I really love your art, but why do you draw your women with such dark eyelashes/outlines around their eyes (panel 2 & 3)? It tends to make them look creepy and sinister. It works on Miss Black, but that’s because there’s something odd and cold about her. Don’t mean any offense by this critique, BTW.
No offense taken! I wanted the Baroness girls to look unquestionably whorish — Painted Ladies indeed, like TrueBlue mentioned below — but they are probably (hopefully!) not to everyone’s preference. I promise whenever a totally wholesome (and healthy) young female appears in the comic she will probably not be sporting any kind of eye makeup.
They’re not called “Painted Ladies” for nothing;) Pretty sure saloon girls would have worn the makeup pretty heavy, especially around the eyes. Then again, might have been less by today’s standards…
I hope NOT! I don’t like Hunter, but at least he deserves an epic showdown with his nemesis rather than being killed by some random stranger seeing his wanted poster.
That first panel makes me really curious; is the African American girl a slave? Or are we post-1862, and she’s a hired hand? She doesn’t look dressed the part to be a saloon girl, but she can read, so probably not a slave. I’m probably reading waaaay too much into this, but you’ve gotten my curiosity up 🙂
I’d encourage everyone to keep in mind that this is about as much the American west ca. 1880 as A Song of Ice and Fire is England ca. 1460: it’s an allegorical old west only. Since it’s not really relevant enough to the story to constitute a spoiler I’ll confirm NTO’s setting does have something akin to the American civil war in its recent past but slavery wasn’t a factor and African-Americans weren’t emancipated therein/thereafter: there’s no such thing as an “African American” in the non-American western Territories.
(Anyway slavery wasn’t lawfully or practically abolished in our reality until ’65, but even prior there were something like a million free African Americans living/working, mostly outside the Confederate States).
/approve of accurate historical comment that just made me peruse my dusty old books. *sniff* oh how I missed the high school history lessons … Thanks for clearing it up.
I think the little “colored girl” is like a ladies’ maid for the girls in exchange for room and board. She would help them with their hair and getting dressed, and while they are dressing, she is reading for their entertainment. Like having a television on. That suggests she is free and making her own way.
Ah, how many times this must happen before they learn that the proper reaction to have when seeing Hunter enter your saloon/brothel/bathhouse is “quick, hide everything that’s valuable and/or flammable in the cellar then do whatever it takes to get him out of here as quick as possible”, certainly NOT “boy, we’re going to be rich”…
I like the way the third panel is from the point of view of the mirror, including the gilded, ornate frame. It has a cinematographic quality to it- wide shot to set up the scene; two characters looking in the mirror; using the blond girl as a pivot, rotate the scene so that you’re now looking from the mirror at the same characters, but focusing behind them; zoom in.
I don’t know about “we’re going to be rich”, they don’t exactly seem thrilled that he’s out there. The madam of the house is pretty hard to read, but all the faces I can see in the next to last panel (all two of them, but the black girl’s mouth seems serious) look fairly worried. I’m thinking maybe they’ll be drawing lots about who’s going to be the unlucky girl to serve him.
By the looks of all the empty tacks on the wall I’d say the ladies have a rather successful sideline going on. I think they look shocked that he’s come to thier place. I’ll bet the girl or girls that deal with him get a cut of the reward. So I bet they would all want to go. I wonder if the Madam will chose based on experience? My bet is on the two looking in the round mirror. They look like they are the most experienced of the gals.
I _hate_ it when complete strangers smack me up side the head and tell me I missed something, go look again…. SquidBunny, ma’am, whether you intended all those extra tacks to be interpreted that way or not, the simple fact is that you do the extra work to put in the kind of detail that allows us to fill in the rest of the story. The artwork is awesome; far beyond the quality I expect in a webcomic. You are seriously raising the bar here.
I believe your over thinking this one. There are letters and postcards on the wall as well. And doesn’t every bulletin board have extra ragged tacks stuck to it?
One thing for sure. The last time John Henry Hunter’s poster was shown, Old John Henry had a $10,000.00 dollar bounty on his pretty head. But that was several chapters and three towns ago. Our John Henry is becoming quite a celebrity in the world of notorious and most wanted outlaws!
