Did you hear Oregon is considering bringing back dueling for public officials? That... seems like a bad idea. But let's see how this Cassiopeia Quinn storyline plays out to know what our full take is on it, eh?
Here's something you won't see often when we do these (although it happens more often in the concept art updates we do at the $7 tier): see that character in panel 2? That's a rejected design for him. He's never going to be seen in the comic... at least, the character here is never going to look like that guy. It's not impossible that the appearance might get recycled down the line, but it's unlikely. Wish him well, everyone! He just didn't suit the scene.
2017-04-07 04:36:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Gunwild: I mentioned this in the newspost, but man, the law REALLY hates pirates. Even in normal life. Did you know there are pretty much no laws stopping you from killing pirates?
Psu: I wonder if someone could use that excuse at a renfaire....
Psu: Some of my favorite stuff on this page is all the stuff that none of the characters are looking at. Namely Skript Kitty. I think before this page, we viewed Skript Kitty as like just a progr...
2017-04-07 04:31:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Some sci-fi properties out there are telling you to "RUN." But why bother with that, when you can sit back, click a link, and enjoy a new Cassiopeia Quinn update?
Probably should have been putting the months these get POSTED on them, in the first place... corrected now. Anyway, here's the victor of our first pinup subject poll, Dr. Botz! Did your favorite not win? Don't worry, odds are they'll reappear in the next poll, alongside a new option!
Gunwild: This story DEFINITELY made us decide our text needed to be bigger.
Psu: It looks fine when I put my face five inches away from the screen...
Gunwild: If they were humans, Prince Gleb oughta face court martial for striking one of his underlings! But slapping doesn't really cause Vanaa pain, just unpleasant surprise.
Gunwild: So, you know, Patton shouldn't have hit those guys, but with Gleb it's okay.
...
2017-03-31 00:36:28 +0000 UTC View Post
At the very roughest beginnings of a sketch page like this, a lot of what's considered is what takes up space where, how things out in relation to each other. Things are drawn so quickly and intuitively that in spaces like panel 3, it's hard to understand anything other than the shape of a person and the sense of motion. However, in the last panel, you can clearly see a drawing that, even in rough form, says the panel is going to stress a character's ability to emote.
2017-03-31 00:05:15 +0000 UTC View Post
This page had some re-takes on it, specifically the first and second panels. we had two ways we could go with them, and Psu actually wound up sketching it one way, deciding that it wouldn't work, then doing it all over again! To make sure that the new take fit with what we were going for for the rest of the page, they got the most attention first.
2017-03-24 11:24:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Psu: "Poik!"
Gunwild: I remember one of the comments I saw on this on a forum was about the Talps and Kettering bit. They said "Why is the background gag in the foreground?"
Psu: It's pretty cute. But gosh it raises a LOT of questions. Has Talps seen naked humanoid females before? Did she assume that this was a shape that might get her closer to Kettering? What's her angle! And well... that's actually all pretty easy to answer because th...
2017-03-24 10:35:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hack! Cut! Slice! Slash! Chop! Other swordy sounds!
Gunwild: We were just talking about tea.
Psu: The first of many of our holiday comic strips...
Gunwild: They're not THAT Thanksgiving-themed, I'm pretty sure they're just a couple of 4koma - which is to say, four-panel gag strips - I wanted to do, and this was a good excuse. But hey, they're celebrating their colony, like the Pilgrims, and Jones Soda always makes those Thanksgiving soda packs, so...
Gunwild: By the...
2017-03-15 23:02:59 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a sketch that's been approved for redlines but doesn't have them yet. You can see that some characters aren't really drawn in at all, and just have notes on outlines saying where they'll be.
On the other hand, Beebot won't be drawn much more complicated than he is right there in the last panel. That popcorn tub, however, will get some lavish details, I'm sure.
2017-03-15 22:57:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Feeling down? Poorly? Out of sorts? Well, at least you won't feel out of swords when you're reading today's Cassiopeia Quinn update!
Redlines for the next page - this reveals that yes, we're putting Maddy in a fencing competition. This can only go well for her, right? Yes? She's good at swordfighting, and does well in structured environments!
Note that when there are big SFX Psu writes in the spaces they'll have to take up, deciding how much room the text can occupy before deciding what it'll look like, or even talking to me about what it'll say. Ditto for the title!
2017-03-10 03:40:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Psu: I was just thinking about this today
Gunwild: So yes, Nimoo has Star-Lord's Walkman from Guardians of the Galaxy, a movie that hadn't come out when we started Cassiopeia Quinn, but which sure goes to our space-adventure loving hearts.
Psu: Yeah, Nimoo's design always had a Walkman of sorts but after Guardians came out I totally swiped the model that StarLord uses. But I just wanted to say I really like this page more for its writing...
