I almost said it then, but I decided to keep it a little bit of a secret, but I knew then that Mark would hook Tom up with that one on his first outing.

You see, tadillen (the metal his sword is made from) has a curious effect on energy, it dampens it and disperses it. Which is fantastic for a Zee fight where your opponent is so skilled that they can put up a shell of energy to block you attacks, tadillen cuts through it like butter. But it sucks because you cannot get a lock on the metal using conventional telemeters and the regular tracking system.

Mark found a rather simple work around for this issue. Mark will pretty consistently find ways of doing things that neither Zog nor Mog would have thought of. Zog because he’s not creative, Mog because he doesn’t think about stuff like this. Mark is the first member of the PKF who’s intellect borders on fictional.

This boy is an effing genius. Hana’s smart. Mark makes her look like a kindergartner.

The problem is all of his ideas are well ahead of Earth’s tech level…Now he’s been released into a candy store with an unlimited, federally funded, budget to do what ever his heart desires.

Mark IS the tech support of this comic and he is REALLY not suited for the field. But he’s a great fighter in his own right and will go wherever Hana goes. So here he is.

Anyhow, to Keyo, if he still reads this little slice of the Internet, here’s the sword-o-port. And it will be well used.

Also, I feel that I should comment on the recent rash of celebrity deaths this weekend. I can’t say that I ever really kept track of Ed Mcmahon Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson or Billy Mays. But my mother called me up when she heard about Jackson and was very sad about his death, which says a lot about the man, considering most celeb deaths don’t phase her…and as for Farrah, it sucks that she had fought cancer for so long only to go out like that, but it was a hell of a fight. Ed? Dude, you MADE Carson. I never even saw the show and knew about you. Mays?…Well…I bought the effing ‘oxiclean’.

And it works.

-Peace

I just wanted to thank you all for being patient while I sorted stuff out. And I swear that as soon as this class I’m taking is over I’ll work my ass off on a buffer so this won’t happen for a while.

Anyhow, Tom finally mans up and tells the Director to @#$% off. And panel seven (Top-Down) has to be one of my favorites of this arch…Mostly because of Mark’s ‘WOAH!’ reaction. Heh.

Anyhow, I need to get the hell away from this computer. If I think of anything pertinent I’ll edit it in.

-Peace

Firstly, the new uniforms! Nice, eh? I’m still offering the donation incentive, if you’re interested. But the pot is now sweetened, I’m including ANOTHER wallpaper of the agents in their FINAL designs. Some of them changed significantly (Mark and Pat especially), so if you’re interested go over there and chunk in some change. It’ll make me happy and you’ll get some nice pics…Please?

(And if you’ve already donated, check your Email, I’ve sent off the new wallpaper in your previously specified resolution.)

I’m very happy with them, all things considered…I still feel like I should tweak Pat’s…But it’s so much better than it was. God…she had a @#$%ing half cocked BELT at one point. What the hell was that?! Blargh…

I hope you like them…I spent a fair amount of time agonizing over them. The proverbial slaving over a hot sketch book, much of this occurred that and swearing…Much swearing.

Secondly, if you haven’t been reading Hunter (which is cool, I’m not forcing you ::Hides knife::) I actually started to do this aspect ratio in that comic a few weeks ago, though Hunter is a little smaller. The PKF’s new size clocks in at 750px × 1125px, which translates into 600×900 (Hunter’s size). Which is actually the STANDARD comic book page format. It used to be 846×1110…See? Slight change.

I honestly think that making Hunter pages taller and thinner has made the comic better. I spend more time on each panel, because they are actually larger (and there’s fewer of them), which results in (I think) a better work space. Or at least one that I can fill without draining myself or defaulting to basic backgrounds.

This is really more of an experiment than anything else. If, by the end of this chapter, I don’t like (or you all HATE) the layout I’ll return to my previous way of doing things. But I honestly really think that this will be a fantastic change, it was for Hunter.

But let me know.

If the art looks a little…Well…Off it’s because I didn’t measure my work space before I drew…I just kind of made it a little smaller and drew. So I had to futz with the dimensions of my script sketch to get it to look right…Which still made it look @#$%ed up. Sorry, but it’s better then it was when I started…haha.

Anyway, tell me what you think. I thrive off comments (and baked lays…but that’s another story) and love to hear from you.

-Peace

(PS: Don’t worry, The PKF will always be in color…Hunter is just better suited for Black and White.)

(PPS: Yes, I realize that I forgot Shale’s effing beard in the last two comics. Sorry, I’ll fix it soon. I promise…)

You know…Because I used lens flares.

And Star Trek -

You know what?! It’s not funny if I have to explain it.

@#$%.