I really like the way you made panel one showing them painted ladies in their dressing room preparing for a days work. Although ill-refute their trade maybe, they are still human beings trying (in their own way) to make a living. It may not be decent, but it is still “work” by any other name. Off course their posters of wanted personalities clearly indicate that they have a “business on the side of things” which is bounty hunting to make ends meet. With a somewhat sleepy town like Baron Crossing, business must be a bit slow.
Also, a number of your painted ladies ain’t so bad. If I were a character in your comic and ended up at the Baroness Bathouse, I wouldn’t mind getting some lively conversation with your girls. Just lively conversation off course. Gotta keep the comments within legal limits.
We have seen him onstage performing in flashbacks so I take it that he was probably famous at some point. The picture could have been from an advertisement for one of his performances.
Just a possibly off the wall comment–some of your ladies and the room’s style remind me of “The Triplets of Bellville”.If you’ve never seen that movie, I think you’d enjoy it. There’s a certain thematic atmosphere I see generally here. I loved that movie, btw, just as I am very happy to recommend your comic any time.
Maybe they do some criminal baggin’ (har har) on the side, but what if the posters are just there because they want to know if a baddie is in their midst?
somehow this going to end up being a bath with entertainment, an undertakers very busy day. Or a very big flaming funeral pyre, it could go anywhere. Clean or messy it’s all good. Loving the story the artwork is fantastic, the world is amazing with all kinds of nice surprises everywhere. A tasty bit of Mental candy that you can’t back away form.
I really love your art, but why do you draw your women with such dark eyelashes/outlines around their eyes (panel 2 & 3)? It tends to make them look creepy and sinister. It works on Miss Black, but that’s because there’s something odd and cold about her. Don’t mean any offense by this critique, BTW.
No offense taken! I wanted the Baroness girls to look unquestionably whorish — Painted Ladies indeed, like TrueBlue mentioned below — but they are probably (hopefully!) not to everyone’s preference. I promise whenever a totally wholesome (and healthy) young female appears in the comic she will probably not be sporting any kind of eye makeup.
They’re not called “Painted Ladies” for nothing;) Pretty sure saloon girls would have worn the makeup pretty heavy, especially around the eyes. Then again, might have been less by today’s standards…
Hopefully these girls know the rules about bathhouse assassinations.
“When you need to shoot, shoot; don’t talk.”
I hope NOT! I don’t like Hunter, but at least he deserves an epic showdown with his nemesis rather than being killed by some random stranger seeing his wanted poster.
I love that they have the wanted posters on the wall of their room.
I must say, I like the way you panel.
Thank you, sir! I wasn’t exactly happy with how this page turned out so the kind words are much appreciated.
I do hope the madam’s fire insurance is paid up.
That made me laugh. So true. I smell trouble a’commin.
That first panel makes me really curious; is the African American girl a slave? Or are we post-1862, and she’s a hired hand? She doesn’t look dressed the part to be a saloon girl, but she can read, so probably not a slave. I’m probably reading waaaay too much into this, but you’ve gotten my curiosity up 🙂
As far as I read, I believe it to be post-1862, thus that African-American girl might be hired hand.
I’d encourage everyone to keep in mind that this is about as much the American west ca. 1880 as A Song of Ice and Fire is England ca. 1460: it’s an allegorical old west only. Since it’s not really relevant enough to the story to constitute a spoiler I’ll confirm NTO’s setting does have something akin to the American civil war in its recent past but slavery wasn’t a factor and African-Americans weren’t emancipated therein/thereafter: there’s no such thing as an “African American” in the non-American western Territories.
(Anyway slavery wasn’t lawfully or practically abolished in our reality until ’65, but even prior there were something like a million free African Americans living/working, mostly outside the Confederate States).
/approve of accurate historical comment that just made me peruse my dusty old books.
*sniff* oh how I missed the high school history lessons …
Thanks for clearing it up.
Post-conflict “non-American western Territories?” Please, do go on… 🙂
I think the little “colored girl” is like a ladies’ maid for the girls in exchange for room and board. She would help them with their hair and getting dressed, and while they are dressing, she is reading for their entertainment. Like having a television on. That suggests she is free and making her own way.
*lights a smoke and takes some popcorn* well … I hope that Baron’s Crossing will not end in the role of a smoldering crater.
