¡Que viva España!

I'm happy to be able to announce to you the launch of the Spanish version of the Wormworld Saga Online Graphic Novel! The Spanish version is special to me not only because a lot of people all over the world speak spanish but also because my wife is Spanish and now her relatives from Spain can finally enjoy the Wormworld Saga in their mother language. My deep thanks for the preparation of the Spanish version go to my wife and to Jaime Solis!

¡Que la fuerza te acompañe!

Wormworld Saga on Drawn Today Podcast

Today the Drawn Today Blog released its 22nd podcast episode and I had the great pleasure to be invited as a guest to the show. It turned out a very enjoyable chat with Marc Scheff and if you are interested in an over an hour long talk about the Wormworld Saga, illustration and digital art in general  please just follow the above links or download the podcast directly via this link.

Wormworld Saga Fan Artwork - Batch 1

Today I have an extra special treat for you all! I asked my peers at digitalartforum.de to create some fan artwork for the Wormworld Saga and I'm totally in awe over the great artworks they turned in so far. My favorite piece of this first batch of fan artwork goes directly into the credits but of course I want to show you ALL of the fantastic digital illustrations that were painted by some of the top talents of Germany's biggest digital art community. Here you go! (click images to enlarge!)

 by Arne S. Reismueller

by Artur Fast

by Dirk Wachsmuth

by Florian Biege

by Jakob Eirich

by Maximilian Degen

My heartfelt thanks to the artists!

I have also finally implemented all the donators and print customers into the credits. Sorry that it took me some time!

From Russia With Love

I'm very happy to announce today the release of the Russian version of the Wormworld Saga! I'm really happy about this translation because Russia is such a huge country and the Wormworld Saga has only received like 500 reads from it yet. I hope that with this excellent translation the figure will go up a bit!

I have to thank Michail Egorov for his massive effort. Michail did not only provide the translation for the word balloons but he painstakingly retouched all background artwork in which type of any sort is visible. He really did a great job and I hope the readers from Russia will enjoy this version.

And I also want to thank my dear friend Lilia Koité, who did some additional proofreading on the translation although she's a busy mom!

A Quarter Million Reads! That's right!

Today I have the pleasure to announce the fact, that the first chapter of the Wormworld Saga was read 250.000 times. It has been online for 26 days now and to reach this number of readings in that timeframe is a huge success in my eyes. I have prepared a top 10 of the countries, the readers came from:

Just to make things clear: I'm talking about 250K reads instad of readers because I know that a lot of people might have read the first chapter two or three times. And everytime a reader shows the first chapter to a friend and loads it up, that counts as a read. However, for me the number of reads is a good metric because I know that every read causes awareness af some sort and if someone reads the Wormworld Saga 5 times I consider him to be a big fan. And a big fan counts for 5 casual readers anyway. ;)

So, what we can see is, that the U.S. clearely leads the top 10 which I very much expected to happen. The launch of the Wormworld Saga was clearly aimed at English speaking countries and it's also no wonder to find Canada and the UK on top of the list. The high position of Germany surprises me a bit but on the other hand there were some newspaper articles and also a radio program promoting the project here so that will most likely have caused the awareness of the Wormworld Saga in Germany.

And that leads me directly to another announcement! From now on, the Wormworld Saga Online Graphic Novel is also available in a German translation! You simply access it from the Wormworld Saga Homepage

My goal for the next months is to see more dark green spots on that world map. Therefore I'm currently working on providing you the translations that fans of the project are already working on. Currently there are 7 languages in the works. If you also want to contribute to the project by translating the Wormworld Saga into your mother language, please have a look at the contribution page on wormworldsaga.com and use the contact adress provided there.

The next translation will go online on Friday. It's a cool one!

Thank you, Scott McCloud!

And not only for your flattering blog post. I just checked my copy of 'Understanding Comics' to make sure that it really was 16 years ago, when I started to draw my first comics and sold them on the schoolyard and your fantastic book about the art and craft of making comics led me the way. Your Zot! Online Comics inspired me to use the infinite canvas for The Wormworld Saga and reading 'Reinventing Comics' acquainted me with the idea, to turn to the internet on the search for readers and not to publishers in the first place.

For all that: thank you!

