I think I know who she's reminding you of. Can't find any screenshots on the web, though. I'll take a capture from my DVD later today.

Charra, from The Matrix Revolutions?

You know I thought of her, too, but I kind of dismissed it because the cheekbones and chin are different, and her build is a little heavier. But the eyes, nose, mouth, and clothing are pretty close, and of course the haircut is there, so I believe you're on to something! I always did think that character was one of the better part of Revolutions, brief as her role was.

Added 1 new A* comic:

• A* Episode 6, Daily 127

Isn't that sweet? She's just a big softie after all.

Thanks to starschwar for pointing out that Selenis' look here was probably influenced by rocket girl from The Matrix Revolutions! I just can't get away from the Matrix world after all these years. I was thinking of other, larger similarities last night, too, such as the fact that, like the Matrix, I haven't told you exactly what year A* is set in. That will come along at some point, though--well, a rough estimate, anyway--but not any time soon I don't think.

Oh yeah, I think Selenis may also be starting to look a little like the character Sheva Alomar from Resident Evil 5 because I've been playing that game fairly obsessively lately since discovering Sheva's unlockable bow weapon. There's just something so right about shooting zombies with arrows.

Let's see, back to business... I'll be putting large versions of either this comic, or the next one (which is similar in look--omg spoilers) in the gallery, but I guess that'll have to wait for tomorrow, if I can resist that long.

Ohh just remembered "rocket girl's" name: "Charra."

Added 1 new A* comic:

• A* Episode 6, Daily 128

This one took me forever to draw for some reason; spent ages fiddling with the shadow line across the face, the nubbish bangs, and that darn upper lip. Bah. Bah I say!

And a bunch of related jazz:

- First we've got large images from the previous two comics in the gallery, linked from these tiny versions:





- And then I found myself embroiled in icon-making again last night (these I can use on various mirror sites, where A*'s iconic representation was quite out of date):



Those reside on the ever-more-crowded icons page, by the way!

Added 1 new A* comic:

• A* Episode 6, Daily 129

I had to make most of a walk cycle for this one! In perspective! Gah! But fortunately it wasn't dramatically heavy--just getting Selenis off stage--so I could get away with making it tiny and silhouetted:



Best. Walk. Cycle. Ever! ;D

Next episode is going to have a fair amount of action and chasing, so I think I'm going to have to do at least one or two large-scale run cycles for that one. Ooh! I did come across a pretty decent six-frame side-view run cycle in Cowboy Bebop recently, though, so I'll probably just try to sort of imitate that one. It's still a long way off but these things prey on my mind. :o

Added 1 new A* comic:

• A* Episode 6, Daily 130

That's someone speaking off-camera there, not Vero, which is why the subtitle is italicized. This is always much clearer in the animated version where the difference in voice (even with just me doing them) is the real tip-off to who's saying what. I try to keep the speaker on-screen with their mouth open most of the time to keep it clear, but you can't really do an "ominous shadow approaching" bit that way!

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I made a bookmark-sized banner out of this weekend's "The Princess and the Giant" comic that came out pretty well I think. Maybe I could actually sell these as printed-out bookmarks some day, that would be keen. Anyway here 'tis:




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Ohh also after getting some feedback and doing some more looking into webcomic ad layout schemes, I came up with a more streamlined ad layout for A*, which replaces my initially proposed bulky vertical side banners with a nice little row of button ads below the comic:



Better yes? Anyway the theory is that if you have multiple large ad spaces on the page, they're competing with each other for advertiser bids, whereas what you really want is one prime space that advertisers will fight each other to get, giving you a higher bid price on that one, and leaving less ad clutter on your page. Thanks to Johnny Lin of Orbit, Beertycoon of Maskerman, and Peter Vine of Hard-Graft for their helpful feedback on the layout issue.

Added 2 new A* comics:

• A* Episode 6, Daily 131
• A* Episode 6, Daily 132

You might have noticed the fancy movie button on the front page, below the comic! They're also on the revamped episode list, and you'll see them in the daily comic archives, if you're browsing through comics from an episode that has an animated version online. The idea is to make it obvious that there are A* movies, which was probably way too easy to overlook before when it was only text links pointing to the movie pages. The buttons are:



Thanks again to Beertycon of Maskerman, whose feedback has been helpful in this regard.

Added 1 new A* comic:

• A* Episode 6, Daily 133

Don't shout; Murphy's had a rough day.

I should be finishing up the episode's art today, so then it'll be on to animating for the rest of the week. Whee!