For my Inktober challenge three years ago, I started a horror/mystery webcomic with hand-drawn pen and ink illustrations, about a girl who moves to a creepy small town and starts unraveling its strange secrets.

I wrote the script at least 10 years ago, but then I just left it sitting on my hard drive for a very long time. I thought someday I’d try sending it to graphic novel publishers to see if anyone was interested. But then a few years ago I decided to just jump in and make it a webcomic instead of waiting for interest from a publisher.

So, I finished the first 30 pages and posted them every day for Inktober 2020. I posted twice a week almost every week until June 2022! Overall, it took about 2.5 years to illustrate it. Whew! A few months ago and over 150 pages later, I finally finished the story and posted the last page!

But along the way, I realized something I hadn’t planned on… One book wasn’t going to be enough to tell the full story of this dark town. The story of Book Two (and possibly even Book Three) is still taking shape, but I hope to launch the next phase of the story late next year. I have lots of ideas for it, and I can’t wait to get started! I don’t think it will be the final book. It might be the end of Amanda’s story – not sure yet – but I’d also like to write some shorter standalone stories set in Black Valley too.

For now, please enjoy the final installment of Ninecrow: Book One. (Be sure to check out Part One, Two, Three, and Four before you read this!)

More info: mailchi.mp | Facebook | Instagram | doramitchell.com | ninecrowcomic.com | twitter.com | Etsy | patreon.com

Previously in Ninecrow

Part 5

Epilog

That’s all for now, but I’ll be starting the script for Book Two this winter. Subscribe to my newsletter if you’d like to get updates on when the second part will launch.

I had mixed emotions about reaching the end of the story. It was great to accomplish something so big – it’s by far the longest comic I’ve completed. And I was pretty wiped out from the twice-weekly posting schedule I’d been doing since 2020, so it was a relief to have a break!

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But it’s also hard for me to leave the characters behind. In fact, I just illustrated a few Book Two preview pages, and it was so nice to draw Amanda again after a few months of not seeing her! I feel like she’s a friend now, and I want to see her really fight and overcome the evil that’s (SPOILER!) still following her at the end of Book One.

Readers seem to like the ending of Book One, but there are definitely some who want more answers! I personally like a creepy story to be open-ended and leave room for your imagination to fill in the spaces with the ideas that are spookiest for you. But I can also understand why people want ANSWERS, not questions at the end of a story! Still, I left lots of clues, and you can fill in the blanks if you were paying close attention. I’ve seen readers putting the pieces together in comments, so the answers are there if you look… Or you can just enjoy it as a creepy ride and not dig too much deeper — ghosts and ghouls are always scariest when we don’t see them too clearly!

If you’d like your own print copy of Ninecrow: Book One, there’s still one week left to preorder the limited edition in hardcover or softcover via my Etsy shop. And as a special thank you to Bored Panda readers, you’ll also get bonus phone & desktop wallpaper art and a PDF preview of Book Two!

Thanks again for reading and commenting!

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