Yep, it's raining on prom night- er, update day over here again. And has BEEN raining, for the last week +. This alone would not be so bad-- hey, I can draw in the rain!-- but bad weather knocks out our hilarious excuse for an internet something harsh. I've not been able to upload...well, anything today. That pic last night? Took five tries.
ARRRGH, and so forth.
So! Next time I get a clear internet window, I'll be Stashing pages ahead like crazy. In the meantime, uh...thanks for your patience, and I'll try to get something up tonight, with the understanding that 'tonight' means before I fall asleep in frustrated exhaustion, or until the power cuts out again*.
RAAAAIIIINI!
* Ok, I can draw in the rain SOMEtimes.
Wooo! It's the earliest I've ever been late! Celebrate! Yeah!
Next Wednesday, art extras! Maybe some Ask sketches, if anyone has 'em! I don't know, I'm mad with power and almost-punctuality here! There's a comment link at the bottom of the page, at the verrrry bottom, where only smart people and ninjas can find it, but like I've said before, my readers are geniuses.
***
I've been watching Legend of Korra, as last week's journal might have hinted, and--NO SPOILERS! No spoilers! I promise! Come back!-- and one of the many many thiings that's amused me about it has been the voice of the announcer. You know, the one who does the "Previously On" intros.
I'm guessing everyone watching Korra recognizes that voice as being Old Timey Radio Broadcaster Voice-- but WHY? Who sounded like that? Was it a fad, like people in the forties liking to sing about monkeys (which, seriously people of the 1940s, what happened there)? Was it one guy, like Don LaFontaine, who was just so iconic and pervasive that now he's all anyone knows? When did that voice become THE voice? Why do we all recognize it?
And how many Voices like that existed before the advent of sound recording? Surely there were town criers or preachers whose vocal patterns called up a particular decade or time even before sound recording kicked in. Maybe some actors or touring singers? What did the past sound like, to the people then? Who was their 'In A World Where' guy? Heck, who's ours, these days? Will the modern era have distinctive voices that represent entire industries, like Radio Patter Man, or have we diversified too much for that?
Voices mean a lot to setting- and, aside from a few tweaks to speech patterns, or carefully deployed varying fonts, they're something comics are denied. That's a dangerous path, too; too far in those woods and you turn into Claremont's X-Men, which...is great for Claremont's X-Men. But my very favorite comics manage to work with it anyway, at least enough that I can figure out who's talking in disembodied dialogue.
And these are the things I think about at 4:30 am, when I should be cooking! To bacon with me!
The artist sometimes requires unscheduled maintenance. During these intervals, comic updates may be delayed. Updates on the artist's status will be posted available on Twitter.
Comics posting will always resume on the nearest available Wednesday. We apologize for the inconvenience. *
*Translation: I have some serious health problems that sometimes sideline me, but unless I'm actively hospitalized I can always be yelled to on Twitter @carabrains . And I'm back now! With comics! Maybe more than expected! We shall see!
In other news, typed while comics load:
KORRA KORRA KORRA KORRA
I never thought it would be possible, at my age, to fall in love with a show like this. I mean, I'm no cheerleader for fandom nostalgia. I am totally prepared to admit that there is work being done all over the web that knocks the cartoons of my youth* into a cocked hat in terms of experimentation, skill, or ideas. But there's an intensity in that first discovery of something really good, or even just really different, that I honestly thought I wouldn't get back.
But, MAN. Korra is just golden. I love and care about all the characters, even the villain. Especially the villain! The mere fact that there's a fantasy world full of Very Special People being opposed by commoners, and I am not automatically irrevocably on the side of the commoners, is a testament to the fine writing going on. ** Republic City is amazing-the Avatar crew always excelled at environments, but having a city that feels vital and functional is so much harder than making a country scene seem 'pastoral' or whatever. And I love the logic of the technological progression, and and and...
And I am THIS CLOSE to writing fanfic. That is how bad this show has grabbed me. It won't happen, but it's a close thing.
I mean, there's a polar bear dog. I'm not made of stone here.
