Discounting the new pages and fixes generated for TD2E, this is the first New Art since September of 2008. More to follow – given the nature of this particular project, you’ll be seeing new strips on the DCR website before they show up here.

Strip 141 – I never stopped working on DCR, at least on paper. The story is in good shape.

Production, though… I became distracted. Distracted, and numb.

It’s been 18 months and a couple of weeks. Or two months and a few days, or five months to the day – it depends on how you look at it, if you consider TD2E to have been actual production or re-production, how much of the recent downtime is weighed as slacking or an actual well-earned decompression after six and half years of working 8-16 hours a day, 7 days a week (37.5 hours on the day job, the rest on The Dualist, Transitional Voices, DCR, etceteras).

The next three strips – with this one, the next page of DCR The Comic – will be ready to start with a bit of work. That bit of work takes place this week – updates to a couple of CG dummies and shot framing for three strips. After that, more CG – as I’ve mentioned elsewhere (awhile back), getting the next few pages done will require the creation of 90% of the CG that DCR requires.

As of some time tomorrow morning, the bits in my EVE skill queue will be measured in days, as opposed to hours or minutes. Time to stop grinding for ISK and standing – time to start using the PC for its intended purpose again.

So, a few updates in the near future. Then a pause. Not as long as the last one, I hope. Then more updates, on a more regular basis.

Comments will be enabled until the next strip or the spam hits, whichever comes first.

Strip 142 – Note the lack of a SAG-compliant face-illuminating internal headlamp.

Yesterday: 3d mockup of the spacesuit helmet and yoke, grenade launcher, etc. Transition from old “woody” biped to new home-brewed biped for CG positioning etc. Rendering and assembly of panels.

Today: Meeting with Mike, then pencils, inks, cleanup and shading. Took a bit longer than expected but them’s the breaks – a spacesuit with a bandolier of grenades is a bit more effort than I’m used to. Backgrounds for the next strip rendered.

Tomorrow: Assembly of the next strip. Pencils and inks and so forth, I hope. Rendering of the strip after for sure.

Two strips in three days – remember when that wasn’t a record?

Strip 143 – Three for four. The next strip is rendered and ready to pencil – if I wake up early enough, I should be able to grind it out tomorrow. Pencils and inks at least – either way, New Strip Number Four should be up this weekend.

The plot, it BURNS.

I hear there’s a cream for that.

Strictly speaking, not a “bad art” strip. But not one I’m entirely happy with, either. Incentive to keep at it. Make the next one better, etc.

Strip 144 – Renders Friday, pencils and inks Saturday, shading today. A full new page for dcr.atc in a few minutes.

Booya.

That’s it for the time being, unfortunately. I’ll set up the base templates for the next page of strips and render what I can, but halfway into the next strip I’ll be out of CG and it’ll be time to start modeling again. I intend to keep things as simple as possible – streamlined to save me headaches, simple to keep with the established background style. I’ll try not to go overboard, and I’ll try to bang out strips as the CG becomes available – this may result in some visual inconsistency. Hopefully, it won’t – we’ll see.

If things go ridiculously well, there’ll hopefully be one more strip in April, with more regular production starting in May.


Mastering notes, 2016.12.05 – Tweaked dialogue in panel seven, tried to salvage panel nine. It looks better than it used to but it’s still the weakest shot on the page.

Cast

  • The older and more experienced of the two agents assigned observational duties in Pittsburgh, Jesse has specialized in Remote Viewing and intuitive information gathering – skills that are particularly useful in the target-rich swamp...

  • A former United States Army Ranger, Tantek has been with Thule Garrison since the Waking God Protocols field trials of the mid 1990s. He works well with Raven Lockheart, typically functioning as muscle though...

  • A former Soviet military officer, Greymalkin disappeared in southeast Asia in the spring of 1968. He surfaced in late 1969 as an adviser and fixer for Michael West, succeeding West as head of Thule...

  • The king of social engineering, the crown prince of noise, and a self-described “Post-American Electro-Snob.” Jason has a deep interest in industrial, electronic, ambient, metal and gothic music, and a well-researched interest in radio...

  • An Army special forces verteran, Yang served as the Chief of Heirotus Corporate Security from shortly before the time of the first MBO-1 Encounter until his near-death in January, 1968. Some time after that...

Glossary Articles

  • Grenade Launcher

    Grenade launchers are single-shot projectile weapons that lob explosives over a moderate distance. The model depicted in The Dualist appears to be an unsighted variant of the M-79, whereas the wire-stocked variant shown in...

2 thoughts on “The Operative -5-

  1. Avatarxenothaulus, :

    Panel 7: not sure if “past life aggression” was intentional, or if you meant regression…

  2. dmhdmh, :

    Aggression. Seemed appropriate given the circumstances.