(Continuing the text updates for now.)
Chax waited, tensed, letting his pivot leg support most of his mass, while his jump leg was ready to send him flying in any direction, including straight up...
But the entryway opened fully, and there was nothing - perhaps the worst possible result. Just a dark interior with no sign of Aun, no sight of anything, only a sharp wet odor. Chax tried to reason a way to proceed as his instinct lay inactive, but there were too many unknowns, and his mind grew as tense as his body.
Somewhere in the dark interior, something even darker moved, and before Chax was aware of the impulse, his body had acted. His powerful jump leg snapped him forward, sending him through the entryway and into the blackness. "Aun!" he shouted, in what was both a battle cry and a surge of hope. But with a joint-straining jerk, he stopped and crashed heavily on the floor of the passage. Something had trapped his leg!
Chax squirmed about, and realized that the wall had suddenly closed on him, trapping his foot. His first impulse was to strain hard to free himself, but his reason fought over his panic. His foot was squeezed tightly, but he was not in pain. Did he really want to pull his leg all the way in and be imprisoned in this area? Should he not try to enlarge the opening, using his trapped foot as a wedge, and escape to the relative freedom of the Kollen's central chamber?
But to test his full strength against that opening, he would have to turn his back to whatever had moved in the deep recesses of this area. Chax could smell nothing aside from the Kollen's pervasive stench, so he strained his eyes to make something of that shape. In the near-total darkness, the thing moved again...
6 comments:
...not to mention the difficulty of trying to draw a panel that's supposed to take place in near darkness...
Damb! I mentioned it!
--H
If you make the Botaram book, and never turn these text entries into strips, you could explain the transition in-story by modifying the last strip before the first of the text entries, like this, for example...
"Over and over again.
The end is known, it is in sight, yet it receds from us with every step.
No mere scratchings on a cave wall, no tale told by mouth could describe what I've been through.
The etchings on my spire would only barely succeed.
Sometimes I wonder why I even try.
But there's more than just me at stake."
Then, in the panel with Chax, it looks like he's shattering not only what he's breaking through, but also the fourth wall - the comic panel itself.
Also, do you forsee starting strips again, or will the rest of the story be in text?
Oh, and that should be 'spine', not 'spire'.
That'd be a good segue!
As it stands, I intend to go back to strips, and to convert these text entries to graphic format once I work things out. However, if I hear that my readers prefer the text, I'll consider doing more of it.
Composing Botaram in text instead of graphics wouldn't be a big change for me; it would just make some things harder and some other things much easier. Even so, I've spent much time visualizing Botaram in graphic format, and some things I have planned for the future depend on graphics for their effectiveness. Hence, I'm inclined to use full text entries only when I can't convey the story in the usual way.
Additional notes in retrospect: firstly, 'what I've been through' should probably be 'what I'm going through'. And secondly, I've just realized... Chax punched the story. He punched it so hard it started moving again in sheer terror.
"As it stands, I intend to go back to strips, and to convert these text entries to graphic format once I work things out. However, if I hear that my readers prefer the text, I'll consider doing more of it. "
Just keep the story moving! You've "written" interesting, multi-dimensional characters and I, for one, just want to know what happpens next! Whether we get see little pretty pictures of them or not is really secondary. If you need to use graphics, use them. if you need to write it out, write it out! Please don't feel like you're locked into on or the other! I, as a fan, just want you to keep the story going!
I love the work you've done, and it really sucks to see update after update of nothing. Keep going!
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