*For the most part. I was lucky enough to be a kid during the Diniverse/Animaniacs age, so there was some genuinely amazing stuff going on. But it was friggin' Science Ninja Team Gatchaman that sidelined me, for reasons too lengthy to go into a footnote. Even first love is complicated.
**No, I don't want to be a Wizard, a Jedi, or a Princess. I do want a Sentinel, though. I know damn well my place is with the unspecial extras.
I'm in Texas, and in case you missed it-- and really, gosh, how could anyone in the world not know everything happening in Texas every minute?- we've had some minor storms going on lately. As in, tornados have been a spawning. I'm safely away to where it's only heavy winds and thunder and lightning, but that's plenty enough to bork my Hi-Larious version of wireless access. So these pages are going up later than intended. But here they are! And to bed I go, also much later than intended.
( If anyone reads these posts, could you leave a "Heya!" type comment? I'm not entirely sure the comments are working/visible on this page...:/)
Comic pages may update biweekly, but that doesn't mean I'm doing nothing in my off-weeks! There's finally a character page, whoooo! It will be added to as the series progresses.
Anything else folks would like to see for extra pages?
Since my husband's schedule means he's home on Sundays and so I can't compulsively double check every single detail eighty times before I post the pages. I'm usually not so OCD, but I think I have quite enough art-typos even with the last minute look through to justify minor out-freaking.
Still planning to stay with a biweekly schedule, provided I don't get hilariously sick again like I did the last couple weeks. If you had the bug I did, you'll know what I'm talking about; the most awesome part was burning my hand on a cast iron pan and thinking the pan was nice and cool. If you would currently welcome the sweet embrace of death, you may have the same virus! Remember, antibiotics don't help with a virus. Only a convenient serial killer can save you now!
Or lots of fluids and bedrest. You know, if you want to be a baby about it. I had comics to make, so I was a baby about it and now I'm not all dead. So, next real comics in another couple weeks!
Those keen of sight or paying the least bit of attention may have noticed that I've rebooted this machine. Last year was cursed, CURSED I TELL YOU, by computer disasters and health failures. I woke up this winter and decided heck with it, let's go again. And so again I am going.
I'll be updating with multiple page chunks every other Monday (so the next update will be Feb. 13!) for the foreseeable future. I'm really happy with how things are going; I hope any of you who read along last time will stick around for this. I know reboots can be frustrating. If you want to drift off for a bit and come back later, I completely understand- but honestly, this is so much better, I really think you should stick around. I know I'm having more fun.
To those who emailed or commented elsewise, thanks! If you want to join the commenty crowd now you can always follow me over on DeviantArt, where I post a couple days early for beta-readers, or on Twitter, where as @Carabrains I natter profusely. Or you can just leave comments in the box beneath! I promise I cherish each one.
See you in a couple Mondays!
I have spent ALL DAY- as in, twelve hours- drawing a page I am still not happy about. This isn't artblock; I know what I'm drawing, I'm on the inking and shading phase, and but and...nothing's coming together. Inside Hill House lines do not meet and expressions do not cohere. The occasional sense I've trained into my fingers that lets me lift or impress a line is just not working for me today. The inks, today, are failing like meringues in wet weather- I KNOW what to do, and conditions are just not letting me do it.
Except that if this were really meringues I would know how to fix the problem. I am aces with meringues. I can save them in a monsoon, without even using extra sugar. With this page I am just watching my work fall into a sodden heap again and again.
A great writer once called this "the dead work", like chopping wood all year to enjoy the living warmth of a fire in winter. Just sheer bull headed practice with faith that it will pay off in improvement later, in those moments when I get to look at my hand doing its dang job and be briefly satisfied that I have, maybe, a little bit, improved.
I believe in the dead work. So I do the wretched stuff,and if I were on any deadline but self-imposed betawork deadline I'd take this wet mess o' page and post it. But I'm not, and I've worked myself into a migraine and hand cramps, and I'm pretty sure I'm at the point where continuing will only make everything worse. So I'm headin' to bed for a couple hours.
So all of this to basically say, yeah, page will be late. BUT WORK IS HAPPENING. So much dead, rotting work. And any hour now the lightning will strike and it will come to unholy unlife...