Re"mark"able

Freak here, just popping in with another interlude whilst the Word Smith is still on hiatus (hopefully it will resume in February of the new year!)  As with the previous interlude, this one was also inked using marker (hence the horrible, horrible pun in the post title.)  You should go look at it!  And by you, I mean the person reading this sorry excuse for a blog right now!  Don't ask why, just go!  Exclamation mark!  (Anyway, the interlude can be found here.)

And after you've gone and looked at the interlude, here is the original pencil version:

The character in the interlude does not appear anywhere in episode 6.  For the excessively curious (or terminally bored), I suggest checking out episode one to see the previous (and only) appearance of the character (she appears in four panels, plus the title page.)

I've also, as may be apparent, done some tweaking of the original character design for this character:

Anyway, that is all from the Freak.  I don't expect to be posting again until next year which, of course, is not that far away, or thus it would seem.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Mark Up

The Word Smith interlude from my previous post is now finished.  I did things a bit differently and "coloured" it using marker rather than doing the usual Photoshop thing (though I only have grey markers so it's actually greyscale rather than coloured but whatever, that's details.)  The Word Smith itself is still on hiatus.

Anyway, that is all.  Please resume your regular internet browsing.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Up For Air

Things (by which I mean school) have been a bit busy of late with various deadlines coming and going.  Having just recently done my second (of three required) PhD seminar talks I have a bit of a respite before diving back into the next deadline (a paper submission for a conferece) which is about a month and a half away so not immediate but still all too close.

The draft of the script for the rest of episode six of The Word Smith now exists, though it may be a while yet before work resumes on it in earnest - likely after the aforementioned paper is out of the way.  Hopefully, though, there'll be an interlude or two up in the interim.  One such interlude is currently in the works, pencil version below:

And with that, dear Freaks, I bid the until next narf.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Blargglesplorgglenarf

It seems like the Word Smith's sparse and/or erratic update schedule will be continuing for the foreseeable future  (note:  I do not claim to be able to foresee the future.)  This is due to a paper submission deadline coming up in a little over a couple of months so I may need to sacrifice some comic time for actual work work time.  Shock!  I know.

The past few days have also been a tad work-heavy as I was crunching for a presentation this morning - just a lab-specific thing, nothing particularly special, but treating it as a personal deadline, nonetheless.  Went reasonably well:  well enough that I will consider my goals to have been met.  However, the crunching left me feeling a bit, well blarg, so I spent this afternoon working on a sprite animation that has nothing whatsoever to do with work.  And here it is:

(Because the internet doesn't have enough animated gifs.)

Freak Out,
-TFitC

To the Poit

New page.  Go read.  The end.

...

Ok, so there's actually a bit more...   it may be a few weeks before the next page as I've still got to finalize some of the script details for this episode (bad Freak, finish script before starting drawing) and I may take a bit of time to build up a couple pages of buffer so that the rest of the episode will hopefully be posted in a more regular manner than it has been so far.  I'll probably try to do some interludes in the meantime; I really should do more sketchbook drawing anyway.

Freak Out
-TFitC

P.S.

Post title is not a typo.  Just thought I'd mention that.  Narf.

Still Not Dead

So.  I have a comic, or so I'd have you believe.  I've been lazy about updating it lately but have managed to put a new page up today.  (Yay?)  Go read it, because it is there - or do you actually need a good reason?

It seems one of my previous posts about saying pages would be "done when they're done" (or something to that effect) isn't so far off the mark.  I'm going to try to get back to my regular once a week update schedule (because I want to actually get this thing finished in a not entirely unreasonable timeframe) but, ultimately, pages will be "done when they're done."

-----

In non-comic related things, the stats for this blog-like thing claim to have received over 10 000 views in the not too distant past, though most of those are probably just random people clicking on things by accident, bots or perhaps evil (or at least misguided) AIs.  And even then, 10 000 isn't really all that much in the grand scheme of the internet.  Still, it's a thing.  What sort of thing I'm not sure, but a thing nonetheless.

The most viewed blog entry seems to be my somewhat tongue-in-cheek plot summary of Final Fantasy Tactics (1058 views) with similar summaries for Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross following with about 250-ish views each.  Of course, I haven't posted any game plot summaries in a while.  Partly because that was part of my Final Fantasy series replay project (which is more or less complete) and partly because the whole comic/art thing took over.

Of course, there are more Final Fantasy games out now or on the way that I could add to the replay project (mainly the FF 13 games) if I wanted to, which I might, if time permits.  Also, vigilant viewers might have noticed that I skipped FF XI in my replay project.  This was because, being an MMO, it's somewhat of a different beast than the offline Final Fantasies.  Still, I've been think that, for the sake of completion, I might attempt an FF XI summary.  Though if I do, as it is a different beast, I was thinking of taking a different approach with it and doing more of a "lets play" style of thing.

