Did some merch work a few days ago and posted these ne t-shirt designs to my RedBubble store. I don't sell many shirts, which is fine. I'm happy that I wear them. I have samples of all four coming in the mail, all black shirts. We'll see how they look when they come in.

 

 Finally figured out all the controls to get the first half of "The City Silent" available for download on my Gumroad store. I wish it could have been free but it was above their minimum file size for that. So we'll see if anyone downloads/buys it. Having gone through it, I honestly think it holds together, makes sense and is, in some moments, even beautiful. But that's me. I do not regret one moment I've spent on this project. I only wish I was tackling it more quickly. Still, progress, always progress.

 I redid the cover for the comic so there was something different for this release. It is not the final cover for the whole comic. That will change in time. While it doesn't have any of the characters in it, I hope that it's got at least enough to make someone go, "What the hell is this?" A graphic designer I'm not. When it comes time to do the final final, I will go looking into my reference library to put something much more eye catching together.

I did manage to get the pdf finished today as well. Pain in the ass especially as I resized the images for the last 65 pages to the wrong dpi. Didn't take too long to fix and allowed me to go through the pages one more time. And I love them. Are they a masterpiece? Perfect? No, but they're mine and they make me happy. They represent the best I am capable of at this time. Now all I have to do is finish it. Heh.

I didn't feel like stitching them all together but these are the grid shots for all of the first half. Man, doesn't LOOK like 174 pages or six years' worth of work, but there you are. It's kind of fun to see the colors start out kind of dark, a little dour and then have them pop when the mice show up. The greens of Howard echo, which is good. All in all, I'm happy with it. There's some real fun in there and some pages of which I'm pretty proud. Here's to another 200 pages to come!
 

 And with that, I've updated all the pages I think I need to update. Silas is there but doesn't stand out too much. There's no need to insert him into Zippa's song as his hand crumples the last flyer, implying that he was following along. Now the tedious task of going through, re-exporting all the act 2 pages that haven't been done without the copyright notices and then finally shoving the whole thing into one document so that I can release the first half.

 So here's the one page "corrected" to have Silas in the background. I think he actually makes a nice counterpoint to Digby, who is also watching the mice below.

 While there was no new work today, there was a good deal of time spent fixing the pages of the last section. 12 pages and I had to mess around with almost all of them. There were little issues, like shadows missing from four of them, colors being off on the mic in three of them, and other miscellaneous issues. Now, they're ready. I've also identified where I can insert Silas in earlier parts of the act so that he appears in all of it and so that his inner monologue will make a little more sense. That wasn't easy; those pages with the mice and Digby are PACKED. I think there's a couple places that will work and that's really all I'll need. Might do one big once over after that but I think the pages were proofed when I finished each track. And of all the tracks in Act 2, those early ones were the least consistent on purpose.

 Somehow, I managed to get another page done after work and before hanging out online with a friend. A little closer to the end of act 2.

 Well, THIS never happens. I got two pages done today. To be fair, the second one wasn't all that challenging. But this does bring the lyrics to an end. There will be a couple pages left, Howard leaving the stage, etc and then I will be done with the first half. Feels like progress.

 I did manage to finish this yesterday but didn't post. I had to redraw the head as it just wasn't working for me. Other than that, the page came together pretty easily. One more verse and one more coda page, possibly one of Howard walking off stage and this section will be done. Luckily, they're easy pages to do.

EDIT: Oops. I'd forgotten the mic. Easy fix.

 Things are looking a little weird so far, but I won't adjust anything until I get some more color done. Just some quick stuff in while doing everything else and, honestly, resting.

 Finally figured out how I was doing the background and what I screwed up so I could finish this page. That and I finally had a day off to chill, do some (late) sound editing, listen to records and this. The intermission is about 2/3 done and I'll try and start the next page today as well. Really want to get this section up so I can oversee the whole first half. Stylistic changes are huge, moreso than any other comic. And I think I'm ok with that. And I might even have ideas on how to start the next section at least stylistically. I've been thinking about a much looser approach, leaning on contour drawing, something at which I'm not too bad and which will bring a different feel and flow. But, we'll see. That's a ways off.

 Made a little bit of progress tonight, but it was a long day at work and a late arrival at home. It is what it is. Still struggling to figure out exactly what I did in the previous pages.

 Just back from vacation in Boston. Managed, between chores, to at least start the next page. Doesn't look like much here, but at least I made a go. More later.