No Rest For The Wicked

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:53:38 GMT

Third Interlude, pages 11 and 12 | one new fanart

Those of you not in the Philippines may have heard on the news that the country was hit by a pretty crazy typhoon last Saturday. We're used to typhoons over here, but this one turned out much worse than anyone was expecting. My family and I were lucky and weathered it just fine. But many people right in our city lost most of their belongings, their homes, or even their lives; and other cities and regions were hit much worse. I know things are bad all over, and several other countries were hit with terrible natural disasters recently; but if you're sleeping someplace dry and safe tonight, please spare a moment to think of those who can't. If you want to find out more or are interested in helping out, there are some photos, videos and links collected here and here.

Okay, that's all. We now return you to your irregularly scheduled cheesy fairy tale comic. There are three more pages in this Interlude, and Chapter 5 is going to be another monster-sized one like Chapter 3.

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:29:45 GMT

Third Interlude, page 10

I was experimenting a bit on this page with a different type of pen, so let me know if you notice any difference. Or not.

The middle bubble in the last panel originally read, "I'd tell you 'Jack, son of so-and-so'"; but it occurred to me that, if readers could accept the idea of a guy called "the Boy", they might actually believe that his father was literally named "so-and-so". Which would admittedly be kind of funny, but not quite what I had in mind.

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:11:07 GMT

Third Interlude, pages 8 and 9 | 89 new icons | 1 new fanart

What, you thought only the prince was cool enough to get flashback scenes?

When the time comes I can never think of anything to say here. Um, as you might know I've been trying to redesign this site. I had grand ambitions of learning css and having a sleek layout and super-cool menus and things. Yeah, that's not working out so well; I'll probably end up just doing it in regular caveman html after all. I keep thinking there must be some better way of organizing the fanworks though.

That's all I guess. Thanks for reading. Next page sometime next week I hope.

Thu, 21 May 2009 21:57:53 GMT

Third Interlude, pages 6 and 7 | 3 new fanart

Now that I look at it (as if I haven't looked at it before now), page 6 seems to be the sort of played-for-laughs slapstick that's actually quite horrifying and unfunnny. Like all those "funniest home videos" that show people falling and hitting their heads or getting mauled by bears.

I was supposed to put up a big batch of new livejournal icons by tomoyoichijouji, but it will have to wait for next time. In the meantime, please check out all the new fanart. ^^

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:07:06 GMT

Third Interlude, page 5

By the way, this princess and giant aren't supposed to be from any fairy tale in particular; I just made them up since I couldn't find a tale that suited the purpose. For all that a dashing prince rescuing a princess from danger is supposed to be a fairy tale cliche, it seems like it almost never happens in any actual fairy tales! Princes who do rescue princesses rarely get to look cool while doing so. Of course, Ricardo doesn't usually end up looking cool either.

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:49:11 GMT

Third Interlude, pages 3 and 4

Updates for this interlude should proceed smoothly from here on. Next page will be on ~~Saturday~~ Sunday?

In the interminable last few days before the release of the Watchmen movie, I made a silly little doodle of the Boy, November and Red re-enacting a certain scene from Watchmen (that ended up not making it into the movie). Then, when I scanned it in, I started having a little too much fun imitating the John Higgins coloring, and... the result was both dorky and terrifying.

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:34:10 GMT

3rd Interlude, page 2

When I think about it, a lot of the inspiration for Ricardo's character is probably owed to Rumiko Takahashi.

Still catching up on emails!

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:45:50 GMT

3rd Interlude, page 1

I didn't realize that I had said Saturday (the 7th) would be the new page. For some reason I thought the 7th was a Sunday. At any rate, I didn't manage to finish the page by Sunday either. But here it is now!

Way back at the start of the comic, I promised no blatant pop culture references. I broke that in the very first chapter with Perrault's "these boots are made for walking" line. Now I'm breaking it again with the title of this Interlude, a line which has been a source of soul-searing anguish and frustration for so many children from my generation. I've been looking forward to doing this Interlude for a while; hope you enjoy it.

I still have a bunch of emails to answer; thank you for being patient! And if anyone is interested, I do actually have a Twitter; I've decided to start posting updates there as well.

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:55:07 GMT

Chapter 4, page 53 (end)

And with that rather anticlimactic ending, I need to take a breather. Apart from needing to regroup before beginning a new chapter, things have been incredibly hectic with last-minute preparations for my brother getting married on Saturday. So on February 7, we start the third Interlude. I think you will enjoy it! Unless of course you don't. I'll do a site update between then and now, probably on the 31st.

EDIT: Um, February 9. 3rd Interlude starts on February 9.

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:38:31 GMT

Last page of Chapter 4 will be up tomorrow. I'm really sorry. It's been an absolutely crazy week.

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:30:12 GMT

Chapter 4, page 52

This scene is blatantly inspired by my cat Shawn. When you hold the door open for him, he will walk up to it very intently, then stop just a few steps short, suddenly remembering how extremely urgent it is that he sit down and groom himself right that very second. I tell him that I wasn't put on this earth to stand around being doorman to a cat, but he seems to disagree.

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:46:58 GMT

Chapter 4, page 51

~~This new year isn't holding back so far. Shaded page will be up tomorrow!~~ Finished! Happy New Year!