And no, I suddenly didn’t learn to use lens flares. It’s something I stumbled across a few weeks ago and I had yet to have a place where it made sense. This…well, this made a whole hell of a lot of sense, didn’t it?

And yes, that’s The Creator. His name hasn’t been revealed, but it’s not a secret, so for all you Blog readers down here: His name is Do-Rin-Shale, pronounced as “D’oh – Ryn – Shale (like the rock)” (or ‘Shale’ as he will often be called, hehe, aren’t I clever for have his nickname be the name of rocks? Yay me!). There, now you’re all ahead of the curve…by a few days…but hey.

Also interesting to note, his original name as to be “Dimensional”, but I quickly realized that there really isn’t anything “Dimensional” about him. So for this incarnation I added a few ‘-’s to his name and I’m callin’ him SHALE! There’s more I’d like to talk about, but it’s either a spoiler, or I’m going to include it in the ‘after the arc filler’…Because (as this little incident should prove) I’m way behind on comickery.

And it’s nice to have Zog eat crow, yet again. And Tom’s being a little more assertive…Though his events with Chris have obviously shaken him.

I’m sorry, again, to have made you guys wait. But without a buffer, changes to the Comic will often cut into the comic. I actually had everything mostly done last night, but I didn’t like the way that Shale was introduced (I didn’t have that ‘tornado’ bit OR his fingers assembling themselves out of rock, MUCH nicer). I also tweaked his appearance a little, mostly his ears and tail…I’m much happier about it now.

And adding those Lens Flares were a nice touch, I think. Originally I only had three panels on the second page: Tom (Page 2, Panel 1) and the explosion (Page 2 Panel 2). I added both the tornado and the reaction panels today. And again, I LOVE Mark. The boy takes EVERYTHING in stride. Haha.

Enjoy, and hope that Monday brings an proper on time update.

-Peace

Anyhow, I’m oddly happy with this comic…it’s just too goofy…but I think it rounds out the first part of this arc nicely.

Wednesday will have the agent’s back at the HOLD (save Tom) and we’ll be moving on pretty quickly. In fact, I know I keep saying, but this arc is speeding along compared to how I thought it would go down.

I’ve completely reworked this arc and managed to remove a fair number of comics…AND I improved the story.

I don’t do that too often…it’s either one or the other with me…sadly.

Enjoy the comic.

-Peace

Hehe, Mark has a pink laptop. He also has a pink wallet. Yes, he owns more crap in pink than Hana does.

His stickers (left to right, up to down) are: Bat Symbol, ‘Captian Awesome’, ‘Your facebook profile is my bitch’ and ‘What would alien do?’. Can you tell I like Mark? Because I do.

Oh, and don’t try decifering the binary in The Creator’s eyes…it’s likely only one letter in the whole little thing I typed out…I guess feel free, but don’t worry about it.

Be here Wednesday for more Pat action.

ALSO, have you checked out Hunter lately? Not just because I’ve been enjoying it, but because I’ve been using a differnt method of comicery one it…IE: Multiple Pages, fewer panels to a page. I’ve really liked it the last few weeks…I’m half tempted to start using the same method for The PKF…but I hate doing it mid chapter. There’s a spot in a little while that would let me do some major changes and it would feel right. But I’d like some input.

So go and check out Hunter and tell me if you’d like to see a similar setup on The PKF.

Enjoy.

-Peace

So I hope you’ll all forgive me for a little suspense and pacing here and there. I’ve already eliminated half-a-dozen comics that I thought I had to do (Condensed the opening and Fluffles sequence). BUT Things are moving along very quickly…so sit back and enjoy the show.

And yes. I’m leaving you hanging on what Mark sees for a few days. But don’t worry. Wednesday you’ll get Sam…and what may be my favorite new character of this arc. Seriously, he’s so much fun to draw…I was dreading him…but he looks so good. But more on him when he shows up.

Other than that, I’m happy with how Pat’s part played out…though you can’t see the stars I put together…but it’s blizzarding snow so I guess it works…the high-res I have you can see the stars very clearly…But I think this comic really illustrates what makes Pat and Mark who they are.

Pat’s starting to panic, but is willing to press on.
Mark’s annoyed that the solution isn’t staring him in the face…but I guess it kind of is.

Heh.

Oh…and for anyone wondering, Mark’s in the Bermuda Triangle, I didn’t want to come right out with it because that would be too…I don’t know…obvious. But he’s there…if it’s important to the story later on I’m not telling.

Enjoy, and see you Wednesday.

-Peace

Second, I have a confession to make. I’ve been cheating this comic the last few months. No, I haven’t been stealing art or plot lines (I’m too honest for that crap) but I’ve been…half assing my art. A while ago I started to SKIP a step in the comic process. The layout. The layout involves me drawing blue guiding lines so the characters are more fleshed out before I try to ink them.

