katabay

[katabay]

evandros and megakles

so. I guess they're part of the same narrative cinematic universe as klaudios and damonikos?? what happened was that I got stuck with K&D's story, so I decided to see if drastically changing things up would unstick the gears, and it didn't, but I decided to keep the cast around because I liked their designs and thought I might repurpose them for a sacred band of thebes comic.

the problem with the sacred band idea is that I wasn't really feeling it and it couldn't hold my interest, but. I did create some kind of relationship melodrama plague (plague!) story set in thebes in the process of trying, and that's where these guys are!

evandros has some kind of administrative job, megakles is his brother in law. evandros' sister is really into chariot races, charioteers, and also their wives, which is a surprise tool that will help us* later.

*cause problems

[katabay]

returning to the stage, marion (blue hair) and ex (green hair)!

ex is a captain in a defense corps: prior to the start of the story (there's a plot now, beyond 'fun colors, fighting demons' lmao) he was mostly focused on supply chains and evacuations, but due to events™ he sort of manages everything on account of a lot of people being dead. he had a debatably friendly but definitely competitive rivalry with marion for a minute and now they mostly get along. ex gives orders, marion's pretty good at following them, periodically they perform miracles in the face of absolutely miserable odds.

the baron mentioned here is the guy from this little comic I posted back in 2024, when the plot was mostly brightly colored whimsical violence

[katabay]

last year I made this post about some characters in a story I've been referring to as 'candy colored demon hunters,' on account of. everyone originally having candy colored hair.

anyway, it's mostly existed in my sketchbooks because it was an action story about killing monsters and a lot of the world building came down to 'this looks cool, but it would be cooler if I used my highlighters to color this.'

somehow. along the self indulgent journey of brightly colored violence, the world building started to click into place? ?? & so I have a scene in the form of a comic I'm gonna try and post tomorrow, but I wanted to set the mood before that and post a little illustration I did of marion (blue hair) and ex (green hair) hanging out on some rooftops.

[katabay]

mk1 smoke :))

[katabay]

following the other pirate post, this is....an idea for the start of a story. I wanted to explore some visuals and try out some styles. about halfway through rendering the parasio sign, I realized that I wanted the inn to have a totally different look lmao.

also! an early design for chancery in his early 20s, before several things in his life went disastrously wrong :)

[katabay]

sento/banjo :)

[katabay]

in case u like the phantom of the opera what's your favorite movie adaptation?

the 25th anniversary recording with Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom!

[katabay]

hi katabay! i loveee your art and comics and characters & the notes you include for every post... given me so many things to put on my reading list :) i was wondering why you deleted your sam winchester art? i found the art & what you had to say about him really interesting and was sad it disappeared so quickly. no pressure to answer though! i hope your day goes well 💛🌤️

I have great news! it's coming back! almost immediately after I posted that art, I realized that I wanted it to be a different color palette, so I took it down to work on it some more :)

[katabay]

--there was some that was feared of Pew, and some that was feared of Flint; but Flint his own self was feared of me.

figuring out some looks for captain flint and long john silver :)

I read treasure island for the first time when I was 11 and hated it, but decided to re read it last year because. like. black sails is an all time favorite show and nc wyeth's treasure island illustrations are some of my favorite illustrations ever. sometimes you gotta revisit the source, you know! what did my 11 yr old self know about pirates and ghosts anyway.

anyway, I re read it and fucking loved it, I understand why so many people want to put their own spin on it in some way or another. I can't. stop talking to people about this book.

