Page Twenty Three: Classy Conspirators

Plots! Conspiracies! Extremely classy spies! FISHY GOINGS ONS. Meet the Three Red Witches, Athena, Minerva and Bellona! Three sisters, all witches, all redheads. (There are an awful lot of redheads in Chapter One, I don’t know how that happened.) Athena’s the smart one, Minerva’s the snooty one, and Bellona’s the ho. And they are up to something. And by the way, yes, that is a compact Minerva is holding. (If you look closely at the crowd in the Queen’s Council a few pages back, you might spot these ladies lurking…)

You can also check out the character development process for these girls on Queen Gwenevere’s Ramblings!

Page Twenty Two: Exit the Queen

Yes, the Queen is vanishing. Yes, she does that. Yes, there are reasons. ALL WILL EVENTUALLY MAKE SENSE. I think… (Actually, that might be the fastest way outta the Palace… Have I mentioned the place is HUGE?) And is this a sneaky new character we see? What is she up to? Stay tuned to find out!

(If you’re curious, sneak preview sketches of this character can be seen on my Tumblr here…)

Page Twenty One: FORTH!

The Queen and Slope: TEAM OF DOOM. Nothing like cheesy fonts and an impromptu quest to liven up a dull afternoon! Megra is unofficially in charge of persuading the Queen to stay home and keeping her out of trouble. It obviously does not work.

And as promised, I’ve posted a little promo comic to mark the passing of page twenty and the beginning of the real action… You can see it on my Tumblr, or on my DeviantArt, or on my Sketch Blog – pick your poison! (If nothing else, you can get a sneak peak at what the artwork in this comic eventually develops into… The promo was drawn waaaay later than the current batch of pages!) Or of course you can go to the link on the Miscellany Page above, which is where I link all such miscellaneous extra comics and silliness…

Page Twenty: A Minor Setback

It seems the Queen’s plans shan’t go according to plan… Well, back to the old drawing board! At least Vitalia has a friendly(?) travelling companion for her journey down the rabbit hole. Also yay, page twenty! This is where the adventures really begin!

Okay, so updates are a leeeetle bit tardy and not always exactly on Monday or Thursday, but I’ve kept to two pages a week this far, not bad! To celebrate getting to page twenty, I’ll be posting a special short promo comic on my Tumblr and DA. Probably tomorrow, if all goes well.

And yes, I am tinkering with the archives, so if they sometimes go into conniptions, that’s why. (I’m trying to get the archives to show a thumbnail grid, if possible. Or at least a more condensed page of thumbnails than what I have now. Whatever works.)

Page Nineteen: Conditions May Apply

Oh, you just know Vitalia’s lucky streak ain’t gonna last… Will she claim her prize and live a life of luxury in an alternate dimension? Is the position of “Princess Imperial” all that it’s cracked up to be? Will there in fact be cupcakes? Stay tuned!

(Okay, yeah, page is up super late, had to do a bit of emergency scanning at the last minute there… It probably didn’t help that I got distracted catching up with work stuff and kinda forgot it was Thursday for a while. Whoops.)

Page Eighteen: Behold!

Congratulations, you’ve crash landed in an alternate world and won the lottery! It’s your lucky day! Maybe. Hey, at least it was a soft and fuzzy landing…

Happy New Year! (Or almost new year, depending on your time zone…) May it be adventurous and entertaining, and may all your crash landings be on something soft!

Page Seventeen: Touchdown!

I think we all saw that coming…

(Okay, true confession, this page is up late because I got sucked into a Doctor Who marathon with my parents… WHAT WHAT I’ve never watched it before, I had to make up for lost time, totally valid excuse!)

Page Sixteen: Incoming!

In case you were wondering what happened to Vitalia… This is where things start to come together, literally!

And yeah, Happy Holidays! Whoo, I actually have a page up, despite all the family running around and the usual holiday hullabaloo (wasn’t too sure I’d get a chance to post it…) If I can finish in time, there should also be a Christmas special splash page later sometime Christmas night! If not, I guess it’ll be a port-Christmas special…

Page Fifteen: Food Fight!

Or food flight… Taking food fights to new levels! Singlebeeste 1, Guards 0. Forget about vanquishing the singlebeeste, cleaning the kitchen is a far more daunting task…

(And we reach new levels of lateness, I think… Sorry about that, it’s the whole crazy pre-Christmas runaround. Things should settle down a bit after next week.) (Still hoping to get a special Christmas splash screen done in spite of all the craziness!)

Page Fourteen: The Queen Proclaims

In which the Queen has a Brilliant Idea! The conquest of kitchen pests is surely the finest qualification for an heir, no? Or if the heir thing doesn’t work out, well, they’ll have a whacking good Kitchen Defender.

(And yeah, still on a late streak here, I’ve been in deadline mode… Now with migraines on top. Yargh. But hey, PAGE IS UP. Yay.)

Page Thirteen: A Stubborn Beastie

It is not a cooperative beastie. Yes, the Royal Guard is a tad ineffective in a crisis situation… Frankly, the palace is so huge it’s never needed any defense beyond its sheer incomprehensible size. Invaders would merely get hopelessly lost in there. (So do quite a few guards, I’m sure…)

Check out character development sketches and background on the Singlebeeste over on my sketch blog, Queen Gwenevere’s Ramblings! The creature goes back quite a ways and went through some rather goofy phases…

Page Twelve: Lunch is Now!

In which the Queen takes charge… In spite of objections from the peanut gallery. Will the Queen be the slightest bit effective in quelling the Kitchen Crisis? We shall see!

