November 25, 2011

'Fraternity' here refers to the Fraternity of Mankind, which holds that genetically, surgically, or cybernetically enhanced humans are corrupted and inferior. They don't like the Emperor much. The articles on the Empire and the Emperor may be helpful if you're feeling a bit lost.

So yeah, that wasn't intended to be a month-long hiatus, much less a month between filler posts, November bit me in the butt, insert my usual slew of apologies here. But I have been working! I am way ahead on scripts! Yes, while everyone else was writing novels, I set myself a goal of a comic page script every day (I know, they're short, shutup) and have mostly kept up with that, with some rendering on the side even. So the comic proper will start back up on December 6th and I will hopefully be ahead enough that the nutty delays will stop. For a little while. Until I get behind again.

(Optimism. Not my strong suit.)

I think I got all the questions/requests that weren't spoilerific, but if I missed yours, let me know and I'll throw something together.

October 25, 2011

I doubt that this was the incident that tied Sal and Ana together, but a string of incidents looking a lot like it.

S.O.C.: Shut up, Officer Coming.

Before I get flak from my ex-military members: yes, I know pranking an officer like this wouldn't happen (much) in a well-disciplined military (nor would a junior officer typically be dumb enough to be disrespectful of a senior NCO). It should come as no surprise that the Armed Forces of New Ozark have some... issues. Primary among them being corruption, including the buying of promotions (probably what the officer means when he says he 'won't be here long').

A second problem, or at least interesting dynamic, is created by recruitment. The age of majority in New Ozark is 16, which is the age that most enlisted will have signed up. However, they can't hold a combat posting until they're eighteen. Officers, by contrast, are expected to finish the final two years of high school as well as officer training, and thus can be posted to the front immediately on graduation. What this means in practical terms is a lot of junior officers 'in charge' of enlisted ranks who are at best a year or two younger, and at the least have had two years more in the service. Wiser commanders will let the learning curve sort itself out early.

And yes, I'm actually late posting filler. I know. I suck. It's somewhat typical of me to come up with filler that's actually more work than a regular strip, but also it's been a rather full few weeks. Initially I was thrown off schedule by the Small Person's first ER visit (she's fine; nothing worse than a virus and a nervous mom; however, she's such a very Small Person that the next time she wakes me in the wee hours with a 103.2 fever, she's probably going to the ER again anyway.) And I never quite got my feet back under me after that. I feel bad, though. Particularly as one of the folks who asked for this answer followed it up with a donation (thank you, LaughingAstarael! I hope you like the strip! Sorry it arrived at the speed of a hurrying slug.)

October 11, 2011

I feel a bit bad about this one, because of the three questions Isy asked (the other two being 'Are Murdoch and Lena ever gonna sort themselves out?' and 'How'd Murdoch and Lena meet?') I suspect this was the one she was least interested in having answered. But the other two were either OMG spoilerific or threatening, once again, to sprawl to short story length. Dammit people! I do not have time for out-of-sequence short stories! Stop giving me ideas!

Also for those who missed it, I put up a guide to Murdoch's gang late Friday, as per AlpineBob's request and by this Friday I'll have hopefully added Darwin's crew. I may end up adding Rafe's gang and some general notes on Lowtown gangs and turning it into a proper page by the next time I visit the gang war storyline; it strikes me as a useful thing to have. But I don't actually need more excuses to avoid getting ahead on comics, so....

October 7, 2011

I did not quite answer all the questions here: some are actually getting picked up later in the story, and some are... extensive enough that they really need their own short story, (Because I needed more stories. Yeah. Right.), and some even Alain wasn't going to talk directly about. But I think I've covered a good swathe of ground.

Incidentally, there's a bit of quite old filler that's gotten lost somewhere in the muddle that is my archives, which was also Murdoch-themed. Don't know how many of you were around back then, if any....

(AlpineBob: your cheat sheet on the gang members is coming, probably tonight. I have the picture but couldn't quite get the text together by update time. ETA: Up! I'll repost on Tuesday to make sure everyone sees it....)

October 4, 2011

So apparently all I have to do if I want something (like questions) from y'all is whine moderately. Um. I'd promise to use this power only for good, except given that the whine was essentially 'oh darn you mean I have to do my own thinking now?', I'm pretty sure I've already busted that one.

So this is the last comic for a bit, and there will be question-answering and filler for a week or so, with the hope that I can stop dragging my ass through late and missed updates. You guys rock for being so very patient with me. Not to mention for doing all my thinking....