Far Out There

GAH! A page with more than one panel! WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!?!?!? Well, Layla said she wanted to go someplace not weird and terrible. It stands to reason that the only place she’d feel met that criteria would be her inner sanctum, where her control is absolute (what, didn’t you see the writing on the door?)

So, I bashed this page out in a hurry so that something would be done to cover mt AWA trip… but that ended up causing a really weird sequence of events with the writing. Originally, the dialog for this page was just gonna be Layla reading an excerpt of the book to Alphonse, which would of course be some nonsensical jumble of weirdness. You all know what I’m talking about, right? I mean, just look at the title. Buuuuuuuut then I slapped that sticker on the spine, thinking it’d be cute to suggest that this was a book from her childhood. Cute, maybe, but also a MASSIVE plot hole, since it’s kind of a foundational plot point that Layla lost ALL of her possessions. By the time I realized what I’d done, it was too late to redraw anything, so I started trying to think of some extra dialog I could squeeze in to explain what had happened. The thought occurred that she’d re-bought some childhood books out of nostalgia, and it wasn’t long before I realized this character stuff was WAY more interesting than the gibberish I’d originally written.

…and you know what the best part is? By the end of it all, I realized that the sticker didn’t actually need explaining at all. It’s not like it’s drawn in crayon or anything, there’s nothing that explicitly screams “This Was Placed Here By A Child”. I mean, why WOULDN’T Layla go around slapping declarations of ownership on everything she sees? It’s a wonder the ship’s not COVERED with the things by now!

EDIT: Oh, and in case you missed it, the whole “me being on the road when this goes up” means no new Voting Incentive today, but things should be rolling again next week.

10/2/17 EDIT: Well, this sucks. I got home from AWA just an hour or two ago, and apparently my computer is dead. Like, too fried to even boot up. I’m too exhausted to even begin to process this, and it’s not like I’d have any clue how to fix anything otherwise. One thing I can say for sure, though, is that all updates are on hold until I can get something other than my phone for computing purposes. Sorry gang.

10/3/17: Okay, i may not be able to work on new pages with my computer busted, but my old laptop is as LEAST decent enough to do some new Patreon blog posts. If you’re a +2$ patron, you can see the new one right now. and if you’re not… well, you wanna start? In these trying times, I’d appreciate it even more than most!

(Historical Notes: Past Me slipped some additional updates about the computer situation down in the comments, but those same points were repeated on the next comic, so I’ll reserve my added observations for then.  In the meantime, somebody finally pointed out that a preference for the Printed Word is actually something Layla has in common with Ichabod.  NEVER LET HER HEAR YOU SAY THAT.)