't satisfied with my product. I could do better. I just didn't know how. So I spent a couple of years putting all of my episodes into one big book. I think in total after all the rewrites and additions, the book was a whopping 96,000 words altogether.

But while I felt my writing had improved, I still wasn't satisfied. Nor did I think that my stories were meant to be one big grandiose epic. I always loved the idea of the Nancy Drew/ Hardy Boys style serials. So after years of editing the episodes into one big story, I then decided to focus on telling them again in the originally intended way.

OLD WEBSITE ART

Trying To Get Better

A lot of this art was trying to develop my skills, and bring my characters to life in the best, most authentic way possible. I was also searching for a more consistent style. You can see I stuck with a similar style for a few pictures at a time. Most of this was for my Instagram page!

Having put all of the episodes together was actually really helpful in a lot of ways. It really helped me see the big picture and the interwoven subplots within. It also forced me to try and come up with a single unifying title for my story, which was, "The Broken World."

This was my original art for The Broken World, that I then sent off to an artist on Instagram. I wanted something interesting, and eventually wanted something that was bold and stood out. So I designed the off tilt bold title. Still very proud of this art. 

Where We Are Now

The story isn't over yet. I'll keep updating, because one day I hope to look at where I am now, and see that I've gotten WAAAYYY better. Thanks for checking this out. :)