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Welcome to leveL!

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“Level.  A city unlike any other.  A sprawling metropolitan utopia.  Technologically advanced and socially just, it is the highest achievement of civilization.  We built upon our labour, our struggles, our ideals…and we have reached the sky.  Truly this is the city of dreams.”

leveL is a good old fashioned sci-fi adventure webcomic.  Full of fun characters, exciting action and mysterious happenings, we follow our heroes as they traverse the city of Level.  However, there might be something deeper at work here, waiting to crack through the surface.  So tread lightly, dear reader.

 

leveL now updates WEEKLY!  Every Monday you will be treated to a new page furthering the story. This is a new update system I’m trying out, it could be revisited but for now I have a big backlog of pages ensuring no schedule slips happen. And there was much rejoicing, creator and reader alike! :D

 

This is the labour of love of one Nate Swinehart, a silly, shaggy haired animator guy living and working in Los Angeles.  Delve deeper into the mysteries of that individual on the Nate page.

 

You can follow leveL and keep up with any developments at these fine establishments:

The Twitter
The Facebook
The Tumblr
The RSS
If you have any question (or any fan art you’d like submitted to the art page :D) please E-MAIL NATE.  He loves feedback, it makes him feel like he’s special!

 

Now…if you are a seasoned veteran to leveL and have some serious questions, or if you’d just like to hear more of this project’s history, please read on…..

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“leveL is a science fiction/action saga.   It tells the story of Cael Dalton, a quiet teenage boy living in the sprawling megacity of Level.  Haunted by a dream he doesn’t understand, he finds himself thrown in the middle of an whirlwind adventure that just might lead him to the truth he’s been searching for.” 

 

In 2002 I wrote that summary for a little webcomic idea I had.  Now, it 2013 and you’re sitting on a new website for a project of the same name, using the same summary.  Some of you might have some questions, and if so you are in the right section of the website!

So, what gives?  Well here’s a short FAQ to help catch anyone up to speed on just what the heck this website is about and what they can expect from the world of leveL

 

Q.  Wait, leveL?  Didn’t I read this comic like 5 years ago??

Quite possibly!  And if you did, thank you for reading it and welcome back!!  I published leveL for the better part of 8 years at www.levelmanga.com (http://levelmanga.com/main.php if you care to see the old one), doing it in my free time to practice drawing and just for the sheer enjoyment of the project.

 

Q. Yeah, that comic was cool!  But then it stopped updating…I thought the artist died or something…

…Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated X)  In fact, just the opposite happened: Life.  leveL saw me through a lot of changes in life.  I graduated college, I moved to Japan, I moved back to America, I went back to school for Illustration, I moved to Alaska, I went back to school AGAIN, this time for Animation.  For a long time leveL was really the one constant in my life.  To this day some of my best friends are people I met through the comic, and it pushed me forward into my current career of animation.

 

Q. So what gives?  Why’d you quit the comic if you love it so much?

Well, I was able to maintain leveL through a lot, but once art school seriously entered the picture there was just no way to maintain it.  I had to go on hiatus if I hoped to finish my animation thesis and graduate at all.  The good news is: I did!  And I now have a full-time animation gig where I get to do what I love every day :D  So, that side of the story has a happy ending.

 

Q.  And so you just abandon your comic and all us readers??  *sniff*

Not at all!  I always knew that I would return to leveL at some point…though for a long time I wasn’t sure how.  After it had remained dormant for so long I was at such a different place in life than when I had conceived it.  I ruminated on the idea for a long while…I had learned a lot about storytelling, a lot about art…and I looked at leveL and just saw an artistic mess.  A kind of twisted, beautiful artistic mess that I loved, but a mess none-the-less.  I realized if I wanted to whole-heartedly return this story, I was going to have to start from the ground up.

 

Q. …The ground up?

Yes.  And so for the past year, in super secret stealth mode, I have been re-imagining the entire story of leveL.

