Comic Sketches: May 2023

Hello again, faithful readers! How's it hanging? Did you miss me and my little commentaries? Because I missed you. But no longer, because we're about to dive into the Albion portion of the scene selection! Let's get started.

The entire segment was boarded by our local multi-talented team member, Victoria! She is truly the Renaissance woman of our time, but we all know that at this point. I really like how the whole thing flows together, especially that HUGE long panel where we get a good look at the whole meteor library, but and we'll be getting to individual concept pieces in a little bit here. Like the Calder segment before it, this also features a bunch of new environments we'd never seen before, new color palettes, AND new outfits! It's always a good time when we get to flex this side of the creative process.

I would also be remiss not to highlight the best boarding job Victoria's ever done, in her own words. Behold:

Jentha. We obviously ended up changing it to the intended depiction of her planet later, but god was this funny while it lasted.

And with this riveting first page of a big ass scroll, we are off to the races. The sketches were handled mostly by Diz with some assistance from Tyson, while Victoria handled the carapacians' sketches at the end. Because united we are stronger in our pursuits.

Keen-eyed readers will notice that the sigils that ended up on the final version of this page were nothing other than Albion's entry codes! As she notes in the narration, she had been writing them down and trying to figure out how the language of the universal scripture works all this time she's been off-screen. Our girl does have a known propensity for linguistics, so it's fun to have brought that little character point up again.

I have to say, though, I do NOT envy the mind that is trying to crack what a bunch of overlapping circles mean. We're lucky to have a cheat sheet for these.

Though we'd previously gotten a small glimpse into Albion's planet - as much as an asteroid belt can be considered a proper planet, anyway - there is still plenty for us to uncover there. Like with the other lands we started fleshing out further this Act, we wanted to give people a better idea of what her quest would look like, and what better way to convey that than with some good ole' environmental design?

Thus, here is Albion's very own cosmic library, filled with ancient scrolls and plenty of vantage points to take a peep at that beautiful celestial firmament. It's a very peaceful player planet, all things considered, with indoor environments that encourage quiet introspection and mental work rather than more adventurous exploring.

And here's the rough color test that ping-ponged back and forth between me and Tyson while we were figuring out how this library would look. All in all, quite cosy! Who doesn't love a good dome and some hanging lights? Aaaah, I can almost feel the smell of dusty old parchment from here.

Here's an earlier WIP of this panel, since we don't actually have a sketch for it - a few of them were just winged by Tyson on top of Victoria's boards, so you'll be seeing a few more of those down the line.

Anyway, this is the first time Albion's planet has been name-dropped in the comic! We're doing all of the official titles drop that we can manage, because even if they're technically old news at this point, their big breaks still deserve a little bit of pizzazz. And we would never miss the opportunity for a title drop around here. Other than that, we also get a sneak peak at the enemies found in and around LoAaR, which appear to be some sort of... six-winged tube like creature (Tyson also winged them, the legend). Kind of creepy. But hey, at least Albion can make Hope spears now, which is neat.

Pay no mind to the emotional avoidance going on in the narration. Look at the beautiful library and its floating spiral staircase instead.

Did you know Albion is bad at dealing with her own emotions, despite slotting herself into the role of official group therapist? Yeah. To be fair, though, she HAS kind of gone through a lot in a very short amount of time - it's only been a day since she found out everything her guardian had told her about her future was a lie! Sometimes a girl just needs a minute to put her thoughts in order.

Webcomic time sure is crazy.

As a bonus, here's an earlier WIP of this panel while Tyson was testing out some alternate poses for Albion. Recklessly dangling her feet over a yawning chasm like that... it may look whimsical and charming, but this young lady needs some lessons in workplace safety methinks!!!

If I was forced at gunpoint to pick a favorite panel from the entire branch, I think this would probably be it.  Vertical panels are sooo fun and I really enjoy the sense of movement that scrolling gives you when you go through it. Also, the background is just gorgeous and I love the way Albion flips through the air. It's cute!

