Welcome to Silver Spiral Stories: Blood & Oil – Pg 8, or the comic’s final page. T-wk’s victory against the mutant Crattler finally pays off, and he’s on the next stage of his journey. I had intended this to be a quick story, but a schedule slip happened. It ended up being a Halloween special that ran until March. Yikes.
I am also happy to be continuing T-wk’s journey. Originally a lot of this story was meant to be a text-adventure game. I still have a lot of documentation for that, but the project fell through. T-wk is a rogue AI character who I have big plans for, and as Mara’s nemesis, I needed to be sure he had some momentum behind him. Being able to do a hyperviolent 1980s Heavy Metal throwback was a nice bonus.
In case you missed it, Cosmic Dash was updated last week. It was update number 391. It is a page that I wrote in and drew that wasn’t in my original script and helped develop a pair of the Kemezeckian passengers over on the Lucky Strike II. Please check it out.
But anyway, how about some other updates?
- No RGBots this week. You’ve been spared.
- A new Supernatural Selection is up; it’s a Week In Weird with guest Nick Arganbright, who has a fun comic project on Kickstarter that is worth supporting. Check out Excavator.
- I have a new webcomics criticism article over at The Duck Webcomics.
- I am 90% of the way through the edit of the next novella segment. I will have that done this weekend. I ended up getting distracted by another story, which was updated today.
Visual Accompaniment
I am getting back into development art and want to share some stuff as I work on it. I was doing a Daily Doodle project for a while, but after nine weeks, I decided the pressure was a bit much. It motivated me to draw more non-comic adjacent stuff, but it also interested me in sharing development art. So here we go.
We have the concept art of the ShellSmasher, for one. Here is a better glimpse at the ridiculous nature of the design of the mech. It is very much influenced by the Koopa Clown Car of Bowser Jr. and Tron Bonne’s mech from Mega Man Legends.
The other two illustrations are much more in-line with my visual development work with stories. I don’t always focus of finished pieces but rather just detail the stuff that is most important to me for my purposes. I know what Drakar and Mayden look like. What I need is the final colors and concepts for their outfits for the next mini-comic.
On that note, yes, the next mini-comic is Drakar focused. Get hype.
Want more about the rogue AI, T-wk?
To celebrate the wrapping of this story, I have also published a companion short story that follows up on these events that you can read right now. You can check out “The Passenger,” published through the blog. The story continues T-wk’s journey and sets the rogue AI against some hapless spacers. It’s pretty violent, so it’s a good follow-up to “Blood & Oil.”
Publishing a companion story like this is a bit of a milestone for me as that is something I’ve wanted to embrace in splitting up the comics between the anthology side and the larger Cosmic Dash side. I also wanted to throw in short stories and drabbles that help build up and introduce stories and concepts.
If you want to follow this robot’s full journey, read these in the following order.
- Cosmic Dash: Vol. 1 Ep. 1 – “Shmoofyland Robot Rampage”
- Silver Spiral Stories – “Reboot”
- Silver Spiral Stories – “Blood & Oil”
- “The Passenger”
T-wk is one of my favorite characters, so I am very proud of where all this has headed. Not and for a little, rogue AI.
Silver Spiral Stories: Blood & Oil – Pg 8 Transcript
The following is a transcript of Silver Spiral Stories: Blood & Oil, page 8.
Panel One
T-wk’s hand is in the frame, about to close what appears to be a hatch in some unknown machine. The power cell from earlier has been patched and placed into the hatch.
T-wk: There.
Panel Two
T-wk is sealing the hatch with his mismatched limbs.
SFX: CLICK
T-wk: Finally.
Panel Three
In a shot of the landscape of Rummagian 3, piles of garbage and scrap metal stretch out under a grey sky.
Panel Four
A sudden explosion disrupts the landscape’s quiet as some object rockets into the sky.
SFX: THOOOM
Panel Five
A rounded shape with three glowing green eyes pierces the upper atmosphere of Rummagian 3, above the clouds and into space. Two moons and a system star are seen in the distance.
SFX: FWOOOSH
T-wk: I am free.
Panel Six
T-wk has cleared the moon’s atmosphere in a mech of his own design, ShellSmasher. The thrusters on the limbs are pushing T-wk into orbit.
T-wk: Time to hitch a ride back to civilization.
Caption: To Be Continued…
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