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Left: A scary muscular dude I made in DAZ Studio (by which I mean I loaded up a model, spun a bunch of virtual dials to morph him, applied a texture, slapped on some pre-made hair, and loaded up some lights. I did NOT do anything anywhere near the herculean task of making such a model from scratch).

Right: My attempt to use the design to create an EGS-style version of the scary muscular dude that somehow turned into a muscular dude who looks like he might actually be totally nice and would help you move your furniture if you asked him to.

I think in trying to EGS-ify his eyes, I raised his brow too much. There should be no gap between the top of his eyes and his eyebrows short of certain expressions and viewing angles. That would also correct the nose length, which wound up a bit long. I’m also not entirely sure about the shape of the nose, which is always tricky due to being a very simplified approximation of a nose, which means there are tons of different ways to go about it with many possible “right” answers.

Other than that, I’m pretty happy with him. The eyes are small by EGS standards, but this guy is supposed to have beady eyes. I’m tempted to make them even smaller, but that could cause reality to collapse in on itself.

All that said, this was just for practice. I don’t know if anyone resembling this guy will actually show up in the comic. I guess if I ever need a barbarian, I’m set.

From egscomics.com

So I was just going to do a simple sketchbook for today when some random person on Twitter requested I draw Nanase for the next sketchbook. For whatever reason, I immediately gave into peer pressure and decided to draw Nanase abusing logically using her clone spell.

So, yeah. This is all Twitter’s fault. Curse you, tiny blue birds…!

From egscomics.com

Man, who keeps leaving those things lying around? It seems very irresponsible to me. Who knows how much awkwardness has been unleashed or may become unleashed in future overly-indulgent novelty comics?

From egscomics.com

Missing panels? There aren’t any missing final panels to this comic! That’s crazy conspiracy talk right there.

Seriously though, there aren’t. However more awkward this could possibly get, I leave to your imagination. Or maybe pushing the button a second time really does undo it and Tedd’s expression in the last panel has to do with him remembering that he forgot to turn the oven off or something.

Sketchbook from egscomics.com

This is true, but it’s really my fault for naming them Susan and Sarah. Yes, the names sound different, but it’s easy for people to get names mixed up when they sound and/or are spelled similarly. I, for example, have said Leslie Nielson when I meant Liam Neeson before. That certainly would have made Taken different.

For the record, Susan is (normally) the taller of the two with the long black hair. Sarah is (normally) the shorter one with medium length blonde hair, though I suppose it’s sometimes longer. And Susan technically has blonde hair, except she was dyeing it, and it turned black when her magic awakened.

See? No room for confusion.

From egscomics.com

I have been told that the DNS issues SHOULD be resolved. I’m not sure if I really believe that after being told that so many times before, but I’d like to think it’s possible. Eventually all the issues HAVE to be resolved, right? …Right?

Anyway, please let me know if you still can’t reach the site, and if you can’t, when it became an issue for you.

Sketchbook from El Goonish Shive

- Larger version on Deviant Art

Elliot transforming into Nanase! Whee!

What, you want an explanation for this? Who or what changed Elliot into Nanase’s form and why they would do such a thing? Heck, I don’t know. Bored aliens? A disgruntled wizard? Cursed character creation menu from a video game? Anything’s possible. Take your pick.

All I know for certain is that I’ve been wanting to draw characters from the comic morphing into other characters from the comic, and for some reason I thought of Elliot and Nanase (from the comic, as opposed to other Elliots and Nanases). How am I supposed to know why my brain does what it does? That guy’s crazy.

Site Link

- She’s gotta be at LEAST level 3 by now.
- Calling Sarah

I think most people have at least one level in clerk. I know I do. All it takes is one job behind a counter. I’m not sure what the leveling system beyond that is, but I’m sure one of the eventual perks is making people believe your smile isn’t masking contempt.

Phones

I hate talking on the phone. I can tolerate talking on the phone to accomplish a goal or speak with someone I otherwise cannot talk to for some reason, but it’s not something I have any interest in doing any longer than I have to. In addition to what’s said in the comic, I feel strangely trapped when on the phone.

I’m generally bad about calling people as a result of this, although with so many other ways to contact me these days, I’m not sure why anyone would insist on talking to me over the phone for any extended period of time. Half of what I say will be requests to repeat themselves if it’s over the phone.

Oh hi, Writer’s Block

This comic was delayed in the update schedule on account of me needing more time to work out the script, which is fitting as I now find myself having difficulty describing what the issue was without veering into spoiler territory.

What I can say, however, is that there were points I wanted to get across, and I kept writing scripts where only a fraction of the points I wanted got through, and some of those that did were sort of jammed in there. This final result might not be the most complex of comics, but I finally got it where I wanted it after several failed attempts, several of which being vastly different to the point of time jumps and scene changes. Sometimes it’s the simple comics that cause the most trouble.

At least, I think I got it where I wanted. How successful I was is ultimately up to how people interpret it. If you are currently assuming that Elliot is from the planet Mars, then I have failed.