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Transcript: Chapter 1, Episode 12
In the dark church basement, Blaze lies on his back on the floor.
His unconscious face is shown.
Suddenly, his eyes pop open.
He springs up to his seat with a gasp. Lying on the ground before him is the incapacitated form of the smoky ghost.
Blaze squeezes his eyes shut.
He opens his eyes again, his face breaking into a wild smile, and he cries, “HA!”
He throws back his head and grabs his hair elatedly. “Whew!” he cries. “Holy crap. That was amazing.”
He tilts his head back with a relaxed smile and thinks to himself, “Aahhhhhhh… I’ve never felt so alive.”
His face turns serious, and he tucks his hair behind his ear. “Oh, right!” he thinks. “That won’t keep him down for long. I have to be fast.”
He walks away from the smoky ghost and stands beside its physical body.
He kneels beside the body.
He stares somberly down at the body. The broken metal cross in its back is visible in the foreground. Behind him, the smoky ghost begins to rise.
As tears well in Blaze’s eyes, the previously incapacitated ghost stands behind him with furrowed brows and gritted teeth.
The ghost scowls and raises a pointed shard of stained glass as if about to stab Blaze.
Blaze glances calmly and silently over his shoulder at the ghost. A tear streaks his cheek.
He turns his attention back to the body.
He lowers his hand over the body’s face and says, “I’m sorry.”
As he closes the man’s eyes, he says, “Whoever you are, you didn’t deserve this.”
The smoky ghost raises the shard of glass high above his head, his mouth open in an animalistic roar. Smoke descends from his head in the shape of horns, and more smoke swirls around him.
The smoke dissipates and reveals the ghost’s true form, which matches the body on the floor. The ghost is red-tinted, and his irises are still white within his shadowy eye sockets, but he now looks fully human instead of monstrous. An inky black splotch appears on his chest. On his face is an expression of stunned confusion.
The ghost’s grip on the glass shard loosens.
The glass falls through the air.
It strikes the ground in front of the pair of ornate double doors at the back of the basement room.
The doors slam open, and four police officers storm in with guns drawn. Three of them stand grouped together at the center of the doorway. The middle one yells, “POLICE! HANDS IN THE AIR!”
Blaze kneels beside the murdered corpse, looking over his shoulder with shocked, wide eyes. He warily raises his hands.
Cut to black.
A logo appears: Into the Smoke. Intothesmokecomic.com
Text reads: This episode is brought to you by my awesome patrons! An image shows a collection of signatures in various colors, sizes, and handwriting styles, alongside Otto the cat with a roughly sketched pointy hat. After the signatures, more text reads: plus additional anonymous supporters! patreon.com/bob_artist.
Y’all, INTO THE SMOKE CHAPTER 1 IS COMPLETE! Thank you so much to everyone who came to read each episode, who left comments, who shared ITS posts on social media, who shared with friends, who pledged on Patreon, who bought the PDF, and who helped make Into the Smoke a webcomic that has the potential to continue and grow! It’s all of these things that are making it possible for me to forge ahead into chapter 2.
I have a TON of news and updates, so buckle in!
Into the Smoke will be taking a break between chapters, but I have so much stuff planned for the hiatus. Patrons will also get a bunch of early access stuff!
Here’s what’ coming:
If you’re subscribed to the Into the Smoke newsletter, you’ll get notified of the hiatus events when they go public. You’ll also get notified when chapter 2 starts. So I highly recommend signing up! It’s a very low-volume newsletter and a great way to keep up to date by email.
I’ll also be announcing these things on Tumblr and Bluesky, so be sure to follow if you aren’t already!
Into the Smoke is a crowdfunded comic, and it depends entirely on reader support. All the new support since launch has made a HUGE difference, but I really need a hand to keep doing this long term! Here’s how you can help:
Patreon is the main thing supporting Into the Smoke! Any amount helps. My goal is to build up to a freelancer’s minimum wage so I can afford to keep making webcomics for longer than the next ~6 months and so I don’t have to postpone that gallbladder surgery. A Patreon pledge also gives you access to ITS extras and my other projects, Demon of the Underground and Devoted: Merritt’s Story. Plus you get access to patrons-only channels in the Discord server!
