Transcript: Chapter 2, Episode 23
Blaze sits cross-legged in an empty row of a Chicago bus, reading a book.
Blaze looks up, startled, as Alastor suddenly appears beside him, man-spreading impressively across two seats with his arms propped on the chair backs.
With a tight frown, Blaze subtly side-eyes Alastor and psychically asks, “What’re you doing here???”
“Haunting you,” Alastor replies, still lounging across two seats. “Why?” Blaze psychically asks, frowning wearily. Alastor replies, “Your place is boring and your teacher’s a nightmare.”
With a cocky smile, Alastor says, “Besides, you said you’d help me find my murderer.” Blaze replies psychically, “I did not say that.” Alastor replies, “Then I’ll just haunt you till you change your mind.”
Blaze raises a finger and stares sternly at Alastor. He says psychically, “We’re in public. Behave yourself. Not a single passenger can even suspect you’re here.”
Looking unfazed, Alastor asks, “Or?” Blaze holds up a jar of teal-colored powder and psychically replies, “Or I’ll bind you with a sigil till we get to my stop.”
Alastor perches on a bus seat beside a stubbled man in a black cap listening to earbud headphones.
Alastor swipes down with a single finger, knocking an earbud out of the man’s ear.
The bus driver turns his steering wheel.
Alastor kicks a backpack down the aisle of the bus while one of the passengers stares after it with a small frown.
Alastor hovers behind a woman in a pink baseball cap and pink jacket who’s staring closely at her phone.
Alastor presses the volume-up button on the side of the phone.
The woman jolts with surprise and other passengers look on as her phone loudly says, “UNDID HIS BELT BUCKLE AND SLID HIS PANTS DOWN. HENRY MOANED WITH PLEAS—“
Blaze frowns and narrows his eyes, squeezing his vial of powder.
A logo appears: Into the Smoke. Intothesmokecomic.com
An image shows nine ghost hands converging to pet Otto, a content fat black cat. Each hand has several names written on it. Text reads: Special Thanks to my Patrons. Pledge on Patreon at patreon.com/bob_artist. The words “Pledge on Patreon” are crossed out and replaced with the words, “Pet Otto.” An additional URL reads intothesmokecomic.com.
Fun fact: 13% of rude and annoying public transit experiences are actually caused by ghosts.
As I mentioned in the last episode, I’m keeping an average pace of 1 page per week while I work on my contracted graphic novel, with 4-5 panels counting as a page. The next episode is also around 4 pages, and I’m expecting to have the GN back on my plate soon (it’s currently with my editor), so expect the next episode in 3-4 weeks!
Again, you can sign up for email updates if you have trouble tracking irregular schedules. It’ll probably be irregular for the next 2-ish years.
The email newsletter is very simple: I send an email when an episode goes live, and also one monthly digest that links to every piece of art/writing/comics I released anywhere over the past month.
I found some time to do some fun quickie minicomics (not ITS-related), and one particular series kinda blew up! You can see them here as their original tumblr posts:
Or here, with everything so far in one (free) Patreon post!
As promised, I’m releasing the remainder of Demon of the Underground chapter 4 outside of Patreon for the first time! Pages will be released on the main site in mini batches and weekly/Mondays on Tapas. Because of my schedule, I won’t be announcing every update, but they’ll be listed in the Monthly Roundup newsletter!
At long last, we have a new pic up on Top Webcomics. It’s from the last batch of Patreon sketches, and it’s a little drawing of how Alastor would be misbehaving back at Blaze’s apartment if he wasn’t misbehaving here on public transit. Voting helps new people discover the comic, and you can vote once per day per device/internet connection. Vote for ITS on Top Webcomics here!
