My intention is to have this page upload at 9am EST, but I’ll be honest and say I really have no idea what timezone my WordPress is set to, and when my pages actually go live. Up til now it hasn’t really been an issue, as long as it’s been consistent. But for this, I wanted to make sure to wait until after the show opened here in Toronto. My apologies if you came along in the morning only to find it didn’t actually post until the afternoon or something. I won’t be able to check myself until the evening.

This single-page short story was originally published in the TCAF 2011 show booklet. I guess you could say this little scene happens concurrently with the plot. In fact, it could easily slip right in between the events of last Tuesday’s page and next Tuesday’s page (coming soon).  Enjoy!

Hey, everybody! New pages begin next week, but in the meantime I thought you might enjoy seeing this one-pager I did for Comic Festival!, a comic that was handed out for Free Comic Book Day this past May. This page has the distinction of being the only full Galaxion comic page I’ve ever coloured! It was actually the second draft of my entry for that comic– the first one, which I rejected as not meeting the criteria of being “appealing to kids”, ended up as bonus material in the Galaxion graphic novel.

Aria, by the way, has several brothers and sisters, but it was just the one that she particularly wanted to get away from.

(Also, new blog post today! Scroll down a bit to read it…)

And that’s the end! Hope you all enjoyed this short story (which you can read from the beginning). It was pre-webcomic, which means it was written before the tweaks and assorted changes I made to the main story arc for the new version. I think it still works as canon, but if you found any odd inconsistencies, that’s why.

Next week: a new short story! Sort of! It’s back to the main adventure, but we’re going to be taking another little detour into the past– so I can explain a few necessary plot points without getting overly expository. Intrigued? Excellent! Come on back next Tuesday and bring all your friends!

Penultimate page, folks! That means you’ll start seeing new pages again in only two weeks! I didn’t do my usual First-Friday-of-the-Month update, in case you were wondering, but I did post a bit of filler: one of my earlier pages in the pencil stage.

I keep mentioning the Myradians (you may remember them from such pages as this one, this one, and this one). One day they’ll become important, I promise.

I don’t know why it took me this long, but at last I have updated page 76 with the results of the NAME THE HAT contest! Go see!

Got some new fan art for you! Well, old new fan art– I originally published it in the back pages of issue #7. This piece, which always makes me chuckle, is by Scott Roberts. I knew him best for his comic series Patty-Cake (check it out in webcomic format!), but he also has done illustrations for Nickelodeon magazine and DC’s Cartoon Network comics. And, as I was delighted to recently discover, he is also doing a webcomic called Nan Teller! He’s amazingly talented– be sure to check out his stuff!

These days, when all the reference material you want is just a Google click away, it’s difficult to imagine how it could have been so difficult to come up with a decent-looking chem lab. My dad happens to be a chemist, and I asked him to send me some photos of what a real lab looks like, and the sort of “oven” you’d find there. Unfortunately where my dad works they rather frown on taking pictures, so he did the best he could by sending me some trade magazines that had a few less-than-ideal pictures in them. I cobbled together what I hoped would pass for the Galaxion’s lab as best I could.Anyway, this scene in the chem lab is thanks to my dad!

EDIT: Almost forgot! Come back Friday, August 15th, to see the next retrospective! (psst, we keep ‘em under Extras, so be sure to check out the sidebar on the right!)

At some point during our early novel-writing days, Wendy and I concluded that one of the key events in the friendship between Aria and Fusella was making chocolate chip cookies together. It became this sort of ritual, something they do together periodically when they need to escape from the job and do something frivolous and relaxing (or when they just start feeling that deep-seated urge for homemade cookies).There was also a point in time, shortly before I started drawing the comic, when I was more heavily involved in the SCA, particularly with the recreation of medieval illumination and calligraphy. Thus, through some freak coalescence in my brain that brings to mind the “You got peanut butter on my chocolate!” type of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups commercials… seriously, this is the best explanation I have… two great tastes that taste great together briefly crossed paths to create this.

Also, a couple friends of mine– one of whom is Stephen Geigen-Miller, co-creator of the great SF comic Xeno’s Arrow– have just launched their new webcomic Cold Iron Badge! Be sure to swing by and check it out!

Sometimes I think this entire short story was written just so I could do this scene….