Transcript: Chapter 2, Episode 27
The closed door at the top of the basement stairs looms ahead in the darkness.
Blaze pulls his lighter out of his pocket. Looking up ahead, he opens his lighter and begins to strike a flame.
The lighter is swept out of his hand by an invisible force, with a “fwoosh” sound.
Blaze whirls around in a ready stance, his right hand raised and glowing with spiritual energy. He calls, “Show yourself!”
Inky black swirling tendrils swoop in from behind him, wrapping around his legs.
More swirls wrap around his wrist and upper body as he grits his teeth in shock.
The black swirls hoist him into the air, high above the staircase toward the wall, with his arms extended above his head.
The swirls begin to solidify around his wrists.
As he’s extended in midair, Blaze squints with exertion and stares down at the inky black entity as it begins to take a humanoid form.
The swirls close firmly around his wrists, morphing into the clear shape of human hands.
Blaze’s lower body is shown, pinned against the wall above the stairs, the basement door in view behind him. The inky black mass hovers against him, with swirls and tendrils wrapping around his legs.
Blaze squints up at the entity.
Smoky Alastor grins mischievously down at him and asks, “Scary enough for you?”
His eyebrows furrowed, Blaze gasps and pants for breath, then says, “No.”
Cracking a smile back at Alastor, he says, “But it was pretty hot.”
“You’re kidding me,” Alastor says, staring down at Blaze.
Leaning forward with plumes of smoke wafting off him, he asks, “Ever done it with a ghost?” Blaze replies with a challenging grin, “What do you think?”
With his mouth inches away from Blaze’s, Alastor says, “I think I’m not like any other ghost you’ve been with.”
Blaze allows his life’s breath to waft toward Alastor’s mouth as he replies, “Prove it.”
Alastor slams Blaze against the wall with a loud THUD.
Upstairs, the homeowner jumps at the noise while wielding a knife and a handful of spinach leaves for a salad.
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.
I did mention I was looking forward to this scene, right?
There will be two versions of the next episode! There’s the public version, and an extended patrons-only version. (Bet you can’t guess why, lol.) The public version will be a nice chunky 23 panels, while the patrons-only version is an absolutely massive 31 panels—basically 2 episodes worth. I wanted to break it up into 2 episodes across 2 months, and that probably would have been more lucrative. But I think it reads better as a single episode, so that’s what we’re getting!
The patrons-only version, which like all extended episodes will go to the Bonus Tier and higher, has 7 extra panels and 9 extended/un-cropped versions of existing panels. (Lest anyone get their hopes up *too* far, it’s still within the realm of an R rating rather than anything super racy, but it shows much more than the teen-rated public version.)
I’m expecting the next episode to go up the first Wednesday of July, which is July 1.
I’m allowing myself the slight possibility that it might go long, because June is a Sketch month on Patreon and this episode, as I mentioned, is double length. But I *really* want it to go up on July 1, so I’m gonna try my best! And if you want to get the patrons-only version of the episode the moment it releases, the tier you want is the Bonus Tier ($5 USD).
We could use some new patrons too, by the way! I mentioned back in December/January that my Patreon income is my only income until late 2027 due to a delayed graphic novel contract. So if you want to get that extended episode AND help keep Into the Smoke running while I’m churning out my graphic novel, now’s a great time to pledge! And there are LOTS of other extras you can find in my Patreon while you’re there!
It’s a new month on Top Webcomics, and I actually managed to get a new incentive up! Vote for Into the Smoke to see the thumbnail/pencil sketch of a few panels from this episode! (I say thumbnail/pencil because these days I tend to do my thumbnails kinda big and then skip pencils and go straight to inks, so my thumbnails basically pass for pencils.) Anyway, you can vote here!
