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.