Of course you get bullied either way - Of Dragon and Woman #25

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So anticlimactic, after all the struggle to get this page done. Oh well, when it's just one page among two thousand it probably won't matter.

But let me tell you of the worst Christmas ever. I slept and pooped, and dreamed of shitting my pants, and wished I could lay cable lying down. I fell asleep in the bath and got a library book wet. I missed everything, even the Internet streaming celebrations I had hoped would sustain me on this first Christmas away from my family. I still haven't exchanged any gifts. And I feel really bad about not getting this page done in time.

I can't promise too much, but let's try and get at least one more done this week.

The page title I attempted to translate from a line in a comic by Joakim Pirinen, where a man meets himself as a young boy. They have a strange conversation about things that could/will have been that I don't exactly remember, but that line stands out. The English language doesn't really convey the self-evidentness, the universality, the perfect obviousness of his statement; it took several years for it to really register for me, as something said by a human (well, cartoon bear-creature) rather than universal law. You get bullied - that's just the way things are. I may have something to say about my own experience of bullying in the near future, but I wanted you to know where these words come from. And where I'm coming from, which is the reality that you get bullied, and people hate that you exist, and try to make you not exist for their satisfaction, and there's nothing you can do to stop them.

Something something white linen - Of Dragon and Woman #23

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Not sure why everyone ended up wearing white nightgowns today. It has a lot to do with me panicking and racking my brain whenever the time comes to coloring any piece of fabric to come up with any color other than washed out dirt to give it.

Speaking of panic, where the Hell did this entire week go? I have been feeling the crushing pressure of audience expectations combined with no audience support (aw, I still love you, dear reader.) And my sleep cycle has been all over the place. But still

Naah, that's an idle game. The time is just huge cause I keep it on while doing useful things. (Including sleeping.) Sometimes I even play it while playing real games, like

Okay, that checks out.

Anyway! One page this week, with several hours to spare. The next page is going to be much simpler and after that, who knows? I love my job.

Current reading: This lovely sad short story (I'm so going to make use of the phrase "It's rude to do things other people can't do in front of them"), The Martian and Homestuck.

Current music: London Underground.

Current mood: The feeling of lying on a heated stone floor gently washed with an ankle deep stream of hot salt water.

Life lessons - Of Dragon and Woman page 16

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The colorist generally has the most satisfying job in putting the comic together, but this segment has its problem. Namely, 90% of everything is made of wood, hemp, dirt and other brown things. Also the people of Underhill River all have this cosmopolitan sandy brown skin tone for secret reasons. Weird little isolated iron age villages deep in the woods, what are you going to do.

What we're going to do is get this junkheap moving. Patreon is locked and loaded. I'm already envisioning myself alienating my 120 twitter followers and the fine people of Lrrchat as I plead and beg them to give me *cough*

I mean, welcome, dear readers, the many hundreds of you I imagine will find this comic in my near future. I hope you have some opinions; I hope the comic is giving you something. In all frankness, after 17 years I'm dying to hear what people think of what I do, so please let me know in the comments below.

The next page should be due as early in the next week as timezones allow.

Of Dragon and Woman page 15: The end of the beginning, OR ONLY THE BEGINNING?

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This is the last of the 2011 pages which I think like one guy ever saw before. It's 6 o clock in the morning and I have another page laid out and dialogued and a patreon ready to launch. I don't know if I'm going to sleep today. Probably should. I'm seeing my one friend in 10 hours. But I'm aching to get this thing started, and I hope you'll help me, dear reader

Of Dragon and Woman page 12-14: It came from the woods (most strange things do)

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My love affair with the green-blue section of the color wheel continues, but I'm not sure anyone could guess that's dried meat the newborn baby is eating. Maybe I should have had the characters explain it, as they explain so many things we're seeing here. Eh, the art still looks cool.