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:48:37 GMT

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it! To everyone else, Happy Holidays and have a nice day. :) Where I am, it's actually 4 in the morning of the 26th, and a few hours from now I will be leaving forthe airport, to return on the 30th. So obviously I will have to miss an update. The next update will be on January 4, Sunday.

I'm sorry I don't have a present or a holiday-themed picture for you this year. But you should definitely check out this excellent little music video, made by Kaol N. who runs the Japanese translation.

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:17:52 GMT

Chapter 4, page 50

~~The gray shaded version will be up tomorrow.~~ (Finished!) There are three more pages in this chapter, but unfortunately what with Christmas and going out of town from the 26th to the 30th, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to finish the chapter before the year ends. :/

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:40:41 GMT

Chapter 4, page 49

Toast is delicious, isn't it?

Next update will be Sunday again.

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:43:42 GMT

Chapter 4, page 48

Ack. Okay, the next page will be up on Tuesday night. Don't think of it as "slow", think of it as "dramatic tension"!

You might have noticed that the door is a rather modern-looking one. This doesn't have any particular significance except that I decided to do it that way to make it look more obviously out of place.

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:49:20 GMT

Chapter 4, page 47 | 1 new fanart

Sorry for the slow going. It should be apparent by now why I had originally wanted to to have this entire scene ready before updating. Next week, I hope to have two pages.

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:07:28 GMT

Chapter 4, page 46

Last week, having announced that I was going to start updating again, I was expecting to get maybe five or six comments. I got forty comments, plus a dozen or so emails. I seriously don't think I'm ever going to stop being shocked and amazed at how much people have responded to this little comic. I'm really sorry if I don't respond to every individual one; since they all generally boil down to "yay, more updates," I just want to say thank you all so much. And thanks for reading. I feel like good things are in store.

This page was a little later going up than expected, because at the last minute I decided to rewrite Clare's dialogue on this and the suceeding page. Of course, I had to rewrite in a way that would fit the existing word balloons, or else I'd have to redraw. And I had to reletter with the tablet, in such a way that the tablet-drawn letters matched the pen-drawn letters. Not that simple! Anyway, this is all just pointless whining to emphasize how I envy those who can write and edit their entire script before ever drawing a single page.

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:47:40 GMT

Chapter 4, page 45 | 1 new fanart

So I'm thinking I really need to set a regular schedule for this thing again. I've had some concerns in the past that updating one page at a time would screw up the pacing during dramatic scenes, but even one page a week or every other week has to be better than the past few months. So, lets say updates every Sunday night (my time). I actually have enough pages that I should be able to keep that up for a couple of weeks at least. ;)

If anyone is still reading this... Hello!

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:36:50 GMT

Chapter 4, pages 42, 43, 44 | 7 new fanart | 20 new fan icons

Um, hi. So. The way my life has been lately, I've found it easier to work on the comic when I think of it as something I do purely for my own enjoyment, without pressure to meet expectations. Unfortunately, this means that I've been neglecting you guys in terms of emails and posts, to say nothing of new pages. I'm very sorry about that. I apologize to anyone who might have worried I was lying in a ditch somewhere having my face chewed off by monitor lizards, and I'm deeply grateful to everyone for their patience and understanding these past months. It continually amazes me that even during the long dry spells people still think of the comic enough to send me emails and make fanworks, as evidenced by the gorgeous new pieces added to the gallery.

So, anyway, go read the new pages, and I promise that the next set will not take another three months. ^^;; To keep track of updates, as always, there's the mailing list or the Livejournal feed, which doubles as an RSS feed.

Oh, and I'm afraid I've decided to take down the shoutbox. For comments and discussion, there's still the forum; or, you can leave comments on the LJ.

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:49:30 GMT

Chapter 4, pages 40 and 41
Please imagine that November fixed her hair at some point between pages 40 and 41. I have to learn to resist temptation to make her hair a complete mess by chapter's end. And at some point I'm going to have to go back and fix every single panel in this chapter where I forgot to draw the bandages on November or Red's hands.

Fans of Golden should be happy to know that, after a long dry spell, there have been a couple of new pages recently! They should also take note that it's moved to a new site.

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:00:03 GMT

Chapter 4, pages 38 and 39

I'm not too satisfied with these pages, but I don't think fiddling with them is going to make them any better, so... >_<

Um, let's see... Richard Pulfer at Broken Frontier did a short interview-type-thing with me here. And in somewhat less shocking news, November has been spotted among the shambling undead.

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 23:42:26 GMT

Chapter 4, pages 36 and 37
Okay, I thought setting a date for the update ahead of time would help me avoid stupid delays. Apparently not! Never mind then. Updates are still every ten-ish days.

No matter how neat November's hair is at the beginning of the chapter, it always seems to be a mess by the end of the chapter.

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:52:55 GMT

Chapter 4, pages 34 and 35

Sorry, not much dialogue. Not much to say here, either. :/ Next update will be Thursday, Feb. 14.

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:08:51 GMT

Chapter 4, pages 32 and 33 | fan cosplay | fan dolls | fan wallpaper | extras

I think I've finally cleared the backlog of fanworks to post. Sorry to those who had to wait a really long time. I've also finally added links in the Extras section to Bearskin and Snow White and Rose Red.

These flashback pages are being drawn with a different brush pen than I used to ink the first part of the flashback; I think they came out closer to the look I was trying to achieve. It's actually kind of fun inking this way, but it's pretty sloppy. This should be the last Red flashback for a while, so I don't know when I'll be able to practice this style again. :P