I’ve been drawing a basic, loose, design of the charaters. That’s why the art has been fluctuating so much from panel to panel. I’m basically trying to INK without any lines. Now, with my tablet this isn’t a HUGE deal, but it DOES leave things looking both a little flat and slightly ‘off’ every panel. This comic, mid way though, I started using those guides again. The last three panels particularly.

I’ve already done one comic (Friday’s) that’s totally done the RIGHT way and I’m much happier for it. It adds a little more time, but it’s worth it. I mean, why would I spend ANY time on this comic if I’m not spending ENOUGH time on it. Right?

So I’m sorry. Art will start to improve again, because all I’ve been doing is playing it safe…and I can’t get better if I’m playing it safe.

Finally, I was being serious with the title of this one. I really did start to carry gum in High School because people ALWAYS asked me for it. It drove me NUTS so it only made more sense to me to just tote the damn crap around.

I’m glad we’ve got our two new characters finally, they’ve been poking around in my head for ages…if I think about I’ll try to dig up some OLD (early Book One) pictures of Mark and Pat…they’ve changed quite a bit, but not as much as you’d think.

Enjoy the comic and expect Fridays to look even better.

-Peace

ABOUT THE SHIRT: If you’re interested I’d be willing to look into making shirts that will allow you to proclaim yourself the ‘King of No Pants’…but only if a few of you would be interested. I’ve got some other ‘Merch’ things to talk about, but that can wait for Wednesday. But I could make the shirt a donation incentive or something…you know…donate $15 to keep your favorite comic-artist fed and you’d get a shirt. What do you think? Email me or hit me up on the shout box./ABOUT THE SHIRT

I should say that I’m ecstatic with this whole comic…I think that this may illustrate what makes Mark ‘Mark’ better than all the words in the English language…his whole room and house is totally wired. TOTALLY. No, he’s not rich, he’s just a very talented scavenger…he finds all sorts of old, busted, parts and rebuilds them. In fact all the little monitors in his house are dumpster riches. I think I should mention the various little doodads and toys in Marks Room (and on his person):

The Bug-Lookin doll in Panel One is from Star-Slip Crisis, it’s a Jinxlet plushie.

The massive freakin rock monster is Paddington Rumble Bottom (the third), who’s from Dreamland Chronicles.

Both of which are on my ‘must read’ list of web comics…but I don’t link them. Ask me to explain my logic someday when this post isn’t running so long.

The poster in the center of the first and second panel is from one of my other stories called ‘Saviors’ which has been mentioned several times in the comic as well as pictured from time to time. In the context of the comic ‘Saviors’ is a popular TV show that Tom (and by proxy the others) watch, I’ll rarely go into detail (I’d like to do something with it eventually) but it’s a story of Angels, Demons and it’s nothing like Hunter…It’s very gritty and realistic (I know, angels and realistic don’t go hand in hand).

Then he’s go a ‘Hang in There Baby’ poster. You know, the cat hanging from the tree? That one.

Finally he’s got a RIAA poster…you’ve probably seen it:

It’s really more Ironic than anything else…He’s a hell of a little hacker and his computers are probably chock full of warez and other programs that he shouldn’t have…I just thought that the picture fit. It’s so full of ‘bull shit’ I’m surprised it doesn’t stink up the boy’s room.

That’s why Mark has it…it makes him laugh (as it does me). Mark lives with his Mother, Father, and two little siblings (Sister and Brother). He’s been hard pressed to convince his parents to let him rig the house the way he has…but he finally won out. The house has a semi-intelligent computer program running the show…it’s not quite AI but it’s damned smart.

Mark is a Dork’s Dork…he’s got a pair of ‘Don’t Panic’ Boxers for gods sake. If you don’t know where ‘Don’t Panic’ comes from…SHAME ON YOU!! It’s from ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’. I’m fairly certain I’ve referenced that book before, but I can’t remember when…but it’s easily one of my favorite books…ever.

He’s also got a little crush on Hana. Which makes for some awkward moments…which is always nice.

FINALLY!! His shirt, it’s my own design, it proclaims him ‘KING OF NO PANTS!’…he tends to…lose his pants on a regular basis. Not in a sexual way mind you, but in a simple ‘Shit…I was JUST wearing them…’ capacity. If you’re interested I’d be willing to look into making a few shirts like this. Maybe donation incentives? Donate $15 and you get a shirt (or…you know…pay $15 for it). It’s just something goofy I came up with when I was doing sketches of the character. I always knew he’d tend to lose his pants…but the shirt kind of screams ‘I don’t care’.

I think that’s about it for this comic…Be here on Wednesday for more ‘Mark’ action…also, Tom and Pat. Which will make the group whole again! Well…almost.

-Peace