Page 899…
Happy Monday everyone!
Hope you had a wonderful weekend.
I’ve got lots of stuff happening this week.
For starters…tomorrow is our 900th page!
WOW. Not bad for only 3 and a half years.
🙂
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Also…I’ve updated the Jukebox in memory of Michael Jackson.
Regardless of his personal life…he was a great musician and entertainer. Take a listen to some of my favorite songs from him.
It was hard to just pick 5…
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And lastly…
I spent the weekend creating items for the upcoming conventions. Please take a look.
This movie poster is reworked from the one I made last year. I changed the title at the top.
The next is mostly for the American Library Association show I’m going to in 2 weeks. To showcase my kids books.
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And the last one. My favorite.
I’m doing TRADING CARDS!
I’m going to have 10 different cards. Each with a SKETCH AREA on the back.
I’m not sure what I’ll be DOING with them. I can’t very well give them out. But I’d like to do SOMETHING nice for you all. Any thoughts?
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Thanks for reading. For both new readers and for those that have been here for 900 pages.
Please let me know your thoughts and hope you enjoy the new music.
Scott
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R.I.P. Michael Jackson! Great choices for the jukebox, also I understand Alex! School sucks as of right now, and its cool that this lovely webcomic connects to me in so many ways. Thank you scott for such a kick butt connection to life
Nice page.
Quick editorial: 5th frame; I get the impression Alex should be saying “No?” with a question mark based on Nastajia’s reaction.
Nice mix of Nastajia trying to be sympathic and comforting and at the same time still be a little rough, still making it clear that he needs to mature. I am so going to miss this comic when I go on vacation, unfortunately no one has any ideas on exact dates yet.
@SparcMan Funny. I disagree. I think Alex is smart enough to know the answer; he just didn’t have the correct degree. Besides, a long time ago, Nick mentioned Nastajia’s parents were centuries old, and it appears that Nastajia grew up as fast as humans do, and then level out at adulthood. So really I imagine Nastajia expected to become queen after a century, not at the tender age of 20ish.
I have to tell you I was hooked from page one. I spent the entire weekend reading every single page. The art work is AMAZING. Alex’s attitude can be cranky and sometime contradicts what you started with, but I LOVE IT! I am recommending this to my friends.
I can’t look at Nastalja for too long in the last panel. Did you happen to notice that she’s got a lazy eye effect? Her left eye (the one to the right) isn’t focused on the same thing as the other. It’s weird.
http://www.topwebcomics.com/vote/4274/default.aspx
Don’t forget to vote! 🙂
Trading cards could be sold/given at Cons. Pay ____$ and get a quick sketch on the back?
I can just imagine Staj saying “Aw hell naw!” Instead of “Heavens no!”
Hmm… right now Alex kind of reminds me of my personal life. I always have the feeling that things will work itself out somehow – for the most part they always have, interestingly enough.
I believe that having been thrust the responsibility of a king on his shoulders is also a way of things “working out” their own way for Alex. After all, Alex never really did anything for that, never fought for it, so to speak (maybe that will change in the future of this comic, though).
Samir – Welcome! We’re all Dreamland addicts here, and no 12 step program in sight, so we’ll be here til the end, heh.
I hope Nas and Alex figure out soon that they’re both on the same page soon. That oughta galvanize them to act as one in the upcoming struggle.
Oh, and I know I keep yelling Vote, but if you wait ’til Wednesday and promise to vote daily, we can maybe start out in the top ten! But still . . . VOTE! 😉 http://www.topwebcomics.com/vote/4274/default.aspx
It’s hard to figure out what to do with your life; I’m 30, and I STILL don’t know what I’m gonna do next. I definitely know how Alex feels, though having to rule a country when you’re as young as Nastajia is not exactly easy(I’m pretty sure some kings and queens in France, England, Spain, and Russia felt the same way).
As far as the poster… dang it! I want DC to become either a really great cg movie or a really awesome video game(Paddington would just be hilarious in a game or movie!)
“Some are born to greatness, others have it thrust upon them.” Alex is obviously one of the latter, but I think Nastajia might be a bit of both.
Hi all! Such a cute page, being all honest and vulnerable.. 🙂 I actually agree with SparcMan, I think that adding a ‘?’ will make the point even better 😉
I’m thinking of the trading cards.. If you just sell it on Cons, most of us wont get it! I think they’re awesome, and would love to have them! But I live in Norway, and would like to know that I can get a chance too. And ps: the poster looks grrreat! 😉
Wonderful scene. I like the way the two of them are talking – both being open with each other. I don’t think Alex needs a question mark with his “No.” either – he knows Nastajia didn’t want to become Queen so early, not when her parents should have ruled for years yet. I think she’s being so emphatic in the last panel not only to show Alex she understands his reluctance, but also because he’s the only person to whom she CAN admit it. The two of them do need each other.
