Comic 827 -- When All You Have is a Hammer

Thrud argues for the direct approach...

I suspect the aphorism Sharon has chosen to employ was not a popular one in Asgard.

Comic 826 -- Three or More Strategies

 Let's follow Sharon's team first, shall we?

Even though Sharon has had some experience with dragons, it never seems to get any easier.

This will be the last comic for 2025. I hope you all have safe and happy holidays, and that 2026 is a better year for you all. That's not setting the bar too high, right? Come on, 2026, you can do it!

Delay, Delay...

Between travel, health stuff, and general pandemonium, I'm going to have to push back the delivery for the next comic. Look for it on December 19th. That'll be the last comic of the year.

-GRT

Comic 825 -- Something Like a Plan

 Surely it's at least 12% of a plan...

Possibly more. It's a very strong intention, anyway.

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.