A Modest Destiny

A Modest Destiny (abbreviated to AMD) is a pixel art webcomic created by Sean Howard. The comic started in January 2003 and ran until 2010. It consists of four chapters and one side story.
Summary.
"A Modest Destiny" consists of four chapters, also called seasons or arcs – "Maxim Saves the World", "The Dreaded Vampire Lord Fluffy", "The War of Fate", and "Prophecies of the Demon King" – and one short story entitled "Sibling Rivalry". The comic is set in a fantasy world, but Howard allows his characters a modern mentality. Strips can regularly parody fantasy clichés and will on occasion break the fourth wall.
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.
The second arc, "The Dreaded Vampire Lord Fluffy", 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 features a number of lesser-used characters from the first storyline and depicts the events leading up to a war between the humans and the undead.
With the third arc, "The War Of Fate", Howard's aim 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 story is set five years after the end of "Lord Fluffy" 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.
The final arc of "A Modest Destiny" was titled "Prophecies of the Demon King".
History.
Publication.
"A Modest Destiny" started in January 2003. On December 28, 2003 the first arc ended and Howard announced a new science fiction space opera webcomic entitled "The Starship Destiny", unrelated to "A Modest Destiny". When this new strip concluded, work resumed on the second chapter of "A Modest Destiny". In a January 2004 interview, Howard said that he wanted "A Modest Destiny" to run for only three years, so that it would never get tired and repeat itself.
The second arc, "The Dreaded Vampire Lord Fluffy", began on March 16, 2004 and ended in September 2004. During this arc, the comic changed format, with larger 12-panel story comics posted Monday through Friday, and short, non-canon strips featuring characters from both "A Modest Destiny" and "The Starship Destiny" posted on the weekends.
The third arc, "The War Of Fate", began on January 1, 2005. In July 2005, with the storyline halfway through, Howard announced that he was ceasing to make webcomics, but later restarted. On December 22, 2005, Howard published the original outline for "The War of Fate", including material which never made its way into comics.
On September 29, 2006, the fourth arc, "Prophecies of the Demon King", began, and finished 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. However, this was never done.
Reception.
Howard claimed in January 2004 that the site received around 12,000 unique visitors per day.
In his 2004 book, "How to Draw and Sell Digital Cartoons", Leo Hartas used "A Modest Destiny" as an illustration of how reusing artwork can be an effective way to save time when creating a comic.
Author.
"A Modest Destiny" was created by Sean Howard. In an interview, Howard said that his background was in programming. He said that he became interested in comics when a website he followed went down for a server upgrade and the admin posted a list of things people could do instead, one of which was a link to "Sluggy Freelance". Some time later, he was seeking work and looking for a way to be creative and started drawing comics. Howard said that his use of pixel art was based on needing art for video games he was producing. Howard felt the term "sprite comic" was inappropriate for his work as his art was original rather than copied out of a video game, and said he could not agree with doing so and that "it has lead to some of the worst webcomics in existence."
Sean Howard also produced the comics "The Starship Destiny," "The Atheist, the Agnostic, and the Asshole", and "Zombies of the Living Dead".
Dispute with Penny Arcade.
In late 2003, Howard wrote to the creators of "Penny Arcade" over the use of his art by users of the Penny Arcade forum. Howard's letter said that he had already "shut down six web comics that were using his art". Mike Krahulik posted about the letter and dispute on the Penny Arcade website, including a link A Modest Destiny; the traffic overload from this temporarily caused a shutdown of Howard's site.