History
The first arc, "Maxim Saves The World", follows the adventures of the titular character, Maxim, and is narrated through a series of flashbacks. At this point the strip makes liberal use of clichés and one-shot jokes, building a narratives through various sub-plots.
On December 28, 2003 the first storyline ended and Howard announced a new science fiction space opera webcomic entitled The Starship Destiny (TSD), unrelated to AMD. When this new strip concluded, work resumed on the second chapter of A Modest Destiny. "The Dreaded Vampire Lord Fluffy" began on March 16, 2004. This arc is roughly half the length of the first and focusses on a single story rather than several smaller ones. Set in the same universe as the first chapter, it follows a vampire necromancer named Fluffy who had been tamed by society. The story also utilises a number of lesser-used characters from the first story-line and depicts the events leading up to a war between the humans and the undead, concluding in September 2004.
It was during the second chapter that the comic changed format, with larger 12-panel story comics posted Monday through Friday, and short, non-canon strips featuring characters from both AMD and TSD posted on the weekends.
After running another chapter of The Starship Destiny, Howard took all of December 2004 off for the purposes of creating a well-planned foundation for the third AMD chapter, The War Of Fate (AMDW), which began on January 1, 2005. His aim with the third chapter was to create a more detailed and complex storyline. The comic's artistic style also changed for this chapter, Howard creating more realistic backgrounds using Adobe Photoshop instead of the pixel art style backgrounds used in previous chapters.
The direction of this chapter was darker and more adult-oriented than the previous chapters, touching on themes like child molestation, abortion, and profanity. The story is set five years after the end of AMDF in a world all but destroyed by war against the undead. An undead army, led by the mysterious Black Knight, has taken over the majority of the country, with only a small group of humans left to oppose him. These humans, led by Maxim and his friends, defend a small city called Last Hope.
In July 2005, with the storyline halfway, the author took a break from the comic. On December 22, 2005, Sean Howard published the original outline for AMDW, including material which never made its way into comics. On September 29, 2006, a new season of AMD started, entitled "A Modest Destiny-Prophecies of the Demon King", concluding on June 10, 2010. At the beginning of February 2011, he announced plans for a short fifth arc to bring the story to a conclusion. On February 16, 2011, AMD returned from hiatus, with updates scheduled for weekdays.
Read more about this topic: A Modest Destiny
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