On the writing side, here we start getting a little into the stuff that's been going on with Albion's powers. We figured it'd be a good way to showcase some character forward momentum related to her big confrontation with the Exemplar, while also giving people a bit of a refresher. This felt like a logical next step - whereas before, Albion felt pressured to restrain herself to a very limited number of emotions, here she has started to experiment with a, shall we say, richer cocktail, which is actually a way healthier manner to conceptualize your inner emotional landscape. Good for her!

It's also a way for us to shift that aspect of her character away from the Green Lantern stuff (which is where the initial named "emotional states" came from) and more into her ties to Hinduism, a much richer and thematically relevant well for Albion to tap into. That was also the driving idea behind her eventual redesign, but we'll get into it later!

Don't you love some good old Game exposition? Here, have more NAMES and PLACES. And beautiful shots of OUTER SPACE. I swear White Noise was on some Outer Wilds shit when he designed LoAaR.

Because Albion cannot help but be so unique and special all the time even after the first leg of her character development journey, of course she had to get the weirdo planet of the session. So, yeah, the "Land of Asteroids and Runes" is actually part of the ABSTRUSE BELT, Vast Error's version of the Veil. It remains to be seen whether her personal interpretation of what her quest is trying to tell her is correct, though.

Hm? What was that about prying eyes from dark moons? Eh, I'm sure it's nothing.

And thus, after many endless years of waiting, it is finally here: the long prophesied Tazbion conversation. I'm so sorry we left our girlies waiting for such a ridiculous amount of time.

This is a good opportunity to bring up the changes to the depiction of Albion's body type! While the so-called "bean style" has been very uniform during most of Vast Error's run, we felt it'd reached a point where it was starting to be rather limiting for no good reason. So, out with the old and in with the new! Following in the footsteps of Taz's latest depiction having bulked up considerably, here is the style test made by Diz of Albion in all her canonical fat glory. What a beautiful princess with several disorders.

Tyson told me that he struggled quite a bit with this panel and getting Arcjec's pose looking right with the background, but I think we can all agree that it was worth the effort. Passed out, ass up, lit cig in his hand, cans of antidepressant everywhere. Who else is doing it like them? No one is who. I don't think Kid should be trying to eat that, though.

By the way, did you guys know that Albion is really fucking funny? Rereading these pages after so long got a sensible chuckle out of me, I have to admit. I just really appreciate how self-aware she is about her own issues while still doubling down on them extremely hard. Sorry to say, but being quirky about it is NOT going to make you exempt from true inward reflection and actual change forever. Watch out!!!

"I punched a bitch about it" may be one of the Albion lines of all time. I think that's the main takeaway from this page because what else needs to be said here.

Okay I lied, there's a few more things. It's nice to finally see Albion and Taz talking it out! Even if it feels a little like pulling teeth on Little Miss Perfect's end. Notice the failed deflection technique and the hamming it up to try and turn the focus away from her own feelings. Well, tough luck, because Taz is having none of it this time. And thank god for it, because her pushback is exactly what Albion needed here.

Also, it was really fun to go back to drawing Arcjec's planet for a bit! Those snakes are so cute, man.

I really, really like the way this panel is composed. The final version ended up a little different than the sketch you see here, but I think it helps convey the mood of the scene better, that sense of loneliness that Taz is expressing. Just her, a little bit of framing and a lone, used up cigarette.

AUSTIN: One thing I remember being very deliberate about the framing was using the design of Arcjec's lounger to our advantage and putting Taz in the middle of the diamond. Poetic cinema.

For all the flack that we can give Albion on the subject of being emotionally honest, I do think Taz is the one who is able to wrestle that out of her with the most continued success. It's very hard to retreat into her therapist persona with someone who is as blunt as Taz is, and who knows her well enough to see through it.

We also enjoyed expanding on the relationship Taz had with her custodian. It's just one of those things that helps fill in the gaps of the characters' pasts without having this massive plot weight - it's not important enough to dedicate a whole flashback to, but it is something that can be naturally brought up in conversation and still have impact, while reinforcing a sense of continuity. Taz was VERY upset when Minkmom jumped into the ocean, so there had to be some sort of relationship there to elicit that kind of reaction, and tying all of that back to Taz's constant sense of guilt over the circumstances of her existence was the cherry on top.

