ERIN! OMG woman, every single detail is just striking. You are very consistent and I just love this color and light play with the ebbs and flows of shadows. Look at that light coming through the window. STUNNING! And as for Vane, she’s one pistol packin’ mama! And from the look on the telegraphers face, he is acutely aware of that.
The light is gorgeous, especially in panels 2 and 3. And Miz Black sure is looking rather lively for a reanimated corpse today…is the orange glow around her eye sockets significant of something? I don’t seem to recall that being there, but I may be mistaken.
A theory that i’m starting to form is that the “same magic” which Hunter has, she has and it’s how she is alive. Thus the “Fire” in her eyes and the glowing.
Unfortunately that magic is a bad thing and the only reason she is using it is to put a stop to Hunter’s. Just a theory, but in my mind it seems somewhat stable.
I don’t think she’s a magical being so much as being a product of Hunter’s magic, more alive as his spell gets closer to completion with whatever it is he’s collecting. And she doesn’t particularly appreciate being alive courtesy of whatever fire voodoo is in play, hence wanting his head on a silver platter, gift wrapped, and with a shiny pink bow on it all (supposedly…though she’s had plenty of opportunity to just shoot him and be done with it).
But she definitely looks less corpse like than the previous chapters.
Then again, it might just be the light or my computer monitor, because I’m basing this off of the hint of pinkness in her cheeks (and possible art evolution).
I was hoping she would turn up soon! As always the details are perfect! I love the way the sunlight come thru the window. she looks kind of eerie and ghostly too.
Your use of color has become outstanding! I begin to read many webcomics, yet I continue to read few. Your amazing story and artwork has kept me coming back! Thank you!
This chapter has a bigger feel, to me, than the others. Beyond the scale of the landscape, I think it’s also set up by the different locations and the way the characters are linked across all that space, synchronized by the morning light.
I’m particularly struck by…
The composition of the first panel. Angular tension from the landscape, stillness in the architecture. The angle of the rails and the way their light, cool color echoes the sky makes the whole panel work for me.
As usual, the details! The things on the wall, the precise rendering of the telegraph key, the operator’s translucent green brim, his mutton chops… I’ll echo Floyd’s comment that the lighting (and the framing) of panel four is special. As is the precise cropping of panel five. I spend a lot of time looking at how you engage your edges. (Or exceeding your edges… I just noticed the perfect decision to NOT close the top of panel 1 – boundless sky and Diamond Spire. That kind of thing makes me grin every time. And how about the way Vane’s last words also seem to puncture the panel frame, making them loom ominously toward us.)
The dialogue… Never a wasted word or gesture in this comic; everything advances the story or makes it more vivid, without distraction, like the best Westerns.
Vane’s lovely circuitous and 19th century warning in the last panel. Seemingly at odds with my last comment – but, no, it’s the kind of detail that breathes and places us in an era when people appreciated a sentence as folded as origami.
And the light from Vane’s eyes, casting a glow under her brows, is the scariest thing we’ve seen in this chapter so far. John Henry’s inner heat, warming his coffee, seemed benign (almost fun), and his fiery horse seemed wild, but Vane’s inner glow seems dangerous, like the glow of a house fire on adjacent buildings.
And, as often happens, I see one more thing as I’m leaving…
I just noticed the echo of the telegraph operator’s clenched teeth and John Henry’s in the previous page. Pain and tension in both panels from the bared teeth and the physical language of the fingers. And it creates another tiny subliminal link, an emotional thread, between JHH and the innocent bystanders, setting Vane further apart by contrast, and generating more of that ambiguity about who’s good and who’s bad which deeply sets this comic apart.
So in addition to Medical researcher she also knows about telecommunications eh? A rather Renaissance woman then.
She’s BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!
I love the lighting, especially in panel four. Another great page!
