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

So Tom got the gem, they’re finally out of the cave, Dis has returned to his silence, and shit’s REALLY going to start heating up soon…Well…After the big reveal of The Creator.

And you finally get a little insight about This Comic From Book One (I can finally link to my own site! Yay!). Chris uses the fact that he doesn’t need oxygen as a way of illustrating his obvious lack of a body and the organs contained within. See, I wasn’t just being odd. I had actually thought I’d dedicate half this comic to Chris explaining why ‘Breathing’ was so important to him, but I think that this understated approach was much better and I’m happy to have used it instead. It makes Chris seem so much more resigned to it.

And if you’re down here wondering why Tom’s still being kind of nice to Chris, it’s TOM. That’s kind of the guy’s nature. But if you notice he’s not apologizing to Chris anymore. Tom knows he @#$%ed up, but he also knows that Chris won’t forgive him.

But that doesn’t mean that Tom won’t try to win Chris over, or at least show him a little kindness. It worked for Sam, and Sam wanted to kick Tom’s ass…I really need to post a short story about that one…Ah well…maybe later this Summer.

Enjoy the comic.

-Peace

First, I KIND OF got the archives the way I want them…but they’re still kind of messed up. But I’m happy enough with now…

Anyhow, this comic spans about…six months? Nine? Of Chris’s life…and you get the explanation for the distinct absence of The Guardian…Chris choked his wrinkled ass to death. Or…well…I guess you can’t really ‘kill’ a mental disillusion, can you?

And you knew Chris likes the attention too much to keep quite as Dis babbled on.

I’m not going to talk too much about this comic, because Monday’s comic really goes into the back story and reasoning…this is really more of a ‘this needed to be explained’ kind of thing and the ‘soul comment’ is more of a teaser than an explanation in itself.

Trust me. You’ll fully understand this by the Monday.

I might have to tweak the dialogue some though…I’m not quite happy with it. It needs to be more clear…Sometimes my logic get jumbled between my brain and the page…This happened a lot early in Book One, but I’ve much more careful with it i recent years.

That and I totally re-wrote Chris’s part in this comic after Book One, Chapter Four. Well, not totally…but significantly. But all the stuff that’s going to be explained soon was decided on by the time Book One, Chapter Eight wrapped up. I’m kind of doing a juggling act making sure I’m not totally disregarding what was explained in Those Crazy Zargonians…and it’s rather hard.

Though I guess I could as Zog and Mog were really only making assumptions and guesses based on what little they understood…

That’s the problem with Book One, I kind of winged some stuff and now I’m struggling to make it work. But when it all clicks together it’s GLORIOUS…

Maybe at the end of Book Three I’ll do a ‘this is what didn’t make it in’ or something and tell you guys all the SHIT that I deemed pointless or useless to the plot…or things I totally @#$%ed around with from what I had originally planned.

Sometimes I feel like I’m reading this comic along with you guys…just all jumbled and jumping around until it all gets straightened out and put on paper.

I wonder if ‘real’ authors feel that way?

Or maybe I need sleep.

Either way.

-Peace

And if you’re interested that story I was saying was on it’s way is here. Check out ‘Judgment’. It’s a good one, I won’t spoiler the ‘twist’ on the ‘hero’…but you’ll likely guess in about two seconds. Be warned, it’s bloody as hell…but given the hero it fits. Still, it’s a goody.

Anyhow, we’re getting a good look at what’s made Chris into who he is today. He’s not just @#$%ed up. He’s @#$%ed for a reason. I think nearly ten years of isolation and sorrow is enough to break anyone. It’d screw me up anyhow.

Hell, I’d go so far to say that Chris is in better shape than most people would be.

You also get a little idea of just what Dis was doing the whole time he was involved in Tom’s mind. Next Wednesday you’ll get a real twist…A real bombshell. You’ll like it.

I keep saying that Chris is probably one of my favorite characters in the comic, so it’s kind of hard to keep him as evil as he is…but I don’t think Chris would be Chris without the whole ‘homicidal rage’ thing he’s got going. And trust me. If Chris was free he’d start killing folks left and right…but mostly the ones in his way.

I don’t really know what Chris would do if he got free…I mean beside torture and murder Tom. I mean after that. I don’t think he’d really care about conquering the universe…He says he does…but I think he’d get bored after a while and just start tormenting random people.

My favorite character is a murdering psycho who’d only want to torture and torment…I’m not sure what that says about me.

-Peace

Because I’m saving the REAL fight between Tom and Chris for later in this Book.