I also want to say I’ve been really stunned by all the new patrons, especially this past month!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Let’s keep this momentum going!
Can’t do a subscription? Pick up Into the Smoke: Chapter 1 in PDF on itch.io! It’s pay what you want right now. The download is currently up to episode 9, but if you buy it at any time and at any price besides $0, you’ll get the full chapter 1 at no extra cost when the PDF is updated in the very near future.
Growth is crucial to funding the future of the comic. No one believes me if I say my comic is worth reading, but they’ll believe YOU, a reader! Your word is worth a thousand times more than mine, because readers are overwhelmed with choices, and they need to hear that a project is worth their time.
1. Tell people about the comic! Are you part of fandom communities that take webcomic recs? Discord, Reddit, just chatting at a con? Tell them about ITS! (Always abide by community rules and don’t spam, and don’t promote ITS in other creators’ spaces unless they invite recs or it’s part of natural conversation.)
2. Share and boost ITS-related posts on social media! Even if you don’t have a big following, likes and shares help the algorithm on most platforms, even Tumblr and Bluesky, my main platforms. Full site list in the sidebar/footer! And if you see other readers posting about ITS, support them too!
3. Make stuff and have fun! I’ve already been so moved by what y’all have shared. <3 And to reiterate, yes, you have permission to use my art for ITS-related memes, tiktoks, etc. as long as it’s credited.
4. Vote on Top Webcomics! It’s one of my best free sources of new readers, and you can vote every day. The more days the better! It’s especially helpful during hiatus. And join the Discord if you want vote reminders! Vote for Into the Smoke on Top webcomics!
So many of you are already doing so many of these things, and I owe you all a big thanks!
Spirit medium Blaze Laurent defies his priest partner Judd Abraham by using his body to negotiate a truce with the haunted Clybourn House’s eighteen angry ghosts.
This short story takes place a year before Into the Smoke, and it’s very much for adult readers. I’ve been live-posting my draft progress on Tumblr, so some of you know exactly where things are headed. It’s not a secret, haha. (Safe-for-work version will also be available, though!) Also, the current Top Webcomics voting incentive is a scene from this story!
During hiatus, the Secret Gallery Tier gets early access to the short story draft in serialized form, and previews of art in progress. Then, sometime in 2025, the final version and art will officially release on Patreon.
EARLY ACCESS! Into the Smoke: The Clybourn House launches for Secret Gallery patrons on November 6! Pledge on Patreon here!
Pledging on Patreon supports my webcomics and helps me keep making both of them without having to give either one up!
I had a bit too much going on for a typical rec, but I do still want to leave y’all with another comic to read during Into the Smoke’s hiatus. So, this time I’m going to bring up the comic I somehow haven’t brought up in all this time: Demon of the Underground! (by me)
Pogo, a big-mouthed young thief from Chicago, falls through a hole in the ground and wakes up in a brutal underground world where survival is based on strength and intimidation. His only hope for escape is his telekinetic ability—and the help of a stray ferret named Annie.
Pogo finds himself in the middle of a tug-of-war between the four underground spheres that want him for different—and often sinister—reasons. Jasper Samsid, King of the East Sphere, promises that if Pogo helps his sphere rise to the top, he will allow Pogo to return to the surface. But will the underground change Pogo? Why does he have a bleeding cross mark on his back? And why does he hear voices in his head that tell him to abandon his humanity?
Demon of the Underground is intended for mature readers.
I can’t pump up DOTU the way I can other people’s comics (remember what I said about not believing the creator? XD) but hopefully there are some readers who can vouch for it! If you like plot-focused LGBTQ+ comics with deep world building, complicated interpersonal dynamics, drama, demons, and queer chaos, this one’s for you! AND it takes place in the same universe as ITS. There’s 345 pages ready to read right this second, and another 84 pages you can read with a Patreon pledge. So that should keep you busy for… a few hours? *cries in webcomic creator* No but really, give it a read!
And that’s it! Thank you for an awesome run of chapter 1! And don’t forget to come back for all the hiatus extras!
New Episodes Every Other Wednesday
