"Kuh-nife" (DD4, Chapter Two, pages 11-14)

Katerina and Alexandra decide they need nicknames for each other for some reason. Names should always be very carefully considered and chosen using thoughtful, meaningful criteria.

Art note: dappled lighting is very difficult to get to look right! Especially if you try to cast it over a character's face! Plus: I'm very happy with the way that two-page spread turned out. I find something about it very soothing to look at, and I hope readers feel the same way.

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Welcome to the new readers who have joined! If you want to see all the posts with actual finished pages in them, simply browse the "DD4" tag. The Patreon system is not the nicest for comics-reading; if you haven't read Chapter One, you might prefer the experience over here.

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Reminder: I might be a quarter of the way through colouring pages, but I have not shown a quarter of the chapter here. I maintain a buffer in case of emergencies, or needing to take a week to do grant proposals, or in case some longer sequences deserve to be posted at once in one post.

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PRATCHETT UPDATE

I've been listening to Terry Pratchett audiobooks all year, and I've just about heard all that my local libraries have to offer on Libby, which I think is about 2/3 of the Discworld books.   Here are some assorted notes.

RANKINGS. A friend asked me to rank my favourites (hi Ben). The Tiffany Aching books are my favourite (i.e., THE WEE FREE MEN, A HAT FULL OF SKY, WINTERSMITH, I SHALL WEAR MIDNIGHT, and THE SHEPHERD'S CROWN). If we exclude those—and why not? since the branches of the Discworld tree are self-contained enough to do so—I choose the first two books (COLOUR OF MAGIC / LIGHT FANTASTIC) since they're one story, as well as SMALL GODS, THE TRUTH, MORT!, and GOING POSTAL.

WANT TO START READING PRATCHETT? Do not start with anything from the middle section of his Discworld career. I like the early stuff for being fuzzy and funny and weird, and I like his later stuff for tackling sophisticated themes while also being funny and exciting. This page is great for making sense of the Discworld catalogue. Avoid SOUL MUSIC, INTERESTING TIMES, and JINGO.

OLD-FASHIONED IDEAS. I found that Pratchett writes sensitively for the most part, but his East Asian stereotypes bumped me and he is routinely unkind about fat people, especially women and girls.

DO NOT MISS TIFFANY ACHING. There are five books written late in Pratchett's career centred around teen witch Tiffany Aching. A repeated theme in these books is that of the importance (or even nobility) of care and caring for people. These themes feel timely to me. Timely and important. On top of that, if, like me, you have become tired of stories about Chosen Ones and you feel like the usefulness of stories about grandiose clashes of good versus evil has worn out its welcome, find a home here. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the first four HARRY POTTER books (I am saying I quickly grew to dislike the last three), but if I were buying book gifts for any witchly-inclined youths in my life, it would be this series. New hardcover editions with pleasant cover art are coming in September.

RE-READING THE BEGINNING. This is the case with a lot of good books, but I really enjoyed re-listening to the first chapter of each of these. The thematic density (or just establishment of running gags) routinely astonished me, but of course it's impossible to fully appreciate that stuff the first time through.

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Move slowly and mend things,

TC