And thus ends Percy Shrugged, the penultimate chapter! Sketchbook Wednesday, then another Intermission Thursday before the final arc begins! We’re so close to the end!
Archives: Comics
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The Japanese Love Cartoonists
So in case you missed it in previous announcements, I spent two and a half weeks in Japan this summer on a teacher exchange run by the Fulbright program. One thing that helped overcome the translation barrier was a scrapbook describing my life with pictures of friends, family, our crazy cat, etc. One thing I mentioned in it was that I am a cartoonist, which was a BIG hit. I was working on the drawing for that page on the flight over (I flew on a Japanese airline; much better than the American airline I was on for the way back), and the flight attendants LOVED it. They kept stopping by to see how it was coming along. One of them gave me this note, so I drew her a quick sketch.
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AAAAAAAGH!
Ref: Zappy cancels transformations (and can cause clothes rippage)
This comic wasn’t in my script, but I realized I had an extra day and we hadn’t had a good transformation sequence yet. Rather embarrassing when my first webcomic was El Goonish Shive ten years ago. (Yikes, has it really been that long?)
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Ichabod’s Decision
Ref: Zappy undoes transformations | Frizzy Nikki
This comic! Again, been waiting a long time for this, but also this is the happiest I have been with my work in a LONG time. The fact that I managed to get every character save Roark and that other SCR guy into one panel and still make it look good, drawing Nikki in a difficult pose, and Chris throwing the beaker… I am pleased with myself.
I debated about taking Nikki’s growth from elf to human a bit farther and bringing back the anti-fanservice box, but she doesn’t grow as dramatically as Jorocks (remember, the taller you are, the shorter your elf form is, and Jorocks is a giant) and it would have been difficult to draw Matt carrying her. It turned out well, so I am not complaining.
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No
I have been waiting for this scene for YEARS. It hasn’t always taken this form (originally it took place in the Tower Room against the Shadow), but Percy using the zappy to defend himself and his friends has remained consistent.
I went back to hand-drawing the comic, then going over the lines digitally, and I am pleased with the result. It also theoretically takes less time this way. I say theoretically because I got back from Japan last week and jet lag is still hitting hard; I fell asleep at my computer desk twice while inking this comic. Oops!
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Volunteer As Tribute
Ref: The zappy | Last seen zappy | Chris didn’t know about Ichabod’s power | Late to the party
Looks like Percy’s gone full mad scientist! Who says Santa can’t look impressive?
I like Matt’s role in this, limited as it is. Just like the Doctor, he’s looking for another way out without sacrificing his friends. Hopefully he doesn’t have the same luck as the Doctor (and yes, I went there).
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Ichabod’s Origins
Ref: Amnesia about origins | Spy? | Spy again? | Spy still hanging around | Nikki elf, Ichabod human
Raise your hand if you saw this one coming before last Thursday’s comic!
Ichabod primarily looks out for number one. Normally he (she?) would be perfectly happy to leave everyone else to burn. Could we be seeing some *gasp* character development?!?
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I Survived the Camp Cornhusker Bug Out
Okay, so today’s SR: Scouting isn’t exactly a comic, but it is something I designed for Scouts. I have been attending Camp Cornhusker for 18 years (which, among other things, inspired certain comics) and have been on staff for 12 years. Yet, without fail, there is a new experience waiting for me every year. This year, one of those new experiences happened to be a camp-wide evacuation. We had major storms coming into the area (and a surprising amount of advance notice!) and the decision was made to move camp to Humboldt-Table-Rock-Steinauer (HTRS) High School, located about 11 miles north, for the night. Good thing too, as we had a tornado within a mile of camp that night! The whole operation went remarkably smoothly; the camp leadership and the Scouts themselves deserve a lot of credit for making this happen so effectively. The Scoutmasters approached the camp leadership about getting commemorative T-shirts for the first known evacuation, so I volunteered to head that up and came up with this design (not my first time designing a T-shirt; maybe I could turn this into a business if I had time…). If you come down to camp next year, watch for these shirts! Also, all proceeds from these shirts will go toward constructing a storm shelter on the camp property.
The camp was featured on the news; you can check it out here.
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Nikki The Experiment?
Bet you didn’t see this coming! John actually being the bigger man (figuratively speaking) and putting aside his hatred for Communism. Oh, and Nikki apparently being the result of a Commie experiment. That’s probably significant too.
