Actually, nobody probably cares, right?

The ‘shrinemaiden’ in Panel 6 here is actually Sara’s sister, Sora. Aside from the initial cast (who sort-of grandfathered in) I’ve tried to avoid too many Japanese names in order to make the Western setting work better. Just another thing I failed at, huh? Anyway, such names are all kosher while in Xanang, a nation which is a probably-insulting mash-up of China and Japan.

The next two chapters will be pretty focused on Sara’s motivations for being well, an embezzling bitch. Sora is a money-grubber as well, but does it by holding a lot of odd jobs (Obviously, a priest with a combination axe/wand-thingy probably does some high-contact ‘warding…’) I was kind of worried about rushing things, but given the amount of pages that’ve been them standing around in the cabin of an out of control airship already, my ‘rushed’ pace is starting to feel like a better idea (and really, it does make the archives feel livelier when stuff happens more regularly.)

(God, how I abuse parentheses.)

RK will be back next week, as previously/vaguely implied, I’m taking the hiatus week I skipped between 13 and 14 to make up for the reboot. Don’t worry though, I’m getting way ahead in penciling, which should be good as far as avoiding so many delays once we resume with track 15.

As tempting as it is to, you know, fucking nuke everything and start it over again.

I was an avid follower of Your Webcomic Is Bad(…) when they were updating, and as someone drawing something easy to dismiss as an ‘animu bullshit’ comic, naturally every so often it would make me stop and think about what traps I do and don’t fall into. I’m glad so many people have given me good feedback, by which I clarify, regardless of positivity or negativity, points out a direction in which to improve.

One time I posted a page on 4chan in hopes of attracting the maybe two people there who actually do real critiques. For the most part, it was, as in their native tongue, FAIL. The most generous comment was something along the lines of “The first panel looks okay, then you stopped trying.” Which really, pretty much hit the nail on the head.

It’s pretty clear that lately I’ve been going more experimental as far as trying new art styles, be they the ultra-ultra thick look I went with for a while,  the ‘blobby lineless’ style, or going back to normal for the end of the chapter. I kinda liked that style, but it was pretty easy to get sloppy with. I’m starting the next chapter in a similar manner, I think, but only if the first page looks good enough, otherwise it goes right back to the regular ink style.

Anywho. I’ll start off with the traditional three a week thing when i get back to it.

In other news: LET’S BIBLE!

Today’s comic is gonna be a bit late, I was dead set on finishing a commission piece I was nearing the end of. I just thought I’d take a moment and ask, flat out; what do you guys think of it?

Obviously I already know the whole “animu” thing has been done to death, and the plot friggin’ meanders until about Track 4, but it’s pretty much by design (the worst ones in my book are the ones where I went ‘off script-‘ the Kami as magic girl side story in particular, even if in the broad scheme it turned out to foreshadow with the sublety of a sledgehammer. After the reveal in 12, I decided to push for Disc 2 to go to a grittier feel, which is what I wanted all along. Something more Westerny than it had been. Ironically, this is the story arc where Kenji leaves the Wastes for much of the duration.

And probably some of you have noticed I applied the softer line style I was messing with here out on the last couple of comics. I’m pretty satisfied with how it makes the coloring feel a bit more ‘solid’ to me, and less coloring-book, though I’m going to need lots of practice to sharpen it. Incidentally, it seems to make things go a bit faster since I’m sketching/inking/coloring more or less simultaneously rather than breaking it up into distinct steps. Distinct steps I get sidetracked with RPG level grinding in between, anyway.
This is really just to gauge interest, anyway. So if you read it, by all means, drop a comment and maybe you can get to claim a hand in RK sucking less.