Ah, how many times this must happen before they learn that the proper reaction to have when seeing Hunter enter your saloon/brothel/bathhouse is “quick, hide everything that’s valuable and/or flammable in the cellar then do whatever it takes to get him out of here as quick as possible”, certainly NOT “boy, we’re going to be rich”…
I like the way the third panel is from the point of view of the mirror, including the gilded, ornate frame. It has a cinematographic quality to it- wide shot to set up the scene; two characters looking in the mirror; using the blond girl as a pivot, rotate the scene so that you’re now looking from the mirror at the same characters, but focusing behind them; zoom in.
I don’t know about “we’re going to be rich”, they don’t exactly seem thrilled that he’s out there. The madam of the house is pretty hard to read, but all the faces I can see in the next to last panel (all two of them, but the black girl’s mouth seems serious) look fairly worried. I’m thinking maybe they’ll be drawing lots about who’s going to be the unlucky girl to serve him.
By the looks of all the empty tacks on the wall I’d say the ladies have a rather successful sideline going on. I think they look shocked that he’s come to thier place. I’ll bet the girl or girls that deal with him get a cut of the reward. So I bet they would all want to go. I wonder if the Madam will chose based on experience? My bet is on the two looking in the round mirror. They look like they are the most experienced of the gals.
I _hate_ it when complete strangers smack me up side the head and tell me I missed something, go look again….
SquidBunny, ma’am, whether you intended all those extra tacks to be interpreted that way or not, the simple fact is that you do the extra work to put in the kind of detail that allows us to fill in the rest of the story. The artwork is awesome; far beyond the quality I expect in a webcomic. You are seriously raising the bar here.
I believe your over thinking this one. There are letters and postcards on the wall as well. And doesn’t every bulletin board have extra ragged tacks stuck to it?
One thing for sure. The last time John Henry Hunter’s poster was shown, Old John Henry had a $10,000.00 dollar bounty on his pretty head. But that was several chapters and three towns ago. Our John Henry is becoming quite a celebrity in the world of notorious and most wanted outlaws!
I really like the way you made panel one showing them painted ladies in their dressing room preparing for a days work. Although ill-refute their trade maybe, they are still human beings trying (in their own way) to make a living. It may not be decent, but it is still “work” by any other name. Off course their posters of wanted personalities clearly indicate that they have a “business on the side of things” which is bounty hunting to make ends meet. With a somewhat sleepy town like Baron Crossing, business must be a bit slow.
Also, a number of your painted ladies ain’t so bad. If I were a character in your comic and ended up at the Baroness Bathouse, I wouldn’t mind getting some lively conversation with your girls. Just lively conversation off course. Gotta keep the comments within legal limits.
I wonder, did he pose for that picture?
Possibly you have hit on something significant. Possibly.
Well, he IS wearing his dress formals…
We have seen him onstage performing in flashbacks so I take it that he was probably famous at some point. The picture could have been from an advertisement for one of his performances.
Just a possibly off the wall comment–some of your ladies and the room’s style remind me of “The Triplets of Bellville”.If you’ve never seen that movie, I think you’d enjoy it. There’s a certain thematic atmosphere I see generally here. I loved that movie, btw, just as I am very happy to recommend your comic any time.
Being likened to a Sylvain Chomet animated film is pretty insane praise — thank you so much!
Interesting comic. Interested to find out the history behind the flamboyant pyromancer and the creepy zombie lady.
As it stands netiher look like “good guy” material, altough I prefer Henry for now. He seems like a likeable fellow.
Glad you found it & I hope you’ll stick around to see if either resolves into more conventional good guy material.
Maybe they do some criminal baggin’ (har har) on the side, but what if the posters are just there because they want to know if a baddie is in their midst?
from what i see these “ladies” are drooling over the wanted poster. I think Mr Hunter has walked into a den of black widows…
somehow this going to end up being a bath with entertainment, an undertakers very busy day.
Or a very big flaming funeral pyre, it could go anywhere. Clean or messy it’s all good.
Loving the story the artwork is fantastic, the world is amazing with all kinds of nice surprises everywhere.
A tasty bit of Mental candy that you can’t back away form.
Very much obliged for the kind words!
I’ve always kind of wondered what department is offering the reward?
Why does the Madame remind me of Mrs. Gareth from the Facts of Life?