Comic 704 -- The Hunters and the Hunted

It's like the old saying goes: No battle plan survives first contact with a majestic moose.

We're now one year into the return of Thunderstruck! 2014 has been an interesting year, and I haven't been able to share all the developments on the writing front. But I should have some interesting news in 2015. Hope you all enjoy the final day of the year, and I look forward to keeping the momentum (slow but steady) going in the upcoming year.

Comic 703 -- Vampires of the Mile High City

And for our next installment:

Still getting used to making color comics. A crowd scene like this one presented all sorts of new challenges... I expect I'll get the hang of it more as I go along.

I've got the next due date marked as Dec. 31st, but due to the hectic nature of the holidays, travel, and so forth I may not quite bullseye that one. With any luck I can deliver early, but I shouldn't be more than a couple of days off the mark one way or another.

Comic 702 -- Jude and Bella

And here we are with the next update...

In terms of story chronology, this segment picks up quite closely on the heels of the last bit of story from Gail's side of the tale. In real time, though, I recognize it's been a few years since we checked in on everyone here. So there's been a bit of recapping in the last couple of strips, but we're about to hit the pedal for some drama and action soon...

Comic 701 -- Back Up to Speed

New chapter underway! Here's the first installment of "String Theory..."

Okay... it's kind of an exposition-heavy installment, but I figure that chronologically it's been a while since we've checked in with Gail and her crew.

Comic 700 -- Restoration

With this installment, we bring the current chapter to a close:

And this is the 700th comic! Not counting outtakes, extras, cover pages, and the odd erroneous farewell message. We've come a long way... and there's much more to go. Next up, we check in with Gail, Sax, and Hayaka. Looks like trouble already.

So I may have some good news about another writing project soon. Nothing definite yet, but there are some positive developments that I hope to be able to announce soon. I mention it just to make you aware that I'm still hard at work with other projects -- normal prose fiction rather than webcomics. I think that this once-a-month schedule is working for keeping Thunderstruck going while balancing my other efforts.

Comic 699 -- Mjolnir the Crusher

Action! Violence! Special effects! In the spirit of the summer blockbuster season, here we go...

This is the penultimate strip of the current chapter. One more installment with Sharon in the world of exiles, and then it's time to check in and see how Gail, Sax, and Hayaka are doing.

See you there...

Comic 698 -- Oath to the Thunder God

The new strip is here...

Yep, that was the God of Thunder all right... or at least what's left of him.

Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, has received many different fictional depictions. I went with one that echoed the design of many of the classic Mjolnir pendants from ancient times (here's a sample of how they look.)

Turns out someone else had the same idea. This coming month, Marvel is putting out the first a limited series called "Ragnarok," a comic adaptation of the old myths. I'm looking forward to it because it's written by Walt Simonson, whose run on The Mighty Thor is one of my favorite mainstream comics of all time. Nice to see him coming back to Asgard again.

Anyway, if you go to that page above, you'll see a sketch of Thor with a Mjolnir that was also clearly modeled off the old pendants. Kind of cool.

Comic 697 -- Lots of Explosions

The new strip is up: action sequence!

This turned out pretty long... probably as long as a single strip is going to get, but you never know.

Next month: isn't that the God of Thunder?

Animated Recap for Interlude 2

In my ongoing quest to animate "The Story So Far..." section, here's the latest entry for Interlude 2: New Perspective Triad!



Yeah, I'm still fairly far behind the story with this project, but eventually I'll have it caught up. Enjoy!

Comic 696 -- Good News, Bad News

April comic is here...

The monthly schedule is working out pretty well for me. This month I even had some breathing room to work on some other aspects of the comic, like some more outlining and the next "Story So Far" animation. I believe I can maintain this without needing to take a hiatus during those months when I go on vacation.


Once a month may be a bit slower than I'd like in an ideal world, but it's sustainable. And I'm enjoying being back in the story. Hope you are too.

Thunderstruck Publicity

So, you may have noticed I've got a banner for Top Web Comics on the Thunderstruck home page now. In case you want to vote, here's that link again...



The one aspect of doing a webcomic that I was always worst at was publicity. For reasons of both time and inclination, I never did manage to spread the word far and wide about Thunderstruck. 

Case and point, I didn't even know about Top Web Comics. Sheesh. 

So if you have any other ideas about publicizing a comic, please share them with me. Don't assume that I know about a given channel already, because it's very likely that I do not.

Still, I was pleased to discover that Thunderstruck has it's own page on TVTropes.org! That was pretty exciting. Ah, immortality...

Comic 695 -- Trophies

The next update is here...

And Sharon goes deeper into the world of myth and legend.

This time, I was glad to have a whole month to get this done, because I've been going 15 rounds with a vicious stomach virus (or bacteria... my electron microscope is on the fritz, so I can't be sure). Plus, this one is kind of long. I'm still not sure how long I want these few-and-far-between updates to be... my only guideline is that each one is long enough to move the story along for a significant chunk.

Did you know that Thor had three children? And another bit of trivia is that they're all from different mothers. Oh, those crazy gods!

Progress Report 3/17/14

Well, there's no real progress in terms of writing to report, other than that I'm still in the land of the living.

Okay, I don't know if I was really in mortal danger, but I just got through a bout of food poisoning that felt like it took me within a biscuit's toss of the banks of the River Styx. Still not back to 100% or anything, but I'm on the mend and feeling human again.

"Feeling human" is something I say literally... for a few days there, I felt remarkably like some sort of reptile. I had no internal control over my body temperature, I mostly wanted to be perfectly still all day, and I felt like maybe one meal in a month was about as much as I should require. "I've become an ectotherm," I thought. An ectotherm that could shiver, though, so that kind of ruined the effect. I'm not really adapted to the reptilian lifestyle.

Here's the thing about being a writer. When I was in the grips of the illness, I mean the very worst of it, there was a part of me in there still scribbling along. It may not be possible to truly describe the misery of something like food poisoning, but you could certainly evoke it. I won't subject you to those words, but they are there if I need them.

You know, if I'm writing horror or something.

Comic 694 -- "The Unveiling"

And here we are...



In order to know why Gangr, our King of the Giants, is suspicious of Sharon's veil, it is perhaps useful to know something about Norse legends. In the myths, another person once infiltrated the stronghold of the Giants in a dress and a veil... none other than Thor the God of Thunder! Here's a brief synopsis of the legend. It's always been a favorite of mine.

New Comic: Thunderstruck 693

And we're officially back!



 Now, I'm plunging right back into Sharon's story, so this may be a bit confusing if you're not up to date. There's a summary on the web page, and this comic wouldn't be a bad place to start if you want to refresh your memory about what sort of situation Sharon's gotten herself into.

New website design, too. Hope you enjoy it...

And it's good to be back with Thunderstruck again.

Progress Report -- January 21, 2014

So far, so good with the Thunderstruck revival. Here's a little image to go along with the upcoming chapter...

I showed the working page to a friend, who unfortunately responded with "I have no idea what's going on here." I suppose that's to be expected, given the length of the hiatus and my attempt to simply jump straight back into the story. Perhaps a bit of a "story so far" text would be polite to readers who might not have everything so fresh in their minds.

Anyway, the site will be getting a bit of redesign and simplification to go along with the new format, and it's kind of fun to be doing a bit of web design again. The skills are antiquated and rusty, but still there.

Exciting times here in Colorado with the Broncos in the Super Bowl... go, Broncos, go!

Nothing much to report on the writing front. Three Shamans writing is going well, all's quiet on the publisher front.