Comic 824 -- Sounds Like Hell

 Sharon comes clean...

Does Sharon have a plan? We shall see...

Comic 823 -- The MaLa

 Looks like Sharon has another dragon in her future...

The MaLa is referred to as the "Ma: La" in the Newari language. I'm not sure what pronunciation effect the colon is meant to produce, so I'm going for the simpler option.

I try not to rant much on this blog. Still, I feel the need to shake my fist at the sky a bit.

Flip the calendar back a few years, certainly no farther than a decade, and you'll be square in the middle of a different era of the internet. In those heady days, there as a general sense that all information would someday be available at your fingertips. Google, for instance, was said to have a massive scanning and auto-transcript program underway to convert more and more paper books into digital files. Heady times.

Fast forward to today, and we now find ourselves in the age of (to use the term coined by Cory Doctorow) enshittification. The shining vision of an information-rich digital utopia has been replaced with... well, what we have now.

The current, degraded state of the internet is apparent to anyone who has an obscure interest. In my case, this is world mythology. I love myths from different cultures, and I often include adapted bits an pieces of such myths in Thunderstruck. 

Not too long ago, I could confidently run a search on something like, say, the MaLa, and find a wide variety of resources to study, along with links to go deeper if I so chose. Now, though, the maximum depth of any given topic is generally determined by Wikipedia. Other resources are shallow. The same meager entries are repeated with little variation across multiple sites. Where once there were articles, papers, and original sources, there are now only feeble summaries. 

It is at times like this when I remind myself that, at least for now, we still have libraries. May they continue to exist.

Comic 822 -- Inseparable

Next comic is here...

Apologies for the delays and odd scheduling. We are heading out to GenCon in Indianapolis this week, which has made all the scheduling a bit more challenging. But we hope to have a good time, and meet lots of folks in the tabletop RPG biz.

With any luck, I'll get the August comic to you on schedule.

July 1 Update -- Delays. Sigh.

 It's been a month, everyone.

 I'm not going to bog you down with details or anything, but this month has been full of the slings and arrows. As a result, I'm late with the next comic.

Next installment will be in July sometime, fingers crossed. Sorry for the wait.

 -Grayson 

Comic 821 -- The Ban Jhakri

 How many types of yetis are there?

... quite a few, as it turns out.

Comic 820 -- The Final Pair

 Back to the mission!

Yes, it's time to learn about the two sundered souls who make up the final string. Intrigue! Danger! Unexpected mythological creatures! The classic Thunderstruck themes, all ready to unspool before your eyes.

Comic 819 -- A Question of Trust

Trust is a complicated issue...

It's a well-understood issue with the English language that the word "love" is a definitional nightmare. The word covers so many experiences and complex emotional states that, in desperation, we sometimes resort to ancient Greek in order to try to bring a little bit more clarity.

"Trust," to me, is equally fraught. Especially when someone says "Do you trust me?" Or, even worse, the more defensive, "Don't you trust me?"

For example: "Don't you trust me to do the taxes?" (I chose this honor of the month.)

This would generally delivered a way to mean: "Don't you think I'm honest enough?" But one can completely trust someone's honesty while, at the same time, knowing they are terrible at math. The "No" answer might be off-putting in the latter case, or hurtful in the former, but unless one goes out of one's way to add more context, the word "trust" can't bear the load of the question.

In a way, asking Sharon "Do you not trust your sister?" is far more complex than "Do you not love your sister?" would be. 

The Curmen sisters are dealing with it all the best they can.

Comic 818 -- Too Many Ifs

 Sharon has conflicting goals...

Sometimes, it's a pain when your sister is a living lie detector.

Comic 817 -- The Solution Was in Front of Us

 It's one of those "a-ha!" moments...

Or perhaps it's one of those "If I knew back then what I know now" moments. Still, how much will this new idea change the sisters' plans? Tune in next time to find out...

December, December, December

Not the easiest month to plan out. Generally I can get a comic done while doing all the traveling and stuff that happens this month, provided there are no major glitches.

This time, there was a pretty major glitch. Technical issues that were not solvable on the road. Damn.

So, no comic this time around. I hope to have something up by the next due date on Jan. 31st. 

Happy New Year, everyone!