Production of ATC has halted at 16 years, three books, and 652 story pages. The comic is estimated to be 50% complete by page count and approximately 10% complete by total CG assets.

The views and interests of the author at 40 do not align with the views and interests of the author at 23. An attempt to address differences was made with the Mastering Pass in late 2016, at which time it was realized that the project was no longer an expression of the author’s outlook and could not be rebuilt as such without rearchitecting it from scratch.

The decision to end production was not taken lightly, nor was it made in haste. To continue, even without the aforementioned issues, would have necessitated a substantial investment in CG assets – requirements more in line with a film or open-world video game, infeasible for a comic produced by a single individual. In 2017 an extended period of time off was taken to heal and to get a fresh perspective, initially with the intent of figuring out how to continue the project. During that time it was discovered that life without ATC was much more enjoyable than life with ATC – so much so that work on the final version of the website, and this final blog post, were deferred for over a year. Work was scheduled for August of 2018 but thinking about the project at that time resulted in a nervous breakdown that took months to recover from. Wrapping up production is a major step in that recovery.

The skills developed during the production of Among the Chosen may yet improve the author’s income and career prospects, hopefully via a project developed with the intent of interacting with people instead of hiding from them. As many in the audience are fans of the author’s transformation art, future efforts will likely be focused on that subject matter.

Thank you for reading.

Among The Chosen

Production Staff

dmh – Author and artist.

• Text – Script, layouts, editing, type design, lettering.
• 2d Art – Pencils, inks, flat colors, finishing, photography.
• 3d Art – Design and modeling of most assets. Texturing, lighting, and rendering of all assets.
• Website – Design and maintenance of all versions of the website, including Movable Type (2003 – 2013), WordPress (2013 – 2019), and WordPress-generated static HTML (2019 onward).

bdha – Domain owner and original host of the project.

Chris Smith – Provided a number of distinctive textures that are used extensively throughout the comic.

Chris Bodine – Created the 3d models of the Daedalus and Loki from the author’s designs.

ejp – Host after bdha, through 2015.

xeno – Editor through 2015.

Patrons

The author would like to thank all Patreon patrons who’ve continued their pledges through the post-production downtime. Nomikos, #arrakis, thrandrall, DA, Jason Bannister, FallingLeaf, Perrin Rynning, Niemand, Adam O’Donnell, JasonAW3, Michael Mattimoe, Jason Stevens, TheBodine, Shuma-Gorath – your support means a lot!

Special Thanks

The residents of #arrakis and #tildedot – Witnesses to the struggles of the author in the course of production.

Ben Barnett – The reason Val has hand-drawn fishnets instead of a flat pattern fill, longtime supporter and source of high-quality constructive criticism through 2016.

j2 Haws – T-shirt supplier and font of self-worth.

mdxi – Longtime supporter and true believer.

n1ckn4m3 – Gave the author a place to stay during the Mastering Pass.