Added 4 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 57
• A* Episode 8, Page 58
• A* Episode 8, Page 59
• A* Episode 8, Page 60

Here's an alternate version of page 60; I was thinking maybe the gradient glow from the light, even though hand-painted, might look a little too generic Gaussian-blur-ish, so I tried doing a glow sort of cut-out style:



But it seemed a little too harsh/distracting for this particular shot.

Added 4 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 61
• A* Episode 8, Page 62
• A* Episode 8, Page 63
• A* Episode 8, Page 64

...three sentences in a row that Vero hasn't completed. I think he'll do a little better in his next panel.

Page 63 looks a bit different than the others because it's pretty much the storyboard drawing for that shot that I did weeks ago, only cleaned, tidied, and tucked up. I started trying to redo the image with my usual final lasso tool work, but just couldn't seem to recapture the bold brushy impact I was lucky enough to get in the original sketch, so I just went with that instead of trying to get lightning to strike twice. Hm... I have another pretty nice storyboard sketch I might tidy up for one of tomorrow's panels, too; mostly though they're all messy and stuff, so probably only one more after that would be usable for this episode. Not too often, then, but a little art style switcharoo like that every now and then is kind of fun, right? Also awfully convenient. :D Har maybe eventually I'll get so good at storyboard sketches that each one will be a masterpiece in its own right and I'll get an entire episode done in just a few days! Prrrrobably not, though.

Added 3 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 65
• A* Episode 8, Page 66
• A* Episode 8, Page 67

There's the second brush drawing from storyboards, and then I lay some haphazardly placed computer noise on you. Talk about wacky time!

Have a shiny weekend, you crazy diamonds.

Added 3 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 68
• A* Episode 8, Page 69
• A* Episode 8, Page 70

I've been drawing scary dudes lately! There's Niels here, and then I drew a whole pack of gang of highly suspicious characters in this weekend's Princess and the Giant.

Aaaand speaking of comics I did this weekend, I also did a new -word- poem comic thingy. I keep saying I'd like to do those on a weekly basis, but then I just keep running out of time what with all the other comics I keep doing. We'll see how long it takes me to get the next one done.

Added 3 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 71
• A* Episode 8, Page 72
• A* Episode 8, Page 73

Niels had teeth in the storyboards, but when it came time to draw his grinning mug in detail some pages back, I realized he should probably be all gums, given his current condition. So there we are!

Added 4 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 74
• A* Episode 8, Page 75
• A* Episode 8, Page 76
• A* Episode 8, Page 77

I gotta stop watching Carl Sagan's old "Cosmos" series on YouTube; it keeps making me spend all night looking stuff up on Wikipedia. 8p Anyway I dug up some spiffy Martian photos and put them on the forum starting here; they include stuff like things on frozen dunes that look like trees but aren't, and a Martian sunset with its super-tiny sun. Oh, and did you know about Google Mars?

Added 3 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 78
• A* Episode 8, Page 79
• A* Episode 8, Page 80

I made some icons out of Niels:


This day we've just blown through was April 1st, otherwise known as April Fools' Day, and apparently some webcomics stage extra-funny japes or pranks on such a day; Dresden Codak, for instance, had this as the front page for the day. Hm! After seeing all the fun I wanted to get in on the April Foolery, so for a while at least, episode 8 page 78 looked like this (see if you can spot the differences :o):



Yes we went all out here at A*! :D

Added 3 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 81
• A* Episode 8, Page 82
• A* Episode 8, Page 83

Hey in addition to these, I did a little -word- poem thing this evening. Super-productive!

Added 4 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 84
• A* Episode 8, Page 85
• A* Episode 8, Page 86
• A* Episode 8, Page 87

Whee four A* pages today, and I've been doing other stuff too that you can click:

- Not just one, but two new -word- comic poems

- This weekend's "Princess and the Giant" comic came out in kind of a different style, check it out by clicking on this tantalizing piece of it:

Added 3 new A* pages:

• A* Episode 8, Page 88
• A* Episode 8, Page 89
• A* Episode 8, Page 90

It's sooo technical!