(For those not familiar with the "lets play" concept, it's basically someone plays through a game on a forum/blog/whatever providing commentary and sometimes taking questions/feedback from the audience.)

As I no longer play FF XI (and don't plan to restart) any potential lets play would be drawing on my saved screenshots/memories/other resources rather than being a truly interactive lets play, but them's the breaks.

So, if you're still with me after all this blathering, if any of my one or two (semi-)regular(?) readers would be interested in a lets play, I might just go do that.  I might do it anyway because talking to myself on the internet is basically the standard operating procedure for this blog anyway.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Posting a Post Post Post

Oh, right, it seems I've got a comic, or something to that effect.  The newest page is now available, for those that are inclined to read it.  I really have no excuse for being late on this one, especially since I had already skipped a week.  I think that adopting a schedule of "it'll be done when it's done" might be the most prudent, but I'll try to post things in a timely manner, honest!

That is all.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Mumble, Mumble, Splarg

Alrighty... page 2 of episode 6 of The Word Smith is now online (I'd have posted this last evening but Blogger was being ornery.)  This is obviously later than I'd inteded to post it, regardless.  Partly, this was due to laziness, partly it's because this week's looking to be busier than normal so I don't expect to be posting a page this week so I chose not to push myself overmuch for page 2.

And that is all for today.  I don't feel like posting a sketchbook entry or saying anything else, particularly, so I won't.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

It's a Thing

Ok, so, I ended up being busy last evening hence I didn't get the page up when expected.  While I'm going to aim to have these things ready to go for Thursdays, I should probably just say that they'll be done when they're done and leave it at that.  Anywho, the first page of episode 6 of The Word Smith is now live.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Lateness

Due to me being a bit more procrastinate-y over the long weekend than I'd intended, this week's page of The Word Smith will be a bit late.  It should be up either something this evening or tomorrow.  I'll make another post when it happens.

In the mean time, here's the pencil version of the episode six title page that was posted last week:

There are two things to note about the pencil version of the title page.  First:  it was based on the third of the concept sketches that I posted at the end of the episode 5 unfaq.  Second:  I changed the pose of the central character at some point after scanning the pencil version (I might even have done that change on the traced version, I don't recall.)

Anyway, that's all the excitement I have to dish out for now, otherwise it would probably just be too exciting.  Or not.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Word Smith Resumes

As promised last week, the title page for episode 6 of the Word Smith is now available for your viewing pleasure - it's very literary.  Will page 1 follow in a timely manner?  Tune in next week to find out!

I was going to post the pencil version of the title page for comparison, but I seem to have forgotten to copy it over to my laptop so it'll have to wait until next week.  Instead, here's a bored freak:

Now back to preping (read: procrastinating) for today's lab tech talk.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Return of the Freak

Hello Word Smith fans, or Word Smith tolerators, or just random people who got here by accident and are all like "what's all this then?"  (flee, flee before it's too late!)  You may have noticed and perhaps even cared (even if just a little) that there hasn't been an update in a while.  I guess I've kind of fallen off the update wagon after the One Acts ended and my down time has been somewhat longer than I anticipated with not even an interlude in the interim (bad Freak!)  Whelp, to rectify this, Episode 6 will be starting next week, come hell or high water.  Indeed, the title page is almost finished, though it's been almost finished for a couple of weeks now.

Updates will from now on also be Thursday mornings (assuming all goes well) rather than Tuesday mornings as previously.  I figure that my Thursday mornings are usually unproductive so might as well use that time for posting the weekly blog/comic thing.

And becuase it's what I do, here's a page from the sketch book:

Yes, I'm back, and what better way to celebrate than with... hands.

Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Unfaq Vol 2

Now that the One Acts are over it's time to get back into some comicing.  The script for Word Smith episode 6 is progressing well, but for this week, it's the second volume of "Answers to Questions Nobody Cared About in the First Place."  This will be shorter than the first one since there's only one episode to cover so lets dive right in...

Episode 5 - Spam in the Place Where I Work

Alternate title I considered:  You've got Spam!  But I went with the Weird Al reference because Weird Al is awesome.

The Word Cave (page 1) - we'll see the inside of the Word Cave in episode 6 (please look forward to it!) and this is also the end of the meeting referred to back in episode 3.  (I'd personally never want to work in a place with early morning Monday meetings.)

The most exciting thing on page 2 is probably that it reveals the Word Smith's real name - Gord Smith (on the nameplate in panel 2.)  While figuring out The Pen's real name was somewhat agonizing, figuring out the Word Smith's was much easier (it's obviously "Gord Smith") plus the idea that his real name is almost the same as his secret identity amused me.  I briefly considered making him Ward Smith or something like that, but stuck with Gord.

Page 3 - the first panel is supposed to be a (probably rather obscure) reference to Phantom of the Opera.  "Track down this murderer he must be found...", "Down to the dungeon of my deep despair..."; also note that he has his hand at the level of his eyes.  The perhaps more obvious reference on this page is the VR helmet in the last panel which is meant to be siilar to Mega Man's helmet.

