Chapter V: LXVIII
ETA:
It’s a new era in Rome!
Well, it’s a new, borrowed laptop at home, so I can actually get work done–on the comic, on the hideously-long-delayed Kickstarter, and on freelance projects–without everything taking hours to process and crashing in the middle and shredding the files. And I didn’t even have to burn Rome down to start over again. (I didn’t have to, but that doesn’t mean I won’t. Just sayin’.)
The borrowed laptop (which henceforth will be dubbed simply “the laptop”) saved the big Photoshop file for this comic in 3 seconds instead of 5 nail-biting minutes like the old laptop. I’m still figuring out how to set up preferences so the cursor behaves the way I want it to instead of skittering drunkenly all over the screen when I try to dab some shadow under the Emperor’s nose, and I don’t have all my fancy Photoshop brushes installed yet, but I’m working on this.
One downside is that I’m not liking the new Photoshop (trial) version’s overeager attempts to get me to feed its overlords information on everything I’m doing. Sshhh…don’t tell it I said anything mean about it. I’m a little scared of it.
As you can see, this is still unfinished–I was able to get the lettering done, but the computer is balking at handling shading. The laptop woes will probably be over soon, though! I’ll tell everyone about that anon 😀
It seems we are getting to the bottom of the rift between the brothers. Domitian is angry that Titus does not trust him. Titus is telling him that he is sorta trusting his little brother. The “do not burn my city” still says a lot about how far Titus trust goes.
Still Titus mistrust is guaranteed after all the machinations Domitian had done and who is finding right now his brother was aware of.
Poor Felix, being being placed in the middle of a brotherly quarrel.
Ack-ack-ack! It’s EA Poe’s Birthday and you didn’t remind us. Who’s gonna visit his grave with roses and scotch?
I did tweet about it at an unconscionably early hour this morning… but like our man Poe frequently was, I’m feeling a lil gloomy (which means boozing it up at a poet’s graveside might be an appropriate activity). There’s the Dead Poet pub in NYC for proxy sepulchral activity. The EAP namesake drink is only so so, but the Langston Hughes sidecar is well worth passing out from.
I’m curious, what is that plaque they are both looking at in panel 3?
A mirror; it should be rounder for easier identification. Showing a reflection or having a comment about it would have helped!
Thank you! No I get it!
It does make the first few panels kind of hilarious though. Little brother is trying to get freshened up and big brother is all up in his toilette business!
ETA: I actually like that you don’t call outright attention to things in this comic (it helps that you are happy to answer us curious folks!). If I were looking in a mirror I wouldn’t mention it, I’d just use it. It makes the characters seem more at home in their ancient setting that they aren’t mentioning their surroundings all the time!
Klio, re the mouse/pointer problem, here’s a possible solution. If you have both a mouse and a touchpad on the laptop, try turning off the touchpad (F10 on my old Samsung laptop). I was having similar problems until I realized the two input devices were interfering with each other. Now all is well.
I’m slowly getting the hang of the new laptop. One problem was that it has all the new bells and whistles and swipes and special commands that you get when you swipe with multiple fingers. So most of the time, it’s my own fingers interfering with each other!
Oh, Klio, you are one of those people I’d throw bushel baskets of money at if I were rich, to ease the way for you to have the best gear to work with (no crappy laptops!) and plenty of time to do it in.
I hadn’t replied yet to say thank you for the kind words, so: thank you.
I’ve been giving some serious thought the past couple of weeks (after some job-related disappointments) to how I’m making use of what time there is to be used, and ways to keep art in my life–rather than just living to work, sleep, then work some more. What HAS freed up some time is having a laptop that functions now, and so far Photoshop is playing nice–I’m tiptoeing around it hoping it stays that way! 🙂
Yes, it is rather sad when you are forced to live for working instead to work for living.
In all seriousness, perhaps you should consider marketing SPQR blues to some producer company like HBO. They are always looking for new material, specially when their premium programs are ending.
I think that’s a splendid idea (as long as you retain some creative control). I’D watch that show!
I’d love to see actors try to be my characters 😀 I keep recasting it in my head 🙂