Eavesdropping

These will start being funny again.  I promise.  Of course, we still have to deal with the awkward relationship forming between Raine and Aiden, where she begins to have feelings for him at the same time he dies and forgets his feelings for her completely.  Surely there's comedy to be found in that.

But, I don't know, maybe you guys like the narrative stuff?  There was a lot to get through these last few weeks.  Next week, I'm going to go into something I like to do every chapter, and that's walk you through a typical day at Super U., class by class, as it were.

If narrative is your thing, go check out the Saturday Super Stories.  Jason just recently updated, and the new story happens to feature Mr. Walters, the Dark Avenger.

Lastly, I wanted to give you a quick heads up that I won't be posting anything the last week of this month.  I'm gonna go disappear for a while.

The Gift

It's been fun visualizing these characters in various regions and periods throughout history.  This is probably the last one, for a little while at least, as this little sidetrack into Aiden's past comes to a close.  I hope that I've divulged just enough information to fill in some blanks while still leaving some things open for interpretation.  There are a lot of stories I'd like to tell concerning the past of the Ravenswood family, but this is supposed to be a humorous superhero comic, so it's high time I get back to that.

Reminisce

I shit you not, I've had the image of that third panel stuck in my head for, like, a decade.  Probably more.  Damn it felt good to get that out of there.

Granted, when I first conceived of the Ravenswood children, all of those years ago, Aiden and Time Lass were very different.  Different characters, in fact.  Aiden was called Kaine, and he was all of the cool and none of the goofy; he was more or less just a rip-off of Kwai Chang Caine.  Time Lass wasn't a time-jumping kleptomaniac at all; she was a witch called East with blonde and green hair, and personality-wise, she was pretty flat.  I'm happy with the way things have evolved.

As a random aside, if I had known how immensely popular the name "Aiden" would become, I would have picked something else.

I've been following @Sketch_Dailies on the Twooter for a couple of days now.  If you like drawrings I highly recommend it.  I really want to get involved; I know I should be drawing more, not just a few times a week.  I don't even have a real job, and I still can't conceive of how I'd have time for that, though.  Plus, there's so many talented artists contributing on a daily basis, it's intimidating; a daily reminder of how far I still have to go.

As always, thanks for reading, and please show your support by leaving comments, browsing the merch and checking out my book.  Any merch you'd like to see, but don't?  Let me know... I can probably cook it up for you.

Reminder

What's the best way to spice up boring expository in a comic?  Have a character precariously and unwarrantedly dangle another in the air with weird superpowers, and follow it all up with a vulgar punchline!  Bam!  Webcomic magic.

So next week it seems I get to divulge a bit of information on the Ravenswood family back-story.  I hope this is a thing you've been looking forward to.

The Blame Game

Back... to the future!  Which is the present.  As cool as the last few strips turned out, it felt good to keep things a little looser.  And not have to draw all that armor.

As you might guess, a word that can be used to describe the next several strips might be "expository."  I'm once again confronted with the dilemma of divulging lots of information while at the same time trying to keep things light and entertaining.  I hope you like the story that's being told so far, because there's going to be a lot of blanks being filled in over the next couple weeks!

Regicide

This one looked like crap from my sketches.  But now that I've completed it, I kind of dig it.  And there you have it!  I hope you've enjoyed my little viking flashback sequence.  I'm kind of entertaining the idea that I'll start off each chapter a past sequence.  Assuming there are more chapters to follow.

Next Tuesday we return to the present.

Please comment, share, and if you got some extra dillas, check out the book and the merchandise.  Support broke artists!

Together Again

And there you have it!  The (dramatic?) conclusion of Chapter 3!  I'm happy with how it turned out.  I'm pleased with where the art went this chapter.  It feels a bit more natural, closer to my "style."  Plus, I was able to inch closer toward the meat and potatoes of the story that I want to tell, and I think I still managed to insert a lot of humor, so bonus.

So, after this, I'm back on hiatus.  Aside from the things I mentioned before I want to work on concerning the comic / site / merchandise, I'm also taking some time to look into online college degrees.  In what, you may ask?  Well, I'm trying to locate a degree in Forestry, actually, but I'm finding it impossible to find that specific degree to be offered online, which makes sense, because it's hard to learn about forests when you're sitting at a computer.  Barring that, a degree in Conservation would make sense, but I'm running into the same problems there.  Right now the best I can find is an online degree in Environmental Science, which sounds good, but they seem to have a heavy focus on green technology, and while I'm all for going green, it's not what I'm going for.  If anyone reading has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Why a degree in Forestry, you ask?  Well, so I can spend as much time as possible in forests, and in contact with as few humans and as little technology as possible, silly.

I anticipate this hiatus to be short, but once again I have to do some soul-searching and ask myself if it's worth continuing the comic.  I love to draw comics, and I love these characters, but I have to measure the time and money I put into this endeavor against the regular audience I attract from it, and that regular audience remains primarily in the single digits three years later.  It's tough, man.  The internet is tough.  Breaking into webcomics is especially so.

As always, though, to my readers who have remained faithful, I'm doing this as much for you as I am for me, and thank you many times over for continuing to be interested in my stuff.  I'll be back soon.

-Matt

P.S. And on a completely unrelated note, go play The Last of Us.  It gets your nerves the way Resident Evil did the first time you played it, and it tells a compelling story to boot, albeit a sad one that I just do not see ending well.  Still, it's gorgeous, plays well, and is easily one of the best games every made.

P.S.S. Thanks for the Amazon gift card for Christmas, mom.