On Wednesday, June 21st, Illustrator Of Fantasies' first webcomic serials will go live on the IOF website. An ambitious collection of four serials will be posted in full-page weekly installments on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Blackbirds is the leading flagship title and follows the Mordanas, a family of sorcerers with a powerful heritage that dates back to the establishing of the ternathe people and the founding of the Tidal islands. When elder brother Europa loses his long-time boyfriend in a flash of magical light, the whole family must contend with the breaking of an ancient oath that sealed away all magic from the world. The three siblings must come to terms with their magical heritage as the Grand Ancestors return to the world. New pages post on Tuesdays.
Hedge Kingdom is the second IOF title and is a western meets Fey-world adventure story. In the untamed wilds, the formerly enslaved and other social outcasts make their way to the White House, a refuge at the edge of civilzation along the road to liberation that is run by a pair of witch sisters. When the sisters disappear after a violent attack by the local sheriff, the residents of the White House fall into the Ancestral and must find a way home to a world that despises them. New pages post on Tuesdays.
In Dragoon, a retired soldier leads his son, a researcher, and a mysterious stranger into the mountains on a search for an ancient artifact before an off-world warrior finds it first. Along the way, the group will learn about themselves, each other, and the power of this artifact and just what its significance means for the world and their corner of the universe. New pages post on Thursdays.
In Black Mercury, barbaric factions vie for control of resources and their regions as warlords claim territory. A powerful faction of wizards has access to an ancient power that could end all their current conflicts. But to do that, one of their senior enchanters must recover one of their enslaved who mysteriously vanished before their castle was attacked by rebel forces. New pages post on Thursdays
The first scenes of each story, each the first six pages of each run, will be available free to read to all visitors of the IOF website, and will serve as the proper onboarding point for new readers. After the first scene is completed, future updates will only be available to series subscribers at a rate of $2 per month. Given an update cadence of one page every week, that is 50-cents per week, and that subscription can be cancelled at any time. There will be no Patreon or other platform posts of comics pages at this time.
On Wednesday night at 7p EST, Celestian will live-stream the page reveals of the serials, and work on related art for each one that will make their way into each story's IOF gallery on the website. There is also a printed edition of each story planned for 2024 summer release that will cover the first three chapters of each story.