Transcript: Chapter 2, Episode 9
In an austere, moonlit bedroom with a crucifix on the wall, Judd kneels beside his simple twin bed, his hands clasped in prayer. His head bowed, he says, “O Angel of God, enlighten, defend and protect me this night from all sin and danger.”
His head lowered, he continues, “Visit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, this habitation, and drive from it all snares of the enemy.”
His face is shown in profile as he continues, “Let Thy holy Angels—“
A spiky streak of glowing light flares across his forehead, and he flinches and grits his teeth while grunting, “ngh!”
He continues clenching his teeth in stunned silence as red droplets splatter on his clasped hands.
He’s shown from behind, his shoulders tense and quivering, thorns of light emanating around his head. He grunts, “urgh…”
Clutching his head, he turns and glances over his shoulder. In the foreground is his modest end table holding a thick book and his cell phone, which is bathed in a ray of light from the window.
Fade out.
Blaze stands behind his kitchen counter in the warm light from the ceiling, shaking as he holds a teapot. In the foreground, on the other side of the counter, his long black coat is strewn over the back of one of his dining chairs. Buzzing emanates from a phone in the pocket. As the buzzing fades out, an image on the screen shows Judd’s face below the words, “Missed call.”
A view of the kitchen counter shows Blaze’s hand steeping tea made from a ground green substance. Also on the counter are the teapot, a mound of greenish powder, his lighter, and a bundle of pale green leaves. As he holds the string of a handmade teabag, he thinks to himself, “I should have seen this coming. The moment I performed the binding ritual, I made myself his one and only target.”
Blaze shivers as he stares off to the side, his eyebrows furrowed and his hair messy. He’s wearing a loose beige tunic shirt with a very low V-shaped opening. He thinks to himself, “It’s not the first time I’ve tethered myself to a spirit. But it’s the first time the spirit has been so… murderous.”
Shown from behind, Blaze braces himself against the kitchen counter. He’s wearing a pair of short, pale-blue trunks under his tunic shirt. He thinks, “Still… I gave him my breath and mourned over his body. That should’ve calmed him for days, not hours.”
In a blank panel, he wonders, “Who is this guy?”
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.
Some of my favorite colors so far in this episode. I just get excited when I get to do new color palettes. 😀
Oh boy, a whole lot’s happened since last update! How much of Into the Smoke, a comic that takes place in Chicago, do I need to rewrite now that we have a pope from Chicago? (this is a joke… mostly)(okay, I legit do need to rewrite some worldbuilding, but strangely, ITS world now makes more sense…)
Come join Kody, Lacey, Nero and me! We’re gonna talk WEBCOMICS! We’ll show lots of behind-the-scenes art and progress work for every part of the webcomic-making process, from scripting to posting! It’s Saturday, May 17, and 4pm ET on Zoom. There will be a Q&A too, so come and ask us something!
I’m super excited because these happen to be some of my favorite comic-making people, so the fact that I get to be on a panel with them is just very cool to me and I can’t wait. I hope to see you there too!
Visit the event page and add it to your calendar here!
Don’t forget you can also pick up Into the Smoke from the NIF Marketplace, and find my Canada Goose minicomic in the Oops All Comics! charity zine!
Thanks, New Patrons! (Well, thanks, ALL patrons!)
We had a great April on Patreon! I just wanted to say thanks to all the new people who signed up, and all the old patrons who stuck around. We also had some fun extras at the end of the month, including an ITS minicomic about Blaze’s disastrous relationship with technology, and a fun Demon of the Underground illustration of the gang as a class of high-schoolers.
We’re only two episodes away from the next update to the ITS patron credits, a.k.a. the “petting Otto” sheet! If you want to be included in the next update, be sure to add your name to the form by June 8 if you haven’t already! Yeah, it’s a long way away, but if you sign it now, you won’t have to worry about it later!
If your name’s already on the image at the end of this episode, you don’t need to sign again.
Watch for the next update! I’ll have something special. 🙂
Rough timing this month, since our last update was just before the month’s turnover. So we have some ground to make up! Vote on Top Webcomics and see an old pre-release sketch of Blaze holding Otto! Let’s see if we can get back into the top 100…
New Episodes Every Other Wednesday