AUSTIN: Lots of little things in this last section of the log that flesh Albion and Taz out. First off, Taz admitting that she uses phrases like "it is what it is" when she feels trapped into a line of thinking and doesn't know how to progress from it. Remember the tail end of her argument with Arcjec near End of Act 1 where she tries to sum up what happened between them? Says a lot with only a little, which is not something I'm prone to doing.

(Said in my Vast Error editor voice) Don't I know it! 

AUSTIN: Taz then says she refuses to let herself cry, something which Albion knows is a blatant lie because she's cried in front of her at least once. There are even two prior panels in the comic where, if you look closely, you'll see that Taz does indeed shed a few tears. Very interesting.

If by interesting you mean heartbreaking.

AUSTIN: Also, notice that Albion claims similarities between her denizen and Azbogah! Both Hope AND Rage tend to have trouble seeing past their will and whim, and as such, don't have the easiest time seeing things as they are instead of what they want them to be.

AUSTIN: This may be one of the few times in the comic that I'd argue Albion truly does fulfill her role of resident shoulder to cry on, even if she resents being put in that position in the first place. Their circumstances couldn't be more different, but Albion clearly seems to have an understanding of Taz's emotions and why she's angry. Albion is still angry too, and truthfully, she always has been; she's just never allowed herself to feel doubt towards the Star Children's mission because she feels that would be a resigning of purpose. For a little while after everything with The Exemplar happened, that's where she was at, and she knows that's where Taz is at too. But only through the wreckage of one's self can you find clarity of purpose, even when you have no idea what that could be in the moment. Albion now recognizes it, and refuses to let that incident define her when there's so much more to be discovered within the Game. They have been given the rare opportunity to find themselves, to become something greater than they once assumed they could be.

AUSTIN: I think a critique one might find with Vast Error is that the main cast are faced with these huge, life changing problems that shatter their worldview and it seems as though they just kind of get over it after it happens. This is something that could be brought up with Arcjec and Occeus, one of whom was pushed from his depressed reluctance into a heroic role, and the other who had his entire vision of purpose and career crushed. After entering the Game, both of them wind up having a revelation and then pushing themselves forward through it, focusing on their new goal instead of burying themselves into more doubt and isolation. 

AUSTIN: This is a major function of the Game, in part: forcibly pushing the aspect holders out of their comfort zones and not just getting them to work with each other, but also reassess themselves and their priorities. Either through serendipity or pushing from a denizen, the players are being asked to consider their needs and desires; to improve and make progress. But from a writing perspective, this is a product of our main characters taking their first of many steps towards growth. None of these arcs are anywhere near complete. They're all just now being forced to recognize that bellyaching will get them nowhere, and the only way beyond this metaphorical burning forest is trial by fire.

AUSTIN: They're on their own, but they have each other. And they need to get their shit together to figure anything out.

Yet another panel where Tyson wrestles with a tricky angle for the sake of a cool looking shot. The man has suffered more than Jesus for this comic. And you know what else is tricky even though it probably seems like it shouldn't be? Getting Albion's skirt right when it's floating around like this! Deceptively simple design but a goddamn bitch in practice whenever there's any sort of movement involved. We won't have to deal with those confounding pointy shapes for much longer, however!

Finally, here we are introduced to the last piece of gimmicky technology that makes the mechanics of Albion's land possible: the ICHNOGRAPHIST. Even if it's not actually depicted in these sketches.

This thing had actually quite the long design journey! The first ideas we had for it were wildly different and working under a different name, the CARTOGRAPHIER, but we thought that sounded a little too much like "cartographer" and might make things confusing, so that ended up changing throughout the design progress. But I'll let Victoria take over for a more in depth explanation, since she's the one who designed it:

VICTORIA: This was sort of a push to make it visually distinct from Murrit and White Noise's TV motifs and fit Albion better. The idea was that the barrel at the top would have scrolls conjured into it based on the scripture put into the trolley attachment, and then the machine would unfurl it like a microfiche reader. There was room for some fun Library of Babel stuff, where you could put in a nonsense code and get a nonsense scroll, or have Albion input each character's entry code for whatever they're up to at the time and it'd become the gamebreaker surveillance thing it is now.

