2007

703- Dungeon Revenues
There had to be some reason why Beireia's office was in the Forest of Peril. When pressed, I'd say that there was some kind of tax reason, but that was never elaborated upon. So this is the rare comic which serves some purpose in the continuity, and is also somewhat funny! I think the presentation is pretty good. Except the first of the two "a-ha"s should be more prominent, it almost looks like an accident now. And Polly's ass should be bigger in the last panel.
704- A Knight to Forget(forum thread)
There's not much to say here. As mentioned on the front page, the gag of a disappointed knight was done better in Girly. This version is all right, too, though. I guess.
705- Sexy Sounding
A nipple in silhouette!! This is one of my favorites, although the lead-in could be a little better, I think. The "bonerz!" bubble was originally much nearer the stripper's crotch, I had to move it so it didn't look like it was supposed to be a censorship bar, implying hermaphroditism. I didn't realize I could draw so many different lecherous faces, either.
706- Public Health Disaster(forum thread)
Exoth looks a little bad in the first panel, but otherwise I like it. The Exoth-Pendenne exchange is a little weak, too, though. That could have definitely been improved if I hadn't been in a rush on this one. Velel came out very well, also. I wish I could use her more, but it seems impossible. Also, using Snid dialogue in Irritability was a little weird, but the line fit.
707- Bait Ignored(forum thread)
Tatanya's doing a lot of blushing so far this year. The thumbnails looked so much better on this one, it's hard to believe. Tatanya's proportions are all messed up in the second panel. The door scan panel thing in the first panel says "access denied" if you cant read it easily. Enne go to be weird again. I'd like to point out that she isnt suggesting torture as a method to extract information, but to make up for their failure to embarrass him verbally.
708- Candyman Part 1(forum thread)
This one was going to be too long, so I used the full-page, 24-hour comic style layout, which kept it from taking up a month and a half or however long it would have taken me. I think the sloppiness of the brushstrokes are a lot less endearing here than in the nautical adventure or in the 24-hour comics, though. I tried a bunch of things in the panel layouts, with varying degrees of success. One and two are good, although the art could use a bit of polishing. The third panel should have been better... I had a layout in the thumbnails which would have been much better, I now realize, that showed Robot himself and had the crowbar smaller in the panel, but I rejected in favor of the current one, which I felt would be just as good while easier to draw. The tip of the crowbar in the fourth panel looks an awful lot like a dick, and the silhouettes in the sixth make it look almost like Robot is humping the guy. Both problems were anticipated, but I couldn't figure out how to avoid them! Also I don't know if I should have used that star cruiser line again...
709- Candyman Part 2
The art on this one is not as good as it should be. The blocking is terrible! The panel compositions in general are not that great. I was intentionally going quickly, and some mistakes are inevitable, but still. Look at the last panel. How did the candy get so far away from the guy's head??? I guess I didn't leave enough space for the word bubbles, and so had to compromise on the layout, huh! I got so irritated writing this annote that I went back and fixed a few things. The layout problems are there to stay though, folks!
710- Snakes are Bad at Math(forum thread)
So, there are a lot of jokes in this one, and while none of them are really great, they're not bad, either. In fact, every panel has at least one joke or visual gag. I'm fairly happy with this one. I sure took it easy on the snake, art-wise, though! I could have at least thrown on a little cross-hatching to indicate scales! Jeez! Also, the white floor in the last panel looks weird, maybe I'll go back and fill that in with a grey. At least Beireia's hair looks pretty good.
711- Authorbot's Bad Day(forum thread)
Pendenne doesn't provide many ideas for comics, but the ones I do that use her are always a lot of fun. I think I did this comic pretty much entirely because I wanted to draw her suplexing the robot.
712- Metal Envy (forum thread)
Every time I do a beholder strip I tell myself it's the last one. But Beholders are just so inherently funny (to me at least...) that I can't resist. The destruction in the background didn't turn out as well as I had planned, but it's all right. I had a lot of different things I was going to add, such as a panel with the Beholder weeping openly, or Polly trying to distract the beast with a crude representation of a female beholder. However, she would have no idea how to portray such a thing, so she'd just add a bow and eyelashes. "Surely the manufactured gender roles of this era are universal to all species!" she is saying in my notes. Anyway, I originally uploaded this as the first of two halves, but ended up liking the ending well enough and decided to leave all that extra stuff out.
713- A Matching Pair
This one is a bit worse for having been split into two parts. Also, I'm not sure how many panels I needed to spend on brass knuckles that imprint "DEEZ NUTS" into people. That joke in the first panel, though, is unrelated and pretty good I guess. That couch in the last panel is just floating around, though. Now that I'm doing color, I should be much less likely to try to get away with that sort of thing.
714- See These
More of the same. This one was rushed, I guess I was working a lot harder then than I am now, though.
715- Likeness Like That (forum thread)
The lead-in for this one is pretty typical for irritability - a conversation, already in progress, is interrupted by a character noticing the main gag. I don't know how effective that is, as in I don't know if it bugs people, but it's an easy way for me to shoehorn in little gag concepts that for whatever reason can't be adapted into a full strip. I like this one, with the possible exception of Exoth's final line. I feel like I have the humor aspect of comics down well enough at least, but the closure of a narrative really gives me problems, so I'm often left with these kind of disappointing ends. Anyway, the idea of Exoth making that "some dumb band" parody shirt is funny to me, but the joke would have worked a lot better if I bothered to put band logos on Robot's shirts these days. I've made characters wear blank t-shirts way too much lately.
716- Negotiations (forum thread)
Well, hey, here's Robot wearing a band shirt! It probably won't last long though. ...My diligence, that is.
717- His True Colors (forum thread)

718- Playing Ruff (forum thread)

719- Good Help is Hard to Find (forum thread)

720- Fruitress of Solitude (forum thread)


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