Transcript: Chapter 2, Episode 22
In Blaze’s warmly lit apartment, Alastor and Evie sit facing each other at either side of the dining table. Both are scowling with their arms crossed, and Alastor, in his standard non-smoky form, is slouched in his seat.
Evie’s eyes are shown as she glares at Alastor.
Alastor’s glowing white eyes are shown as he glares back.
A view of the dining table shows a teapot and a teacup filled with Blaze’s special glowing blue tea.
With a frown, Evie says, “If you’re going to stay in this house, you’ll need to follow the 3 cardinal rules of ghost etiquette.”
Evie holds up one finger and says, “Rule #1: You must never try to communicate with someone who isn’t a medium.”
Holding up a second finger, she says, “Rule #2: You must never break an object.”
She says, “And most importantly, Rule #3:”
With a serious look on her face, she says, “You must never, ever, harm the living.”
From off-panel, Evie asks firmly, “Do you understand?” Alastor smirks silently, his arms folded.
Evie rises from her seat, still glaring at Alastor. She says, “Wipe that smug smile off your face, young man. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
Evie circles around the table and approaches Alastor, hovering over him as he sits with his arms still crossed. She says, “I know exactly what kind of person you are. And if you think I’d ever let you lay a hand on my student, you’re in for a rude awakening.”
As Alastor’s eyes widen slightly, Evie lays her hand on the side of the teapot and says, “Because when it comes to ghost-on-ghost violence…”
Evie taps the teapot, toppling it over. The lid falls off and tea splashes from inside.
The spilling teapot falls into Alastor’s lap as he howls in pain. Evie leans in close to his ear and says, “There are no rules.”
While Evie walks away, Alastor grunts in pain and reaches toward the spilling teapot in his lap.
Alastor tries to take a swipe at the teapot, but his hand passes through it. “Damn it!” he cries.
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.
And we’re back from the holidays!!
Hmm, slightly awkward baby/sitter dynamic going on there that Blaze might not have fully considered when he left these two alone…
First off, big thanks again to everyone who pledged or increased their pledges on Patreon to help me continue ITS for the next two years while my work and pay schedule will be super difficult. I currently have enough support to continue the comic with some possible delays and reduced scheduling.
Throughout chapter 1 and the first half of chapter 2 (ep16), I put out the equivalent of 2-3 comic pages per week. It’s not always easy to tell in vertical scroll episodic format that it was that fast, but with an average 4-5 panels on a standard comic page, that’s how it works out.
For 2026, I’m trying to keep a minimum equivalent of 1 page per week, which is a very typical webcomic update schedule. But since ITS is episodic and not all episodes are the same length, this means my posting schedule might be a little irregular.
The current episode is equal to about 4 pages, as is the next. My goal is to post the next episode on 2/4 (in 3 weeks), though it could potentially slip to 2/11 due to freelance and my Patreon reward schedule. As usual, you can subscribe via email or RSS to get the next episode whenever it goes up! If the space between updates feels long, please bear with me and remember that 1 episode is NOT 1 page, and the next episode will tell a lot of story all at once. (Batch updates can be brutal psychologically, haha.)
If you want more ITS energy between episodes, I invite y’all to chat more with each other! Be silly (or serious) in the comments section – or liven up the Discord! (It was mostly active in the Merritt’s Story days, but it still exists and the Into the Smoke channel is available to both patrons and free readers!) Help me cause chaos on Tumblr – or help me populate the “into the smoke” tag for the very important reason mentioned in this post. I even allow (gasp) anon asks. Make me regret it.
Still the same voting incentive, but if you have the time to spare, votes on Top Webcomics are greatly appreciated as always! You can vote here.