& this is extremely funny to me because I also had the same experience with jekyll and hyde, it's literally like:

Roger Ebert, Muppet Treasure Island

[katabay]

fifteen men on a dead man's chest, it's time for: pirates!

there's an idea here, and the idea is slowly turning into a story, and in march I've got some one shot comics about pirates I want to post! ideally, in march. hopefully in march. there's a lot of stuff to figure out, drawing wise. I spent an amount of time I won't mention researching the history of leg prosthetics & vintage leg prosthetic designs for basilica, and I haven't even figured out tall ships. which is. well. it's pirates, what are pirates without tall ships

[katabay]

man, I have been sick as a dog for way too much of this year. I'm getting better, but I also feel like I'm recovering from the recovering and also drifting in a lake of fire from job hunting (it's bleak out there, folks 🙃)

so! dallas and st. claire! after a million years, they finally make a real appearance here!

these are some scenes from an espionage thriller I've been working on whenever I find the time! it was originally about the machinery of spying (which was the draft that first comic was from) but it became more focused on state surveillance and systems and. things. the machinery of the information. security vulnerabilities. trust. zero trust systems. hooking up with your new boss at a hacker convention. uncovering cover ups. finding back doors. and ideally, action scenes! whenever I get over my aversion to drawing cars lmao.

on the topic of things, do you guys want to read something with some really evocative body imagery. you've heard about the body politic, now get ready for--

Surveillance Capitalism and the Challenge of Collective Action, Shoshana Zuboff

[katabay]

bayek and hepzefa, checking out some ruins, talking about stuff.

ngl my favorite detail about origins is that if you revisit siwa after narrative events, bayek will tell hepzefa about things he's been up to :')

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very belatedly, I was tagged by @belphegor1982 for a WIP meme!

⭐️rules: post the last seven (ish) lines you wrote, then tag seven people*

‘You know that Q Branch has discretionary funds,’ says Mallory. ‘Yes,’ says Q. He’s very aware that Q Branch has discretionary funds. He has become increasingly aware of exactly how much of those funds he had put into the fucking Aston Martin that Bond had driven off into the sunset with. He knows about the discretionary funds. ‘Then you also know,’ continues Mallory, ‘that you don’t actually need to fill out these particular forms.’ Except Q does; there’s a crawling feeling in the back of his mind, not exactly self doubt but something just as distracting, and it needs to be excised before he starts second guessing everything he touches.

(it's. uhhhh. it's a weird q/mallory fic about password protocols, paperwork, cybersecurity exploits, and a new era of espionage)

*I'm not going to tag anyone in particular, but if you want to play, I am tagging you in spirit!

[katabay]

(cage the elephant voice) money don't grow on trees, I got bills to pay, etc etc etc

ngl this month has been Rough™: for whatever reason, I've been going back to Thief for something familiar. which is. well. it's definitely not the same as relaxing, I have never felt relaxed playing the original Thief games lmao but it is familiar! I wrote an outline for a longer fan comic set after Deadly Shadows using themes/etc I enjoyed from the 2014 reboot but I got sidetracked reading up on the gnarlier politics involved in the Industrial Revolution. so. we'll see what happens with that!

[katabay]

musketeers personal ranking pls?

tbh I like them best as an ensemble cast and find the all the dynamics between them equally interesting/entertaining. but. if I had to pick one that I spend more time examining under a microscope, it's probably athos

[katabay]

james bond! what a concept! lots to discuss about wrt james bond. imperialist anxieties around legacy and decay, the shift in the movies from imagination of the futuristic to luxury branding as identity, etc. etc. endless topics for discussing in there.

and uhhhhh. so You Only Live Twice is a mess, but it's kind of fun talking about why it's such a mess. however. HOWEVER. Benson's Blast From The Past? ohhhhhhhhhhh the hate-hate relationship I have with that one, I've been frustrated with it for ten years and it's not even fun to talk about why it's frustrating lmao.

that said, James Suzuki has all the same pieces that have me obsessed with Metal Gear's Kazuhira Miller. so. well!! this is hell and I'm stuck in it.

anyway, extremely canon divergent AU or something where James Suzuki doesn't get killed off like a cheap plot device and we get really REALLY gnarly about the family stuff and the US gov't. also there's industrial espionage, insider trading, & a briefcase that everyone wants.

[katabay]

some other fake byzantine empire ocs! completely unrelated to the other ones, these guys are for a story focusing on the viscera of the imperial household