FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY and the 10th Anniversary that Almost Wasn't...

It's come up in several blog posts recently that FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY turns 10 years old in 2011. What many people don't know is the webcomic almost didn't survive its first year. Not due to money, or time.

The comic almost came to a stop over September 11th.

Given the patriotic themes in this webcomic, one might think it a response to September 11th. It's not, not at all. FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY actually launched in June 2001 after Shannon Muir received an opportunity to appear on a fan-to-pro panel at the now discontinued GATHERING OF THE GARGOYLES convention when it was in Universal City, California, after learning about it from GARGOYLES series developer/creator Greg Weisman (who mentored Shannon previously in animation writing coursework). Shannon and Kevin talked a long time and decided this crowd had similar interests in the kind of stories and storytelling they did, and that this venue would be the one to test the waters for moving FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY from the movie and animated series development they'd been trying to a webcomic.

So, in June 2001, flyers were printed and mentions were made of the webcomic's debut coming that following week at http://www.flying-glory.com. The first content was a short full color four page piece published in its entirety called PRELUDE TO GLORY with the lyrics for "Keep on Fighting," still available as part of the Extras section which is full of various gems from the past ten years. Check it out!

There was no way to know then that those lyrics would become a theme to the webcomic's very continued existence.

A short time later, what is now known as Issue 1 began. However, work wasn't far into the comic when September 11th hit. The decision was made to put up a memorial drawing (currently not available while the gallery is being redone) and behind the scenes long talks were held as to whether FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY should even continue. Would it be considered somehow inappropriate given the country's climate, or perhaps it might have the opposite effect? In the end, it was decided that the call to tell a good story should rise above all, so the webcomic continued.

Here it is now, going into 2011, and FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY is still here.

Thanks for being a part of it.