This is just a warm up. I’m already planning the real fight…and it’s not due for…well…a long time. Because it will be perfect. So help me god I will make the fight fantastic. But this little one will be fun…and show case just how Chris really fights. After all you didn’t see much when Chris/Tom fought Roto.

And you get a little bit more about Chris’s sudden accumulation of knowledge. Anyone want to start guess yet? You’ll likely understand very soon…It’s revealed towards the end of the next chapter (Well…chapter after that…but the next chapter is really, really short.) but I’m sure a few of you are getting some ideas.

The real question is: Does Chris really understand…or does he just know what his limits are? He knows what’s created him. Why Dis is there. But maybe not why he’s so damned smart. Heh…

Other than that this comic was fun…Proto-Slavic…there’s an obscure one for you. I had actually heard about this language in one of my English classes so I just wanted to make sure that it actually started in Russia. Why Russia? Why Azas Plateau? Why the hell not? I don’t really have a reason for most of the places the Gems are stored…only that they make sense there. Well…Congo is where lightning strikes on the Earth the most. Seriously.

Who says I’m not educational?

-Peace

You also get a one panel glimpse at Pat’s little sister Candice (Candi). They love eachother…deep down.

Honest.

I also opted to make Pat a few inches taller than Tom just to get his goat. Tom IS supposed to be the shortest member of the PKF, afterall. I’m not totally happy with Pat’s appearence, so she’s likely to change a bit in the next appearence. She’ll likely lose the hat and push her hair past her ears…I liked the framed look of her face, but the lack of ears on a chracter with such short hair is a little off for me.

But if you’d like it to stay as is, feel free to interject.

Pat’s an interesting character for a lot of reasons that will become apparent though the rest of this arc…but on Monday you’ll meet one of my favorite characters…he’s…well…he’s an odd duck.

You’ll like him. I’m sure of that.

Be here on Monday for what may be the comic that does the best job of summing up a character’s life I’ve ever done.

Oh, and Hunter updated…on time…yay!

-Peace

But first things First. Tom’s escalating, isn’t he? The poor boys nuttier than a fruit cake…wow…I’m too sleep to think of a good analogy. Bah.

But things are starting to move quickly…Tom’s beginning to delve deeper into the otherworldly aspects of the comic, slowly he’s heading towards the slippery slope that will lead ultimately to a dramatic change in his actions and mental state…yeah, mull that over.

And yes, I got the ‘words coming from his mouth, but he’s not speaking’ bubbles from Bone, by Jeff Smith which may be my all time favorite comic. Ever. Seriously.

EVER.

Anyhow, like I said in the notice box I’m updating the WordPress (which runs my updates and other stuff) tomorrow, rather than over the weekend. I spent the last three days (from 7:00am to 9:00pm) heaving the heaviest @#$%ing crap I could imagine. How one man could accumulate so much crap is beyond me…

Oh, wait, he’s got seven other @#$%ing people leaving there and accumulating crap as well.

@#$%.

But aside from pulling a muscle in my back, nearly breaking my knee (dropped a REFRIDGERATOR on the @#$%ing thing) and a freakish amount of calluses, bruises and @#$% knows what else it was a good three days.

But it was weird, I’ve moved a few times since I was little, I’m by no means a stationary human being (moved three times in the last four years) but leaving that house made me a little sad. There was so much that happened there (not the least of which was the birth of The PKF…well…The PKF you know) so leaving was odd. I wandered around a little and saw all the things I did there while I was growing up, it was just weird knowing that that was likely the last time I was going to be in there.

So I thought I’d just say that I was all sore hearted this weekend, as well as simply sore. Which was fun.

Moral: If there are down times this Tuesday sorry…it’ll be up soon…

Sleep now.

Sore.

‘nighty night.

-Peace

EDIT (6:30pm): Upgrade is done…that was quick and painless, eh? Let me know if there’s anything wrong…I doubt it, but you never know./EDIT

I posted the comic a little earlier than normal, so it would go live with the new site. So hey.

This chapter is over, I know a few of you are sighing deep sighs of joy to see that little ‘end of’ text down there. Truth be told I’m right there with you. This arc expanded well beyond what I had originally hoped. I had intended to just have Tom fight Mikel and meet Terrence, but it ended up becoming this whole thing with Chris because I looked at what’s on the docket for the rest of Book Two and realized this was the only place to finish explaining somethings about Chris and his existence.

The next chapter hits the ground running. Really, really fast. You I hope you’ll all forgive me for a tad bit more exposition than you normally have to swallow in a chapter.

And I told you Tom would get in a shot. He deserves it after putting up with Chris.

