City of Cards C4.2: HERE!

If you didn't get that Plato has a pretty bad reputation when it comes to being responsible in just about every aspect of his life, he's got a pretty bad reputation when it comes to just about everything.

Okay, quick post as I'm pretty darn exhausted and have to pack for my flight tomorrow, but here's the rundown for the next few days: Friday-Sunday I'll be at table H-04 tabling at Emerald City Comic Con!

No surprise.

Here are the new Pokémon buttons I put together:

Gastly

Haunter

Gengar

And here are the updated backcover images (that will eventually become updated character page images) for the Chapter One and Two preview books:

City of Cards: Chapter Four: Ghosts of Samsara

City of Cards C4-4.1: STARTS HERE!

So to start, this is an Ace chapter. That isn't to say there haven't been Ace parts to the other chapters, and that isn't to say Plato isn't in this chapter, but this chapter will hopefully give a bit more insight into Ace's personality.

City of Cards C4.7.1

This is also one of my favorite chapters. It is also 49 pages long, so expect this to be a long ride, even though with the schedule I've worked it should go at a decent pace. In a way this is my second try at this chapter. Back in early 2010 I used this chapter as my test to see if I was going to be able to tell this story, or if my skills just simply weren't up to par.

I've been going over, panel by panel, my original version of this chapter to see what's been worth keeping and what has been worth discarding in terms of layout and structure. Yes, all of it's being redrawn from back then, but it's still a weird and fitting experience considering the theme of this chapter.

Emerald City Update:

Printing is progressing. I actually ran out of ink and had to do a quick order so that I could finish printing the mini in a way that would guarantee that they looked as consistent as possible. I've started printing copies of my CoC Chapters (thankfully I have plenty of black ink) and I've been working on button designs to go with the King of Hearts comic (there will be four of these in the end):

City of Cards C3 Back Cover

I've had a lot of ideas for blog posts that I have either started and never posted, or never wrote in the first place. I'm changing that up and writing one I've wanted to do called The City of Cards that Never Was. This will give you an idea of how terribly wrong this story could have gone. Pretty much everything that was in the original story got scrapped over the many years (over ten) of figuring stuff out.

(Spoiler cut just in case, but I honestly don't think any of this is spoilers)

Emerald City Prep

City of Cards C3.43: HERE!

And with that, Chapter Three draws to a close. Thank you with all my heart to those that have read and enjoyed my comic thus far (heck, even if you didn't really like it but gave it a shot, I thank you too).

I'm looking forward to Chapter Four, and for anyone that's been wondering if we'd be getting more world/plot stuff, you will. The thing with these first few chapters is that it's definitely setting up a big series of events. I hope people stick around to see what happens.

Speaking of big events, I've started the production part of my Emerald City preparations. After way too much trial and error I finally got my .pdfs to where I wanted them and within only minor injury, began making some minis:

I'm really happy with how this came out. It's seriously some of the best work I've done, I'm really happy with the color scheme, and I think the story reads well even if you're not familiar with my comic (and if you are, it's even better). I haven't decided how I want to handle the limited nature of this mini just yet. My plan is to release 52 copies of this book as it is and that's it.

After that, I'll probably release a grayscale version of it with first, eventual, book-printing.

But I'm also pretty darn happy with this book and it is a big chunk of Plato's backstory that I won't be covering in quite this same detail in the main comic. So, we'll see. There is a possibility of it being released in a future Kickstarter or through online donations as digital copies, but for right now the only way to get this book is in print at the various cons I'll be attending this spring/summer. Once it's gone, it's gone. No reprints.

And, because I'm a bit of a sucker and I've been teasing the guys a lot in the comic, here's the image I did for Valentine's Day:

Happy VDay 2013 from City of Cards

Arthur the Cat

City of Cards C3.42: HERE!

Oh hey, and I finished Chandelure:

So I was going to write a little bit about the idea of social structures playing a role in science-fiction and fantasy stories, and how not everything needs to be a literal law or something extreme in order to have a significant role in the way a culture behaves.

I'll write more on it later, but my hope with this story (in pages like the ones with Xander and his cousin Sun), when you start to think about the way a world works, every change you make to the greater structures that regulate commerce, media, religion, government... all effect the way those within the society view themselves, their roles and obligations within that society, and those that fall outside the norm. That norm, however, won't necessarily be the norm as we know it.

This is why world-building can be such a long and crazy process. Not only do you have to ask yourself "how would this person react to this situation/other person?" but you also have to ask yourself "in the context of this person's status within this society with these specific cultural attitudes, how would they think and react?".

BUT MORE ON THAT LATER...

... because today has been cat rescue day. (and yesterday I didn't sleep for over 24 hours 'cause of a surprise bout of insomnia)

Started out taking my old grey cat to the vet to find out he has a cavity. Poor Merlin, we will take care of you. Come home to a phone call from a neighbor saying they saw a cat trapped inside the hoarders house.

A little bit about the hoarder house situation: across the street neighbor in his 90s has been ill for awhile and unable to really take care of himself. His situation with his family hasn't been great. He's been hoarding newspapers, furniture, garbage, you name it for years. The city/health department has done nothing about it. He's been surviving on Meals on Wheels, but won't even let them inside.

There are mice.

Eventually, an ambulance was called and they had to break the lock on the door to get him out. He's now been taken to an assisted living center.

The police supposedly walked through the house to make sure nothing was trapped in there and bolted the door shut with a screw. I was skeptical.

Why was I skeptical?

Because Arthur, as I've been calling him, had been coming by our house on a regular basis begging for food and attention. He's probably the sweetest cat I've ever met, and damn handsome to boot.

He stopped showing up and we thought, hey, maybe his owners are actually starting to take care of him. It'd been raining lately so maybe they're keeping him inside.

Well, no, because apparently he'd been seen in the window of our hoarder neighbor's house. So, well, we ran over, got the door open (and re-sealed) and with just about no effort (thankfully) an extremely grateful Arthur was in our arms and in a carrier and off to the vet with zero scratching and few complaints.

He was definitely hungry, most likely dehydrated, and his eye that I'd been concerned about before he'd been trapped for what was at least a week was starting to look pretty irritated. However, no matter what, he'll be taken care one way or another.