5.37

Seems like every time we see this guy we’re stuck at a door

Not much going on, just making comics. Like mentioned in the last post, Mare Internum is updating at a good clip now! Been getting those pages out and streaming a lot more for my $2 Patrons in the last few weeks, it’s been pretty good for productivity. If you were at the stream for this page you can tell I changed a lot of the text~ it’s a process. More process streams definitely on the way.

We’re also having a live/open tutoring session this week sometime, so if you’re into that, feel free to add any questions to this post for the tutorial-tier Patrons.

And also thank you for availing yourself of the Meek Store! I think there’s one more signed HC pack available for now, a few signed SC packs, and I may add some dinged copies at a discount sometime this week as well for those who want a book and don’t mind a tiny flaw or two. I’ll put this here again just for ease of clickin’

Okay, more stuff soon~

36 Comments

  • JJ

    So you can hold a conversation with your younger self, but you have no idea what your wife would have said? Good job, Luca.

    • So that’s what the other guy’s identity was after all.

  • Android 21 3/7

    I hope you at least can think of what Suda would say when he leaves for his Mother’s. At the very least, the hijinx he’d come up with might cheer you up.

  • MiniMoose

    Love the continued detail of holes burned into the palms of his gloves. Also loving this slow burn descent into madness – it’s sad and frightening but I can’t wait to see what awful things it continues to dredge up.

    And, uh, this may not be the expected reaction but I will put it out there that young Luca is one handsome dude and exactly my type: dark, scruffy, and damaged, ah haha. I’ll take one, plz (but perhaps without the evil tiger deity bff).

  • Kent

    What a dramatic but fitting way to end this conversation. I wonder if “that stupid THING” is behind that door. Speaking of doors, I’ve never seen a keyhole like that. Is the shape just decorative?

    • It’s a real kind of keyhole! There’s a lock museum of all things on the street I used to work, I took a lot of reference photos of historic padlocks/ keyholes/ mechanisms a few years ago and had them waiting in a folder for a throwaway detail like this… and yes, as far as I know, it was just decorative.

      • hkmaly

        Did you consulted if it was just decorative with a lockpicker from that period? I would guess it either was harder to lockpick or at least the buyers were thinking so.

      • Cyanilurus

        That keyhole… must be really difficult to use in the dark. :D
        (Okay, I have trouble with slippers in the dark. So maybe not!)

      • TimesNewLogan

        I actually picked up a key like that one at a flea market seven years ago. Thought it was cool that it started with the same letter as my last name.

  • Hyrule_Symbol

    It was him Talking to his own guilt and humanity all along…

    Also is he actually missing a leg?

    • Yep! You can see the strap-on leg (lol) on his first page.

      • Hyrule_Symbol

        Huh, i guess i thout it was a really tight boot?

  • Edgar M Lemos

    “Seems like every time we see this guy we’re stuck at a door.”

    Literally unable to move on :(

  • DukeBG

    I feel bad for Bezo

  • Darcy

    If young Luca serves as his conscience, at least some part of him acknowledges that no, the kids are not okay. It’s something at least, I suppose. :/

    Der-shing, has anyone accused you of fridging Phe, out of curiosity? It seems clear her death has helped Luca go down this path.

    • JJ

      Is it still fridging if more of his family soon dies as well? Or would that be fridging for Rana??

      • Does fridging apply to families too? Like a Groupon package?

        • Kincajou

          ok, you made me laugh… i’m a bad person

    • No, people tend not to accuse me of stuff too much. I think my readership trends a bit more patient, probably just through elimination over the years… At least, I’d like to think that people know I have more reasons to kill people off than for shock value or to build a random dude’s character, and am going somewhere specific with the story.

      • Darcy

        That’s good. Well, your name isn’t George R. R. Martin so that probably helps too. :D

  • McDoom

    Love the last panel. The last three panels, in fact. The subtle change to his posture and the zooming out frame how alone he is, the weight he carries.

  • Ilmari

    Dude… Did you really exterminate your staff? That’s… dire. No government, in the full spectrum from tyrrany to liberalism, has functioned properly without a beuraucracy of experienced functionaries. That’s what makes civil society. Seriously.

    And for all that he is a walking breathing disaster, this page *still* makes me feel sad for Luca…

    • Arianwen

      Actually, dictatorships tend to wipe out the current staff (e.g. long-established governments replaced by juntas) and put in their own people, those who support you or have the ‘right’ ideas, regardless of their actual experience or competence. Things run smoothly on the surface, because everyone’s shit-scared and admitting to problems can get you killed, and underneath that it’s total chaos.

      • Arianwen

        (I wish I could edit and remove that ‘Actually’. Sound like a finger-wagging twit. YOU SAW NOTHING.)

        • Usually I would fix it up for you but I’m feeling cheeky so I’m gonna bold it XD

          • Arianwen

            NNNNNnNNnnnnnnnOOooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOO

        • Ilmari

          No need ta worry, I don’t mind it. :p

      • Ilmari

        Indeed it often (but far from always) happens, but that doesn’t invalidate the point. When one gets rid of the experienced functionaries and replaces them with kleptocrats or incompetents, things go downhill fast.

        It’s not only in dictatoriak takeovers either. As recently witnessed in Iraq as nd Libya, the dismissal of experienced civil servants from a dictatorship, in favour of those with sufficient rebel stripes, can be disastrous.

      • Stig Hemmer

        Luca replaced the staff of his predecessor *years* ago. What is happening now is that he is disposing of his *own loyal* staff for very minor mistakes.
        This too can also happen in dictatorships… but those dictatorships tend to end badly.

        Luca+Phe had control and looked like a new family dynasty in the making. Luca alone, not so much.

        It is just barely possible that Suda can pick up the pieces and save the day and his family, but he had better act fast.

        • JJ

          Suda!?!? I don’t think so. Maybe as a puppet with Rana pulling the strings.

          • ElMariachi

            Seeing that Rana is trying to steer herself into becoming a Luca bis, I think that would be better for everyone if it’s Suda who takes the power.

  • Lambda

    Poor Luca, trapped by his past decisions and his persona as an emperor. Too bad holy moly tiger god decided to “dispose” of Phe to nudge him in the “good” direction…

    I´d give him a hug, but I do remember that he didn´t need any “godly help” to decide to kill any people that could be mere “resistance” to his plans.

    You reap what you sow, Luca.

  • ElMariachi

    So, just to be clear, by “dismiss”, he means “execute”, right?

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