The year is 2227, and interstellar travel has just become affordable for small startups. Join Wanda Otis and her semi-professional crew of merchants as they travel a galaxy of uncontacted planets, humanoid pets, wildmen, and casual nudity.
I was going to give Nilje’s cousin Havja here full-blown alopecia universalis, but it’s hard enough giving Saye and Fenna good expressions without eyebrows. I didn’t want to try with those beady little weyn eyes.
Also, I would like to apologize to my reader(s) for the first ever late strip. I prided myself on never missing an update, even through weddings, road trips, and hard drive crashes. I was so close to the five-year mark, too…
Finally getting psychiatric help is mostly good, but actually having other concerns in my life does take up some time. (And I think the honeymoon period on my antidepressants just ended, though I’m still better than I was for the first 4.5 years I was making this.)
I got a critique video from Brookes Eggleston’s Patreon between the pencils and inks on this.
I added a little more detail on the hair, and calming down on the shading. Among other things, next week I’ll try to do the second part of that last one: using the time saved to do an establishing shot.
I’m surprised at how good the new shading looks. With how I’ve been adding to it over the years, I didn’t think cell-shading would work. The style needs refinement, but it adds a bit of crispness I’ve always wanted.
At first I was going to have Nilje hobbling on three limbs, with the clothes under one arm. But then I remembered that knuckle-walkers can walk upright, just not as well.