Page 4 is chock full of references, most of which are probably fairly obvious.  Top right is Tron (which I've never actually seen), bottom left is ReBoot (which was the last panel I came up with - honestly can't believe it took me that long to think of ReBoot when trying to come up with references), bottom right is The Matrix.  The reference that might be least obvious is the one in the centre which references an anime called Sword Art Online.

Nothing much to note for Page 5 except that The Pen facepalms on panel 4 (she also sort of did on page 1 as well).  I should probably keep a running tally.

Also not much to comment on for Page 6, though the Word Smith delivers the first of two cheesy speaches in this episode, both of which are cut off.

The villian of the day is introduced on Page 7 - the Homophone!   Note the various "phone" imagery in his outfit.  He's wearing the receiver of a telephone as a headband as well as using a rotary phone dial as a belt buckle.  His weapon of choice is a megaphone.  And, of course, he speaks using homophones.  The second last panel is meant to imply that the Word Smith can actually hear the difference between homophones and, thus, can tell that the wrong word is being used and that the language is being butchered.

Not too much to say about page 8, though in panel 2, The Pen says "What are you doing?" for the third time this episode.

Page 9 - those ribbon-like things on The Pen's sidekick outfit aren't just decorative, they're filled with ink and can be used (as in this case) as ink squirters.  It amused me that the Homophone would be weak against puns.  I hope that my puns here were sufficiently bad.

Page 10 - the two guards are wearing earthworm costumes (neither of them are named Jim).  The reasons for this should become apparant later on, though these character might just be one offs.  We'll have to see about that.  Also note that in panel 3, the hooded figure is watching recent events unfold via a book (you can see pages 8 and 9).  And sitting on a pile of books may not be as intimidating as a pile of skulls, it is more thematically appropriate for the character.


And that is all for this edition of the unfaq!  I'm going to aim to get something up for the comic next week, if only just an interlude.  In the meantime, here's some concept sketches for the episode 6 title page:

Freak Out,
-TFitC

End of an Episode

It's a little later than I expected (even though I expected it to be late), but the final page of The Word Smith, Episode 5, is now online for your viewing pleasure.  To read the whole episode from the beginning, start here.

With the One Act that I'm stage managing starting to go into high gear this week combined with the fact that I still have to finalize the script for episode 6, now seems like a good time to take a few weeks hiatus (which I've been doing anyway between episodes, so you know.)  I'll try to aim to start the next episode in late July and there probably won't be any interludes in the mean time, but who knows?  I can't predict the future, after all (unfortunate, that.)

And here's some character design:

I did some redesign of this character over my previous design from a while back.  Nothing too fancy.

Anyway, that's all for now.  Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Art of Fans

The "pen"ultimate page of episode five of The Word Smith has gone live.  I'm intending to get the final page of the episode up next week, though it may be a day or two later than normal.

Today also brings a rare piece of fan art.  Inspired by my style-emulation experiment of a few posts back (no link for you!), I decided to try doing some fan art of Misao from Rurouni Kenshin:

Yay!  You know, I haven't watched Kenshin in a while, maybe I should set aside some time to do that at some point...

Anywho, that's all for this week.
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Engarde!

Right.  So, it's an interlude week this week for the Word Smith with things resuming next week, most likely.

And here is the sketchbook version of the interlude (though you should totally check out the finished version as well because colour!)

It also occurs to me that I never did post the styles I was attempting to emulate for my "chameleon" post so here they are should anyone actually care (left-to-right, top-to-bottom):
Power Puff Girls
Peanuts
Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy concept artist)
Rurouni Kenshin (specifically modelled after Misao - one of the two that were rather iffy)
Vision of Escaflowne (nose probably needed to be more pointy)
Studio Ghibli (another one that was kind of iffy)
Scott Pilgrim
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Garfield

And, that's all for this week.
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Splort!

And behold!  For verily is page number eight from the episode that is the fifth of the Word Smith now online.  Behold, verily, and thou shalt have beholden it.  Yarr.  There possibly won't be a page next week as this week is shaping up to be pseudo-busy with various other commitments/responsibilities, but we'll see.  I'll try to get an interlude up, at least, but I'm not promising anything.

And somewhat related to the whole Word Smith thing I've got going on is a sort-of model sheet of The Pen (in civilian clothing).  Or, at least, that's the intent.  It's probably a far cry from what one would call a real model sheet, but whatever.

And that's all for this week!  Really!

Freak Out,
-TFitC

News From Freakland

The adventures of The Word Smith continue with episode 5's seventh page.  Things are starting to heat up, relatively speaking, of course.

And it had been a while since I practiced drawing hands, so, here's some hands.  Yay?

