A brief history of Mystery Eclipse...

Written by Yours Truly

PART 1: HUMBLE BEGINNINGS OR SOMETHING EQUALLY CHEESY

Mystery Eclipse started in the grand old year of 2019, when I finally decided that I had worked enough on the story to start making pages (otherwise, I would "figure it out later"), except that's not really the case.

The first ever sketch of chapter 1's cover, showing Diane looking at the eclipse directly (don't do that). — Chapter 1 cover's beta design. Do not look at eclipses directly like Diane is doing here.

Any webcomic artist knows that before you even think of sketching the cover page for your story, building the story can take years of writing. Well, in truth, Mystery Eclipse actually started in 2017. But why? What motivated me to start a comic? Was it divine intervention? A prophecy foretold in ancient scriptures? A vision of the future blabbered by a madman, passed down to me through a series of pseudo-broken-telephone notes? Actually, it was just on a whim.

A paper drawing of Shiko, with text reading 'why am i making so many characters'. — The first ever drawing of Shiko, MyEc's first character. Note the "cool" eye he used to have.

That's right! All of this, these past 7 years of hard work, sweat and tears are because I decided to make a comic one day for no reason, except maybe that it would "be cool". This fact alone lingers from time to time in my mind, a grim reminder that I've spent a significant portion of my life on a webcomic about furries.

PART 2: NEW FACES, NEW PLACES, NEW... OTHER WORDS THAT RHYME

In the beginning, only Diane and Shiko existed in the Mystery Eclipse universe, and the comic was planned to be waaayyy shorter than the mess it is now. But as I continued to work on the story (and gained more writing experience as I grew up) I realized it needed more characters and a richer setting. So I took a hiatus after finishing chapter 1 and tweaked the plot... that's where Sam comes in! His true purpose has always been to be the "sidekick" of the main trio.

Fun Fact! Did you know the mice government predate both Millie AND Daisy? Did you also know someone once said to me the mice government agents look like a Friday Night Funkin' mod character? Comparisons are what keep me up at night.

We don't talk about how I characterized Shiko in 2021.

2 digital doodles of the mice government. The first one is a bust of an agent with the words 'mice government' written next to him in pink. The second drawing shows Shiko being interrogated by another agent, this one shouting 'WHO DO YOU WORK FOR, ALIEN?!'. Shiko has a smug look on his face and is crossing his arms, saying 'lol'. — First doodles of the mice agents (circa 2020). Earlier depictions of government figures were actually deer.

PART 3: HAS ANYONE NOTICED THE PARTS CORRESPOND TO EACH CHAPTER IN THE COMIC?

When I finished chapter 2, took a break and steadily started working on chapter 3, Mystery Eclipse went through a great number of changes. Most of them good, some of them so horrible they still haunt me to this day. Actually, a lot of things about this webcomic's past haunt me, but that's not the point. I created Millie and Daisy, I started thinking about how the mice government was gonna fit into the story, and I forced myself to draw backgrounds so I could actually learn, therefore leading to the creation of my first 3D model!

2 roughly drawn backgrounds of the mice government building, drawn on paper. The first one depicts a long hallway with big pipes running along it. The second drawing shows a room filled with wires and a small dark figure standing in front of a doorway. — Background concepts for chapter 4.

PART 4: THE REALLY BIG ONE

When I first started writing Chapter 4, I didn't expect it to be as big as it turned out to be. My initial draft was to have the whole government thing end by Chp4 so we could have a sort of 'goodbye' theme in Chp5. Turns out that when you're annoyingly meticulous about the way you pace scenes, you end up with a monster of a chapter. Maybe it shows, maybe it doesn't, but I had to change so many plot details in-between pages the end result feels more like a collage than anything solid to me. Still, Chapter 4 contains some of my favorite scenes so far. Not to toot my own horn, but I think I like where I'm going.

PART 5: ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS... JUST OKAY

This was it. The final frontier, the final chapter in MyEc. This is a little embarrassing to admit but this was the first time I properly planned everything ahead with a loose-ish script instead of building a rough skeleton and running with it. And I think it shows? Chp 5 definitely feels more concrete to me, like it knows where it's going and doesn't spend time mucking around with half-baked ideas.

An image comparing the color palette for the final room. On the right is the original drawing of the location with a greyish-beige color scheme, while the right side has 2 versions, one neon cyan and dark purple and the other drowned in red and dark purple. — Behold! The power of criticism!

Halfway through making it I submitted MyEc to a Secretique Santa Exchange event that was happening in the Comicfury forums, and that's when I was made aware of an issue so blatant I was blind to it; the colors. Throughout chapters 4 and 5 the color palette had gotten significantly duller in contrast to the bright cheerful ones from previous chapters. Sure, it fit the theme of the government building but DAMN was it ugly! Thankfully I was just about to change locations to the big FINAL ROOM and it was the perfect opportunity to switch up the color palette to something more interesting.

It's hard to put into words how I feel about finishing Mystery Eclipse. To an outsider it may seem trivial, oh I finished my webcomic la-dee-da, but you have to understand it was part of my weekly/daily routine for the better chunk of six years. This webcomic saw me go through middle school, high school, the first 3 semesters of uni, my first love and my first break-up. It's weird, knowing I won't have to think about it ever again.

But if there's one thing I know about myself is that I can't stop making art, and I can't stop making comics. They're so much fun! As my friend described it, finishing Mystery Eclipse was me 'graduating' from learning how to make comics, in a way, and now I'm free to make whatever other projects I want. Woohoo!

If there's anything I want you to take away from this story, it's that you have to keep going. Keep moving. Get a move on, go live your life and don't get stuck in the past. Catch you on the flipside!