Indeed it is, and you get two panels today, although they’re crazy scribbly, probably to the point of hilarity. I had some perspective problems, okay!!!

So the weird thing about this page was this: I started working on it, and working on these pages is like a multi-day process. I can’t just say, “Okay I’ll make a page today”. Too many hours are involved in the process and my butt can’t sit in a chair for that long, even if I had the time. So I break it up. One day I sketch, the next ink, the next paint. That leaves me (sometimes) one day off during the week. Well, this week, after I’d started sketching this page, Ron and I got in a tiff… which happens to everybody once in a while. The interesting thing was, I couldn’t sketch this page until we made up. I couldn’t even draw a LINE. Oh, I could have drawn Zedwig and Fang angst all day, but Sangwine and Bactine…? Nary a pixel. It just goes to show, he’s my prince. This page is for him, complete with “Somewhere in Time” soundtrack and throw in some exploding hearts for good measure. And it isn’t even Valentine’s Day, yet!

This also is the first page I’ve done on my new computer. Things are always a little different color-wise on new equipment, but hopefully it still looks similar to previous comics. I also had to learn to use Elements 6.0, since 4.0 won’t work with Vista. Gee, Vista’s great. Sure love Vista. So when do we get 7.0??

Banner goodies: A nice reader named Pav made some nifty skyscraper banners of Fang from the last comic. Check them out at the bottom of the Links/Banners page! Thanks, Pav, and you can also find a new 480×60 banner I made of the glaring brothers here. What? I actually made a banner? No way. Next the world will explode.

Also, between putting up the Comic Rank thingy during my previous news post and tonight, Lint has already broken into the top ten! A big thanks for reading, guys, that’s what did it!

Last! Everyone who has been following The Illusionist’s Apprentice and wondering why it hasn’t been updating: I have an old laptop I use to write on, and the AC cord went bad, so I’ve been being really slow about replacing it due to $, naturally, and figuring out the best one to buy. Once that occurs, I’ll be back in writing form. Shouldn’t be too long!

Have a great week,

-Colby

Thrilling!

And since I had somebody ask, “What exactly is a vote incentive?” a few days ago, here it is, vote incentives for noobs: There’s a button on the right sidebar that says “Frumph” with a #1 below it. That’s the button you click to vote for Lint. When you vote, you’re taken to a screen where a preview of the next comic will be shown (usually a really sketchy panel, sometimes two panels). That sketchy panel is a “vote incentive”! So it’s an incentive to get you to vote, although I mostly just do it because it keeps me on schedule. Everything you ever wanted to know, right there.

Also, the comments are acting a little wonky. Hope to have it ironed out fairly soon. Please be patient, and view the new flash gallery Fan Art page maybe?

Okay, I can’t figure out how to use WordPress 2.7 to make regular blog posts. For whatever reason it isn’t giving me a visual of what my posts will look like, and that’s a little annoying, but I’m sure eventually it’ll work itself out.

Well in other news, thanks for bearing with my few days off; I’m still, unbelievably, sick to a degree, but it’s workable, and the few days really helped a ton.

I got a slew of fanart this week, which was sweet. First is another awesome thing by that mysterious Random Pedestrian, this time of Al’bert. Next is one by iGeek, rendered with beautiful colors of the always lovely Hope. Next is a true-to-character rendering of what’s really going on in Fang’s mind when he gets in a fight. Last is a very calm picture by Grace of Xylic, Sangwine, and Bactine not being angsty at all. In fact they even look… dare I say… at peace? I don’t think that’ll ever actually happen within the context of the comic, for I’m almost certain I am incapable of the concept, at least not without the help of heavy medication. Very heavy medication. Thanks for the awesome fanart, everyone, it’s always a delight!

Speaking of which, there are a few things I’m working on site-wise, one being a flash gallery for the fanart. It feels unwieldy the way my fanworks page is organized, doesn’t it? Well, if I can manage it, soon it won’t any longer. There is also a new thing up next to the voting called “ComicRank” which isn’t actually a voting thing, except it ranks me. The way it works is it counts how many visitors I get, then ranks me accordingly. So all you have to do is continue to read Lint like you always do and that’ll do the trick. I was happy to find it, as it is another listing site that does not list 18+ or MA comics in its rankings. Last, I managed to (as previously mentioned) update to WordPress 2.7 without erasing everything important. Yay go me! (I was as shocked as you are)

LAST – I received my new computer today (thank you, collective readers), but haven’t had time to unpack it yet as I was so diligently and painstakingly crafting this new comic page for your enjoyment! So enjoy; savor every last pixel. You know I am. I’ve been building to this point in the story for years!