In other news, saw the newest Star Trek movie over the weekend and was suitably entertained.  Otherwise, not much happening in Freakland so, yeah.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Chameleon

And after the chaos of last week, The Word Smith triumphantly (he'd like to think so, anyway) returns with page 6.  It's been a while since we've seen them in costume.

For today's sketchbook entry, we dig back a little way...

A while back I decided to try drawing one of my characters in a variety of other styles, which I generally don't do and is probably part of why it took so long to do (if one looks at the list of dates on the upper left corner).  Also I had to decide which styles to emulate; whilst a few popped into my head right away, it took some time to decide on the others.  Anyway, I suspect there's at least a couple that might be hard to identify, not necessiarly because they're obscure, but because I didn't really manage to emulate that particularly style very well.  Oh well.  See how many you can identify :P

Freak Out,
-TFitC

In Progress

There is, alas, no new Word Smith page this week (gasp!) due to the fact that I seem to find myself stage managing a one act and with auditions last week, I was rather busier than normal.  Due to said business I also decided to forgo an interlude as well.  I know, I know, I've let down the internets, but such is life.  However, in order to salvage my honour and avoid having to commit harikiri or something else equally unpleasant, here is some work-in-progress stuff for page 6.

This is the thumbnails for page 6.  I'm experimenting with a different approach to my thumbnails for this episode by using Adobe Illustrator to create the layouts and initial text placement rather than doing that by hand.  The idea was inspired by how Allison Bechdel approaches the task, as described in the book Mastering Comics.  It sort of combines thumbnailing with script writing which seems sensible for a visual medium like comics.

And here are the pencils for page 6 (some panels a bit more rough than others).  Not all the dialogue has been finalized yet and, of course, it's not inked and coloured so be sure to check back next week for the finished version of the page.

Anyway, that is all for the nonce.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Random Noises

The latest page of Word Smith, episode 5, is up and we are now half way through the episode.  Blah, blah, stuff and things.

And for the sketchbook entry du jour:

Oh, it's these characters again.  Will they ever be anything other than sketchbook entries?  Who knows?  Only time will tell...

And it seems nothing else exciting is happening.  Another term, another whatever, yadda, yadda, flargen glarb.  Nyaaaarrrrrrggggle...  (narf)

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Woah

Whilst posting was delayed somewhat by some sort of technical snafu (not my fault - at least I don't think it was) page 4 of episode 5 is now bursting onto the interweebs.  Perhaps literally as well as figuratively.  Or something.  Probably something.

Anywho...  dredging up something from the sketchbook results in the following:

A set of random sketches involving The Pen, so it's vaguely thematically connected to the comic.

And speaking of comics, I've been thinking of writing a bit about some of the webcomics that I read, but I'm feeling a tad lazy right now so maybe next week, or some other point in the future.

Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

PS:  when posting a link to my webcomic, it would be beneficial to actually post the link.

Stuff. Yeah.

Yarrrrrrrr......   Anywho, page 3 of episode 5 of The Word Smith is now online.  There are pictures.  There are words.  There are both together.  They might even make some sort of sense, in some context.  Who can say?

Regardless, here's The Freak in the Cape:

And that is all for today.  Narf.

Edit:
Just got word that I have successfully passed my "comp II" for my PhD.  This is one of our degree requirements and takes the place of the comprehensive exam in some other places and passing it means I am now officially a "PhD candidate", for what that's worth.  I do, however, feel well and truly grilled after the experience and it certainly doesn't make me look forward to the eventual defense.  Narf...

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Naming Conventions

The next page (that being page two) of episode five of The Word Smith is now online.  It reveals the great mystery of just what is The Word Smith's real name?  Read if you dare for you just may go insane from the revelation.  (Most likely not, but I cannot rule out the possibility.)

And I really need to get back to drawing in the sketchbook more often (regardless of how long Word Smithing takes) 'cause I'm running out of stuff.  But for today, I continue with some of the FR character "redesign":

On the left is Katara and on the right is Tirel.  No point saying much else about these character since I'm the only one who knows anything about them to begin with.

In other largely inconsequential news, I've been playing a bit of Magic recently (which I've not done in years) which was fun.  I just have to make sure I don't go spend too much on cards (not likely an issue, I'm generally fairly well self-disciplined about these things).

Anyway, until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Not Batman

And verily, the first page of The Word Smith's fifth episode finds its way onto the weeb.  I'll be doing this episode in colour and also currently intend to do all remaining episodes in colour, but no guarantees.  I will also be giving a title to each page for whatever reason.

I've been rather lazy with the sketchbook lately since I've been focused on the comic, but here are a couple of character redesigns of my old FR characters:

Erin and Doran Windermere.  I didn't look back at the original designs though I suspect that these are at least somewhat similar.  I've never entirely decided on the exact relationship between these two characters (siblings, married, something else?), not that I expect it to make a huge difference.  Also, not entirely happy with the way Doran turned out so I'll probably redo that drawing at some point.