2017-03-10 03:34:18 +0000 UTC View PostHelp us pick the subject of this month's sexy pinup! Vote, and feel free to throw some suggestions as to the specifics of the pinup in the comments section.
2017-03-07 19:44:26 +0000 UTC View Post
We do ourselves the pleasure of inviting you to read the latest Cassiopeia Quinn update, available now to all interested parties for their perusal and entertainment!
Gunwild: I like writing silly reveals.
Psu: It might be hard to believe but I'm PRETTY SURE that I never did concept art of the Vanaa looking anything BUT like funny little goobers."
Gunwild: I think this page actually differed from the concept art a bit in that you tried to vary their head shapes more, in terms of whether they would be round or egg-shaped.
Psu: Yeah, by a few pages in it became the norm that the P...
2017-03-04 10:49:34 +0000 UTC View Post
And here we go with the main plot of this "chapter," centered around swordfightin'. Could this page mean that Russ and Maddy are gonna duel to the death?!
... well, no. Actually they're just practicing. But it'll be fun!
Maddy's posture in the top left panel is borrowed from the Jet Li movie "Hero," while Russ's is taken directly from a very old illustration of "Hamlet," I believe. So, he's ready to duel Maddy or Laertes, whoever shows up first.
2017-03-03 10:36:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Here you have it, a pinup with the three main Doll-Fins AND Clawlossus! This show is proving their most popular yet, because finally people can say they're going to see those lovely showgirls for the action scenes, the action scenes!
All this cuteness was great, but the plan now is to get back to the serious stuff. Everybody likes it if you can bounce between the two so that you never have too much of one or the other, right? Right? Heh heh. Huhhh.
Psu: Why the hell did I start doing this in color. I would've been paid the same without the color.
Gunwild: Well, maybe fewer people would be giving to the Patreon, which would be less pay! Possibly.
Psu: Oh yeah, that's true... Anyway there were a lot of things that were missing when the comic wasn't in color. You can't have different colored aliens without color. And the biggest example of that was going to start making an appearance ...
2017-02-23 05:40:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Another somewhat mellow page this week before we launch into a Maddy-centric, swordfight-based story... we kind of want to show how Beebot integrates into the lives of Cassiopeia and Zeke. Hopefully it's cute and likable!
Hm, wonder if Zeke could turn my sneakers into rocket shoes...
2017-02-23 00:43:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Again doing something a little different for the WiP this week, here's a look at a preview of the monthly pinup. This time it'll feature the Doll-Fins (and Clawlossus) in a promotional poster for their new, more battle-themed act! Why secretly be a cadre of warriors pretending to be showgirls... when you can just be a cadre of warrior-showgirls?
By the way, I'm not sure we've laid it out , as there's really been very little place in the comic. The leader Doll-Fin is Surge, the 2017-02-17 04:40:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Psu: For all the times I do it, I sure am bad at drawing hands placed on hips.
Gunwild: I don't think I'd noticed the Ditto face in Panel 5. That's a good one.
Psu: Well what I remember liking most about this page is that clearly Maddie already decided what she was going to do with the thing as early as the last page. To do that I think her expression needed to be cool and unchanging while everyone else around her was wondering what was ...
2017-02-15 22:04:57 +0000 UTC View Post
According to our count, fourteen new people have joined up with the Cassiopatreon this week! We're super happy to have you. Please enjoy the backlog o' dozens and dozens of posts, and also this new guest page by our very own sometimes-colorist, Brellom!
Gunwild: Some comments we've gotten on this are like "Why would they found a colony somewhere with unsafe levels of radiation?"
Psu: THAT'S A GOOD QUESTION GUNWILD
Gunwild: And that is a perfectly reasonable question, but I think it has a perfectly reasonable answer: they had to live somewhere.
Psu: A combination of law, borders, economics, have forced people to live in lots of unhappy places and space even though ...
2017-02-10 21:54:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Brellom's taken another pass at this guest strip, now it's got dynamic new angles and (what may be) finalized dialogue!
As someone pointed out, yes, we are doing a little goof on the backless sweater fad. We think it's cute. Hope we're not being too CHEEKY.
2017-02-10 14:45:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a page in the works from our own oftimes-color assistant, Brellom! Featuring buttcrack... so avert your eyes, young children!
Interesting here is that you can see the first pass at the layout hiding underneath the current one. It was much-simplified, with the characters coming much closer to the point of view and adopting less complicated poses to make things easier to parse for the reader.
2017-02-04 02:06:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Gunwild: The first panel is really impressive and all, but my favorite thing is the eyebot measuring Cupcake's foot for new sneaks.
Psu: I remember that very specifically from the script and I had a hell of a time coming up with a composition that would fit everything. And that's not to mention that I still have trouble drawing high heels. The second panel was just as hard as the first for very different reasons.
Gunwild: But it's so cuu...
2017-02-03 14:39:26 +0000 UTC View Post
