Comic:In Search of Happy Endings

From CGWiki

In Search of Happy Endings
Artist:	Megan Jones
Writer:	Megan Jones
Characters:	Chant, Iaren, Glenn
Updates:	randomly
Began:	May 11, 2004
Ended:
Art style:	Comic strips and pages
Rating:	Web-14
Website	Website

Being happy with your life isn't a sure thing, even if you're a legendary hero with all the mystic powers and ballads about your exploits that that implies. (For one thing, those ballads might be a blessing or a curse, depending on the minstrel.)

In this webcomic, a halfway-competent mercenary, a gentleman scholar, and an indestructible princess get to deal with rescues gone wrong, troll infestations, and snooty elven ambassadors... well, that's how their story begins, anyway.

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Chapters 2 Characters 2.1 Major characters 2.2 Minor characters 3 Background 4 Links

Plot

Chapters

Ch. 1 : "A Dashing Rescue" 1 - 25
It all starts when Chant, a wandering mercenary, stumbles across the scene of an ambush. When he follows the attackers' trail, he finds a bandit camp, where a princess is being held captive.

Chant accidentally reveals himself, and the resulting confusion allows Princess Iaren to break free. She tears a wide swath through the bandits, grabs a horse, and ends up rescuing the injured Chant herself.

Ch. 2 : "The Scenic Route" 26 - 43
After bandaging Chant's wound, Iaren lifts him onto the horse and leads him off towards her home. He's doubly astonished; first, by her amazing strength, and second, by the fact that she is a princess.

Their discussion soon turns to the oddly-ravaged landscape, and Chant learns about the Destroyer, a horrible monster that plagued the land a century ago. Iaren's friend Glenn Iaren loves the ballads about it, and wishes that she had lived during those more interesting times.

As they travel, they notice that some people are approaching. It turns out to be a group of soldiers, sent by the King to bring Iaren to safety. She dashes off enthusiastically to meet them, and is overjoyed to find that a man named Glenn has come with them. After the soldiers are introduced to Chant, everyone travels on towards Iaren's castle home.

Ch. 3 : "Hello Castle" 44 - 60
Iaren's parents, the King and Queen of Toural, are incredibly glad at her safe return. So much so that they don't notice her low spirits. Her friend Glenn, however, does notice. He learns that Iaren feels responsible for the deaths of her guards, and tries to comfort her.

Meanwhile, Chant is hastily sent to the castle's healer, who magically cures his wounds.

Ch. 4 : "The Morning After" 61 - 88
The next morning, Chant is woken by Princess Iaren, who is once again bright and bubbly. The healer is astonished when he notices that Chant has impressive magical abilities, and offers to teach him a few simple healing spells. However, Chant refuses, insisting that he doesn't need any magic.

Invited to breakfast with the royal family, Chant is able to give them some news of the wider world. Apparently, bandits are popping up everywhere. Iaren's father, the king, decides to send soldiers out to make sure that his little kingdom of Toural is safe from marauders.

Chant is disappointed to learn that the sword he lost while fighting the bandits was not recovered. It was quite valuable, as it was enchanted to be light in his hand. The king and queen, still grateful that he helped rescue their daughter, promise to give him a new sword.

Ch. 5 : "In the House of the Golden Branch" 89 - 114
After learning a bit about Iaren's family history -- namely, that they have only held power in Toural since the time of the Destroyer -- Chant is taken outside to spar with the captain of the guard. He does well enough to be offered a job, but hesitates to accept it.

Meanwhile, Toural's small army prepares to deal with the threat of bandits, and Iaren has a bit of fun, brawling with the entire castle guard at once.

Ch. 6 : "An Infestation of Trolls" 115 - 125
This is the current chapter.

Characters

Major characters

Character	Appearance	Description
Chant		A wandering mercenary with a big sword. He's competent enough to keep his hide intact, but just barely. Still, he refuses to consider any other more suitable career.
Iaren		Princess of an insignificant little kingdom. For some unknown reason, she has extraordinary strength. Her enthusiasm and love of ballads can be either infectious or annoying.
Glenn		A nobleman scholar from a far-off land, who has become friends with Princess Iaren. His weapon of choice is a bow of his own design.

Minor characters

Character	Appearance	Description
King and Queen of Toural		Princess Iaren's parents.
Healer Blake		A magical healer who works at the castle.
Captain of the Castle Guard		In charge of the safety of the royal family.

Background

Even though the author of this comic seems to go on hiatus with disheartening regularity, she always ends up coming back... sooner or later.

The comic has undergone several changes in drawing medium. Initially it was pencil-shaded, then early on it switched to being inked. A brief period of shading with flat grays quickly led to the use of colour. However, this was too fussy and took too much time, so there has been a return to simple black-and-white inking.

Recently (as of July 2007), the format has changed from horizontal strip to full comic page. We'll see how it works out.

The art style of the comic hasn't really changed since the beginning; it's sort of a cross between manga and newspaper strips.

Links

The webcomic: http://isohe.comicgenesis.com/ The site has a small art gallery, as well as an archive of past strips.