4.15

OKAY back on track. Thanks for your patience, I had a 1.5 year long project wrap up recently, and then had to do all the stuff I was putting off while working on that, haha. The big news though, is I finally have this thing:

If it wasn’t apparent already, I am pretty chronically overworked. Webcomics are my favorite thing in the world to do, but I do not make any money from them, and obviously have to put them aside when paid work comes up. If you enjoy reading my stuff and would like to keep it updating regularly (as well as get early page previews, extra art, a bunch of other comics and personalize rewards from me), you now have a direct way to do that. Thanks for taking a look!

Even if I don’t make any Patreon update goals, I will always update here as much as I can physically manage. However, you can expect some spottiness (just go ahead and assume deadlines or death is the cause). If it’s been over a week and you’d like more specific info about when the next page is going up, info on delays will always be posted to the Facebook.

Today’s bonus art: a radical experiment

38 Comments

  • AnAverageLoser

    Aww, Etan. Don’t be that guy. Please.

  • Sky

    But she has pants on!!

    • EXACTLY! WHY ARE THEY SEXUALIZING BOOBS! They are just boobs. Get over yourselves!

  • Nrolad Dro

    What is that blue thing on Pinter arm, 3rd panel?

    • ThatGuy

      He has a tattoo on his left arm. You can see it more clearly in Chapter 4, Strip 2.

      • Yep, it’s a tattoo that pretty much everyone in the army gets while doing their compulsory service (more info).

      • DukeBG

        You can also see it clearly In Chapter 1, pg.7

  • I’m pretty sure Angora isn’t a “THAT”, Etan, you rude….

  • Ah, he closed his eyes back.

  • dralou

    Seeing Etan’s profile… I don’t know why, but he seems really familiar.

  • Spav

    I think it might have been brought up somewhere in the comments of MI by somebody else, but it bears repeating- now that you have a Patreon, it’s a very good idea to put a big honking obvious link to it on the pages for both comics, ideally incorporating the logo in all its glaring orange glory.

    Take any notions of modesty or discretion regarding asking people for funding, and toss them out the window. Not all the readers check twitter or other media, you’ve got to get all up in their face.

    • gingerpear

      true facts! those links are how I discovered the patreons to some of my favorite creators as well. :)

    • Haha, yeah, that is the plan! I will probably implement some annoying thing in the next week or so, but for this week the annoyance will be concentrated in the comments section :B

  • Tuckerscreator

    One suggestion: you might want to put the “first prev next” bar on the top instead of the bottom. Oftentimes when seeing a new page I want to see the previous one first to see if I missed anything, and scrolling down to click “previous” means I spoil myself on reading the new page at too fast a speed and out of order.

    • Oh yeah, some other folks mentioned that. I dislike top nav, but you can always easily navigate with the keyboard (< arrow goes back), that way you don't have to scroll down and get spoiled :]

      • Madeleine

        That doesn’t quite work when you start directly at the “home” page which always features the last comic. There is no back button from there, only the links you provide.

        • Not sure what you mean… The keyboard nav doesn’t work for you from the home page?

          • skellagirl

            I just tried it myself (I’m one of those people who always goes back to the previous page before reading the newest) and it worked for me, from both the “home” and from the “page” page itself. I’ll have to try and remember it for future instances!

  • Lilian

    Hah! This page is glorious with all of it’s complicated human interaction. All three characters have been portrayed as “good guys”, yet here they are having a very messy and loaded confrontation.

    Angora is the most innocent of the three, but she has just been caught in a display of supernatural power, intense anger, and in clothing that surrounding culture deems indecent. Angora’s just trying to help Mocheril.

    Pinter’s intentions toward Angora are anything but sexual or dishonest, but anyone who stumbled upon these two would have understandable reasons to believe otherwise. Pinter’s just trying to do what’s right and look after Angora.

    Etan has thus far been displayed as a helpful character. He seems calmer than Angora and Pinter, and appears to be a very principled fellow. He’s graceful and pretty straightforward about why he isn’t comfortable staying with these two. However, he has a hard time seeing Angora and Pinter in a way other than what first comes to his mind. In his eyes, Angora cannot be innocent company. Etan is trying to do what is right and live according to his principles.

    In short, all three of these characters are sympathetic. Excellent work.