 

Q. Wait, what?? You’re starting the story over?? 

No!  I’ve re-imagined it!  I realized that I couldn’t just pick up leveL where I left it off, but I knew no one wanted to sit through the same events that they had already read for the past 8+ years all over again…so I’ve created a kind of spiritual successor to the old leveL.   The same characters will show up, though not always as you would expect them.  The roadmap will look vaguely familiar, though we will be going to places you’ve never seen before.

I spent a lot…a LOT of time taking into consideration the original readers of the comic.  I want anyone who was with this thing from the beginning to still be entertained and enjoy the story I’m putting out.  It’s a wholly new story that should feel vaguely familiar every now and then.

Hopefully I’ve succeeded in some small way and at the end of the story you will look back and compare it to the old one and say ‘oh yeah, I can see how these are the same thing….just totally different.’

 

Q. OK, but how can I trust you will see it through?  Why should I invest my hard-earned reading time when you might just disappear at a moment’s notice or start it all over again?

That’s a super valid question.  Actually, it’s a lot of the reason I worked in secret for over a year.  I didn’t want to announce this project to the world unless I knew that I was going to be able to stick with it.  As school is over and I have settled into a fairly secure job, I was able to gauge what I could get done and how long it would take by drawing out the entire Prologue before telling anyone what I was doing.

Yes that’s right, there’s already an entire chapter of the comic finished.

So as a sign of good faith (and a thank you to all the dedicated readers out there), along with the launch of the comic I’m also providing the prologue, 44 pages of comic, all in one fell swoop!   Huzzah!

As for starting over again….that’s never going to happen.  This is the final incarnation of leveL that the internet will see.  The only thing that could make me go back and re-do it again is if I was asked to by some outside party in the development of a published work or other piece of media, and I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Now, I’m also not blind to the fact that life happens, and I can’t predict the future.  If circumstances were to arise that I couldn’t continue to produce leveL anymore, I would present the ending of the story in some other form, be it in scripts or a summary of some sort.  I’m not planning anything like that happening, but just so you know: I will not leave you hanging, dear reader.

 

Q. So how much of this comic do you have planned?

A lot, haha.  I’ve broken the story down into three books.  I have outlines for each book and a very specific chapter breakdown for the first book (you should see how many Google Docs I have.  I’m all about the Google Docs.)  I work by writing a script for each chapter, then thumbnailing the whole chapter, then making a color script, then working on the pages in story beats, 3-7 pages at a time.

 

Q.  What do you use to draw you comic?

I use a wacom Cintiq and Photoshop CS6 :D  My babies…

 

Q.  Hey, OK so I just read through the whole comic, and my favorite character is missing!  What gives??

All I can say is…keep reading :)  The leveL characters are some of the nearest and dearest to my heart, so chances are if there was a character you felt an attachment to, they are going to pop up X)

 

Q. Hey I just read through the whole comic, and this looks WAY different than your old style!  What gives??

Ah yes, my ‘style.’  Well, here’s the thing…in order to keep myself artistically engaged in the project, I have decided to take advantage of it as a place to develop my own personal style further.  That means I’ll be experimenting with techniques, trying new things and going where the inspirational winds blow.  If you note inconsistencies in the style, that is (hopefully) just me growing as an artist.  There’s no question if you look at the first page and last page of the old leveL, you can see an amount of artistic growth.  I hope to keep that tradition going, so with any luck if you don’t like where my style is at now, you will like where it’s headed.

 

Q.  Meh, I read through the whole comic and I don’t like it.  The old one was better.

Awh, I’m sorry you feel that way.  I hope you’ll stick with the new one though, because I promise that it is going to some pretty exciting, awesome places.  No hard feelings either way, I’m seriously flattered you enjoyed any of my work :)

 

Q.  Hey…I’m new to this site, I’ve never heard of leveL…do I have to read your other comic before I start this one?

Absolutely not!  This comic was written to be a stand-alone piece, so if you never saw the old leveL you aren’t missing out on anything.  If you are aching for more comic though, you are welcome to go back and read the original…there aren’t really ‘spoilers’ in it, but it will give you a better understanding of the flow of the story and the essence of some of the characters.  It’s up to you :)

 

Q.  OK!  I’m on board to read this comic, is there an update schedule?

Yes!  leveL updates every other Thursday.  Each update will be a complete story ‘beat’ about 3-7 pages long, depending on what’s happening in the comic.  The hope here is to give you a satisfying amount of content rather than a fragmented page that might stop mid-conversation.