ERIN! OMG woman, every single detail is just striking. You are very consistent and I just love this color and light play with the ebbs and flows of shadows. Look at that light coming through the window. STUNNING! And as for Vane, she’s one pistol packin’ mama! And from the look on the telegraphers face, he is acutely aware of that.
The light is gorgeous, especially in panels 2 and 3. And Miz Black sure is looking rather lively for a reanimated corpse today…is the orange glow around her eye sockets significant of something? I don’t seem to recall that being there, but I may be mistaken.
A theory that i’m starting to form is that the “same magic” which Hunter has, she has and it’s how she is alive. Thus the “Fire” in her eyes and the glowing.
Unfortunately that magic is a bad thing and the only reason she is using it is to put a stop to Hunter’s. Just a theory, but in my mind it seems somewhat stable.
I don’t think she’s a magical being so much as being a product of Hunter’s magic, more alive as his spell gets closer to completion with whatever it is he’s collecting. And she doesn’t particularly appreciate being alive courtesy of whatever fire voodoo is in play, hence wanting his head on a silver platter, gift wrapped, and with a shiny pink bow on it all (supposedly…though she’s had plenty of opportunity to just shoot him and be done with it).
But she definitely looks less corpse like than the previous chapters.
Then again, it might just be the light or my computer monitor, because I’m basing this off of the hint of pinkness in her cheeks (and possible art evolution).
You forgot to include his coffee cup. 😉
This is what happens when you don’t start the day off with a cup.
I was hoping she would turn up soon! As always the details are perfect! I love the way the sunlight come thru the window. she looks kind of eerie and ghostly too.
Your use of color has become outstanding!
I begin to read many webcomics, yet I continue to read few. Your amazing story and artwork has kept me coming back! Thank you!
I’m looking at Miss Black’s slim figure and she is one beautiful woman.
But despite her eyes burning with magical flame, all I can sense in her is cold, heartless menace.
This chapter has a bigger feel, to me, than the others. Beyond the scale of the landscape, I think it’s also set up by the different locations and the way the characters are linked across all that space, synchronized by the morning light.
I’m particularly struck by…
The composition of the first panel. Angular tension from the landscape, stillness in the architecture. The angle of the rails and the way their light, cool color echoes the sky makes the whole panel work for me.
As usual, the details! The things on the wall, the precise rendering of the telegraph key, the operator’s translucent green brim, his mutton chops… I’ll echo Floyd’s comment that the lighting (and the framing) of panel four is special. As is the precise cropping of panel five. I spend a lot of time looking at how you engage your edges. (Or exceeding your edges… I just noticed the perfect decision to NOT close the top of panel 1 – boundless sky and Diamond Spire. That kind of thing makes me grin every time. And how about the way Vane’s last words also seem to puncture the panel frame, making them loom ominously toward us.)
The dialogue… Never a wasted word or gesture in this comic; everything advances the story or makes it more vivid, without distraction, like the best Westerns.
Vane’s lovely circuitous and 19th century warning in the last panel. Seemingly at odds with my last comment – but, no, it’s the kind of detail that breathes and places us in an era when people appreciated a sentence as folded as origami.
And the light from Vane’s eyes, casting a glow under her brows, is the scariest thing we’ve seen in this chapter so far. John Henry’s inner heat, warming his coffee, seemed benign (almost fun), and his fiery horse seemed wild, but Vane’s inner glow seems dangerous, like the glow of a house fire on adjacent buildings.
And, as often happens, I see one more thing as I’m leaving…
I just noticed the echo of the telegraph operator’s clenched teeth and John Henry’s in the previous page. Pain and tension in both panels from the bared teeth and the physical language of the fingers. And it creates another tiny subliminal link, an emotional thread, between JHH and the innocent bystanders, setting Vane further apart by contrast, and generating more of that ambiguity about who’s good and who’s bad which deeply sets this comic apart.
I have no idea exactly what Hunter did to deserve this woman at his heels. All I know is, it couldn’t possibly have been worth it.