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Previous: Earth -33-

Next: Earth -35-

….and we (by which I mean “I”) are back. It’s been ten weeks since the last page – possibly the longest gap in the history of ATC production, not including the fits and starts that comprise DCR. I spent the three weeks of that doing absolutely nothing comic related, then the next six weeks modeling the entire rec area (which will be used a bit in 3.2, a lot in 3.3, and a bit in 3.4), and the last week plus rendering. Rendering, rendering, rendering. The last panel of 3.1.37 rolled off the assembly line while I was inking the above panels. 3.1.38 is the last page of the chapter with this environment, and I’ll be starting renders on that tonight or tomorrow… those should be done by the time I’ve finished producing 35-37.

So after a very long break – a break that was just too damned long, honestly – ATC is back in production, and will be staying that way for the next few weeks.

To help break up the soul-sucking monotony of building the rec area, I acquired and had fun fun fun with The World Ends With You – possibly one of the finest JRPGs Squenix has ever put its name on.

Yes, panel four looks screwy. And Raven’s hand is a mess in panel three. Five years of plugging away at this, you’d think I’d have figured out hand mechanics! Alas.

Magnetic bulkhead artwork and beer labels are courtesy of my coworker and occasional cohort Chris Smith. They are nifty.

This page was a “gimme” – deliberately kept as simple as possible in the preliminary layouts as a means of easing back into production after modeling the rec area, or – having naively thought at one point I would have modeled the entire Daedalus interior before production started – as a “breather.” The last two pages were also intentionally designed that way. Unfortunately, life being what it is, life stress is ratcheting up in parallel with ATC page complexity. The next four are high volume linework with complex shadow matching…. and my roommate disappeared a few weeks ago. Not only that, but he and the friends we have in common have proven unreachable. I finally noticed this For Real today, so along with the complexity of the upcoming pages, I get to spend the next couple of weeks figuring out what’s up with that, and how it impacts my living situation. Not good for the stress levels, not good for the terminal life-long paranoia I’ve been afflicted with off and on since puberty. Since there’s only so much I can do, and since the roommate thing has been a serious kick in the ass regarding things I’ve been subconsciously avoiding, I’m currently focused on What Matters, instead of the fucking around I’ve been doing over the past few months. Hopefully – hopefully – this will be good for production.

We’ll see.

Cast

  •

    Dyluck

    A being with a talent for astral projection, possessing some form of teleportation ability. Dyluck incarnated as Thaddeus Gallahad and remained in a dormant state until Awoken in 1997. Thad’s cognitive dissonance forced her...

  •

    Thaddeus Gallahad

    A traumatic Awakening in the summer of 1997 was just the beginning of Thad’s emotional problems. The disappearance of most of his Pittsburgh friends a few weeks later compounded his issues and, while he...

  •

    Ornix Khan

    Ornix doesn’t let trivial things like ethics and morality get in the way of his loyalties or sense of reality. A longtime friend of Thad and a fellow “victim” of the Templar Waking God...

  •

    Raven Lockheart

    A South Jersey punk with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Templar-forged Master’s degree for field work, Raven posed as a high school guidance councillor during the early stages of the Waking God...

  •

    John West

    The first extraterrestrial human to be born on Terra. Home-schooled by Templar, he left the organization in 1997 citing management issues and took the Daedalus with him. John is an incredibly talented Navigator, having...

  •

    Xand

    A pink-haired mechanical genius with a full complement of prosthetic limbs (one “bolt-on,” three high-quality synthetics) and no memory of her first twenty years, Xand is the Daedalus flight engineer. A non-terrestrial human with...

Glossary Articles

  • Am

    Am

    Am is the colloquial (and technically incorrect) term for a “condensed” quad-axial space, accessible by certain life forms and organic technologies. Am is a form of “hyperspace,” in which travel and communication circumvent general...

  • Compartment A3

    Compartment A3

    Compartment A3 – the rec area – is the living room and kitchen of the Daedalus. The compartment provides access to the bathroom, the spacesuit locker, the cargo transfer lock and the central corridor....

  • Holt-Rischmann Device

    Holt-Rischmann Device

    A Holt-Rischmann Device (HRD) is a quantum device that measures the local ambient energy index and the exertion of of a quantum force synonymous with (but not exclusive to) the human Will. Advanced models...