Unfaq Vol 6

It's time for more unfrequently asked questions or rather, as it seems to have become, my commentary on the latest episode of The Word Smith.  Here we go.

Episode 9 - In a Binding

This is the second episode in what is, effectively, The Word Smith's first "two-parter":  it picks up where the previous episode left off.  Could they have been combined into one episode?  Maybe, but with things split up as they are, Episode 8 ended on a bit of a cliff hanger and I'm also trying to prevent individual episodes get too long.  As such, the setting remains the same as the previous episode.

Page 1 officially names one of the villains that's being lurking in the background since episode 5:  The Book Worm!  The name is, perhaps, revealed with a little less fanfare than I perhaps should have used.  The last row of the page shows events from The Pen's point of view whilst the first row of the following page shows them from, well, from everyone else's point of view, I guess.

Page 2 concludes with a pen being thrown from off-screen to a rat-a-tat.  This is somewhat of a private joke (sorry) which originated with the original DiC run of Sailor Moon - when Tuxedo Mask was flinging his roses around, he would generally be heralded by the sound of castanets which led to the notion of "cats with castanets" (the idea being that Luna (or, I suppose, Artemis) would be lurking around somewhere playing the castanets).  And in the final page of page 2 we do see a cat with a castanet strapped to its tail.

I tried to give The Pen a Tuxedo Mask-esque speech when she reappeared at the start of page 3.  Maybe it sort of worked?  Well, it was supposed to be corny, so as long as it hit that note it's alright.  The Pen and The Word Smith then proceed to defeat the Irony Chef with pedantry so, yay?

Also of note in the final panel of page 3 in the far right of the background (just above The Pen) is what is supposed to be a Tesla Model S.  It is there because I think they're cool.  I don't know how much it actually looks like a Model S because drawing things that intentionally look like actual things is not easy and still something I'm working on.  It is also visible in the first panel of page 4 and page 8.

A three page flashback to episode 3, showing the Book Worm's origin story (from her perspective, at least) starts on page 5.  This was originally scripted to only be one page, but I decided that would just be too rushed and too crowded so I ended up expanding it.  As a result, the episode ended up being longer than intended.  I redrew the flashback panels by hand, rather than trace or otherwise directly duplicate the original panels.  I did measure some things to make the panels as close to the originals as possible and I did copy-and-paste (and transform) the covers of the issue of Battle Scientist Malie C. that the (pre-)Book Worm is holding.  Obviously, the whole flashback casts The Word Smith in a more villainous light than in the original episode.  Finally, a Nissan Leaf (or something that is supposed to resemble one) can be seen in the final page of the flashback.  Have I mentioned I'm pretty keen on electric cars in general?

Back to the present on page 8, the Worm Guard (who we've seen in the background in various previous episodes) appear briefly before being easily squashed.  I mean, they are only worms, what does one expect?  Of note, the pose that The Word Smith takes in the page's final panel (and the first panel on the next page) is based off of the battle stance often adopted by Saitou Hajime as portrayed in Rurouni Kenshin.

Speaking of page 9, The Pen's ability to interact with word balloons was previously shown in episode 4, though here it is shown she can rewrite dialogue rather than just using them as bludgeons.  Which is more useful?  Who knows?  The Musty Old Tome that the Book Worm pulls out was in the stack of books that she was shown to be buying in episode 3 / the flashback.

On page 10, The Word Smith gets to demonstrate his golf swing again (which he original used in the first episode).  As discussed in a previous post, there were some inking snafus on this page that ended up with it getting delayed.

The important thing to note on page 11 is that the Book Worm gets to show off here book teleportation powers.  She was previously seen disappearing into a book in episode 6, but this is the first time the teleportation aspect of that ability has been shown/confirmed.  Also, The Pen makes various sarcastic remarks.

And the final page has the recurring business woman and her daughter showing up, just in time for the business woman to get hit in the face with a book, which seems to be happening a lot (well, twice) this chapter.  Did you know the business woman has freckles?  I didn't either until I was looking at her episode 1 appearance for reference and noticed she did.  She's mostly been in the background since then so this is the first time since episode 2, I think, where she's gotten a closeup.  Also, I think this marks the first time where she's said something that wasn't in response to something her daughter said.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that there is a small Spaceballs reference in the bottom left panel of page 12.  Also, since the Book Worm lost grip of her book when The Pen tugged on her cape, one could technically argue that it was The Pen's fault.  This is, also, a sort-of shoryuken that The Word Smith is performing in the first panel.

