Page #108 Holy crap, what’ve I been smoking… Page #112

This does, however, raise the question: where did I lose 4 pages of work? I normally name my WIP files according to whatever the last one I had was called, in this case “sc107″. Have I been neglecting the comic so long that my files have left home? Anyway, it’s good to be back n’ drawing. I’ve got a decent system figured out (basically, the same thing I was using on the Mac, just faster, and Windows7ier).

MJ

See you soon!

MJ

UPDATE: I AM drawing right now… but GIMP isn’t working the way I want it to. I mean, it’s working fine, and it’s everything I remembered it being… but painter was just so much better for wheedling out my ideas. I know, I know… “will he ever stop complaining about his software?” The answer: no. Anyway, I’m trying to get Painter Essentials 4 working on my new Windows 7 Vaio, and it’s kind of being a jerk. Worst case scenario, I toss a GIMP-created 3-paneller up tonight.

UPDATE UPDATE: So, I’ve been drawing for a long time. My wrist, neck, and back hurt, so I’m taking a break. It seems to be going well enough, though it has been another perspective disaster. I have NO idea what the finished product is going to look like, and can no longer promise its Friday completion. Perhaps Saturday?

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: I guess I should have finished it while I had the chance, ’cause now Painter won’t start. I’d love for all this frustration to just disappear.

ONE MORE UPDATE FOR THE ROAD: I got Painter working again. There was NO way I was starting over on GIMP.

Page #111 (a.k.a. the first page of part three)!

Sadly, this may be the last update for a little while. I’m going to be visiting with family, and do not know for certain how much time I will be able to spend on the comic. I’ll do my best!

MJ

MJ

Well, that about wraps up part two! I’ll be starting part three immediately, and hope to have the first page up by Friday.

To recap:

While en route to the Rabbit capital, the cargo ship bearing Tarquinius encounters violent weather. The ship sinks, and Tarquinius is its lone survivor.

Shortly thereafter, a band of pirates comes by to scavenge the remains of aforementioned vessel, and discovers a very soggy, amnesiac chicken. Before the crew can decide the fate of this bird, a Rabbit patrol ship spots the pirates, and begins to pursue. The mysterious chicken begins to bark out orders which – while reluctantly followed – result in a victory, and allow for the pirates’ escape.

Upon reaching the pirate island, the crew seek the comforts of the local tavern. There, the pirate leader discusses the newcomer with a colleague. Before long, the Coop Islander finds himself being aggressively questioned.

Before the situation escalates to violence, a Rabbit beggar is brought in off the street, under suspicion of espionage.

This rabbit claims to be the true heir to the Rabbit Empire, and begins to tell his tale of deceit, treachery, tyranny, rebellion, tragic love, bloody vengeance, and desperate survival.

The timeline may seem a bit convoluted, but it can be simplified like so:

Tarquinius was born shortly after the sack of the Rabbit Capital, around the time of the first exploitative Rabbit colonies. I have not yet figured out how aging works in this strange world, but have concluded that the rightful heir looks much younger than he actually is. I will have to remedy that in the future. By human standards, he should be around forty; and Tarquinius, eighteen or nineteen.

At any rate, the Rabbit Empire is surviving by paying ransom to ruthless hordes of barbarians, and Coop Island has become a colony from which resources are gathered to make said payments. In the last page, it is inferred that the heir wishes to topple the Emperor by provoking another barbarian invasion. Perhaps not the best thought out plan?

Where will this story go next? Stick around for part three, and find out!

MJ

Page#109… ZOMG! WALL OF TEXT!!!!

Question 1 – Multiple Choice:

The author/artist feels compelled to ask the forgiveness of his readers. Help him out by completing this sentence: “A thousand apologies for…

A) …the lateness!”

B) …the wall of text!”

C) …accidentally labeling Page #109 as Page #108, thus creating two Page #108s, forcing him to scramble to fix his error before anyone with a venomous tongue could notice!”

D) …listening to trashy music at ungodly hours of the morning.”

E) …[all of the above]!”

Answer: _______

MJ

Sorry.