Anywho, that's all for this week.  Tune in next week for the exciting, continuing adventures of The Word Smith!

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Excitement

Episode 5 of The Word Smith has now officially begun with the title page.  This episode is going to be slightly shorter than the previous episode, currently scripted to be ten pages.  Coincidentally, I have exactly enough bristol board left to finish the episode after which I'll have to acquire some more.

Here is the pencil version of the episode 5 title page:

And, in a special two-for-one deal, here's the pencil version of last week's interlude:

So stay tuned next week for the continuing, exciting adventures of The Word Smith!  (Excitement!)

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Preterlude

A new interlude has been posted, though it's really more of a prelude for episode 5 which, barring any unforseen circumstances, should start next week.  Are you ready?  Are you excited?  Do you like bacon?  (If you do not answer "yes" to at least one of those questions then you are a hateful, hateful person.)

As I seem to not have copied the pencil scan of the interlude to somewhere accessible from my standard posting location, I can't, at the moment, post the pencil version of the interlude as is my wont (I'll try to remember to do so next week).  Instead, I'll just leave this picture from my sketchbook:

Two views of Kyoujo, not in her tour guide uniform.

There does not appear to be anything else of note to say this week so I shant say anything further.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Extras

If one were to look, one would probably find a new Word Smith interlude is available.  This one is technically part of episode 4 since it shows most of the extras that appeared during the episode.  Next week's interlude (if there is one) will probably be related to the next episode.

As with previous interludes, here's the sketchbook version:

This shows most of episode 4's extras - there are three not shown who were all, coincidentally, on page 3 (and only page 3).  All of the extras pictured above appeared at least twice.  The actual character design for the extras was basically done on-the-fly, either as part of the thumbnails or when drawing the actual page they first appeared on.  Most of the extras were first seen at a distance (and were thus very small) which is part of the reason I didn't do much actual design work for them (also, expedience), though a number of them ended up being enlarged for later pages (and, of course, for this interlude).  I guess the exception to that is the googly-eyed alien whose design has existed for, well, a couple of decades now, I suppose (yikes!)

It would have been faster to do the interlude in greyscale since I could have just plucked the shades to use out of the actual episode pages rather than decide on actual colours (which is kind of a pain).  But I did the other interludes in colour so I decided to suck it up and do this one in colour as well, suffering the pain of colour selection in the process.  I hope you're all happy.

Anyway...  that is all for this week.  Probably another interlude next week and then maybe even starting to post episode 5 the week after that.  Excitement!

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Unfaq Vol 1

Welcome to the first edition of The Word Smith's series of "Answers to Questions Nobody Cared About in the First Place" - basically, an unfaq.  I'm thinking of doing one of these during the down time between episodes to comment on things that I think are interesting (I'm not doing this for any of you, after all) that didn't come up directly during the episode.  Think of it like the director's commentary - you know, that stuff on DVDs that nobody really cares about either.  Since this is the first unfaq it's actually going to cover the first four episodes in one fell swoop and will thus be longer and more painful than subsequent ones which will only cover the episode at hand.

Lets get started, shall we?

Episode One - Attack of the g4m3rz

The Street Meet Cafe (the name being a play on street meat, ie, road kill) was, visually, loosely based on a photo of the Water Street Cafe in the Gastown part of Vancouver.  I've probably been past there as I've been in Gastown, though I've never eaten there.  The menu out front of the Street Meet Cafe is hard to read, but it says "Dead Raccoon, Flat Squirrel, Street Pizza, Rodent Medley, Stunned Bird and Cheese Sandwich" (you know, in keeping with the road kill theme).

One of the g4m3rz (G3, specifically, according to my scripts) gained his mannerisms as a result of random stuff that I did in the thumbnails:

This pose was totally unplanned... it just happened and he just kept doing it.

On page 3, pay attention to the furniture in the window of the furniture store.

Episode 1 was originally planned to be a one-off thing, though I left an obvious hook at the end in case I ever decided to continue it which I obviously did since we now move onto...

Episode Two - Clerical Error

This episode was done for a comic workshop I ran a while back.  I decided it was best to continue an existing project rather than start a new one.  The plot of the episode was based on something that bugs a friend of mine - I don't really care that much, but now I can't hear the phrase "Can I help whose next?" without laughing a bit.

The Pen and her brother (not named at this point - none of the characters acquired real names until episode 3) were not originally related.  I didn't decide they were related until I started planning for this episode.  And why did I decide to make them siblings?  Simple:  they both have a bit of hair sticking up at the back.

Yes.  It is.  Very logical.  Very.

The book titles on page 2 are mostly some sort of grammar/language based jokes.  It was a bit annoying coming up with that many of them.  People who know me may note that Quasi appears on one of the books.