Lastly, the final two pages of the episode weren't originally planned.  I changed the script because I decided I didn't like how the episode originally ended which necessitated adding a couple of extra pages to get things wrapped up in a reasonable-ish (I hope?) manner.  One side effect of this is that a lot of episode 10 is going to have to be replanned.

Anywho, that's a wrap for episode 9.  Look for episode 10 to start sometime in the fall.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Summer Vacancy

Due to a little bit of writter's block concerning some dialogue in one of the panels plus a couple other distractions over the past week, the final page of The Word Smith's ninth episode arrives on the weeb a day later than intended.

Nevertheless, that's the end of the episode.  Next week will be the episode nine unfaq after which The Word Smith will be taking a hiatus, as I usually do betwixt episodes.  However, this is likely going to be a bit longer than usual as I feel like I need to focus on some other projects a bit more than I have been of late.  I don't have a specific date for resuming The Word Smith, but it's likely to be late summer or early fall at the earliest.

In the mean time, in addition to the unfaq next week, I may post some interludes and maybe some stuff about some of these other projects.  I'll try to have something filling this space regardless.

Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Time is Relative

Well!  It's a bit later in the day than I usually post, but the next page of The Word Smith is now online!  The next page will bring a conclusion to the current episode so... stay tuned!  Or don't.  Your choice, really.

Until next time...
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Ink Blots

So!  After a delay, the late page of The Word Smith is on the scene.

I thought I'd take a few moments to explain some of the inking issues that arose with this page.  It's actually not terribly uncommon for me to muck up the inking a bit.  Usually these are things like inking a line I shouldn't (construction lines or other lines in the pencil drawing that are occluded by something in the final drawing an, thus, shouldn't be inked), or drawing a line in slightly the wrong place (because I'm still learning the tools or my hand is a bit shaky) or a line just ends up a bit more uneven than I'd like.  These are all fairly quick and easy to fix up digitally after scanning and thus not a big deal.

However, occassionally I make bigger mistakes.  Sometimes I just royally screw up some part of the inking, maybe because the pencil lines were left rougher than they should be.  Sometimes I look at something after I ink it and realize that it's just off or I just don't like it.  Sometimes I decide things would be clearer if I did things another way.  Obviously it's preferable to catch these things before inking but, well, I'm still learning (that's my excuse, anyway.)  These sorts of things are usually not things that I would want to fix digitally, since I don't have a drawing tablet.  My general approach to these is to draw a fix on tracing paper (so I can make sure things line up), ink that, scan it and merge it digitally with the main page.  Here's some examples from Episode 8:

(From Page 2):  This was a small fix.  I was unhappy with how the hand turned out (hands are hard) so I redrew it and pasted the new improved one into the panel.

(From Page 3):  Sometimes fixes are a bit bigger.  Here, I decided I needed to redo the pose of the character on the left so I redrew the body and replaced the old one.  The head didn't change.

(From Page 2 - again, boy I really messed up on that page a lot):  And every now and then I replace an entire panel.  Fortunately this was a small panel and I seem to have not gotten around to putting in any of the background details on the old panel before deciding to replace it.  The reason I redid this panel was because I felt showing the two character getting on the bus would clarify the flow of action since they appear on the bus after a one panel flashback.

The main issue with the latest page was from the middle panel of the middle row:

Basically, I decided the pose needed to be fixed.  As can be seen, I didn't bother finishing the inking of the first version.  And while the pose could probably still be improved, the second attempt was better than the first.  There was also another bit in the first panel that needed to be fixed, but I decided it was small enough to fix entirely digitally.

So, that is that.  Hopefully the next page will be on time two weeks from today.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Lack of Words

There will be no Word Smith this week, for the one or two of you out there that might actually care.  Partly I was slacking a bit on the comic these past couple of weeks and partly there's more that needs to be fixed up for the inking than usual so I've decided not to rush things and just postpone things. 