Hey, I love the movie poster, especially Paddington dancing along the bottom.. Keep up the good work. Cheers!
Great page today, Scott!! I’ve really been enjoying the interaction between Alex & Nastajia, watching them re-invent their old childhood relationship. 🙂 The trading cards are awesome! Selling them at cons is a good idea, but what about the people who can’t get to cons??
Hi all!
Good Morning!
I was going back and forth between No. and No…?
But I finally decided on the first. Since Alex is at this moment keeping up with her.
Also…I REALLY wanted her to say HELL no! Ha ha.
But…trying to stay “All Ages” I couldn’t do it.
If anyone has a good made up expletive…PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
I have to agree with SparcMan that panel 5 should have been “No?” How can Alex think anything except how together Nastajia has her life; Alex probably believes she is the most focused person he has ever met.
I suspect Nastajia’s confession to Alex is a bit of a shock. While she wouldn’t want to be queen by absence of her parents, surely she always wanted to be Queen.
Scott,
To borrow a phrase/word from another writer, “Tanj!” If I recall, it took a book or two before the author revealed it stood for “There ain’t no justice!”
Poor Nastajia has the Princess Jasmine syndrome. When will these silly princesses realize they have it made. Mortgages, health care, car payments… she’s free to join us in the real world if she really wants. XD
First time commenting, but been reading for a while. Gotta say I love this comic and I eagerly wait for each update!
@bobbi: I think the “Tanj!” comes from the Ringworld series by Larry Niven? That or the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. More likely Ringworld though.
I find it interesting that the main bad guy being a dragon, nas has a decal on her outfit that is a stylized dragon.
and because i can’t resist… when are they gonna ever get it on!?!?!?
Very interesting, Scott! :] Keep up the good work! -Is brain dead and can’t think of a better response!- 🙂
I could’ve sworn that said Ashenvale for a moment. Excuse my WoW nerdiness. The trading cards would be good to give out at conventions- or even with every book purchase (good incentive to buy books for gifts- and collect them all!)
I can’t really think of a made-up explicitive except maybe nightmares, no. Or something of the nightmarish realm.
Keep up the great work, Scott. I hope you’re still doing well with your back. 🙂
Despite all the privileges of leadership, it has very little freedom. When done properly, many times you wind up belonging to your people.
Great Character insight, Scott!
How about make trading cards
@Dis Astrum Being an all-ages comic, they’ll only get it on in our perverted minds.
You know, in kind of a sideways fashion, this is like Alex and Nastajia having a date. How often do the two of them get to spend time together with no one else around? There’s no crisis at the moment either.
Enjoy it while you can, kids!
I love the dragon on her outfit… It alludes to the fact that in Dreamland, not all dragons are evil (just Nicco). Maybe I’m wrong, but it makes me feel better about having yet-another-dragon-bad-guy. 🙂 (Reinforcing the idea that, just like Humans, there are good dragons, and there are evil dragons. There are [likely?] even neutral/agnostic dragons. Thanks for this small gift, Scott. 🙂 )
Those eyes on her in the last panel, paralyzingly intense. Love her current design.
They’re so sweet, talking here together…^_^
Shouldn’t Alex ask “no?” instead of affirm “no”?
About trading cards…
1 – put some of then in each book (3 for each volum, for example), so anyone who bought all books would have all cards (please allow who already bought books to buy cards separately).
2 – create more cards and an album (like a photo album) so people can buy and glue these cards in right place (cards would be numbered and each place too). I don’t know how to say it in English. Chrome book?
take those cards over to Zazzle.com. They do “fattie” format business cards, and it looks like those would fit. (They also have nice postcards which are fully customizable)
Anyway, you could order several sets of each, shuffle them into random packs of five, say, and use them as convention fodder. Hell, use the reverse as your business card!!!
I’m sorry to tell you but it will actually be your 904th page … the count got stuffed around chapter 12-13 with the titled pages .. Whoops!
Love the comic though! 😀
I think the comic could be permitted one h-bomb and still be considered kid friendly, like how a PG-13 film can have a single use of a word that rhymes with muck before it becomes R rated. Besides, kids need to learn about hell sometime. And no one would be more fitting to deliver it than Nastajia.
My bad, I had forgotten that there are real h-bombs in the word.
thought I should mention that on the last panel, nastajia’s eyes are weird.
“Darn skippy, pal!”