^ 31 Comments...

1. hans
   December 5th, 2008 at 1:20 am

   Ooh, suspense!

   You better NOT switch back to Kivalia in the next panel, or else …

   

2. The MacNut
   December 5th, 2008 at 2:56 am

   Uh oh….Vito’s hesitation there is NOT a good sign. Has Zona just become an only child?

3. Tabris
   December 5th, 2008 at 7:21 am

   Let us hope for some…creativity, in Tula’s near future.

4. Jaze
   December 5th, 2008 at 7:23 am

   …MAY SHE?!

   You evil man with your cliff hangers. I’m hoping that Vito is going to go into a speil about yes she is dead but possibly not permanently; or that she’s close to death and may yet be saved, etc. After all, in Vito’s words last time-
   “Mostly it’s just regular guys who are sleeping or lost, or stuck between death and life.”
   Of course, Vito is very stuck as far as we can tell- his body seems to be dead, but his soul not, so that’s not very comforting.

   …I shall await the next update most eagerly.

5. Kamatu
   December 5th, 2008 at 9:05 am

   She is unless Mentl gets to work and Vito isn’t sure if he will in time or figure out how in time.

6. JE Draft
   December 5th, 2008 at 9:09 am

   We’re not going back to Kivalia on Tuesday. You will all find out just what Vito’s poker face means then.

   Muahahahahahaaa!!

7. Rassafassa
   December 5th, 2008 at 10:51 am

   Oy vey.

   Considering Vito’s ability concerning jokes, I think he is will present the solution…. with a catch.

8. Staryu
   December 5th, 2008 at 11:13 am

   I’m interested to hear more about what they wear in Erogenia. *wicked grin*

9. Pumpkin
   December 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

   Hahaha, the suspense is killing me! But I’m not too worried about her, after all I’m sure that even if she actually dies she won’t be that helpless…

10. Captain Marsupial
    December 5th, 2008 at 7:33 pm

    whadid I say? Huh? TIe off the darn leg! Less Mentl freak outs & Zona lovey doves and she wouldn’t be in this fix. Sigh. I know, it’s a story. If they all stayed at home typing on their computers it wouldn’t be as interesting. Well, lead on JED.

11. fairportfan
    December 6th, 2008 at 12:47 am

    What we’ve got here is *mostly* dead, i suspect.

12. winfryth
    December 6th, 2008 at 1:29 am

    She’s ” Mostly Dead” !!! Quote from “The Princess Bride”.

13. scooter
    December 6th, 2008 at 2:26 am

    Let see…… we’re hanging on Kiva…… we’re hanging on Zona and mentl, we’re hanging on the Count… and the idiot who’d be king….. have we enough rope yet? Oh yes, and the mechanization’s of the lizard folk and their world conquering activities.
    Sigh…. at least the whole keeps the story together…. just wished I could read to then end TONIGHT! (doesn’t mean kill them all off either!), sort of like playing the old late 70’s AD&D…. by snail mail.

14. JE Draft
    December 6th, 2008 at 3:17 am

    I am not commenting too much, because I don’t want to give anything away. Except, Scooter - this doesn’t end for a loooooooooooong while. I have a whole age of history to unfold, here. Believe it or not, I’m even more impatient than you and I know what’s gonna happen!! That’s why it’s going to twice a week, come Heck or High Dudgeon.

15. The MacNut
    December 6th, 2008 at 4:22 am

    Twice a week, woo hoo!! Gives me something else to look forward to on Tuesdays….

16. Elfguy
    December 6th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    Well, what with Christmas coming up and all…hopin poor JE can keep up the pace…heh

17. Jana C.H.
    December 8th, 2008 at 5:44 am

    I just discovered this site and read the whole tale, from beginning to this very page, this evening. Actually it’s morning now, and I’m enjoying it a lot. Okay, so it’s the usual dorky boy/sexy girl routine, but this time, for a change, the dorky boy and sexy girl are interesting characters, and their relationship is charming. And the inhumanly-enormous, gravity-defying boobs? Well, it’s not as if I’m not used to it after all the years I’ve spent looking at cartoon art. I really hope Zona’s bod is intended as a parody, though seeing the queen similarly be-boobed makes me wonder. At least Tula’s bosom is human-sized– a “mere” C-cup. I’ll do my best to ignore it all and enjoy the story, as always.

    I’m glad Mentl’s musical repertoire goes back a ways, since my knowledge of rock music peters out in the early Eighties when I switched over to being an opera fanatic. I can just imagine the kind of magic our hero could summon up with Verdi or Mozart or Richard Strauss or (shudder!) Herr Wagner. He wouldn’t just be melting rocks; he’d be melting entire universes! I’ll bet he could do some cool stuff with Gilbert and Sullivan, too, if he knew it (which he doubtless doesn’t). Still, I’ve been recognizing most of the lyrics.

    I look forward to reading more. And if Mentl ever feels like destroying a universe and all the gods in it, I can tell him where to find the spells.

    Jana C.H.
    Seattle
    Saith Floss Forbes: If you don’t know the tune, sing tenor.