By the way, if anyone is curious, character sheets and development sketches for Slope and Mrs. Cornelia Bailiwick-Stout are now posted on my sketch blog, Queen Gwenevere’s Ramblings. You can check out the Character Development Special on Slope and Mrs. Bailiwick-Stout here!

Page 11: Horrors!

WAGH Yes I’m late! Kinda fell asleep after doing my regular paying work, whoops… But here’s page 11! (Okay, I’ll try to be more timely next time, but you can expect updates to be a little discombobulated until Christmas, this is always THE most crazy time of the year.)

It should be evident that the Queen takes lunch seriously. A day without lunch is a national catastrophe. And yes, her pet name for Sir Lancaster Ragout is “Lunkus”, lord knows why…

Also, not sayin’ anything, but some of those characters lurking in the background may be worth keeping an eye on…

Page Ten: The Queen Quibbles

It’s the Queen versus her Cabinet! A not infrequent occurrence at the Palace…

The officious lady with the clipboard is Mrs. Cornelia Bailiwick-Stout, head of the QPC (Queen Preservation Committee.) (AKA the Queen’s Protection Committee.) The QPC is ostensibly dedicated to preserving the Queen’s safety, but their real agenda is to prevent the Queen from wandering, concerned that she endangers herself and the stability of the realm by continually straying from the palace. Their efforts are invariably futile. NOBODY can keep the Queen at home!

The dude in the weird hat is Slope, who we met on the previous page. He’s the Royal Publicity Manager, a highly important cabinet position. Slope and the Queen are both of the opinion that government ought to be entertaining, so they get along swell. Character development for Slope and Mrs. Bailiwick-Stout can be seen on here on my sketch blog, Queen Gwenevere’s Ramblings.

And no, this isn’t about to turn into a giant Original Character Tournament… Although that would totally work, now I think of it…

Page Nine: The Queen’s Council

In which the Queen makes her grand entrance… Along with part of her sprawling and not-very-organized court. The Queen is the one in the Big Hat, of course. The lady standing behind the Queen is Megra, her chief lady-in-waiting and general minder (not an easy job.) Slope is the Royal Publicity Manager. (Character pages on all these guys will be up soon, promise!)

I dunno who the two dudes in the foreground are. There’s a lot of random courtiers and hangers-on and squatters around the Palace. The Queen doesn’t even know who they all are.

Page Eight: Grave Affairs of State

Because Lunch is Important! Not much to say about today’s update besides that. But in the next update, we go to meet the Queen!

(The worried balding dude is still just a random member of the palace staff and will likely neve be seen again… Poor guy doesn’t even get an official name…)

Page Seven: Kitchen Raid!

In which the Queen’s Kitchen is under dire attack! Alas, the hams! Woe, the potatoes! Can dessert be saved? Will the Queen go hungry? We shall see! (Page is up a bit late owing to Thanksgiving, but what do you expect from a holiday post?)

The dude in the chef hat is Sir Lancaster Ragout, Chief of Cuisine – a highly important position in the Royal Cabinet. The others are random staff. Sir Lancaster will get a character page soon – er, as soon as we have a character section – which will be soon…

Also, there will be a special Thanksgiving splash page up later tonight! (Or in the wee hours of tomorrow morning, depending on your time zone…) I just gotta finish coloring it… It will have pie.

Page Six: Entirely Elsewhere

And here’s where things start to get fancy. We got yer crazy baroque architecture right here! And there’s more where that came from! I swear this page took as long to draw as all previous five pages combined…

But all is not well in the Palace… Flying potatoes hint at foul deeds within!

Page Five: Down the Rabbit Hole

And we’re off! Down the rabbit hole or wormhole or interdimensional rift, or whatever it is… What horrifying prospects await beyond the void? Tune in Monday to find out! (Increasingly elaborate artwork is one thing you can count on… Haha… The things I get myself into…)

(Meanwhile there’s this client who insists on mega-stressful Thursday meetings practically every week, this is seriously messing with my update schedule. Argh.)

Page Four: Reality Warp!

Never meddle with mystery devices, kids… They can warp your radiators! And the rest of the world as well… (I will get better at timely updates, really…)

Page 3: It Came from Behind the Radiator

Vleep! It’s my Birthday, I can be late if I want to. (Also it’s been a hella messed-up kind of day, but never mind that…) But lo, page three is up!

I swear, any space I’ve inhabited in this city, I always find some weird debris left behind a radiator or under the stove or something. It comes with the territory. With Vitalia’s luck, she finds weird things that go “Vleep!” And this is where Things Start Happening. Stay tuned, folks!

Page Two: The Elbow Incident

In which Vitalia demonstrates her lack of organization and yaps on the phone… Don’t be deceived by the apparent lull, here, the elbow incident is a definite plot point. (When nothing much is going on, it’s a sure bet all Hell will break loose in a page or two…)

You can see the background of Vitalia’s character development in the Vitalia Character Development Special on my Rambling Sketch Blog. Also, a character section will be added here very soon – so check back!

Page One: Moving Day

We have a page! Hooray! (I didn’t exactly say these updates would be bright and early in the morning…) Introducing Vitalia, and her rather sparse apartment! Someone tell that girl to pull the shade down when she’s dressing, yo…

And yes, the art suddenly makes a major time slip, haha! This page was probably drawn in 2006, 2007 at the latest. It’s almost historic. I think it was my very first attempt at inking a full comic page since I graduated art school – and man, was I rusty! But I soon learned What Not to Do. This page is so old I had to retouch the phone because it was wildly out-of-date. (It’s still not very cutting edge. But Vit is too broke to own a fancy smartphone.)