If the seemingly disjointed images of the two people in the chairs confuses you, that’s OK. It will become easier to understand the room layout and proximity of the people (and alien butterflies) involved as the scene progresses.

Also, the curly-haired woman here may bear a passing resemblance to this woman whom we met during Carl Heraba’s tale of the Hiawatha’s fate, back in Chapter Six.

If you are a new reader, or an old reader who is confused by current events (and thank you to commenters for alerting me to this need!), here’s something to get you quickly up to speed:

• Read this page in which Carl describes (somewhat vaguely) the attacks on the Hiawatha’s crew
• And then the four pages, starting here, in which the Orehu leader Vanguarthe explains the Miesti from his point of view
• And then this page and the next one, wherein Patty’s strange affliction is revealed
• And finally, the last time we saw Aria before all this weirdness happened– this page and then this one.
• Oh, and I guess if you need to you can read the current chapter from the beginning.

There! I hope that will straighten it all out with a minimum of archive-diving. Of course, if you feel the inclination to do so, a complete read-through from the beginning still is the best method for full story immersion. (And if the concept of 259 clicks (plus extras) doesn’t thrill you, I encourage you to check out the books and e-books!)

Although you don’t need to be able to decipher much of the very-italic swirly words on this page and previous pages, you do need to be able to read the Miesti (yes, those are Miesti) dialogue. And after realizing that the “swirly words” are even less decipherable than I’d planned for them to be, now I’m paranoid that some of you will have difficulty making out what the Miesti are saying in their weird font. Or else, it will be so annoying to try to read that most people will just give up and click away. So, if it’s a problem, here or on any future page, please let me know in the comments and I will fix it!

If you find yourself wondering who or what the Miesti are, here’s what you need to know.

For those who may desire it: a quick link back to the beginning of the chapter.

Way back in the beginning of the Galaxion comic– and in fact, from way before even that, when Galaxion was a novel-in-progress for which I drew many illustrations– Aria wore her hair loose. You can see what I mean from the first page of that 1993 story, and this collection of some older Aria head shots. And then, somewhere along the way, I reluctantly accepted the fact that having long hair blowing all around during her Survey Contact missions, no matter how fun it was to draw, would be incredibly irritating. (Not to mention looking unprofessional.) So I had her put it up in a tidy French braid. And she’s worn it up ever since.

Those of you who have ever bought a graphic novel from me at a convention (or purchased online and requested a signature) may have wondered why, when I draw a quick head sketch of Aria in Volume 1, I always draw her with loose hair rather than in the braid. Now you know. It’s an artefact from earlier days.

This chapter is where I make up for all the previous chapters of restraint in drawing Aria’s hair tucked neatly away. Hahaha, be freeeeee! *ink brush flies crazily all over the page*

And we are all left to wonder what Violent Aria must have looked like.

Ad Astra went well! I’d like to do more of these sci-fi/fantasy/spec-fic shows. They seem to suit me better than the Anime cons. You can read all about it and check out some con sketches in the blog post below.

Other good news! I’ve finally (finally!) updated the Donations page (the red button on the sidebar on the right) with a cute new thank-you gift– an 8-page Galaxion minicomic to download called Burden of Command. Like the last minicomic, Designer’s Dilemma, it will be an exclusive perk for you generous folks who wish to support the site with a donation of any amount you choose.

Remember, I’ll be at Ad Astra this weekend!

And here we go with the new chapter! If you were hoping to find out what’s happening with Patty or what they’re all doing up on the ship… sorry. You’re going to have to wait awhile. But the good news is, in this chapter you get to find out a whole lot more about the Miesti!

If I said, “Hah, I’ll bet right now Aria wishes it was all just a dream!”, I expect a small percentage of you would laugh, and the majority of you would have no idea why that’s even remotely funny. If you fall into the latter category, you failed to remember that strange things tend to happen around here on April 1st. I’m sure you’ll do better next year! But don’t be too sad– here’s what you missed.

Also… in regards to the some of the comments over the past few weeks. See that little red button over on the right sidebar? The one that says “Support the Comic”? I hereby declare that to be the Pun Jar! Next time you find the urge to make some awful pun is just hopelessly irresistible, you can make amends by dropping in some small change. I think that’s a fair punishment, don’t you? Uh… *clink*.

If you’re in the Toronto area and enjoy your sci-fi, fantasy, and horror literature, be sure to come to Ad Astra, April 13-15! I’ll be there with– hooray!– a new Tiny Galaxion Story.

New blog post below!

And that wraps it up for Chapter Eight! To read the chapter from the beginning you can start here, or if you’re completely lost you can start from the very first page.

I wouldn’t mind getting some collective opinions on this page, so I can correct it if necessary for the eventual print edition. I wanted to make this final scene a full page shot, but now that it’s done I’m concerned some of the key details are too obscure (I leave all corrections for the print edition, and I’m sure it’ll make a fun game for somebody to go through the books and spot what I changed). Can you parse what is going on, or are you left shrugging your shoulders?

Also, if last week’s comments are anything to go by, I think it prudent to apologize in case I’ve just caused someone’s head to explode. I promise, no more REEPS after this week!

This is Chapter Eight’s penultimate page! One more to go and then we move into Chapter Nine.

I’ve been forgetting to mention this for the past couple of weeks, but there’s still time to take part in the Fusella, Queen of Hearts colouring fun and get a postcard in the mail from me! Go on, it’s just for fun.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Toronto Comicon! I hope you had a good time. As usual I didn’t get away from my table much, but I did manage to snag a plush talking Dalek for my son. He’s very happy.

If you have a very good memory (and if you don’t, I totally sympathize; that’s why I’m writing these commentaries!), you might recall the events at the end of Chapter Seven. I don’t imagine it’s much of a spoiler now to announce that this event and that one are connected. Good heavens. Finally, we are catching up with Fusella’s storyline!

Finally, if you will cast your eyes back to the top of the page, you will notice a banner for Ad Astra, which is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Paranormal literary convention in its 31st year. And I will be exhibiting at it! Click on the banner to learn more. I’m hoping to have a new selection of bookmarks and buttons ready for the show.