The Circle Weave is a story that's been with me for a long time. Over ten years, in fact. But the version that you're seeing here is very different than the versions I started with.

I first created The Circle Weave when I was in high school. I had gone on a camping trip with my parents, and for a while had been left alone to think. A question came to my mind, something along the lines of, 'what would happen if a religious leader were held responsible for the actions of their followers?'. A scenario developed in my mind of a God being brought to trial, being interrogated by a judge, sentenced to exile for something that a group of his followers had done 'in his name', but without his prodding. The rest of the story kind of flowed from there.

Not that that was the end of it, by any means. It evolved quickly into a massive epic, spanning numerous generations, involving political intrigue, romantic interests, great legendary characters. i was in a bit over my head. But I was young, and ambitious, and so I sat down and started drawing. After about 24 pages, I decided that the direction it was going was all wrong. Plus, I didn't like the artwork, and the pages were too small. Starting over was not a big deal, and so I did.

This time, though, I took the action off of a single world, and set it against the backdrop of an entire galaxy, and an element of science-fiction, of space opera was brought in. This was the grand stage I was looking for, but the story still seemed rather flat. My God character, Rowan, was a huge question mark: Who was he? What's happened to him? I decided to start again, again.

Taking the story back a full generation, I decided to begin the story where it rightfully began, explaining how Rowan became the God-like figure he was to become. I made him the student, and introduced his master, Morrim, the latest in a long line of Living Gods, or Dama. I also put more detail into the artwork, working hard to make sure I wouldn't have to start over again. This is the version that would ultimately be published as a full-sized comic book, a mere five years after I had originally conceived the story.

I worked on the series off and on for the next several years. The self-publishing route didn't pan out the way I'd hoped (though i imagine that some of my readers from those long-expired days may have found this site!), and after only three full-sized issues, I had been forced to all-but-cancel the series. I did publish chapters four and five, which concluded the introductory sequence, and even finished drawing chapters six and seven. Work had in fact begun on chapter eight, but I'd reached a point where a decision needed to be made: Should I try to publish again?

My heart was telling me, "Yes! of Course!", but my head and my bankbook were scolding me, "What are you, crazy?!". Even my heart had to admit, it often felt a bit of pain remembering the time that I had had to make the decision to Stop publishing some years before, and how I never wanted to have to make that decision again. After much deliberating, I reluctantly put the series on permanent hiatus and explored my options.

I'd gotten involved in the Internet a few years ago, designing websites with and for various companies, but I had yet to see anything really interesting or compelling online. The benefits of online publication, however, were always obvious to me: No distribution costs, no Printing minimums, the ability to use Color for Free, global penetration! It was almost too good to be true. But was anybody else doing it? And how could I make a living at it? It wasn't long after I started asking those questions that Reinventing Comics was released. The Circle Weave was about to be reborn.

If you haven't read that book yet, I'd highly recommend it. Scott McCloud has got to be the best evangelist the comics industry has at its disposal. I was all set to publish The Circle Weave as an online comic, re-presenting the 7.5 chapters of artwork (150 pages!) that I'd already completed, when it occurred to me that, maybe it was instead time for the series to undergo another evolution -- or, in this case, a DEvolution.

When I first started thinking about the series, I had planned it all to take place on a single world. It would be a strict fantasy series, set in sort-of medieval times. Later on, the 'final' version had expanded to take place across an entire galaxy. In re-evaluating the story, I realized that many of the peoblems I was having plotting it out were precisely BECAUSE of the grand stage that I had constucted for myself. Why were all the Living Gods from the same planet? What made them special? For that matter, all the major characters and events happened on the same planet - why did I even need the others? And frankly the ending of the story that I had (and still have) in mind just started to not make sense. I decided then that, in publishing The Circle Weave online, I would go one better, and present the story anew, and what's more, in full color!

The overall changes to the story are quite minor, in fact - the plot wil still follow the same general direction as before, all of the same major characters are there (they even have the same names, for the most part!), the story even still starts off in Maplehead! But I did make sure to change just enough of the story to make it interesting for readers already familiar with The Circle Weave. The introduction of the Carrion Knights, for instance, and the role that Cruet Forx has taken upon himself as... well, I'll just let you read the comic to find that part out ;)

Anyway, that's the brief history of The Circle Weave. At least, for the time being. As I've said many times, I am completely committed to telling this story, in one form or another, from beginning to end, once and for all. I hope you'll continue to join me for the ride, if at least just to see how it all ends!

-Indy