About
Hey there! Thank you for visiting this website, and I hope my comic Ephemeris can bring joy and wonder for many years to come. On this page you can learn about me, my project, and my process.
What is this about?
"Ephemeris" is a project originating from my daydream. This story has been with me for a long time (~7 years), and it is extremely dear to me. It feels as if I have grown up in this second world, and the existence of this daydream has supported me through various ups and downs. Through initiating this project, I hope that I can turn this usually personal experience into a productive outlet.
"Ephemeris" is going to be a long story. It spans eons, and covers the lives and deaths of numerous characters, akin to a saga. All artwork is original and painstakingly created, although I cannot dedicate my full being to it, as I attend school full time. I am primarily inspired by various legendary mangakas, such as Kentaro Miura's Berserk, Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond, and Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix.
The website on which my manga is hosted is also hand-coded by myself (from HTML, JS and CSS), although I am still a beginner to website development. As such, there are bound to be bugs and less effective portions of the site. Do inform me if there are any mismanaged parts of the website. I am aware that there any many bugs that need to be patched and features that should be added.
Of course, I hope that my manga will turn out well and will eventually gain traction. For now, I am happy enough to share with you guys.
How can you support Ephemeris?
The reach of Ephemeris is still growing, and so this section will likely be continually updated as opportunities arise.
Apart from this website, you can read serialisations of Ephemeris on DankHam, and Medibang. Currently Ephemeris is participating in the 2021 Kyoto International Manga Anime Contest, so please support it!
If enough interest is initiated I may open a kickstarter. For now, you can buy prints of some of my best illustrations via Etsy, or commission me, for which the prices are posted here.
If you are itching for more content, go check out the dedicated subreddit r/Ephemeris and my Youtube Channel HraefnArts, where I'll be posting teasers, speedpaints, animations, and tutorials!
FAQ
About the Author
I am a full-time student based in Australia, amateur artist, aspiring mangaka, and dreamer. I have interests in STEM, particularly botany/ecology/zoology.
My mascot characters are the turtle and raven. HraefnArts is my artist penname whilst Sir Turtle is my mangaka penname.
In creating "Ephemeris" I am most inspired by the work done by Japanese mangakas. I grew up reading manga including Doraemon, Black Jack, Ore wa Teppei, and Inuyasha, and have always admired the tenacity that goes into creating manga with a smaller team. To me, traditional manga conveys a feeling of "rawness" and "emotion" hardly portrayed through other media, a feeling I would like to emulate.
My favourite three manga are Kentaro Miura's legendary Berserk, Osamu Tezuka's unfinished masterpiece Phoenix, and Naoki Urasawa's gripping tale Monster.
Miura-sensei's Berserk is a masterclass in character development, setup and return, page layout, and detailing, while Tezuka-sensei's Phoenix is the culmination of years of experience with creativity, plot, minimalistic page composition, and philosophy. Monster is an incredible tale focusing on human experiences and interactions on a smaller scale. I draw from all three works in several different ways, which can hopefully be seen in my execution of "Ephemeris".
About the Production
Ideally there will be one chapter published per month, pertaining to quality standards of monthly serialised manga. However, as I am a self-published and a full-time student, please allow for some variation surrounding the publishing schedule, especially during the preliminary stages of Ephemeris.
I plan to gather a backlog of 3-4 chapters before expanding to higher-traffic comic hosting websites like Tapas and Webtoon. Meanwhile, I will continue promoting the comic through social media and hosting it on this website.
Chapters will be released monthly with 30-50 pages per chapter. Eventually, approximately 6-8 chapters will be bundled and released together as a volume.
I am currently illustrating Ephemeris using Clip Studio Paint EX. The previous version was drawn using Krita.
The website is coded using native html, js, and css in the Visual Studio Code environment.
About the Story
The pacing may seem slow now while chapters are being released monthly, but the intention is to follow a similar pacing to monthly manga like Berserk or Vinland Saga. When readers read large chunks of Ephemeris in one sitting, the pacing will seem natural in comparison.
Furthermore, Ephemeris is a long-form story and great care needs to be taken to establish all the key themes, characters, and events. I would hate to rush the story prematurely and risk future development.
As hinted in Chapter 1, there will indeed be a variety of characters introduced throughout the story. Please be patient while the world is being established, but there are many adventures and journeys ahead.