It’s been over a year since this update schedule was put into place, and it has proven itself to be, sadly, unrealistic.  When I started the comic I had a lot of buffer and pre-production work finished…as time has gone on, not only did I eat through all that, but the pages have become more elaborate productions requiring more time…and the story beats have become longer.  leveL isn’t and never has been a comic that’s well suited for short incremental updates.  You lose track of what’s happening in the story, the moments don’t play out as they are meant to, and (worst of all) as my schedule has become more rushed I’ve been forced to put out work I’m not happy with to satisfy the schedule.  Shoddy work goes out and deadlines get missed.  Nate gets unhappy.  The skies darken.

SO I have reached a resolution on this matter.  From now on, there is not a set weekly update schedule for the comic.  Instead, I will release large updates of entire sections of the comic at a time…whole scenes with beginning, middle and end that also give me the time to plan out the entire segment, design it to satisfaction, and have a better reader experience overall. 

YES THERE’S AN UPDATE SCHEDULE!  leveL now updates EVERY MONDAY with a new page. I may adjust this to more content in the future, but for now you can count on a new page every week no matter what :3

 

Q.  Are you basically saying you don’t have time for this comic any more?  Are you going to abandon it??

QUITE the contrary.  If anything this new system is going to have me working harder on the comic.  Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.  The advantage of the new system is you get more quantity, more polish, and a happier Nate.

 

Q.  So wait…without the ‘big chunk’ updates, are you still going to be a cliffhanger whore like you were last time?

Well. I’m going to try. It’s really hard for me to update just a page at a time because I like present completely story beats, but I think the regularity of the schedule, continuous readership and realistic expectations are going to be better for the project instead of killing myself to give you 10+ pages that end on an update. I think the art will be appreciated more this way too. If an update feels like its not enough content for whatever reason, I may upload 2 pages at a time, but that’ll be on a rare case-by-case basis :3

 

Q.  So, are you gonna do a Kickerstarter for this comic??

I’m lucky enough to be in a comfortable financial situation at the moment, so I’ve never felt the need to do anything like a kickstarter. However, I’ve had a lot of requests for a way to show support to the comic. Upon thinking about it too, I would probably only have MORE investment knowing people were supporting the comic too, So I’m now setting up a Patreon that will be up soon!

In the meantime, you can support by giving a Nate what he loves best and buying me a coffee:

 

Q.  So you already have an art job and you don’t really want money…why are you doing this comic anyway? 

I’m doing this because I love this story and these characters. I want to share it with people and I’m willing to pour a good deal of my life into it for that aim.  Simple as that.

 

Q.  Hey.  Hey.  I found a part of your website that’s broken…

Augh, please let me know if you run into any technical difficulties!  just leave a comment or email me and I will get on it straight-away!

 

Q. Ooooh, I want to draw fanart for you!

Eeee, please do!  Email me any drawings you’ve done and I will post them on the Art section!

 

Q.  I have a question I don’t see on this list, what should I do??

You should write it in the comments or email me!!  If it’s a common enough question, I will add it to the list…if nothing else I will at least respond to you with an answer :)

 

 

Aaaaaand there you have it!  I hope that help clears anything up…like I said: anything you want to know, just ask!  From the bottom on my little blonde heart, welcome back to leveL.  I hope you all enjoy this new comic and are excited for the long, adventurous road we have ahead!

17 Comments

I’m glad to see you giving leveL a makeover after all these years though I am pretty sad that the original story will never be completed. I got caught up in RL too so I never got to keep up with the old leveL, is it still online somewhere? I’d really love to reread it.

