A Modest Destiny
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A Modest Destiny is a pixel art web comic. Created in January 1, 2003 by Sean Howard, the first story arc (titled "Maxim Saves The World") was finished in December 28th of the same year. Since then, a second chapter, "The Dreaded Vampire Lord Fluffy," and two chapters of a separate series called "The Starship Destiny," have been completed, and the third A Modest Destiny chapter, "The War of Fate" is in progress.
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The Comics
"Maxim Saves The World" followed the adventures of a young fellow by the same name, and began as a flashback. The comic has a fantasy setting, but is not entirely free of fourth wall breaking. This chapter is chock-full of clichés and one-shot jokes, but still maintains continuity through its many sub-plots. A Modest Destiny's first story arc ended with the year 2003. When it did, Howard announced the site changing the AMD universe for a science fiction space opera called "The Starship Destiny," which is completely unrelated to the original AMD. However, the TSD comics were not as popular as the original AMD, and not as satisfying for the author either. The site returned to a new season of AMD.
The second chapter, "The Dreaded Vampire Lord Fluffy" or AMDF, is about half the length of the first, but is focused on a single story rather than several smaller ones. Maxim, the main character of the series, is not featured at all, hence the reason it is not told in a flashback from his perspective. Instead, some of the secondary characters as well as several new ones take center stage to tell what is essentially the prologue to the next chapter. Without giving away any of the plot twists, it is a story about a not very evil vampire named Fluffy, who is framed for the slaughter of innocent children, and the events which lead up to a war between the humans and the undead.
Sean Howard took all of December 2004 off for the purposes of creating a well-planned foundation for "The War Of Fate," also known as AMDW. The goals for the third chapter have been to create a much larger scaled experience with a more detailed and complex storyline. Due to the increased need for new artwork, the direction was changed to feature hand drawn backgrounds while still retaining the pixel art characters. The style is consistent with the earlier pixel art backgrounds to keep the change from being too overwhelming or out of sync with the previous comics.
The direction of this presumed final chapter is much darker and less kid friendly than previous work in the comic, featuring adult themes like child molestation, abortion, and even swearing. The story picks up five years after the end of AMDF in a world that has all but been destroyed by the war. The undead army, lead by the mysterious Black Knight, has taken over a majority of the country with only a small group of humans left to fight. These humans, lead by Maxim and friends, are living in a small, well defended city called "Last Hope".
Major Characters
The cast of AMD is significant, and many of the characters have complex histories.
- Maxim - The main character of the story. The first comic shows him at an old age, sporting an eye patch, bragging about how he saved the world two times.
- Gilbert - Maxim's evil twin brother and main antagonist for the first chapter. He works with Team Evil to resurrect the evil wizard Deo-Deo.
- Fluffy - A two thousand year old vampire who has been domesticated and now works for the humans by creating dungeons for warriors to adventure in.
- Hechter - A living suit of armor that was created by the vampire lord Fluffy three hundred years prior to the beginning of AMD.
- Hubert - A drunkard thief who teams up with Maxim early on to stop Team Evil.
- Jenny - The owner of the local inn, she is one of Maxim's major love interests.
- Maureen - Maxim's other love interest, Maureen is the secretary for the Warriors' Guild.
- Bart - The stupid, but adorable guild master for the Warrior's Guild. Bart is both boss and mentor to Maxim.
- Lucile - Grew up with Maxim at the orphanage. During one of her adventures, she was forced to marry Maxim or else be turned into a cow.
- Ruby - Showing up in AMDF for the first time, she is the captain of the guards. She likes violence and sarcasm, in that order.
- Gustav - Shows up first in AMDF. A really dumb but really strong warrior.
- Giggles - Shows up first in AMDW. An undead spy for the Black Knight, Giggles is captured by the good guys and becomes romantically involved with Hechter.
- The Crimson Blade - A superhero who fights for justice and righteousness.
About the Author
Sean Howard is an ex-programmer, who has a rather confrontational character, which he feels no shame in sharing with people through his blog featured below the comic. The blog has been so controversial that he has taken it down several times, only to return it later once the buzz has died down. His tone has earned him more than a few rivalries with the authors of other webcomics, none bigger and more disastrous than the one with Penny Arcade. Based of a series of misunderstandings that began when a poster in the PA forums had taken his work and was assuming full credit for it's creation (contrary to popular belief, it had little to do with avatars), it eventually spiraled out of control and ended up shutting down AMD's website for a few days as well as earning the ire of both the creators of Penny Arcade and their fans. It is obvious that Howard was rather bitter about the situation, though in recent times, he has cooled down considerably and has seemingly moved on.
See also
External links
- A Modest Destiny/The Starship Destiny official webcomic site (http://www.squidi.net)
- Sean Howard's January 2005 blog (http://www.squidi.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2952)
- Sean Howard's February 2005 blog (http://www.squidi.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=3400)
- Penny Arcade's January 9 news post (http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2005-01-09)
- Interview with Comixpedia (http://www.comixpedia.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1255)
- Interview by Personal Halfquake (http://phq.muddasheep.com/cgi-bin/phq/phq_articles.cgi?sessionid=&show=10)