Thanks for reading all!

-Colby

Doing a bit of maintenance, attempting to upgrade to WordPress 2.7, if everything dies, you know why.

Only one panel, but it’s big. I seem to be sticking with the wonky panels for now. Bad news, though! I’m going to have to skip an update, I think, as I’ve been ill and Ron’s birthday is today. Lots of things conspiring against me to get anything comic-related done, the biggest being that I just can’t focus on art when I’m nauseated. So look for an update on Friday, wah!

Wow, this comic took a long time, mostly because I spent like three hours on the lineart. I don’t know why… does it seem like I added more detail in this one? Cause I’m just not sure. Maybe I’m just lame with any perspective besides eye-level- speaking of which! My good friend Ping (you know, Webcomic Finds) was giving me some good pointers on comic creation, and it made me determined not to throw out that goofy-perspective shot in panel two. Maybe that’s what took me so long. References after references! Ugh, stop looking at it. 

Anyhoo! The fundraiser is over and I didn’t make my goal, although I was surprised (and delighted) to get so incredibly close!!! You guys are awesome. I’ll be looking up computer parts, now. A huge thanks to all donors, I hope to produce work worthy of your patronage. 

A couple of cool things tonight: First is a fanart from a mysterious personage only to be known as “Random Pedestrian” of a Fang languishing in his green-ness. I love the green (and the lines) in that one. Next is the hugest sketch dump ever, done by Erulisse, and I think Zedwig is in it about three times, sometimes with other Lint characters. The Lint sketches I found were all on the left side, to help you out a bit. Lastly we have about a bazillion new icons by Bahnree! No one will EVER hurt for Lint icons around here, no sir. Thanks for those; I always love to see what a reader picks out to be eye-catching in these comics. 

Whew. Anyway, Happy New Year, everybody, hope it’s great all around. 

-Colby

I got carried away again and so you get dialogue with it, but only one frame. Two was just way too spoilery, even for people who like spoilers. Zedwig, even though I’d like to think I  know my own characters, is crazy beans. I mean, he’s so crazy I found myself saying to myself, “Zedwig is freakin’ CRAZY.” as I laid out this page. Usually this sort of thing wouldn’t surprise me but he kind of went a little more desperately nuts on this page than I expected, and that was when I realized the depths of how far Zedwig will go to stop Fang. 

I’ve been surprised no one (who has commented) has considered the possiblity that Zedwig is totally feeding Fang a barrel full of lies here. I guess we all figure characters mean what they say, if they say them. But maybe, just maybe, if Fang did relent to release Zedwig, Zedwig would immediately commence in blowing him up violently. I’m not sayin’ either way, but y’know. There may be more here going on than just “Okay Fang, I’ll save you if you let me.”

I suddenly had the need to break out of the three-lines-of-little-square-frames thing and just wanted to draw Fang all big and looking mean and imperious yet unsure and cautious; casual yet coiled like a spring, and Zedwig looking hopeless yet determined, beautiful and strong but fragile and cracking. I probably didn’t get half of that through in the drawings, but it’s always fun to try! 

I’ve wondered for a while what method best suits me for panel layout; I have long felt more comfortable with more panels to be able to pack in as much story as I can on each page. However, with this one, I packed in the same amount of story but streamlined it a bit. Maybe I could have packed in a little more. There are two cliffhangers I hypothetically wanted to end this page on, the first being this one, (which isn’t a huge cliffhanger really, as far as cliffhangers go) and the second I’m not sure I could have hit had I used nine, ten panels, or more. My pacing is a little off, or maybe the last page really looks blah to me, but for whatever reason it felt completely natural to break out of my standard paneling style. Besides, I always get artistically creative and experimental when these two guys are having a scene.

Anyway, I digress from things that are actually interesting to anyone but myself. Donations! Wow, you guys are crazy generous. Thank you so much; it takes a tremendous amount of stress off of my mind not to have to worry about how I’ll replace my old grannyboard (plus everything that’s attached to it). It looks like we’ve almost hit the target, but there are only two days left! There is actually a front-runner now in the whole donation race, and although it’d be great to hit the target for monetary reasons, at this point I honestly am more interested to hit it in order to get to see what the top donor comes up with for a request comic.  

So the reason I’m so babbly is because I finished the comic early tonight and obviously can’t figure out what to do with myself without a comic deadline looming over me like a guillotine. Wow… spare time… I guess I’ll play!

Thanks for reading! 

-Colby

And I got carried away and forgot to submit this in its early stages, so it’s 3 panels with dialogue that actually take up most of the comic page (because I also got carried away with the size of the first panel), so if you don’t like spoilers don’t click!