If it had been made clear to me that my accomplice would append each comic I uploaded with a fabulous treatise, I might have nipped off with some mysterious bottle, claiming to have been "laid low" by a vaguely defined pox. However, I understand that you may (from time to time) appreciate a host who can spell the word "palette." Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to present this, the third page of our Cardboard Tube Samurai Event, entitled The Hawk And The Hare.
My Christmas Wish is to see you seated majestically upon great heaps of holiday loot. I ended up with something really cool myself, but it was only cool for a short period, and the span of time after the period I just described was characterized by impenetrable darkness.
Our own Gabriel has recently acquired a fondness for watches, and it must be an intense fondness, because I have noticed that he now refers to them as timepieces. Until Monday, it was not a fondness that I understood or had a desire to understand. When I opened the MBW-100 that Brenna had purchased for me, many things happened simultaneously.
The first thing is that I suddenly understood the previously inexplicable fondness.
The second thing is that I realized Brenna actually listens when I talk. I assumed that she did not do so, and never once held it against her. There's no reason that she should - my side of a conversation typically wends from "an estimate of a dragon's hit dice based on the size of its hoard" to "crafting a lightsaber is an important step for any padawan" to "mayonnaise is really very strange," the sort of information sane people are careful to purge from their minds. But she was aware that I am obsessed with Bluetooth, and shaped this knowledge into a gift that exceeded my considerable damage resistance.
I am not ashamed to say that I cried a very small amount upon opening the box.
I am slightly ashamed.
But the third thing that happened is I recalled reading something terrible about the watch in question, as I had seen the device before while perusing Engadget or Gizmodo, and also occasionally in dreams. As I mentioned before, I am not a watch man, but I am absolutely a Bluetooth man, a data-enabled Personal Area Network man who is ready to shed his diseased frame and embrace humanity's ultimate destiny. While the watch charged, some research tilled up the grim facts: the watch only works with Sony Ericsson phones. I disconnected the charger, placing it back in the box with the thick manuals, laying the timepiece back in its somber little casket.
Today we will make the return trip over Devilmaw Gorge - the gap that slew Avariel, God's messenger. There is a fun drinking game that goes along with this journey: according to the classic formulation, I think each of you takes a drink every time I die.
(CW)TB out.
After the Wandering Age 2 it was another six months before the CTS popped up again. This time it was in a three part storyline called "Last Rights". Finally we realized that each Wandering Age comic should have its own subtitle instead of a number. This one told the story of the CTS and his friend Tobun. It was originally just going to be a one page comic. Just this single page depicting the CTS leaving a body in the snow. We have always liked the idea of readers creating their own stories when it comes to the CTS and this seemed like a really interesting scene. It proved to be so interesting that people demanded we finish it. Many of you wanted to know who this guy was and why the CTS killed him so we made the other two parts. These ended up being Last Rights Part one and part two.
Another interesting thing about this comic is that it was turned into an animated short for PAX 2004. The only way to see it would have been to attend PAX or pick up the DVD. If you didn't do either of those then you probably never saw it. I dug around online and found a hand cam version of it that someone must have taken at PAX.
I was trying a very loose almost sketchy style with the art. For the colors I wanted the appearance of a water color wash. I wanted very subtle colors leaving the white of the page for highlights. It's rare that I like anything I drew more than a week ago but I actually feel like this still holds up.
It was almost exactly one year before the next CTS comic strip appeared. This one was called "At The Feast Of Afterwinter". I took the "sketchy" inks even further with this piece. After I had inked the characters I actually went back over the black lines with white to cut them up a bit. I liked the style a lot and actually used the same technique for the artwork in the Penny Arcade card game. That's why I love experimenting with the CTS comics. I never would have come up with this style and I think it gave the card artwork a very distinct look that it needed.
Between these two strips for my birthday in 2004 I was actually given a pretty amazing gift by my friend Porkfry. He had gotten Stan Sakai to draw a picture of the Cardboard Tube Samurai for me. I'm pretty sure I never shared it on the site. Since I'm doing this little history of the character though I think it's a good time. Here's a photo I took of Stan's CTS.
Finally here are a few more detail shots from Today's comic.
I'm trying to keep the coloring on the characters simple.
I color each frame below the line work. Then I duplicate that layer and use the image adjustment tools to darken it.
Then I erase the places on the character I want to be highlighted letting the lighter layer below show through.
We'll be wrapping this little story up on Friday. Thanks to everyone who's been mailing me. I'm glad so many of you seem to be enjoying it.
Also, I may not be able to spell "palette" but at least I know the difference between "Horde" and "Hoard".
Fucking dip shit.
-Gabe out
