NO UPDATE TUESDAY - NEW VOTE INCENTIVE
Posted by JED at June 7th, 2010
And why, you may ask?
Well, because I am buckling down for the last few bits of the book, and I need to get it in by Wednesday if I expect to have it ready for Comicon! So, no update until Friday, but if you’re nice to me I will put up one of the new, reworked pages tomorrow so you all can get an idea of what it’s like. There will also be a new short story of Zona in the years before she met Mentl, so I hope that those of you who actually purchase the paper product will not feel you were ripped off.
Also, I was inspired to make a sketch of Maldik’s father so you can compare them. Vote and you get to see it!
Cheers! I will now go render like a demon!
June 8th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Sounds like a plan JED. I assume your loyal readers who can’t make comicon will get a link to order said book???
June 8th, 2010 at 12:14 am
Yowzah! *Off to vote again*
(The royal couple must have found the infant Maldik under a (slimey) rock. Baby Maldik- there’s an image to forget as soon as possible.)
June 8th, 2010 at 12:25 am
Squeeee! JED - I was just kidding when I said Maldik must resemble dad (since he looks nothing like Mum) - but goodness! - he must be a changeling - that’s the only explanation. He looks like neither of them and I doubt Daddy was a dummy (or Yanora wouldn’t have loved him so)
So, a changeling, placed by some beings with a horrid sense of humor. That’s the only answer I can believe at the moment. (Or someone way back in their ancestry showed up in Maldik’s genes)
June 8th, 2010 at 1:27 am
Maldik’s got his father’s hair by all appearances, and his nose is similar enough to Yanora’s that I’m willing accept that he’s her kid.
My personal suspicion frankly is that he has Down’s Syndrome. It would explain a few things, like his rounded features that so little resemble either of his parents and his lack of brain power. While magic might enable him to survive to adulthood when Down’s kids usually didn’t in low tech societies, it couldn’t do anything about the mental deficits associated with it.
June 8th, 2010 at 4:54 am
There are similarities there- but Maldik definately didn’t get any of his father’s more, ah, pleasing features.
I can see why Yanora fell for him. Mmhmm.
Also, I am going to echo Lebbrin’s desire to purchase the book- but, being an unemployed Brit, I won’t be at Comicon either.
June 8th, 2010 at 7:39 am
Cool.
Good luck on the book (sales?)!
June 8th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
You’re going to turn animal fat into tallow by heating it over lava, holding it with a pitchfork?
June 8th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
I can’t attend comiccon, but i’d love a paper copy, like i asked waaay back
Possible JE?
June 9th, 2010 at 1:10 am
WANT BOOK! But will not be attending said convention.
…Wherefore art thou, online purchasing link??
June 9th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
I can actually see _some_ similarity between Maldik and his father. I think perhaps lifestyle might have played a part in Maldik’s less than attractive appearance. The King looks like a warrior. Lean and well trained. The lean look even shows in his face. Maldik on the other hand I suspect to be a bit of a couchpotato who likes living the good life a bit too much, leading to the rounder and fatter looking features. If he’d been a warrior like his dad (and I would venture his older brother) his features would probably be somewhat leaner as well and perhaps a bit more attractive.
He’d still be an idiot though. Nothing to be done about that.
June 10th, 2010 at 7:14 am
Hey, JED. I will buy a book from you when you make them available online. This being the only time I’ve ever said that.
June 10th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Lebbrin, hans, Jean, Jason, Apunkalipse ,LN et al:
Wow, you think maybe I’ll make this book - which is the first 35 pages that I went to a lot of trouble to reformat, re-postwork and in some cases re-render, and which has a new short story that’s never been on the web, and which I’m sweating bullets to get out on a deadline - available to the people who’ve been loyal contributors to and fans of this silly little barbarian soap opera for years?
Ya think??? =D
Yes, next week when the thing has been done and gone to KaBlam for publishing, when I know I will actually have something to ship, *then* I will begin accepting pre-orders for The Challenges Of Zona, Volume One, Issue One.
Hwyla - Already explained his appearance and character, at least the genetic bits of it, in the comments section of the page. Still, always like a squee when I can get it.
Inquisitive Raven - The Down’s Syndrome kids I’ve known have generally been sweet, unlike Maldik. And, if he’d been born that obviously challenged, it’s doubtful he would have been raised at court. And, if he had, I can tell you as the author that Yanora would never have tried to push him as she has done. In fact, it’s an interesting idea you’ve just given me, that in an alternate reality she might have had a child who was truly a child forever, and given that she would never have expected him to be a fit candidate to rule, she might have been able to express a mother’s love more gently, and the relationship might have been more natural and healthy. As it is, his chromosomes are normal. It’s his spirit that’s warped.
Jason - If you read my description of the man, in the comments for the page you understand even better. Bear in mind Eleanor’s descripion of Henry as a young man: “He came down from the north with a mind like Aristotle and a form like mortal sin.”
Addup2 - Bad joke! Naughty,naughty joke!
SteinarB - Many things went into his makeup, and the man you see here. And yes, alas, he’s an idiot.
June 10th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
I can see enough of Maldik’s features to believe this is his Dad, but Wow, this guy is a wholly different creature. You can SEE the brains in this fellow. Yanora had good taste, if bad luck in the product of the union.
June 11th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
We can see the results of discipline and challenge in the father, with a rational helping of ambition, perhaps.
In the son, we see a a focus on ambition and arrogance, perhaps the result of a mostly neglected upbringing in an environment of wealth. Discipline seems to be almost entirely lacking, as well as any character growth based on overcoming a challenge.
While the fruit of the tree is recognizable, it seems to have rotted on the vine, if you don’t mind a mixed metaphor.