Chapter 5: Lit, page 32.

FLAWLESS. VICTORY.

Hey guys, I dunno if you know yet, BUT.

– I will be at the San Diego Comic Con. I will be with Blank Label Comics, booth 1330, in Webcomics Alley.

The Blank Label site is back up! it’s a comic collective I’m part of. It consists of Kel McDonald, author of Sorcery 101, Dave Willis of Shortpacked!, and myself. The forums are back up, too. Including my new one, with a resurrected Banana Thread. (NWS.) PARTAKE.

40 thoughts on “Chapter 5: Lit, page 32.”

    1. I didn’t realize how short Barney was until then. I guess he’s one of those people you expect to be taller then he actually is.

    1. Actually, the thing I noticed that was different on this page was Barney’s eyebrows. At least, they’re taller than they were on the last page or two.

    2. Yeah, it looks a little different, especially the K’s and E’s. I’m mostly struck by Barney’s little nerd-teeth poking out.

  1. Oh shit son, is that some SERIF??

    It’s new, and I’m confused and afraid; I don’t know how I feel about it yet. However, unless I’m mistaken those embellishments are usually meant to aide easy reading along a straight line, which your lettering rarely is. This isn’t a complaint — I find all the variations in your letters a good way to visually mimic speech inflections — but I don’t know if that makes the new style pointless or not. If it takes a while longer to do than your normal style, I’d say it isnt’ worth it, but it IS interesting to look at. Definitely try it for a few more pages to see how it feels.

      1. What’s not to be passionate about? There’s nothing worse than a poorly chosen font spoiling an otherwise well written/drawn comic and nothing better than a font that’s so well chosen or designed it enhances the page more than the colour does, or so much so that you stop reading the words and start understanding intent.

        See ^above^ ’cause that’s what I’m talking about.

  2. Hah, I liked how she was taller than him too. And those are nerd teeth? I always thought that was just his mouth being slightly open.

    I’m not sure if I will be able to take him seriously from now on.

    Also, Numbers in the next to last panel is hypnotizing.

    1. Dinah’s face was one of the first things I noticed too. It has that “Ha, we got someone to do the work for us with out even trying” look. Absolutely perfect.

      Numbers is still awesome.

  3. I agree with the second-to-last panel being something outta this world… Numbers is one obsessed kid. XD
    .
    Poor Barney, he’s gonna get drafted into TV whether he wants it or not. Although, looking at Dinah and the sleek boytoy guy in the first panel, I have to wonder if this wasn’t perhaps their Plan B all along?

  4. Not so keen on the new lettering D: It’s kind of jarring and robot-y. Sorry…

    Also, Numbers is too fucking cute. Makes a basket of puppies look downright fetid and disgusting.

    1. A basket of puppies is by definition downright fetid and disgusting. More so, if they’re not housetrained and have remained in the basket for an hour or more. (I’m a cat person.)

      1. Puppies will not stay in a basket for more than a minute unless they’re asleep or you’ve taped the lid shut. (In case of the latter, what the fuck, dude?!)

        1. Depends on a basket. If it’s one of those tall ones that look almost like a barrel, they might. And if one had to go around disposing of them, it’d be silly to let them climb out now wouldn’t it? :-P

  5. barneyXnumbers my otp!!!!!~~
    But in all seriousness, it’d be hard to not give in to Numbers. She may be nuts, but she pulls it off well and ends up looking cuter for it.
    Or maybe that’s fear in Barney’s eyes.

  6. I just read this start to current point. It is an amazing piece of work, full of rich, interesting characters and groups that I can’t yet fully fathom. Yet they’re all believable, and that helps with immersion. I don’t really get the story fully yet, it seems a bit random, but all in all I love it. Great work.

  7. This is awesome. Also, I think this is my first comment on TAZ, though I’ve been reading for quite a while, so yay for me.

    Also, did anybody else notice Barney’s lack of soul patch in the last panel?

  8. I’m with Numbers. A good idea and good intentions are great, but people can’t join in the fun if they don’t know it’s happening. I don’t think a movement becomes any less grass roots just because it uses a media that has a potentially large audience.
    Also, love the way that even in comic panels, Barney has a powerful personality, and so people are coding him as taller. Height has a weird space in people’s heads.

    1. I stand by my original statement, but I understand what you mean: public outreach is important and it does have a place in every organization. That being said, I’m happy there are people in this group who think the way Barney does, and maintain a certain level of vigilance against letting things become top-heavy with too much publicity and not enough actual work.

      1. Keeping the goodwill of the public is even more important for an organization operating outside of the law. You see that in all kinds of situations, from Robin Hood to pre-2006 Hamas to Rob Roy to the Bielski Brothers.

  9. I like the “i told ya so” elbow in the first panel. that guy must do a lot of yoga or something to be shrugging off massive solar plexus damage like that. Also numbers is as adorable as she is tall.

    1. I think it’s just his shirt puffs out more than him… he reminds me of those “mannequins” (could have been real people, we don’t know yet) that EJ was posing with in this piccie: http://templaraz.com/?p=1298#pagetop
      . . .I only now realized that the prettyboy in the abovelinked picture has an anti-rec tattoo. Let’s see Dinah’s boytoy naked to check he’s not the same dude? *eg*

  10. Oh God. This brings back way too many memories. I “pulled a Numbers” last year when I met one of my personal heroes; a well-known chef who, thankfully, was VERY gracious and friendly to me even though I was VERY dorky and enthusiastic about meeting him. I endured weeks of ruthless teasing from my husband, BUT IT WAS WORTH IT. Go Numbers, I understand you! (Although for a second, I thought she was saying “It’s biblical” in response to being able to talk to Barney. Like a personal aside to herself, “Oh my GOD HE’S TALKING TO ME AND HE KNOWS MY NAME THIS IS SO BIBLICAL”.)

    Also, RE: font. I didn’t really notice that it was too different until it was pointed out. I thought it was just being used to represent how breathless and nervous Numbers was. I do prefer the old lettering, but on the other hand, this one sort of makes me feel like I’m reading Kung-Fu movie subtitles for some reason.

  11. Ooh! I’m gonna be at SDCC with the fam on Sunday. I will have to say hi! Because you have a serious case of the awesome, Spike.

  12. I was recently at a scifi/fantasy con that I’m going to leave nameless (no offence, but y’all are a bunch of strangers on the Internet =P), and there was a lecture/discussion of webcomics and how most of them stick to the comic strip style and format of those in the newspapers. I think things like TAZ would be referred to as graphic novels, although delivered in a webcomic form. Just wanted to say that I’m feeling really lucky none of my favourite comics made the “the masses follow these webcomics” list (the top 10 of which, rather disturbingly, featured no less than 2 pure fetish comics). Also, the comments people leave here tend to be more intelligent than “LOL” and “Awesum!”

    Thank you for creating and maintaining this lovely little wonderland called Templar, Arizona! ^_^

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