unsounded

12_13

I wonder if it's all that safe for brothers to do battle alongside each other. So much bickering and taunting, it has to be a distraction.

12_12

I waited so long to draw that last little panel.  There's been talk of Captain Toma sending badges home to Chea ever since chapter 3, and it felt so gooooood to draw her actually having received them. 

But we'll switch to Duane (and Lemuel!) next update.

12_11

I like the little balcony Ufal's delivering his speech from. The bottom's ringed by vliegeng pierced by golden Crescian swords. Behind the Chancellor stand statues of Crescia, the country's founding warrior-queen with her sister successor Tresana.

Also, lots of semicolons.

12_10

Roger doesn't get a whole lot of lines, poor chap. He should keep that baby held firmly over his heart though.

12_09

Roger Foi-Hellick, now Roger Sonorie and a husband of the Queen. He's of the Copper caste, formerly of Alderode. Yes, Coppers are as ruddy as Plats are white, from top to toes.

12_08

I enjoy when the reader knows things the characters don't. In Unsounded it seems like it's almost always the opposite.

Poor Quigley though, he can't catch a break.  At least he's being reported as dead so her Majesty isn't likely to send a kill-squad after him. He was a pretty convenient scapegoat though, and well-known t...

12_07

Queen Sonorie spends much of her downtime riding, or fiddling about in her private kennel tending her prize shorthaired saddlehounds. Flora's her favourite.  Lord Ufal, her chancellor, would chastize her for this if he wasn't rather terrified of her. Queen Sonorie has never liked being told what to do.

They are of course ...

12_06

Though there was a cutaway to an interior office of the palace last chapter, this scene's really where I get to show the Crescian aesthetic. It wouldn't have been appropriate in Ethelmik since it was a poor bordertown (though there are hints here and there, like Vera's tentacle hat, some of the pymarics) but this is the capital ...

12_05

There are a few grisly details in the backgrounds of these panels that reveal  the fates of some of Ethelmik's citizens. Ignore them and concentrate on idealistic Timofey instead!

Next page we'll visit the capital city of Cresce and meet a few new characters.

12_04

Elan's deflated uniform was surprisingly tricky to draw.

12_03

You high-res backers are going to get your money's worth this chapter. There are a lot of panels that lose details when shrunk down for the site. This bottom one took ages.

These first two page were pretty recent additions though. I took a look at the chapter a few weeks ago and realised there was way too much TALKING about th...

12_02

Uflikh are a Valynian pear-shaped fruit popularly stewed and canned. Their silhouette is rather feminine, and so it's become a naughty word for loose ladies and, more specifically, female Crescian construct pilots, who are hotly despised by Aldish soldiers. Our armoured friend is essentially asking: "Is this tin can ful...

12_01

Well, hello there, Patrons. I missed you guys :)

Welcome back to Unsounded, and thanks so much for sticking with me through the hiatus! Did you have a groovy holiday season? Mine was pretty uneventful - the usual family and feasting and crippling social anxiety induced by sibling rivalry and tumultuous national politics but he...

Neverscape

Wouldn't it be fun to explore the khert with a friendly guide?

Exile 01

To tide you over until the comic resumes, I thought I'd let Duane describe to you what happened to him after leaving Alderode and his family. It's our prosaic zombie telling the tale, so do forgive his tendency towards florid language. Have some courtesy, have some sympathy and some taste. Use all your well-learned politesse. 2016-10-28 23:30:18 +0000 UTC View Post

Dropped Art

You may recognise this panel from the preview page, but it turns out I'm not using it in the comic proper! I wound up redoing the page it was originally on, so now it shall only exist full-size here. Go get 'em, Adelier brothers.

11_91&92

Ooooh, this chapter ran a bit longer than I had hoped it would, even with a particularly solid effort from me to keep the Ripas' story tidy and subtextual. I think it came together all right though, and I love ending it here with Murkoph finding a benefactor in Lady Ilganyag.  She doesn't seem to like Murkoph himself much (...

11_90

Poor Murkoph hasn't had a very good run in the story so far. He's perpetually having his rear end handed to him by little girls, zombies, and topless birds. Can nothing be done to comfort his discouraged heart and turn him into the main protagonist I know you all secretly want him to be?

11_89

I think the word balloons are a little confusing at the bottom, rawr. Left to right please. I like doing the borderless panels in the khert but they can trip you up sometimes.

11_88

You want Rahm to answer back: "You're my cause too," but I think we know it would be a lie. Iori certainly knows it would be. Rahm loves her a lot - and I like to think you can see him aching in that fourth panel, wishing he could tell her she's his world - but if Iori had been enough, none of this would have happened. They both...

11_87

That seventh panel is one of my favourites so far. The image of Rahm walking through the fiery collapse of his life.

I do think the space gets lost on this page though. Everything is all fire, there's not enough difference between Duane and Matty outside in the first panel, and the interior of the burning tower on the rest of ...

11_86

Do I discern a Green-Eyed Monster on this page that is not, in fact, Sette Frummagem? Or is Quigs just afraid Duane's going to take a bite out of the kid?

11_85

It's always a lot easier to be rotten when you feel rotten, and to be rotten when you think no one else in the world you care about is watching. Change that, though, and suddenly your villain is just a sad old man who's lost his way.

11_83&84

It's always hard to really show the immensity of a real explosion and keep its consequences flowing well on the individual character level without losing the sense of space and place. I kind of envy manga artists who are working in black and white, with assistants, and can really dwell on effects panels at their leisure, stretch...

11_81&82

Our Peaceguard always, always try their best.

11_80

I reeeeally liked coming up with what our villainous wright friend would look while so glutted with Aspect. It peels the gloves off his hands and draws blood from his eyes! He's going to burst like a pimple!

Or probably not. This guy knows what he's doing. Careful, Elka ;_;

11_79

Really gotta admire how Hetr's pontificating just fine with his face half melted off. I aspire to that kind of stamina and focus.

11_77&78

When I laid these pages out I really wanted a flurry of action in both locations and not so much carefully staged choreographed battling... but I just know every little maneuver is going to be picked apart ;)

11_76

"Death is the Gods' crime."

I believe that line may belong to more than only Bastion. Perhaps it's the entire Black Tongues' creed?

11_75

Toma, don't try sacrificing yourself just because it's become the new Peaceguard trend. Let Elan have his fifteen minutes.

If anyone correctly guesses what it is they see, I'll draw them a request. Hint: It's nothing good.