18. Wolf
    December 8th, 2008 at 9:22 am

    i am assuming that either Mentl is going to start singing 7th Son (which would make him WAY too powerful if he can pull that off), or else they are going to find a village full of shamans soon, and it will turn out that shamans can raise the dead… But I have no idea really. Just wishful thinking from Zona’s dad being on the November calendar. Keep up the GREAT work!

19. JE Draft
    December 8th, 2008 at 9:29 am

    It is an interesting commentary on our times and Western culture that I never seem to get objections or incredulity to Zona’s being 6′6″ and strong enough to break iron chains, but her large breasts are the “impossible” part of her to those who comment on her body design.

    Yes, in her original incarnation as an X-Rated character in the self-published “Three Challenges Of Zona,” her bust, and most everything about her, was intended as parody. Today I take the license of her being in a superheroic fantasy world to indulge the fact that I just happen to like it. Tula and other characters are there for balance, but I have no problem putting similar breasts on other members of Zona’s family or tribe, simply because it’s fun for me and visually appeals to the nascent adolescent in even the most adult male fantasy fan. Believe me, they could be bigger, and in some of the gallery art, I will completely cop to going waaaay overboard. Still, even the mainstream comic books absolutely indulge in excessively big busts in their action superheroines. (Power Girl, anybody?) Do a google image search for “Red Sonya” if you want so see designs that are, if anything, just as big proportionally as my Zona’s.

    Still, glad that doesn’t turn you off to what is really the most important part of the whole thing, which is the story. Whether it’s in space, the O.C., or Erogenia, no story is worth a damn unless it’s about real relationships between people first and last.

    Also, Mentl’s musical knowledge is a bit more extensive than you might guess. It’s not his main thing, of course, but he’s had some music history and musicology courses in school, and he does not disdain classical music, as you will, I think, eventually see. Anyway, Jana, thought your lengthy and thoughtful post deserved a like reply. Please keep reading, and if you happen to think of it, click the Vote buttons! Remember, every time you vote for Zona, an angel gets his … uh … wingtip shoes or something.

    

    JED.

20. hans
    December 8th, 2008 at 10:33 am

    *sigh
    Again a woman bashing so called exaggerated female secondary sexual characteristics, while having no problems with unnatural male ones.
    Feminism really did a number on women´s minds. Abhorring a good looking tit, while viewing square jaws and muscled thighs that can obscure a grown man as alright. Probably even attractive.

    Go JE! Big boobage 4tw. Don´t let small minded PCness distract you.
    I´m still voting for “Sexual Healing” as the Tula rescue song. Can´t await the hilarity that will ensue.

21. JE Draft
    December 8th, 2008 at 10:56 am

    I actually like being intelligently challenged about my choices by readers like Jana. I don’t mind explaining them, especially being a goddess-worshipper and a feminist myself. But that doesn’t exclude being a man and liking big breasts in my female characters when it’s fun and within my own particular ideas of good taste. Naturally, I don’t want the whole comic to be about breasts - there’s plenty enough Poser porn on the `net for that. I do feel a bit like Niel Piekos, at times. His “Atland” is a masterpiece, and is hysterically funny while still having a real, solid spine of story and involving characters, but sometimes fantasy fans can get a little distracted by the overly generous proportions of his characters.

    http://www.realmofatland.com/images/sd2005special.jpg

22. hans
    December 8th, 2008 at 11:24 am

    Fair enough.
    Thanx for the Atland tip. Didn´t know that one. Your link tanked BTW.
    Hope this one works better: http://www.realmofatland.com/sd05.html

23. Jana C.H.
    December 8th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

    It’s so hard to get nuance and tone across the internet. I was not bashing anything. Imagine me saying it all with a sigh and a wry smile. Here they are again, the ever-popular enormous boobs! The same ones I’ve been seeing on Red Sonja and Power Girl and so many others going back to–how long has it been since I started?–1965. I used to rant about it in the old days, but I don’t any more. It’s not worth the energy. I do, however, feel free to comment once in a while. That’s all I was doing: commenting.

    Truth to tell, Zena doesn’t annoy me because of the parodic element. It was when your second female character, the queen, turned out to be another super-Dolly Parton, that I become annoyed. I thought, are they all going to be like this? Well, Tula is well-endowed but not grotesque, so you are redeemed. (Remember the wry grin!) Besides, it’s a sign of a more sophisticated artist when he shows he can handle a full range of body types, not just one or two standards. It makes the characters look more interesting and more real. One of the things I admired about George Perez was that his heroes and heroines had clearly individual faces and bodies. He took trouble over it, and it showed. I like cartooning that shows real thought behind it, in the character design, backgrounds, clothing, body language. You have some nice touches, mainly Mentl himself, though sometimes he seems to have too much muscle tone for a modern-day slacker, but the tiny range of female character types seems to me to be something that could be improved upon.

    Well, that’s enough for now. More about music later.

    Jana C.H.
    Seattle
    Saith Nora Maloy : The irregularities and variations are characteristics that add texture and uniqueness to this human and should not be considered defects or flaws.