The Word Smith's first thought bubble on page 3 contains a reference to Les Miserable.   The actual lyrics from the musical are "There is none but me who can intercede in mercy's name, three days is all I need..." (it's when Valjean is pleading with Javert to let him see to it that Fantine's child, Cosette, is properly looked after... see here for more details).

Page 4 contains a He-man reference.  (Yeah, Les Mis to He-Man, classy.)  I should possibly also note that the business woman and her daughter reappeared from episode 1, seems like they'll become a running joke.

Page 5 contains references to Sailor Moon, Star Trek (specifically, The Borg) and an internet meme.  Oh, for character design, the male clerk's moustache was an artefact of the thumbnails - for the rough sketches, at some point in kind of looked like he had a moustache and I decided to keep it.

Doesn't he look like he's got a moustache?

And we'll close out episode 2 by drawing attention to the MC Hammer (why am I providing a link?  oh well...) reference on page 6.  Also, the last panel was meant to recall the last panel on page 2.

Episode 3 - Metaphorically Speaking

I decided to try colouring this episode and ended up doing so for the entire episode.  I had read a bit about "flatting" at the time and wanted to try it out.  It turns out to be a bit of a pain and is, in part, what has motivated some of my current research.  This episode takes place immediately after the end of episode 2 (which, incidentally, takes place on the afternoon of the same day as episode 1, which is sometime in the morning).

The Pen's outfit is based off of my exercise outfit (though my exercise shirt has sleeves).  I also debated for a while on what The Pen's real name should be.  I was trying to come up with something whose meaning was related to swords (since she fences) but they all seemed too old fashioned to me.  Unfortunately, I don't remember what names I had considered or I'd list them here.  Oh well.

Battle Scientist Malie C. is a typical "adjective noun name" that one sees semi-frequently in anime/manga.  The idea of a Battle Scientist amuses me.  In particular, this is meant to be a rather vague reference to a series called Battle Angel Alita (which I've never actually seen, I just know the name for some reason) - Malie C is the same number of sylables as Alita and sounds kinda the same, maybe, if you squint just right.  It is also similar to a certain real female scientist's name.  If you consider that in Japanese phonetics, L = R, well, you do the science.

The pink-ish haired character (dubbed the "Book Lady" in my scripts so far) was hard to write for since she's supposed to be talking in various mixed/twisted/broken/nonsensical metaphors.  Not easy!  Also note that her books mostly have punny titles.

In one of the backgrounds on page 4 you can see something resembling a Feynman diagram which is something physicists use to describe particle interactions (I make no claims as to the correctness of it, though what I drew seems to vaguely resemble this one).  Also note that the crowd behind The Pen and The Book Lady consists of the characters from The Word Smith's internal monologue back in episode 2 along with the recurring business woman and her daughter.

Fun fact:  the blue flames appearing above the Book Lady on pages 5 and 6 are called hitodama and appear semi-frequently in anime/manga.  I did some checking to see if they had a canonical appearance or not; they don't seem to, but checking made me figure out what they were called.

Those blue flame things are hitodama... spirits of the dead or something.

The sort of sinister seeming individual who conveniently has their face obscured on the last panel is the same person as the shadowy guy at the end of episode 1, if it wasn't already apparent.  Spoilars!  You'll probably have all forgotten by the time it becomes relevant so whatever.  Also, the T-Rex is eating science.

Episode 4 - Surfing the Weeb

This was a mostly filler episode, as far as the overall plot goes, but I decided I wanted to bring the g4m3rz back, in some capacity and it seemed like it might be a fun diversion.  The design for the g4m34z' characters was based on the (very small) versions that appeared on their laptop screens in episode 1.

As with the book titles in episode 2, among the stuff on The Word Smith's desk, vigilant viewers may note boxes that hint at Quasi Soft and a certain Final Reality, amongst other things.

I should perhaps note that Final Reality Online is only related indirectly to the Final Fantasy series' online entries as FR Online is based on my long running FR project which is meant to be a parody of FF as a whole, rather than any one specific entry.  In particular, the presence of cat-girls in FR can, I think, be primarily attributed to Vision of Escaflowne which I encountered well before FF XI was released.

The googly-eyed alien on page 3 was meant to be doing more of a "Hi Mom!" type of thing at the camera, though in retrospect it looks more like it's attempting to hit on Taramir.  The statue on the fountain is meant to be a tribute to a certain cape-wearing freak.

Fun fact:  the staff that Caelinandrica carries is called "Saturn-on-a-stick" (for real!) though I never found a way to work that into the script, alas.

I picked the colours to be similar to Saturn's.  If I were being more meticulous, I'd have used the planet as a texture, or somesuch.

From when the adventuring team is being introduced:  I seem to like having dwarf names start with "kh", in fact I think every dwarf name I've ever made up probably starts with kh.  That is probably attributable to the name "Khazad-dum" from The Lord of the Rings.  Also, for some reason, I made Kho's name sound like a camera.

