Ironborn

This chapter may take a while to start making sense.

Google Books is handy; it lets me search for highbrow axioms from books I read in high school, when Ironborn was still in the planning stages, and use them as obscure quotes for my chapter pages. Man, looking back over my chapter quotes thus far, they must give a pretty schizophrenic cultural impression. And only a couple of them come from music I actually listen to and books I actually enjoyed. Still, I love quotes! And all of them say something about the story, though perhaps not in the way you’d think.

And so, at last, concludes what I suppose we might call Act One, or Arc One, of Ironborn. Goodbye to Purity; goodbye to Jasmine; goodbye to a whole bunch of secondary characters too, I expect. The second, final (and riveting!) act begins next week, and it’ll be just as new and exciting for me as it will for you. Sorry there’s not a lot of stuff happening on this page, by the way, but innit pretty?

(That little squiggle there is the end-of-chapter mark. Yes, it’s always been there, why do you ask?)

It’s not often in this comic that I get to draw nature scenery, but I relish it every time. Chapter conclusion next week!

Bet you thought this chapter couldn’t hold any more action and excitement? Dude this chapter eats and shits action and excitement. Speaking of which: you need FreakAngels in your life. Ignore the silly title. It’s like British psychic cocaine in comic form.

Hmm… wish I got to draw people hopping more often.

(It was all I could do to stop myself from adding “suitor to the sodajerk’s confidante”…)

So, hi. We now return to our regular program. I’m very pleased with how this scene turned out; I suppose it’s the meeting of the two most utterly smug characters in our ensemble? If you’ve lost track of things, try reading from here instead.

We’re back! It’s been a busy Christmas. I have a story for you, to make up for my absence. It’s called Turning Into, and like our last interlude, it’s in felt-tip and hand-lettered and stuff. It’s chronologically and aesthetically confusing (a little) and it attempts to nicely flesh out one of our more underdeveloped characters. Hope you like it! (Technically it fits between chapters five and six, but I’m publishing it now even though chapter five still has a few pages to go.)

Had way too much fun creating this. My next project after Ironborn is definitely going to be heavy on felt-tip.

Some politics and stuff! A lot of these scenes at the end of this chapter have been planned for two years, as opposed to the beginning of the next chapter, which I’m furiously trying to get right. A lot of stuff is about to change! For this scene, it helps if you remember page thirty-two and page sixty. Also, try not to notice how horrendously anorectic Vanna looks in that last one.

Anyway, happy holidays to you all; Ironborn resumes in January.

Ah, Dean’s apartment. One of the few locations in this story that I’ve actually mapped (in a godforsaken sketchbook sometime in June 2007). Since this is the last time we’ll see it, allow me to point out a few specs: the balcony door is to the right of the bedside drawer; the hallway has two side doors, a closet and a bathroom (both doors have been seen, but never on the same page); the ceiling inexplicably slopes toward the north even though there are obviously floors above.

I, uh, pay a lot of attention to utterly meaningless detail in my comic.

Well, I guess we can all agree that she deserves it.

And look at the state of that room! It was so nice and tidy ten pages ago. Oh well. Anyway, I’m running a little advertising campaign as a Christmas present to myself, so if you followed a link from somewhere, welcome to Ironborn! You may want to have a look at this résumé to figure out what’s going on. Or start reading from the beginning.

I’m hoping to have this site overhauled pretty soon so everything’ll be much more navigable.