Jack Comic Update!!! - 8/30/24
The second part of Jack's comic is done!! Please check it out if you haven't. I am so proud of this thing.
Look at him go. He is growing up...so fast... I hope it's been enjoyable watching his personality gradually become more recognizable.
It's been 9 months since the last release, I think I spent about 5 months of that time regularly working on this. It'd be nice if I could shave that time down to 4 months per release eventually (maybe I could even eventually squeeze two updates into one year?!) I've been playing around a lot with ways of cutting down time without like, reducing the quality of the actual art.
The script/thumbnail stage was the most time-consuming part this time around. I got extremely picky about the early scenes. I didn't have to focus so much on atmosphere this time around, so the art phase was a lot less intensive. Mostly just time-consuming.
I think Jay was my main problem child at the scripting phase. I kind of fretted with this part of the comic for a while 'cuz I didn't want it to feel too melodramatic. But then after a while I caught myself and was like, "...but teenagers ARE melodramatic."
I like how it turned out. Dude has a minor meltdown but then the next time you see him is like: "Oh. This isn't terrible, actually." I remember having a lot of moments like that when I was younger.
I feel like it's obvious putting these side-by-side that one of the ""new girls"" in this is Lena without her Signature Sideponytail. But I'm interested to know whether anyone else familiar with the VN realized that. I very intentionally made these characters all a bit same-faced since they are all essentially the same model with minor alterations, but I can't help but fret about it sometimes. X_X
Jack & Lena don't interact in the VN but he does have this blink-and-you-miss-it line for her that I find really delicious:
Realizing your little sister was quietly plotting to overthrow you.jpg
The other "new girl," Ellie, IS a new girl. (Actually Elise. Ellie is her Jack-Assigned Nickname. Lena is actually also a Jack-Assigned nickname lmao). I've kind of kept her as a hidden cast member all these years for a variety of reasons, but she's important for this story in particular, so please try to commit her to memory!!! She and Lena are kinda supposed to have a twin-like dynamic going on.
Excessively pointless trivia section:
^This redshirt is Jo. "Zel I read your VN and *I* don't even remember this guy" exactly. All you really need to know is that he's got a one-sided crush on Jack & kind of hates himself for it. Sort of a middleground in personality between Jay & James.
^I picked a random encyclopedia that was in the public domain for the book in this, scrolled down rapidly and JUST happened to land on the page for the letter "J" and was so delighted I went with it. The entry for "Jack" is on the page after this (was not visually interesting enough to use). I just need you to know that both of them sat down and read about harpsichord jacks immediately after this. It's canon.