Glad to have you on board! Your first update looks great!

When you have time, why not tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your work?

Again, Welcome Aboard!

I concur. Very exciting first update and good visuals. Welcome aboard our insane little train here as well.

Indeed.

You're off to a grand start! Solid storytelling and a very nice visual style. Great action and effects.

Looking forward to the next installment!

You've got a fine use for visual effects Billy, was that a winchester sixgun that lassie had in her hand ? She's a fine shot !

Many thanx for the warm welcome and kind comments, folks - this place already feels like my spritual home!! I'm working away on episode 3 at the moment and once that's done I'll have given myself a buffer zone (trying to keep 2 episodes ahead of publication) and I'll write up a profile of myself and work to date although if you are very keen you might try www.exastris.co.uk which is another project I'm working on. DON'T download any issues yet, however as we're working on some alterations before we go fully live.
Regarding Saffyre's hand gun, I don't want to give too much away but the gun - as with many other things in this strip - is not quite what it seems to be.
I'll pop up a preview of issue 2's cover shortly.
Thanks again!

It looks like a great project and you are that 3D artist. I was very fascinated with the Nasa links and am blown away by how hard it is to visit our neighboring solar system with current technology. The fastest space rocket can go 37,000 MPH and it would take 88,000 years to get to the next sun with 8000 tanker fuel trucks following behind. We are a long way away from the star trek fantasy and beam us up Scottie! I like your story about taking the best 100,000 citizens and it taking them on the 200 year trip of a lifetime.
Five or six generations of people would experience no other life than traveling aboard an interstellar spacecraft. That wouldn't be so bad if they had hi tech computers they could amuse themselves and perhaps fill in time being comics creators during their very long flight. Maybe they should be like the south west airline company that got into trouble with hostess' wearing too shorter skirts. LOL! (Extra entertainment)

There was a sci-fi novel written on that theme.[I can't remember the title nor the author's name, unfortunately.] For most of the book, we follow the several generations of the original crew's descendents; revolutions, religious tyrannies, etc. as they forget their original purpose.

The ironical ending is this: when the ship finally arrives at Alpha Centauri they find that during the intervening centuries, scientists back on Earth have developed a warp drive, and have already colonized Alpha Centauri!

-Mick

The other concept is that you not let your people know at all that they are on a ship ala the anime classic Megazone 23 where the entire city of Tokyo is simulated on a ship (people who travel "outside" of the city are actually put in a hypnotic/VR state so they won't realize they can't leave...one of the reasons this anime first piqued my interest). Of course that implies levels of technology we couldn't even to dream of.

Hi Guys
What Macrolas said was similar feel to 'The Island' with that fine Scottish actor, Ewan MacGregor. Most never realized that there was another world outside the only world they knew.
What Mick was saying about warpdrive, this might be the only way the folks from the future will be able to travel the huge distances. When a ship passes through a black hole they can go on to the next galaxy in a few minutes, like Captain Kirk and Spock. The downside would be that it would be hard to control because you don't know where you will come out the other side. It's worth taking the chance because you save a couple of hundred years, and some fuel. The black hole is not just pure fantasy, scientists believe they exist and it might be the only way we'll be able to get around galaxies.
Otherwise we better start looking after planet earth. According to Nasa, if the earth's ozone further depletes we'll eventually get atmosphere flip and then get solar winds similar to Mars. Would you like to live on Mars, 150C below in winter, 150+ in summer. No thanks!! That's why the enterprise doesn't bother with local stuff.

I have to say that I was aware that we were treading on themes which had been explored and evolved far better than I could ever do in a simple strip cartoon but the true inspiration for the strip lies in my love of the old Jeff Hawke/Lance MacLane strips by Syd Jordan which were published daily in the UK from the '50's to the early '80's and, of all things, the Star Trek Photonovels which I collected as a youngster (anyone remember them??) That idea of seeing a TV series in strip form really hit the spot with me and on the fateful day when I picked up a 3D arts mag some years ago with a promo copy of Bryce, my first thought was "maybe now I can finally get round to doing that SF story where all the panels look like stills from movies". But I digress - the thing with Ex Astris is that the setup is simply an umbrella under which we can develop a series of adventures for the crew but - as with many things I do, Saffyre Blue included, there is more going on here than meets the eye and things are not always what they seem - blame "Watchmen" for that because I was incredibly impressed with the fact that this book which I had read for 12 issues suddenly turned out to be something quite different to what I thought it was and I was then able to go back to the start and read it again as if it was a completely different story - and discovering that we actually had already seen Rorscharch with his mask off right at the start of the book just blew me away!!
So there it is - I'm standing on the shoulders of my comics heroes and trying to push 3D art, which so far seems to have received a lot of resistance from the mainstream comics buyers, into higher prominence. Plans for "Ex Astris" are for initial distribution in the UK, Europe,China and Pakistan if Rok Comics can get the licences etc sorted out through mobile phone downloads so maybe we'll have a crack at the US market at some stage - but don't ask me when - I only create the bloody thing(!)
Back to Saffyre for the moment - I've been going through the strips you guys have done so far and need a wee bit of advice regarding story length - is there a "standard" (loosely speaking) length that you feel is best for a single adventure? I intend to have Saffyre go through a series of stories as things progress, each with a defined beginning, middle and end, and wondered if you felt there was an optimum number of episodes that would be preferred by the members?

There are some wonderful stories out there for sure, Morpheus. It's great that you enjoyed the stories so much, totally different when you read it again.
As far as story length goes, the others might be able to help you with that.
I was just asked to do stuff that 'turns me on.' I took it as 'sexually exciting'. The chief said in his own words "Girls getting tied up" and "Bondage."

If those two items are in the story you are on the right track. After five or six episodes of the same characters it's good to hit 'em with something totally new to keep it fresh. If you run out of ideas on one story you have another one ready to take over until you can get inspired again.

Doc and Max are HIPwriters and I'm sure that can add to this.
Jpeger wants artists to have fun and really enjoy creating comics. Hopefully, members will enjoy it too !
PS:I have a bad fetish for lasses in red tartan, LOL!

Red tartan...hmmm.....would that mean SHORT red tartan SKIRTS by any chance?? If so, you REALLY need to get your ass to Edinburgh on New Year's eve, dude - you'll think you've died and gone to heaven!!!! I know what you mean, tho' - it really does have a very pleasing effect, doesn't it - that "Banzai Girls" sort of thing which, curiously enough, is one of the options I'm toying with as a follow up to "Saffyre Blue". I may just have to toy a little harder.....lol!!!

If that's the case I want to hurry up and die ! I better not say that, that's what Heath Ledger said in his last interview. It really sounds like heaven, Billy ! Honestly, I like any coloured tartan. My Mum's name was Scott so she likes the red tartan for the Scottie tribe.