‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 408

Colors by Jemma. Everything else by me.

Falling takes a while.

40 Comments

And now we see what Erbana does so well.

Hm.. “I’m still falling?”

1. Perception of time altered: Probable, so that impossible inhuman feats are easily performed in a fantasy game setting.

2. Gravity lowered: Possible. The Tutorial had limited gravity at times. She did stick the landing easily though, and didn’t fly very high, so not too sure.

Remember that Kat said it has half gravity? Or rather, it has a range of gravities from like .5-.75.

From a narrative perspective, it’s almost certainly the reduced gravity. If it weren’t, then it would be sorta blind siding us as an audience.

Just to be clear, is that Kat picking up the flower?

Yeah, only Kat has the all-gold bracers, I think.

Yes if you look back to 401 it will be obvious who has what colours.

I’m betting it’s either part of dealing with this fight, or with using the AI that trees people to get rid of Jane “non-lethally”

Awesome action sequence! Your art skills have improved–and the feet look like they should, in ballet slippers!

Did you forget already that there’s a new artist? it was mentioned a few pages ago…

A new colorist, the drawing, and thus the action sequence and the feet, is still Aneeka’s merit.

A new colorist, not a new artist. Aneeka still does the art/story.

Nope, I didn’t forget. It’s okay, though; it’s easy to get colorist/artist confused at times. I’m used to it being a separate person because Girl Genius is scripted by Phil & Kaja Foglio, Phil does most of the art, and Cheyenne Wright has done their coloring for around about a decade by now. Schlock Mercenary now has a separate colorist, too, as does Grrl Power, among others. (I think I found this webcomic from an ad on Grrl Power? One of the many I read…)

Many frequently-updated webcomics go with a separate colorist to save time. Some even have a line artist who takes the sketches and turns them into line art, and then hands it off to the colorist as the third person (or fourth if the sketch artist isn’t the writer who comes up with the initial idea). Some of it is also non-lineart, like the background grass, trees, etc, in this page, so it sometimes feels like the colorist *is* the artist.

They’re both technically artists, but in this case “the artist” = the person doing the sketches and plotting and so forth, which would be Aneeka. And I remembered how she was fretting over not wanting to draw feet, and I was already thinking, “those look like excellent ballet slippers!” and just thought I’d compliment her, because I agree, drawing feet well is a difficult task.

Feet are awful, but I am slowly getting the hang of them. Thanks for noticing!

I’d say you’ve mastered feet. BTW is it just me or does the person in the first panel only have 3 fingers and a thumb?

Hmm, I wonder what Kat is about to do with that seed head. Heal Danni? Sleep Bl–, er Jane? Or something else?

i guess it is for healing… Erbana seems to be some kind of healer that will probably yell at you if you kill something/someone near her/him 🙂 and i think there will be more Erbana players soon after this 🙂

She is going to blow a giant cloud of seeds that will turn Jane into a crystal snow ball Santa Claus. Totally blind but doubtless very nice 😛

Or in a less “magic” way maybe as an Erbana she can command all the dandelions to release their seeds with the same outcome, and that’s why she wanted to “land in the right area”. Ok, now I’m joking a bit less 😉

OOOOOHH…
The question now is, will Danni ever want to leave her new, SUPER FUN, virtural halved gravity. From what she is saying, I don’t think it is being as hard to adapt to as she thought.

Also… NOBODY MOVE! Kat’s got a dandelion.

Great job again you two.

Kat: “Freeze! Or I won’t hesitate to use this!”

…and someone brought a sickle to a dandelion fight.

Silly Jane, dandelions grow back when you try to cut them down!

Danni: “I’m beginning to actually enjoy this!”

I love how Danni’s cape is loosely just sitting over her head in the final panel. I really like that touch to the scene.

Danni is so graceful IRL – love watching her learn this in game stuff.

It’s not a cape, but I can see how you could easily make that mistake if you didn’t notice the details of her costume earlier. I don’t know the proper terms, but her waistcoat has a long tail. A cape or a cloak is a separate piece of clothing attached at the shoulders or neck.

Ah! Thank you for letting me know!
I knew it was something else, but I used ‘cape’ since it was the closest word I could think of at the time.

Me too! 🙂 Lovely (and realistic) detail.

It reminds me of how the capes move in TOR.

Just the inks, Aneeka? Don’t sell yourself short, that’s the keystone of all the art, and you are doing it great.

I just noticed that the glow in Danni’s hand is not anymore. I was expecting it to be her Esone, since the Dude seemed to have it too, and stretching it a bit even Jane, but I guess not 🙁

Haha, nah, that’s just me spacing it and forgetting that detail. Thanks for pointing it out! I’ll get it fixed soon.

Glad it helped then 🙂

Erbana is seeming like one of those routes you either need a game guide or an encyclopedic knowledge of the game to do well in, which would explain why there hasn’t been a good Erbana player in a long time. It isn’t simply that the route is difficult, it’s that you need information that isn’t easily available unless, say, you happen to have been one of the makers of the game (or the primary one, as it were).

Yep! It’s like playing on “Nightmare” difficulty. Not for first time players! And given that the Game has been turned from a, well, game, to a competitive sport, no wonder there haven’t been Erbanas.

Of course, now that Kat is there, she’s going to have a huuuge advantage by doing something nobody expects…

The new coloring style seems to leave a lot more artefacts (graininess) than your coloring did. Perhaps it would be a good idea to try saving the pages in a different file format? (I’m not sure what you’re using currently — .png? Sometimes it’s worth it to save an image as .gif, .jpg, and .png, compare the three, and then decide which one is smallest and/or looks best.)

Also, congratulations on hiring the new colorist. This should help you a LOT. I’m glad you did whatever you needed to keep from getting burned out on the story! That’s valuable in the extreme!

Totally called it on Danni’s timing being skewed because of the reduced gravity. Instead of perfectly flipping and landing back on her feet, she overshot the ground and landed in a very disadvantaged position. However, she will not have long to adjust.

Also, it was mentioned above, and I’ve said it before, so I feel the need to repeat this: Erbana is a total wiki game. It should technically be great to watch just due to the fact that the average person wouldn’t know what to expect. Kind of like how a speed-runner getting through a level without killing the boss, by going through a wall or making an endless jump or something like that, is more interesting to watch than someone demolishing said boss with huge explosions.

Yes! Exactly!

Kat’s managers are going to beg her to not leave the route 😀

I like that stylish cut on her leg!

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 408