The next page should be up next week.

Until then,

Freak Out
-TFitC

Musty Olde Comic

And without much fanfare or further ado (or strange new hairdos) the latest episode of The Word Smith slinks onto the interweebs.

Until some point in the future...
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Squishy Worms

And once again, the latest page of The Word Smith wriggles its way onto the interweebs in the usual place.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Weeb Surfing

Once again, we bring you short message regarding the recent uploading of the latest page of The Word Smith to its accustomed spot on the interweebs.

This ends our broadcast day.

Freak Out
-TFitC

Esophagi

And the newest page of The Word Smith is now available.  It is a thing that can now be viewed.

Until next time...

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Lightning Quick Post

Oh hey, new Word Smith page up:  ici.

Stuff.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Reservations

Today's post is more than one sentence informing an indifferent internet of the latest page of my comic.  In fact, today's post will have very little to do with said comic (though for those who care, the next page may be a day or two late due to me being busy for a good chunk of this weekend.)  So, with that out of the way, lets get on with it.

A scant two days ago, Tesla Motors unveiled their upcoming Model 3 (here's a link to the video for those who are interested and haven't seen it yet.)  The Model 3 is Tesla's "affordable" electric vehicle.  I put affordable in quotes because, at $35k US there will still be a fair number of people who can't afford it (though electric vehicle incentives available in some jurisdictions may help with that somewhat), though it is still a heck of a lot more affordable than the Model S (or X) which will make it attainable by a lot more people than any of Tesla's previous offereings.  And it appears that there is a good amount of interest in the Model 3 already, if the the 230 000 or so reservations made for it in the first two days is any indication.

I mention all this to say that I made a reservation for the Model 3 shortly after the online reservations opened up on Thursday and I am somewhat excited!  This is a kind of surprising to me because a year ago, I would not have ever thought that I'd be anywhere near this excited for a car of all things.  I am not a car person.  Cars are occassionally useful tools for getting from point A to point B, but they're not really exciting.

Now, I've had it in the back of my mind for a while that whenever I was in the market for a new (or used) car, I'd like to move towards something a bit "greener" than my current car - some sort of hybrid, I figured.  As purchasing a vehicle was always at some undefined point int the future, I never really looked into the details of what was available and really only had this vague awareness that hybrids were a thing.  It was mostly just a thought that I filed away, to be investigated at the appropriate time.

 But things sometimes happen in unexpected ways and my interest in electric cars in general (and Teslas in particular) was piqued by this (rather long, but quite interesting) article about Tesla and electric vehicles that I read last May.  Ever since then, I've been keeping an eye on news about Tesla and electric cars, looking forward to the Model 3 in particular.  A Model S is well out of my price range for the foreseeable future (and possibly always will be) but a Model 3, now that I should be able to handle.

Now I just have to wait two years or so for the Model 3 to actually go into production :P

Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Sandwiched

I'm a couple of days later posting it than intended, but here is the latest page of The Word Smith:  ta da!

Until some point in the future
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Word Power

And the latest page of The Word Smith comes online.  Yeah.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

On the Inside

The next page of the Word Smith is in the standard location.

Narf.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Open Book

Short and to the point:  the first page of episode nine of The Word Smith is now online.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Book Return

Alrighty.  Getting right to the point:  episode 9 of The Word Smith begins!

As mentioned previously, my update schedule is "whenever I can get pages done" but this will hopefully be about once every two weeks, on average.

Do not consider anything I say here to be binding.

So, until next time,
Freak Out,
-TFitC

Punctuation

There are a couple of days remaining in the month and I have yet to post anything for the next episode of The Word Smith which my previous post implied would happen sometime this month.  I expect to get around to this some time over the weekend so as not to perjure myself.

In the meantime, here's some design sketches I did of a very minor character that appears in a flashback in episode 7:

The character is named The Punctuator and is, obviously, punctuation themed.  I was also trying to make his outfit a bit "spikey" because he, well, punctures things, after a fashion.

And that is all for today.  Watch this space for the commencement of the next exciting (exciting!  I say!) episode of... The Word Smith!

Freak Out,
-TFitC