24. JE Draft
    December 8th, 2008 at 6:15 pm

    Mentl’s not a modern-day slacker anymore. He’s had weeks of a very physical lifestyle - walking, running, riding, wild and crazy sex with a really big, rambunctious woman. If you noticed the panels of him shirtless when he first started to now the progression is on purpose.

    Ipola is busty because she shares the same genes as her daughter - and the same gene pool. Erogenian women are a very busty physical type when compared to Kivalians. I doubt you will find a barbarian B-cup in the bunch, but likewise you won’t find too many dark-haired or eyed, or many with long, straight or prominent noses. Those are features found in the Kivalians and the Sandaks. The Kivalian men generally range from 5′6″ to 6′ tall, whereas the Erogenians are, on average, a tall race. Men of 6′ to 6′6″ being common, and not unusual for a Lion Tribe man to be a healthy and athletic seven feet. Zona is as big as she is because her father topped 7′ tall in his bare feet. The Sandaks are also much darker-skinned and generally thinner. there you will find your willowy B and A-cup ladies with long, aquiline faces.

    I think of these things!

    And I do, I hope, design each face individually. It is one of the things that annoys me about the profusion of Anime-style comics is that the only way you can tell the characters apart, sometimes, is hair and clothing. But then, I think back to some of the work that even the great ones like Buscema and Kirby have done and it seems the same criticism could be levelled at them.

25. Kamatu
    December 8th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

    Heh, it is a fantasy story, so whatever it is that makes Zona 6′6″ (not unknown in RL, I went out with a 6′5″ lady in college), so strong (that is a standard fantasy shtick for a hero) also makes the heroic boobies workable. Yeah, they actually would get in the way, etc., etc., etc., but if she can pick up obscene amounts of weight and hasn’t met a man stronger than her yet, what is a little booby “problem” going to be?

    Of course, those are off the chart boobies (the 6′5″ lady and my 5′6″ wife had the same size cup (DD), but the first just has “nice knockers” and the second has some “big titties”), but then in heroic fantasy, everything should be heroic, yes? After all, Mentl has some heroic proportions himself.

26. Lebbrin
    December 8th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

    [Quote]Yes, in her original incarnation as an X-Rated character in the self-published “Three Challenges Of Zona,” her bust, and most everything about her, was intended as parody.[/Quote]

    Any chance of getting a copy of that? It would be interesting to see where Zona came from.

    Lebbrin

27. JE Draft
    December 8th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    Lebbrin, I have a few copies left, and might be persuaded to part with them for a price, but I had originally intended to pop them into a pdf file and put them up somewhere for the adult curious. Don’t think Dino would like explicit stuff on Soulgeek, but I might, in my copious free time (!) be able to do that in the coming year.

28. Jana C.H.
    December 8th, 2008 at 11:25 pm

    I didn’t mean Queen Ipola! I meant the other queen, the one with the same blonde hair, and who wore a similar similar dress at the big party. What’s-her-name. I wondered why you brought up genetic characteristics when those two aren’t even of the same nationality. I don’t remember ever seeing Zona’s mother; I guess her appearance didn’t stick in my memory. I did notice that you carefully gave Zona and Tula identical turned-up noses. I assume their mother has it, too.

    And yes, the exaggerations of male musculature in comics are often equally absurd, but my letters were going on too long anyway and I chose to focus on a single narrow issue. Besides, JE’s male figures seem to have a reasonable degree of exaggeration compared to what is common in adventure comics nowadays. (Did I just say “nowadays”? Arg! It’s happened! I’m incurably middle-aged!) I even wrote a bit about Mentl’s endowment in my last letter, but deleted it because I felt I was rambling.

    Okay, all friends now?

    Jana C.H.
    Seattle
    Saith Stan Lee: Sheesh!

29. JE Draft
    December 8th, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    Well, truth to tell Queen Yanora has a little Erogenian blood in her background …

    Saith Stan Lee, Excelsior!

30. Jana C.H.
    December 8th, 2008 at 11:55 pm

    P.S. I figured Mentl had been getting in better shape travelling around in a world without automobiles, but I wasn’t sure that the length of time the story had covered was long enough for a noticeable change.

    From an artistic point of view, I like the idea of Mentl, the guy with the spectacular magic powers, being a scrawny little guy in contrast to the big-muscled warriors and monsters around him. It’s dramatic, it looks good, and it undercuts the paradigm. It’s a good aesthetic and conceptual contrast; I wouldn’t like to see him bulk up with all the walking and horseback riding. It’s not as if he’s lifting weights. I’ve seen too many point-and-zap heroes in comics become over-muscled just because that’s the convention in the medium.

    Jana C.H.
    Seattle
    Saith James Boswell: Practice forms a man to anything.

31. JE Draft
    December 9th, 2008 at 12:21 am

    I like that, too! Trust me, he’s not gonna get all bulky, just in shape. The pinup in the Gallery is about as big as he needs to get, or is ever going to:

    http://www.soulgeek.com/comics/zona/HTMLpages/MentlPinup.html

    Saith Groucho Marx: “I married your mother because I wanted children. Imagine my surprise when you came along …”

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