Chapter V: LXXXXV – wait…what?
I spent a day redrawing this from a partial version, only to discover that I’d already completed it a long time ago. So… I guess I can consider it a warmup to get back into the comic. And can I consider each redone panel one Inktober drawing?
Here’s the post that went along with the first version:
I’ve been trying different apps for creating the comic digitally. I’m still on the wrong side of the learning curve with this one—Clip Studio Paint, formerly known as Manga Studio, which is currently being offered in a free trial—and don’t have a lot of control over the lines yet. And it took me all day to draw five panels. Practice will make perfect? I will go back to pens and paper, where it’s safe? Time will tell.
Last November was a bad, bad time, with bad bad work stuff going on, so I can see why I completely lost track of this,
So glad to see you back, and hope that times are better for you now.
Please get Felix some lunch soon. He must be pretty hungry.
My new job is at a company with a much more… shall we say, “safe” environment and treatment of its employees. I’m pretty happy. Even when the some sort of work crisis comes up, it’s a problem to be solved, not something that’s destructive to the employees or unfixable.
There is not much worse than waking up with a knot in your belly because you are having to go somewhere you hate to make your living. I’m so glad to hear that you are in a better place.
A new entry. Yay!!
I’m working on the next comic—but you know how they say that sometimes reality is too strange to believe when included in a story…. So I have to work my way up to some historical incidents I’d like to include, to make them more realistic 😀
Happy to see the comic and you! I hope this November finds you in a better time. Also, I really wish I could pull off Domiticia’s swagger.
She knows who’s in charge.
Yaaay you’re back!! Have never commented before, but just wanted to say how much I’ve always enjoyed your comic and how great it is to see a new one 🙂
Thank you! The characters finally pestered me enough to get back to their stories 😀
You did it! Beat the clock, outstanding!
One thing that caught my eye – and that only because of my history – is the guy pulling interior guard on the right side of the first panel.
First, because he’s so strac; helmet on, pilum at order-arms, eyes front…just how we think of the “palace guard”. But I wonder…these guys would have been the “Secret Service” of the imperium. Would it have been just as likely for them to have been in what amounted to their civvies? And idling casually near the doorway, returning the Empress’ cool nod with one of their own? I mean, the Emperor’s singulares must have been the princeps‘ own close bodyguards, the guys he trusted with his life and the lives of his family…I’d imagine they’d get cut more slack than a regular G.I.
It’s great to see you back!
That’s an excellent observation.
There’s some talk of Domitia having skilled female bodyguards. You’d want armed men nicely arrayed for show, and as warning, and as decoration; but in the event of a real crisis in the women’s quarters, the protective counterattack could come from an unlikely direction.
I’m just saying 🙂
That does make sense, particularly given the whole “Caesar’s wife” issue. Taking your singulares into the bath wouldn’t really work if you didn’t have some tough gladiatrix as a bodyguard.
My guess on imperial security is that it was likely similar to what we see at modern Buckingham Palace. At the exterior doors you’d have praetorians in full parade kit. Not just as security but, as you point out, to make the place look pretty (in a warlike sort of way). But inside all that armor would just slow you down, and hobnails would be slippery on stone floors. A couple of hard men (and women) in plainclothes and indoor shoes would make a lot more sense…
Hooray! and osmehitng ofr you: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-17/pompeii-charcoal-inscription-points-to-date-change-for-eruption/10384624
I tried to be a little vague about the date within the comic itself; but isn’t it exciting that archaeologists are excavating again and uncovering casual notes like that as if they were scribbled on the wall yesterday? I wish I could be in Pompeii now!
Susan–Your accidental typo makes me picture Osmehitng Ofr as a hulking Gallic bodyguard. Thanks (in an entirely non-snarky way) for adding more cheer to my grey day.
–Nonie
thanks Nonie. and Klio: i always htought they knew tyhe date, and it was in August.
A while back archaeologists found a coin that was, as far as anyone knew, minted after the supposed eruption date (this one: http://spqrblues.com/IV/comic/chapter-iv-97/
http://spqrblues.com/IV/comic/chapter-iv-96/ ), and some people discovered in Herculaneum were wearing cloaks (like these guys: http://spqrblues.com/IV/comic/chapter-iv-ccv/ ), and then there was some indication that fall wine and condiment barrels had ready been opened up (no comic for that one; I guess Felix drank and ate it all). Pliny’s dating had to be reconsidered as possibly approximate or misunderstood….
I kind of like the ambiguity on the date, since it gives Felix’s baby a change to get a little older and the newlyweds a little more time together, but it does take away some of the urgency. Plus I’m so used to the August date 🙂
whee, you’re back!! and I love all the art-geeky paint stuff too, For Science!!
I haz a happy now 😉
Maybe this weekend, I’ll to do a test of my handmade ancient-palette paints to see how they’ve held up over a year. Sunday colour comic time—for Science!!
SO lovely to see you back! I hope life continues to get better for you, too.
An update! Praise Venus…and klio! XD
Ave, Klio! Glad you are surviving the drama and getting back to Rome, where you’re appreciated. 🙂
Still hoping to get the book someday . . . 🙂
Interesting to see the differences between the Beta and final versions of the page, especially the dialogue. Perhaps this is why we don’t get a page every day.
If so, keep it up. I’d rather have your best than your fastest.
Same here. Every other webcomic I get a bit miffed when I have to wait, but with Kilo, I’d patiently wait a year for a page!
I love the bonus of seeing a previous iteration. And how the dialogue gets tweaked. All too often we forget how much you sweat the details. Thank you.
So which page is the old one and which is the new one? I like the shading in the one on top but I like the lines of the one on bottom.
Old one, top. New one, bottom. Official one… um…
So, which one is the new comic and which the original? And which is the “official” one?
See above for… sort of an answer.
Sorry for the double-post. I thought the first one had gotten eaten.
“I have something to give you” is far far more personal (and dangerous) than “I have something for you”, especially coming from Domitia.
Great to have you back klio, we will wait forever if needed!