#12 Sarcasm

I think Lance has a point, not enough appreciation is usually paid to the height of boat jumps.

Production Diary:

This page felt really GOOD to make. The comic’s production cycle has been having a bit of an identity crisis this past year. As you all might have noticed with the shifting paint styles. Though it has been something that’s always happened over time since I’ve been making these books, if feels like lately, it’s been more frequent.

That’s because the way that I had been doing the color, although I really liked the final product, has been feeling very ‘mechanical’ and I’d been enjoying the process less and less. Which is probably a reason why the updates had been slower recently.

But this return to where the comic all started, back to ‘Port Harbourcape’ has made me look back to the comic’s roots as well. And although the art was cruder, looking back at the digital ‘watercolour’ style I used to use for the backgrounds has given me a new appreciation for them and I wanted to revisit the style.

And boy, did I enjoy it. The first panel I did was the solo Alex and solo Dante ones and I fell in love with them. There’s just a warmth to the style that makes if feel so good to look at. And painting in that style felt more like I was ‘painting’ than doing the color for these has in a long time. Almost therapeutic.

I hope you guys enjoy it too!

#11 Things Happened

I said the boat ride wouldn’t last too long. But in Dante’s defense, what was he supposed to do? NOT try to make a jump?

From the production side. This took me entirely too long to get finished. The pencils were done fairly early but the color had a couple of mis-starts which kinda left me discouraged on it and made me unmotivated to keep working on it for a while. Getting to the next right away though and hopefully won’t hit similar pitfalls.

#10 Vrooom

Seeing as Dante and the Kids won’t be spending a long time at all in this boat, I wanted to do a fancy piece/chapter ender page to commemorate their time on the water.

#08 I’m on a boat

New page! Took forever, but it’s here now and I’m pretty damn happy with it!

#07 Sounds About Right

For those who were waiting patiently for this next page. I’d like to deeply apologize for the delay!

There was some water damage from a rain storm early in May in my home which had kind of upended my living and working space. The construction zone is still ongoing but there are signs that it’ll only be a few more weeks now and everything will be back to normal.

I’ll still work when I can and hope the wait for the next page isn’t as long.

#06 Stranger Danger

I was on a pretty good streak for a few pages, then we adopted a new puppy which completely Dashed my usual schedule. Ironically, his name is ALSO Dash. He’s a super cute Cavalier King Charles Spaniel!

#04 Looking ahead

I’m gradually transitioning to a slightly different coloring style for the comic. I’m doing this for a couple of reasons. One is to keep it fresh, and second, the comics were taking longer and longer to color and it was slowing down the progress on the book. I want to change that and be faster!

#03 Memento

Goodbye for now, Interdimensional Alpaca Guard Regiment! We’ll see you again soon, probably!