That's a sudoku puzzle on the pedistal on page 6, also meant to evoke the cloisters from FFX.  Visually, the exterior of the tower is a mix of Orthanc and the CN Tower.  And sentient-ish appliances have a long history in FR.

I think The Pen's character facepalms a lot in this episode.  Though I think The Pen facepalms a lot in general.

Better get used to it 'cause it'll probably keep happening...

The Word Smith's character was meant to be some sort of "fire and brimstone" preacher, except with grammar.  Page 10 shows enlarged versions of some of the background characters from page 8 (which was the only character design they ever received).  The female dwarf is wearing a pot helm.  I'm not sure if that's the same alien from earlier or if it's a different one.

For the design of the GM on page 11, I was basically trying to make him look ridiculous.  Also note that his outfit is red on the episode's title page; that is because GMs in FF XI are red (but otherwise don't really look similar).  He's also supposed to be snapping his fingers in a Q-like manner when he teleports everyone off to jail.  All of the background characters in the first panel of the page had appeared at some point previously in the episode.

The sign off message "This ends our broadcast day" on page 12 was something I always used to use for programs I wrote back in highschool (and probably during undergrad too).  The Word Smith's computer was also meant to look a little archaic.  The idea of the cat playing for The Pen after she falls asleep amused me, especially since the cat is hunting rats.  Also, the whole fiery cow thing is, well, a thing.

And wooo... that was a bit wordy.  Next one (when it happens) won't be nearly so long since it'll only be one episode!

Until next time...
Freak Out,
-TFitC

At Least the Cat's Having Fun

And with this page, episode 4 of The Word Smith reaches its conclusion.  Episode 5 probably won't start for 3 or 4 weeks while I try to get a bit of a buffer built up - we'll see how that goes.  But fear not, you'll still be able to get your Word Smith fix as there'll probably be some additional Word Smith related content posted somewhere between episodes.

Also, sleepy freak is sleepy:

And with that, I shall sign off.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

The Lot of You

Beyond all odds, it would seem that the penultimate episode of The Word Smith's fourth episode has crawled its way onto the internets and can be found here.  The page ended up being a bit busy and may have worked better being spread over two pages, but, well, them's the breaks, I guess.  Something to bear in mind for the future.  Stay tuned next week for the episode's stunning conclusion.

And here are the thumbnails for pages 8-11:

If one were so inclined, or had nothing better to do, one could easily find some differences betwixt the thumbs and final pages, notably page 11 (my not completely illegible hand writing at the bottom of the page 11 thumbs is basically noting intended changes for the final page).

And last week I totally completely entirely forgot that I was going to post a scan of the pencils for page 10 since I hadn't posted any page pencils for a while so, here they are:

There are also some fairly obvious changes between the pencils and the final page.  Most notable are panel 3 (I redid the pencils for the two characters in the lower right between when I scanned this and when I inked it) and the last panel (I sometimes draw in background elements after inking foreground stuff).

Anywho, that is, I think, all there is for this week.  And  next week is... next week.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Bovine Rampage

Guten Tag, internets.  How are you on this wet and dreary winter morning?  (This is a rhetorical question; I am not expecting an answer.)  To chase away those winter blahs, why not read page 10 of episode 4 of The Word Smith?  It's not like you've got anything better to do, right?  (This is also rhetorical.)

To follow that up, here is today's sketchbook entry:

Just a potpourri mix of various characters.  (Note that chibi-freak is doing part of the dance from the song in 1-2 for this year's FASS - if you don't know what that is then it's not important.)

Well, that is all for this week.  Nothing deep and insightful today, I'm afraid, not that there ever is mind, but there's always the chance.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

The Cat's Meow

Hey, look, page 9 of episode 4 of The Word Smith is online.  It may even be a thing, or whatever.  Regardless, it looks like everything is going according to plan.  Hopefully page 10 will be ready for next week, but there's a chance there might be a slight delay or an interlude instead.  I blame FASS (and so should you.)

And now, on to today's sketchbook entry:

This is a bit of a redesign of one of the characters from the occasionally mentioned Kyoujo RPG.  In particular, this is Mirayrl Aiyew Prurrj Trelarrl, who is basically a supporting, though playable, character.  I seem to have been doing some updating/redesign of some of my FR and related characters of late (especially some of the less frequently drawn ones) so there's bound to be some more of them showing up here in the future.

In other news, FASS is over, I have survived it and life returns to some semblance of normality, whatever that is.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Leaping Into Action

If one were to look, one would surely find page 8 of The Word Smith's fourth episode is now online and it would seem that things are afoot...

And it looks like today's sketchbook entry is...

And attempt at some chibi-style drawing, or something.  The expression on that one at the end might be a tad creepy.  Oh  well, I'm sure you can all handle it.