VICTORIA: The trolley interface itself is based on a similar one from Myst. It's definitely the kind of thing that's meant to be condensed over time, by crafting it down into a handheld device. I imagined something like an e-ink reader, where you could see the ink in each part change in real time, but I also wound up really liking the dance-like inputs on the new ichnographist! Having it fit the same kind of cracked ruins aesthetic pieces of the Game is nice too, really ties it all together.

She's thriving. Moisturized. Just solved her first Myst puzzle. Will message her girlfriend about it.

If these CRAZY CARAPACIANS will LET HER and stop SCREAMING SO GODDAMN LOUD!!!

Bet you weren't expecting to see THESE guys, huh? But they are in fact here. Or well, not here exactly, but more like way out over there in whatever this fancy new place we haven't seen before is! Isn't it exciting?

This is, obviously, the start of our own little spin on the concept of exiles borrowed from Homestuck. Which really isn't an appropriate term for what we're doing, actually, because none of our plot relevant carapaces have been exiled anywhere, but I digress. We thought it'd be fun to play with the formatting of the pages here, since as you can see through the little sprite panel of Albion, VP is broadcasting a dialogue box directly into her fancy schmancy new tech.

He's also sporting a brand new look, depicted here in an earlier draft of this panel without all those fancy color corrections and lighting sources. It's a very, very old idea that managed to withstand the test of time and story editing process both, originally handled by Victoria and then later tweaked my Yours Truly in order to make it look closer to his OG armor. Yes it's made out of Mountain Dew Code Red™ cans. How in the world he managed to get his exoskeletonized little hands on those remains to be seen.

Hey, do you want to see some concept art?

Cool, huh. Once again penned by Victoria, this is the imposing structure our hard-shelled friends are observing Albion from. It's a little early to get into the nitty gritty of just what in the fresh hell this big ass ring is, but I'll be nice and give you guys a little spoiler: it's called the Eye of Prospit.

At long last, here she is. One more main character put through the Refashionizer 2000, squinty and stylish as all get out. I'm pretty happy with how Albion's new look turned out, so let me get into it below!

These are a few earlier iterations of her look, along with the finalized concept! Firstly, I wanted to keep a skirt in the ensemble, but I tried to make it a bit more flowy than her original one. Like I said before, all the pointy bits made it kind of a pain to draw, so I wanted to streamline it. That's also the reason why the very first skirt shape was discarded, too complicated! 

The second version was closer to what I wanted, but it still felt like it was missing something. That something turned out to be a spark of modern Indian fashion - I went digging for references during this process and what do you know, the tied asymmetrical skirts and square necklines were just the thing this new look needed! I think they suit Albion remarkably well, with the practical leggings underneath and the swooshy fabrics. 

I also wanted to play with the idea of accessories - Albion is just the kind of gal to go for earrings and necklaces. In the end, we stuck with the earrings only for simplicity's sake. The Sova tie was a sad thing to abandon, but I just couldn't find a detail that worked with the rest of Albion's color palette for the finalized design. It really had to be that exact tiny thing, and we wanted to keep the headdress, so sacrifices had to be made. It shall live on in spirit.

Lastly, Tyson had the great idea to swap Albion's mood ring out for a Kheparia pupil-shaped gemstone bindi. We knew we wanted to highlight this aspect of her coding better in the redesign, and that touch felt like the perfect detail to bring the whole thing together. Maybe we'll end up seeing the implicit Albion crafting session in the future!

Damn what's going on over here??? That sure is a very bright planet! An explosion of LIGHT, one could say. Wonder what's up with that.

And that will be all for this month's commentary! Thank you so much for hanging on tight as I got this thing ready. We are all always so very busy, but we will always manage to make time for what REALLY matters in life: talking about gay little aliens and our gay little webcomic.

Until next time!

- Eddie, Austin & Victoria