    Now to see what happens next!

  • Lilian

    Angora’s response here is great. It’s as if a normally gregarious and bold child had to get the “stranger danger” talk, and now isn’t sure when it’s safe to approach someone new. So Angora hides, then demands that Pinter tell her whether Etan is safe or not.

    And once she gets the okay, it’s right back to “HELLO!”. Very straightforward and guileless. Nicely done.

    Oh, Pinter. He’s so practical. Poor sap.

  • DukeBG

    Etan’s gonna have none of this crazy story involvement!

    Also, I love Angora’s reactions on this page.

    • Lilian

      That does tend to keep one out of trouble, doesn’t it?

  • Angora reminds me of the Shadowhild from Digger.

  • Hmph.

    I officially do not like this guy. First he talks sh*t about my BFF Luca and now he’s ragging on Angora? That sh*t don’t fly with me, Etan. That sh*t? Don’t fly.

  • Danielle

    You’re rad, and my inspiration. Be kind to yourself, we’ll be here.

  • Tom

    Something odd seems to be happening with the image quality (digital quality, I mean – the artwork itself is still superb and blazes trails across my retinas) – I’m seeing loads of compression artefacts in today’s page and the last but one, but none at all in the previous page. Are the image compression and quality settings different between pages? Or is it perhaps just something to do with the REALLLLY slow web connection I’m currently using…

    • It might be your connection? I use the same process for posting every page, so I doubt it would be too different between the last several pages! Can you let me know if you see this happen again on a different computer/ connection? If it’s persistent I will definitely look into it further.

      • Tom

        Hm – when I load the previous page and check the image properties, the image I get is 756x1062px, and 644.47kb. The one I get when this page finishes loading is the same resolution, but only 100.45kb. I’ll try wiping my browser cache and see if anything changes, I originally viewed the previous page on a much, much faster connection, and those files might be hanging around.

        • Hm, yeah, the actual uploaded page should be 583kb! Defs try clearing your cached :]

          • Tom

            OK, after clearing the cache, the previous page’s comic now also only weighs in at around 90kb. Clearly it’s a slow connection problem; what I don’t understand is why the browser is saying the page is fully loaded after only returning that part of the progressive jpeg. Maybe firefox is just giving up on loading the rest of the file (thanks, DukeBG, for explaining that one) because it’s too slow, and calling it finished. I wonder if there’s an option somewhere for me to inisist that it waits for the full image to load in glorious high quality, however much longer it takes…

          • Okay, I put it on Tumblr, so maybe you’ll be able to see this one? Give it a try

          • DukeBG

            Oh, sorry for not noticing the reply earlier.
            What you describe actually looks like a bit different thing happenning. There are “turbo modes” in few browsers that “speed up internet” by passing the pages through the intermediate servers that mega-compress the images (and also the css/js/layout files, but nvm).
            If you are using the Opera browser, this thing is called Opera Turbo. Depending on the version of the browser the path to the setting might be different, so I’m not gonna list it.
            If you are using Google Chrome, it used to be a checkbox “Settings” –> “Bandwidth management” –> “Reduce data usage” (but i’m not sure where it is now).
            Hope it helps, though, this message is a week+ late, i’m sorry.

    • DukeBG

      Tom, the jpeg is encoded in progressive mode, that means if your connection is slow you first see the image in low quality and with more data transferred it becomes sharper and cleaner.
      I’m pretty sure, most of people who have slow internet are familiar with how that looks.

  • Katzenstreu

    Pinter’s life is so difficult.

    Also, congrats! It looks like Patreon is taking off well. :) I’m so, so happy for you.

  • sweet_gardenia

    UGH WHY IS SHE SO PRECIOUS UGHHHH MY HEART shing please stahp

    Also pooh on Etan if he’s gonna be that way. Don’t let the doorknob hit ya on the way out. Or the uh…branch I guess.

  • Selbin

    Also, panel 1. Angora’s ‘run away’ action reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes a bit.

  • Psudopod

    “However, you can expect some spottiness (just go ahead and assume deadlines or death is the cause)”

    Because death causes spotty updates. It really slows production -n-

  • TYEYRE JUST BOOBS! Get over yourselves!! Stop specializing breast! They feed kids and have nothing to do with reproduction!!

Leave a Reply to Spav Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *