(EDIT: By “tomorrow” I mean “the 14th” because life and stuff. Also this post on my main site. Also, Sailor Moon Crystal airs new episodes every other Saturday and I don’t think I can handle the responsibility of posting new strips on those same Saturdays.)
Dear reader,
The background work and planning for this week’s strip is taking longer than anticipated, so it might go up tomorrow instead of today.
That said, things are sad for Kara right now, so I’m listening to really happy music to compensate, but I don’t really have much of that in my music library (I tend to listen to more chill stuff). If you have any recommendations, please send them my way! I would very much appreciate your help.
Also, today, I thought I’d address a question I’m sure you’ve been asking yourself ever since the Salamander was first introduced: How the heck does this guy move around? Does he waddle? Does he jump? Does he walk? *squints* Those legs don’t look like walking legs to me.
The fact that that question has four question marks, one action, and one declarative statement notwithstanding, it’s one that’s also been bugging me ever since I first came up with the Salamander. Well, wonder no more! Here’s how they jump (more or less):
They’ll also do a sort of shuffle/sidestep or little hops if they don’t have to go far enough to warrant a leap.
But Salamanders, like humans, are lazy little buggers who don’t want to go everywhere by their own power if they don’t have to, especially in the Rocky Mountains where everything is on an incline. This is where the portals come in. The Salamanders have a whole network of them, facilitating easy travel to places of importance. They’re not the only creatures to use portals, either, but that won’t be important until the next story arc.
Also, in case you’re wondering how I got that whole jump sequence figured out: I jumped back and forth several times and paid attention to how my body moved. Yes, there were people over upstairs. Yes, it felt super awkward.
But then, it’s not like I haven’t acted out what I was about to draw before. Definitely not that tripping sequence from last strip. Definitely not.
If I had, and if there was video evidence of the fact, I’d have to get rid of it, that’s for sure.
The things you do for art.
Sincerely,
Thea
An eleven-year-old girl who spends most of her free time tromping about her mountainous back yard in a heroic getup of her own design, Kara loves the idea of an adventure. The real thing, on the other hand…
Thea van Diepen spent the first ten years of their life on a tree-wrapped acreage where an inquisitive child might believe in magic. Nowadays, they live in a small city in Alberta, breathing life into characters and worlds and the stories those tell.
They’ve been published in the Tesseracts anthology series, and their works include the White Changeling series, The Illuminated Heart, and the interactive short story The Tree and the Grave.