Yesss, the old comic is still online, you can find the archive here: http://levelmanga.com/comic.php

And actually a lot of what was going to happen in the old story is still going to happen in this story, the re-imagining is essentially telling the same story just with some details shifted :D Maybe once I’ve finished this version I can write up a comparison of what I’d planned for the old and what went down in the new X)

Glad you are back and thanks for readinggg <3

Thanks for the link! You mentioned http://www.levelmanga.com in the FAQs but you can only get rerouted to http://www.levelthecomic.com from the main page of the old site, I never would have found it. (;´Д`)ノ You have no idea how much my face lit up just now to see that everything is still there, almost the way I left it. ヾ(*>∀<)ノ゙ The viewer is new, I wasn't around for that. Wow, your art had really changed over the years… I didn't remember it being so different in the beginning.

That would be awesome! I'd love to find out where you were going with the old comic and how things got shifted around.

Thanks for all the hard work you put into leveL! RL will probably attack me again but I'll try to keep with the comic every couple of months.

PS: Rain is still as awesome as ever! (ꈍ‿ꈍ) ♥❤♥

Hello, Nate! :)
I stumble upon your work a few days ago. And I was just “WOW!!!” This comic is freaking awsome! :hi5: The details on each strip are overwhelming. It is clearly that you have a ton of talent! Keep on the good work ;)
After reading this section I want to congratulate you for your dedication towards this story.
This is my new favorite comic strip! :X

I can’t understand why this comic isn’t a TV series. Or a movie (animation or not). The storyline is fantastic so far (I don’t want to read the older version :D).

Hey Kiwi!

Awww, thanks so much! *return high fives* I’m so glad you are enjoying it, and happy the details are being appreciated! It’s definitely a lot of work to put this crazy thing together, but I really love doing it :D

It would be AWESOME if it became something like a series, oh man!

And I think its a good idea to skip out on the old one, IMHO…you get a little bit of a sneak peek at where we’re heading, but the characters and art feel really different (Terrible, if you ask me, lol), and it’s exciting to have you experience the whole thing fresh as just this new version.

Thanks again for saying hi and the kind words, welcome to leveL! :D

Hey! I was looking up who had done the art for the Halloween Google doodle and your name was on there so tada! I came here and read your awesome web-comic and now I’m addicted! Thanks for sharing your comic and I can’t wait for the next chapter (but of course I will muster up all my willpower to do so).

I can’t wait to see if/how/when these characters are related/correlate to each other!!!!

I bookmarked this site back in my early years of highschool and now that I’ve come back as a college student to visit the site i was expecting to see at least 2 books by now, but it seems all i got was a couple extra pages. All’s good tho, nice to see one of the few older comic writers I used to read actually made something out of themselves and are still doing what they love. I saw that your are bringing the comic back next year, so hopefully I’ll finally get the full experience of this story once you start updating again.

haha, aw dang I wish there were two books as well :| but they are in the works for sure, I’m excited to get the site up and running again, this time with a regular update schedule so there should be a steady flow of content :3 Thanks for sticking with it!

Level Manga is gone! The original site is dead! Please say it’s still available somewhere?!

YES!! You can read the whole archive on Tumblr! It’s a little funky but the best solution I have right now, lol

https://levelmanga.tumblr.com/tagged/levelmanga/chrono/

Nate, is there any chance of getting a copy of the original in one of the e-book formats? I’m partial to reading my manga/webcomics/graphicnovels on kindle and would love to add Level to my library.
PS – it’s awesome to see you back, I was super sad when you ended the original comic.

Holy shit. I was just checking the credits for the google doodle and went down a rabbit hole only to find that one of the people involved made a webcomic I read in 2007. I think I posted on your forums but I for the love me can’t remember anything about that time, honestly I barely level remember level but the vibe of the comic was hard to forget. Glad to hear life went so well for you after you joined my dead webcomics bookmark folder. I never knew what happened to the comic but I always hoped you were doing well, and you have been! Take care, buddy

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