Galaxion has been on hold for the summer, and in its place we’ve been running Real Magic, drawn by me and written by my husband, David Tallan. This is the final installment– I hope you’ve enjoyed our little story! If you want to, you can start with the first page.

I know I promised Galaxion would return to normal starting Sept 1st, but as it turns out I’m going to need one more week off to get back to– I hope– normal. But fear not, I’ve still got some fun Galaxion content for you for next Tuesday!  It will be, in fact, the only full-colour Galaxion page I’ve ever done. How cool is that?

Also, one final reminder for those of you in and around the Toronto area this weekend– I will be at FanExpo, which runs Aug 28-30 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. You can find me in the Small Press Alley!

David here: This brings us to the end of my story, the only comic writing I’ve done (so far). I hope you enjoyed it. As you can see, Eddie was right on the mark. When I wrote it, I left the door open for further Thomas and Gavin stories, which may emerge at some future date. Also, well into the future when Galaxion is over and done with, we’ve talked about collaborating on Robin Hood. I think that if you go back to the roots of the Robin Hood story (the laws stripping away access to a common resource that was important and taken for granted by everyday folk, ordinary people fighting back against representatives of powerful institutions that were keeping them down) there are themes that may resonate with people today. All mixed, of course, with a certain amount of comedy. Ever since I read T.H. White’s Once and Future King, I’ve dreamed of doing for Robin Hood what he did for Arthur (I don’t set my sights high, not me!). I’ve got a lot of time to prepare, so I’m immersing myself in the literature. Maybe you’ll see that some day.

Galaxion is on hold for the summer! In its place we present “Real Magic,” drawn by me and written by my husband, David Tallan. Read it from the beginning! This story will run for six weeks, every Tuesday as usual. If you’d like to read some of the regular Galaxion story, you can start at the beginning, or why not try one of the completed short stories? Look for new pages of Galaxion to return September 1st!

I’m sure the, er, strange distortion in the second panel is the result of the spell Thomas is casting. Yeaaaah. That’s the ticket.

Do any of you gentle readers out there happen to be web designers? I am looking for someone to help me upgrade my current galaxioncomics.com site into something… prettier. Unfortunately neither David nor I have the skills to make this happen, so I’m throwing out a help wanted ad! Note, though, that what I need is someone able to actually design a site, and not just implement some ideas that I’ve already got. ‘Cause I don’t really got any. If I knew what would look good, I’d have an easier time with all this! Well, I have a list of features I’d like to have, I guess. So, I’m looking for someone with ideas for what would be both appropriate and complementary to the Galaxion comic. There will be compensation for this job– either a flat fee, original art (is there a comic page you fancy?), or some combination of the two. Interested? Drop me an email!

David here again: There’s not so much to say about this page. For his first attempt at spellcasting, Thomas used herb magic. For his second, he is using candle magic. If you look closely at the fourth panel you will see the spell is having some effect. So did the first spell. However, as they are attempting to counter spells that aren’t present, the effect is fairly subtle. (Okay, not apparent to anyone but me.) In the last panel, we can see Enki returning from his errand. Remember him?

Galaxion is on hold for the summer! In its place we present “Real Magic,” drawn by me and written by my husband, David Tallan. Read it from the beginning! This story will run for six weeks, every Tuesday as usual. If you’d like to read some of the regular Galaxion story, you can start at the beginning, or why not try one of the completed short stories? Look for new pages of Galaxion to return September 1st!

I should mention that all of the calligraphy that appears on this page was done by David. He’s much better at fancy medieval letters than I am.

Also, I will be at FanExpo here in Toronto, August 28-30! I opted to be in the Small Press area this year, so I guess for that reason I’m not listed on their website. But I will be there!! I’ll have the books for sale, along with buttons, sticky notes (I love the sticky notes), and original pages. Woo!

David here with a word about the herbs called for in the spell. In general, I was looking for herbs that medieval folk thought might be good for the eyes. I suspect I went to my handy Herbs for the Mediaeval Household: for cooking, healing and divers uses by Margaret B. Freeman (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1943). I know that’s where I went to look them up now.

There I find that Agrimony was used for “inflammation of the eyes”; Celandine “is good for sore eyes” and Fragaria Vesca (also known as Wild Strawberry) is “good for bleared eyes. Also, it is good to destroy the web in a man’s eyes.”

Clearly, these would all be excellent candidates for Thomas to work with. However, the book has nothing to say about gilly flowers (often identified with carnations or other flowers that smell like cloves). I’m sure I had a similar source and similar reasons. If anyone can track down a citation connecting gilly flowers to the healing of eyes…

Galaxion on hold for the summer! In its place we present “Real Magic”. This story will run for six weeks, every Tuesday as usual. If you’d like to read some of the regular Galaxion story, you can start at the beginning, or why not try one of the completed short stories? Look for new pages of Galaxion to return September 1st!

Hey everyone! Girlamatic, the site Galaxion first launched on in September 2006, has just had a major relaunch! I hope you’ll all check it out. There are some awesome comics over there!

Hi! David again. I took the idea of payment in candles from some medieval household accounts, where servants are described as being paid in candles. Of course, candles were also used to tell time, so it seemed logical to quantify the amount of candle wax due in terms of time.

I’m sure I’ve never behaved that way around women. Never!