MJ

UPDATE: I’m not enjoying this. Not one bit. Not one tiny, minuscule, negligible, little bit. This is, so far, the worst comic-drawing experience of my short career. There are soooooooo many things I could bitch complain about right now, it’s not even funny.  Honestly, I ditched OS X for a performance boost, and ALMOST got it. I’ve disabled abso-bloody-lutely EVERY eye-candy feature Ubuntu had to offer and the Mini’s STILL giving me grief. Not to mention the total lack of accessible configuration options for my not-quite-supported tablet. I’d go back to OS X and Painter, but – in reality – I’d be no better off.  The last system update resulted in many a Painter freeze-up, which ties the frustration level reached by laggy brushstrokes and misalignment of pen-tip (by, I kid you not, a centimetre in places… the variation almost makes it worse… as if it’s teasing me: “Oh, you want an exact alignment?  Well, just let us adjust for parallax, and calculate the tilt-effect… factor in the gravitational pull of the moon, annnnnnd…. THERE YOU GO! ALIGNED! (Just don’t go anywhere away from the centre, or the lower right side of the, screen. KTHXBAI!)). I know. I KNOW! I shouldn’t be complaining. I’ve got a beautiful tablet, award-winning software, and a computer that I’m sure many people enduring tough times would be overjoyed to have! THAT DOESN’T MATTER, THOUGH! I CAN’T DO MY WORK! Not at the level I want to, at least.  I mean, if you (or I) were happy with stick figures lacking colours or shades, then FINE! I could do that.  Y’know what? I think I will. The next Felix Marcus strip will be stick-figures. It will be glorious…ly bad. GAAAAAH!!! It’s my own damned fault, though, isn’t it?! I mean, I had a perfectly… well, maybe not perfectly functional laptop, not even a year ago… what’d I do? I screwed it up. It fell, it broke, it became a waste of money. Repair it? Yeah, for about the price of a new (fully functioning) desktop, sure… and even that was by last year’s standards. Of course this would all be nothing if I’d actually WORKED this summer (last summer probably would’ve been nice, too). Moral of the story? Don’t get a laptop if you’re a klutz (alternate moral: get a summer job, ya dope!).

Breathe…. okay. I’m going to get back to drawing. Ignore any yelling you might hear.

UPDATED UPDATE: I gave up on Linux. Some other time, perhaps, but for now I’m going back to the combination that at least yielded results. I re-installed OS X Tiger, much to my chagrin. There are many caveats to this return, which can mostly be summed up as: This computer is for work, and work alone! No iTunes, no games, nothing but the comic! I’ve also – once again – reduced the size of the pre-formatted work-page, bringing it ever closer to the unholy 800px (width) mark. Thanks for your continued support and patience! Also, just so you know, the current page has been written, planned, laid-out, and sketched… on to the colouring!

COMPUTER ISSUES!! (My favourite excuse!)

Recent system updates left my poor ol’ mini virtually unusable. I whined and complained about this for a week, then decided (yesterday) that I would take action against my oppressor (namely, obsolete technology)! I gave OS X Tiger the boot, and replaced it with Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04).

I’ve spent the past 6-or-so hours trying to get my bloody tablet to cooperate with the replacement OS, and just now got a reasonably positive response. I don’t know how to configure pressure sensitivity, though there are forum topics dedicated to such things.

Whatever, my computer is now usable, and my tablet is responding. My art-style is probably going to be taking a MASSIVE dive as I re-learn GIMP, but hey, that’s all part of the experience (lies I tell myself before bed).

So… look forward to an update in the foreseeable future!

MJ

EDIT: Okay, so the current update is going well! I mean, it’s still going to look like garbage, but all things considered, I’m quite pleased with how it’s turning out. I hope to have it posted by tomorrow morning! I’m also happy  to report that the rabbit’s storyline is almost done! Stay tuned!

Page #108.

[SHUDDER] Ughghhhghghghghghghhhhhghghhhh….

MJ

SCRIPT:

Heir: The attacks led to a popular uprising. This was met with extreme brutality. My act of vengeance brought death and suffering… My presence only hurt those whom I loved. I left the empire, never to return!

Just writing to let you know that I’m purposely skipping this week’s update. It’s the family-visiting time of the season.

Also, I’ve picked up a new bit of illustration software, TabletDraw. So far, I’m really enjoying it! It’s a lot less of a resource-hog than Painter, and seems to track my pen-movements in an agreeable-enough fashion. I don’t know if it’s going to be useful for the comics… I might have to figure out some sort of multi-program workflow. Great for lines, though!

Sadly, my computer is dying. It has begun to crash/shutdown without provocation (my guess is the Mac equivalent of hyperthermia). It’ll still get the job done, I’m sure.. I’m just going to have to save compulsively!

That’s all for now,

MJ