Also, I want you to all know that there will be filler, every weekday, for the next seven days. Until December the 26th. This filler will be the new pictures I’ve done for the cast pages, truthfully, I just need the time to recoup my buffer. It was DEMOLISHED by the last few weeks. So be here Tuesday-Next Wednesday for awesome @#$%ing filler pictures.

FINALLY, the thing you’re all actually here for, the thing that’s consumed my very soul and left me a dried HUSK for the last two (really, like four) GODS-DAMNED weeks.

THE NEW SITE DESIGN!!

Yes. I know it’s beautiful. But even better, it’s functional.

I never ONCE passed 100KB in a background picture. I only passed 50KB on the footer! It’s PERFECT. Or as near to it as I’m going to come with my menial skills in leet web hakzorsings.

I tested the site on two different monitors, a dozen different resolutions and I was damned sure to make sure it rendered on both Fire Fox and Internet Explorer.

The only size it really doesn’t look great on is 800×600 which I know a few of you use. But even on THAT resolution it looks DAMNED close to fantastic.

It originally started as me separating all the different pieces of the blog with the intention of having a goofy little background image tiled against it, but as soon as I saw those spaces between those white blocks I knew what I had to do.

Holy @#$% was this an undertaking I wasn’t prepared for. But I leaned a lot and it came out rather nicely if I do say so myself.

It’s not perfect though, for some reason on IE the color of the menu buttons is slightly off…so it kind of stands out. I can’t figure out why…but I’m willing to settle with that being the only issue. But if you guys have ANY weird ass problems with the site, TELL ME so I can try to figure it out.

I’ll be running a few more tests the next few days, but near as I can tell it’s great.

UPDATE: It seems like it looks great in everything, but for some reason in IE:6.0 and older the color behind the silhouette behind the characters at the bottom is gray. Can anyone confirm this, or is it just a weird thing with the place I’m using for testage?/Update

Also, as part of the new site I added several familiar faces to the Supporting Cast page. I haven’t decided how to handle The Airosian Clique (Mikel and his gang) so they’re not there. But they will be soon. I’m also working on a cast page of Temtra and Sither, but I want a few more pictures of them before I finish (that’ll make sense when you see the new cast pages).

And, if you’d like, you can see the highres versions of both the footer and the header as well as a header that was much too large, but still fantastic at my DA gallery.

To recap. Be here tomorrow for filler, then every day after that too (‘cept Saturday and Sunday)

-Cheers, Peace, and THANK THE GODS THIS THING IS LIVE!

You know everything about his life, the only thing left is his father’s whereabouts. That’s something even Jenny doesn’t know, so she can’t begin to speak about it…I’m not sure if I even know (not to lead you along). He may have simply run off…Personally I don’t see it unresolved as it is. Not everything in life is tied up in a nice little knot…and really, what would Tom do if he saw him? Beat his ass? Cry? Tell him off and then walk away from him as he had done all those years ago?

Probably the ‘Beat his ass’ option, to be honest. And that wouldn’t really provide anything but closure, which is nice. We’ll see if I have time for that in Book Three or something…as it is Book Two is loaded down with exposition.

If I feel the need to have the bastard show up, it’ll be a while. It’s not like he’s all that important to the story. And no. Tom’s father isn’t Paoken. Tom isn’t the @#$%ing messiah, though I considered it, heh.

We’ll see a bit of Terrence’s life soon, just a little peak. Enough for you to understand the guy a little better and hopefully you’ll like his father, he turned out more interesting than I had planned, so I’m happy with him…I now intend to have him appear again sometime…we’ll see.

I also feel like I should take a second to tell you all about the little picture of a bear in the background of panel one. It’s appeared once before at the beginning of the comic and is actually kind of special to me, no I didn’t draw it, my late Grandfather did. I owe a lot to the people in my life, but my Grandfather was one of my earliest artistic influences. He always drew these amazing landscapes and pictures of animals, he never had a year of formal education on the subject either. Everything he did was eye-to-paper and he was damned good at it.

He always encouraged me to draw (well…paint…his favorite medium) and was one hell of a handyman on top of it. I don’t know where I would be without him, he always did what he could for my family and he was a great man. I don’t know why I’m suddenly so nostalgic, but having the little bear appear is always nice for me…so if you’ve read my rambling, I appreciate it, if not…well, you still read the comic, so either way I’m in a good mood.

I’ve always tried to stick the little bear into the comic when the occasion called for it. Sadly the agents are rarely at Tom’s house, but now that Jenny is in the loop expect her home to become almost as regular a hangout as the hold. So little bear will be back, as often as I can pull him out, heh.

This chapter wraps up on Monday, then we’ll have a bit of filler (whilst I recoup my buffer loss) but more on that when the time comes.

-Peace