In other news... not much!  It's FASS show week this week which means general business and stuff, but it'll be all over this weekend and then back to the regular routine next week.  So, stay tuned, and stuff.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Slippery When Wet

Page 7 of episode 4 of The Word Smith has made its way online.  In this episode, stuff happens!  More specifically, we see the reappearance of the cat back on page 2 (included specifically to set up this joke) as well as hints of things to come for the remainder of the episode.  I'm sure that sense of impending doom is just some grand paranoid delusion. ... Or is it...?

I thought, today, it might be interesting to show some thumbnails, which I've not done in some time.

These are the thumbnails for pages 4-7 and were drawn on the back of some paper I printed out a while ago (recycle!)  As you can see, my thumbnails are pretty rough.  I mostly use them for roughing out the basic composition though, as can be seen, the middle row on page five (where Nyrissi is introduced) was left blank as I didn't decide on how I wanted to handle her until I got to that part of the page.  I also sometimes leave notes for myself on things that I want to modify for the final page (because I'm too lazy to actually redraw the thumbnails...  or something.)

In the context of todays page, it might also be interesting to note that neither the script nor the thumbnails for page 2 mentioned or showed a cat anywhere.  In the script, the first mention of the cat is on page 7 when The Pen mentions that she let it play for her.  I only decided to put the cat into page 2 as I was drawing that page, partly because I wanted to put a little something extra in some of the panels, and partly because I decided that I didn't want the cat to just come out of nowhere on page 7.

And that's all for this week.  Tune in next week when stuff happens!  Or stuff.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

According to Plan

Page 6 of episode 4 of The Word Smith has found its way onto the interweebs revealing the plans of t3h g4m3rz.  This also marks the half-way mark for the episode (it will be twelve pages).  Go marvel at it, or just mar at it, without the vel.

And here is today's exciting sketchbook entry, for some definition of exciting:

It's a slight redesign on a character that has appeared in this blog previously.  I had had some plans for the character, but there's not really been enough time to follow through on them.  Perhaps when FASS has finished up I'll have the chance to revisit things.

In other news, I forgot to mention last week that I saw a license plate that read "LOTR4EVR" which I thought was cool (of course I'm a huge Tolkien geek, so I would think that).  I also had the opportunity to see The Hobbit in 48 FPS mode (I originally saw it in regular 24 FPS).  That is, of course "frames per second" and not "first person shooter".  I thought it was neat!  It didn't take me very long to adjust to the high frame rate and didn't cause any issues for me.

And that is all for this week.  Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Aaaaaand.... We're Back!

It's Tuesday again which means it's time once again to inflict my peculiar brand of commentary and artistry (perhaps for some loose definition of the word) upon the interweebs.  This also means that there's something new posted over on the Word Smith site and it's an actual new page rather than an interlude.  Enjoy!  In the imperative!

And for today's sketchbook entry... hmmm, well, lets see...  the sketchbook has sadly been a little neglected due to focusing on the comic of late, but there's still a few things to dig out for the moment (though I'm going to have to set aside some time to do some more sketchbook drawing!)

Four different poses for Gillin, one of my recurring FR characters and probably the one I tend to sketch most often, for some reason.  I intentionally left the first (top-left) one a little unfinished as I thought it looked kind of interesting and I occasionally like to see the rough, construction work that leads to the finished drawing - she's not actually a mannequin, automaton, homunculus or anything of that sort.

Anywho, that's all for this week.  Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

It's a Mystery to Everyone

Aaaaaaaaaand, here's another interlude for the Word Smith.  I could have had a page ready for today (I could almost have had two pages, even), but I decided to go with the interlude since it should hopefully let me get through FASS without falling behind.  *crosses fingers*

 As with the previous interludes, here's the sketchbook version:

Viewers might notice some slight difference betwixt the pencil version and the final version.  And who is that guy in the middle?  We haven't seen him since the episode's title page.  Hmmmm....

Anyway, the holidays are official over and the nose is back to the grind stone (such as it is).  I might actually talk a bit about one of my other projects in this blog some day, but not, it seems, today.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

New Freak, Same as the Old Freak

I appear to have stepped into a time warp and found myself in a completely different year.  Odd that that seems to happen at about the same time each year...  surely it must be just some sort of cosmic coincidence?  Perhaps it is best not to think too much upon it.  However, if one were to check, one would likely find a second Word Smith interlude has been posted.  Time works in mysterious ways.  Freaky.

As with the previous interlude, here, also, is the pencil version from my sketchbook:

Hopefully (?) I'll start posting actual pages again next week, though I might do another interlude to give myself a bit more of a head start.

There is nothing else to report at this time; New Year's happened, games were played, and in the end the world appears to still be here, much the same as it was yesterday, though one can never entirely rule out the possibility that it's all just a rather persistent illusion.  One, however, does not worry much about such things, especially when one refers to oneself as "one(self)".

Anywho, signing off or something.

Freak Out,
-TFitC