Lucas Lieske Costas * 10th January 2011

After the last two weeks and especially that last night I don't know how to even start to describe my feelings to you. Let's just put it that way: I'm tired! :)

I hereby appologize in advance for delays in print orders, donation processing and mail response that may or may not occur during the next couple of weeks. At least you know who's to blame.

Welcome Geek Dads! Print Shop's online!

Today, the Wormworld Saga Online Graphic Novel is featured on the Geed Dad Blog  on Wired.com. I welcome all new readers that found their way to the Wormworld Saga from over there. I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Since on weekends there is less traffic, my inbox has finally calmed down a bit and I had time to finish the print shop. It's now online and features a range of artworks of which some are available for the very first time.

Besides all time favorites like 'The Journey Begins' and 'Trapped!' you will find a first time edition of 'Rise Of The Firelord' and 'Welcome To The Wormworld'. Also, I have picked 15 different panel artworks of which you can buy 20x15cm prints with rounded corners. All items in the shop are hand signed and bear the Wormseal stamp that I've posted about a few months ago.

I hope some of you find what they are looking for in the print shop and remember: purchasing a print entitles the byer to be listed in the credits. And because the prices for the prints are mostly higher then the average donation amount, your name will most likely end up pretty high in the credits.

Ok, I'm bracing for the next week. I gave some interviews and the Wormworld Saga will be featured on several websites. That should bring in some more new readers. We're approaching 200.000 readers right now and I'm really curious how fast this milestone will be reached.

150.000 reads - No Words!

I was genuinely shocked this morning when I checked Google Analytics. Yesterday I had mentally prepared for announcing the 100.000th read at the weekend. The numbers were pointing into that direction and I was utterly amazed by the thought that within two weeks, so many people would have read the first chapter. Also, 100.000 was like the "magic number" for me. That was the number of readers I dreamed of reaching over the whole YEAR when I launched the website.

This morning, the number of reads had again doubled in total over night and is now 150.000. I really have no words right at the moment to express you how much I appreciate all this attention Jonas and his adventure receives from you. Seriously, no words!

I have processed the first batch of donations from you so there are a lot of new names listed in the credits now. Thank you all for your generosity! The money opens up brand new perspectives for me and I will make sure to invest it in ways to speed up the creation of the Wormworld Saga.

I came up with the idea, to post a little treat for you and hereby I announce that every 100 contributions (donations and print purchases) a selected fan artwork will be displayed in the credits. The first image is already online and it was created by the super talented Jana Schirmer. Go check it out! Here's a little teaser:

Thanks to Jana for this wonderful artwork and thanks to you all for your support, your comments and all the love you express towards the Wormworld Saga!

60.000 Readers - Utter Amazement!

It looks like I have the pleasure to greet a lot of new readers! Yesterday more people read the first chapter than on all previous days together. I cannot tell you how overwhelming this is for me. I was buried under an avalanche of mails and I directly want to appologize to all donators that it will take me some days until I can process all your mails and put your names into the credits. Also I want to appologize to those of you who took the time to send me an email that I didn't replyto. I read them all and I'm very thankful for your feedback. It really makes me happy to learn about all your experiences with the first chapter and I'm immensly motivated to keep up to your expectations for the next chapter.

The launch of the prints shop will most likely be delayed into the next week. I really have to get organized in order to deal with this new situation and I guess having to deal with print orders right now would completely derail me.

Thank you all for your outstanding support!

Over 25.000 reads - You are awesome!

I'd like to say hello to all the new readers that were sent by boingboing. I hope that you enjoy what you found! I also want to thank Sarah Ellerton of The Phoenix Requiem for featuring the Wormworld Saga several days on her splashpage and putting the link into her favorites. It means a lot to me because 'The Phoenix Requiem' is one of my favorite webcomics out there. I also want to thank all the people who subscribed to this blog, the Wormworld Saga Facebook Fanpage and to my Twitter account. It is very important for me to know that I can reach you when new things are coming up. And thanks a TON to all the people who are spreading the word! Today, the Wormworld Saga reached 1000 likes on Facebook! And last but not least a heartfelt thank you to all who took the time to write a comment. It makes me so happy to learn about your reception of the first chapter. I almost feel guilty that I can't give you the second chapter right away. I swear I will make it worth the wait!