Comic Report #124 - On The Horizon

Hello again! This week I have two things to report, one is a big one and the other is the next comic page. I've been going pretty hard all month on like four or five different things and I feel a bit tired, but my work is not done yet. I can share a little of what we've built so far, though, so please have a look if you'd like.

For the past year or so I've been working on a side project on Cohost, building a little sci-fi universe, as a way to draw quick and easy things that aren't strictly work related, to make art for fun. Cohost was a pretty easy place to just post stuff, but the amount of stuff I ended up making has grown to a point where it's not really feasible for anyone to pick it up and read it all anymore, since I had a kind of hackjob Table of Contents post built to organize it all, there was no page-to-page navigation. So what we, the Lucky Raven team, decided to do was build a proper website and mirror everything onto there! Now a whole fully-formed and developed website has kind of surfaced out of the aether!

We still have a bit of work to do fleshing out some of the extra features and final polish, but the core of it is up and running, so you can take an early look at https://titan.garden/ and see what we built before we start telling people about it. We wanted to build a website that was kind of old-internet in terms of having fun little secrets hidden throughout, and some of those secrets are still in development, but the core is readable. I'm not entirely sure how to describe or pitch this project to people, it's not a comic and it's not a novel, it's something else all its own. You can pick it up and read it in any order, or you can read it sequentially; you can read one entry at a time and all the little short stories tie together into a larger narrative. "We created a universe" is sort of how it feels in my head but I don't know if that quite does it. I used to love to just read D&D supplement books or read monster manuals and pore over all the little bits of information, and I think that partly inspired Titan Garden's format, that and kind of a narrative wiki dive? I'll think of a more elegant way to sum it up, but you're invited to try it out for yourself and let us know what you think. There is also a map that you can click through to see where all points of interest mentioned in the articles are in relation to each other, and help build a sense of space in the world. We think it's pretty cool but it's hard to come up with a thing it's "like", but that's maybe not a bad problem to have. We'll figure it out.

In addition to working on this and other projects, like Kitsune Tails, I also started moving forward on the next comic page. The end of the month is about nine days away but I think I can make it in time. This page is the classic combination of "a lot of figures, but they're mostly all waist-up shots against flat walls so it should be okay." I might regret these words in a week's time, but we'll only know when we come back around again. For now, though, here's what's going on in the comic:

The previous page was about bringing our little crew of friends together and hearing out Pat as he explains what's been going on in town, explains that they've been targeted by the town's armed security, and that he's sorry for putting them all into this situation. The goal of this page is for the groups of friends to talk together, to sort out their situation and resolve what they can do about it. Kicking off that discussion, in the first panel Melody and Clark take a bit of an annoyed tone- they just got here, so what the hell did they do that the Gravekeepers want to hurt them like that? In the next panel Pat confirms they're in the crosshairs because they know the wrong people so they're as good as outsiders to them. Real swell guys.

In the third panel Lou, ever the optimist, asks if maybe the Sheriff's office can do something about this. Stacy is quick to confirm that she has two deputies to their two-dozen Gravekeepers, that the last guy who had her job didn't leave the office on good terms, and she's pretty sure one of her deputies is working for the Mayor. While she's technically the new Sheriff of Tombstone the numbers aren't looking favorable for her to be able to control the Gravekeepers or stop them from doing whatever they want, or whatever they're ordered to do.

Next row of panels has Randy chime in, he points out that the Gravekeepers made him build all those big fancy weapons, so why go through all the trouble of turning people with a zombie bite when they could get rid of someone much more directly? Pat fields this one, relaying what his goggle-wearing companion explained to him, that if you just shoot someone people begin asking questions, but if they turn up sick people tend to write it off as being their own fault. A grim outlook, but Liz seems to take note of that particular detail. These guys -avoid- the direct approach with their mysterious executions. Okay. Good to know.

Rounding out the page, Amy is a bit nervous about the whole thing. They just got here to this whole big town, are they gonna have to leave again? The Omni-mart was getting cold and the town seems so nice. Monday, being Monday, tells her that no, they don't have to leave. There's a way they can resolve this problem, but they're gonna have to act tonight, right now. And that would set up the next page.

So that's where I'm at right now. I think most of the art obligations on making this new website project are settled, I can focus on the comic until it's finished, and then I can grind out as many Kitsune Tails art assets as I can until I need to juggle the chainsaws again. End of June! That one's looking to clear off my plate by the end of June. I just need to keep everything going, I'll slowly get my time back. Until then, it's comic time, so I should hopefully have something substantial or close to complete by this time next week. Wish me luck! There's gonna be a lot of characters on this page.