I guess looking at it now I really don't know what was so hard about it since there aren't any panels that really stand out or spectacular. If anything I liked the minimalist approach I took for the Mangetsu Hyou Ryu Ken effect. All I can say is this comic just did not come easily. I redrew almost every panel more than once and even then I redrew some of them in Photoshop once I scanned them in and touched them up. Time wise I'd have to say it took a little under double the time it normally takes to do a comic. I almost put everything down in frustration, but for some reason I told myself that if I quit right when I was getting back into things, it'd be a road I wouldn't want to walk down. So here is the comic despite the tumultuous road it's traveled. I hope you still enjoy it.

As far as the orihalcon reference, it's one of those mythical metals like Adamantium or Mythril that always seem to pop up in Japanese manga, anime, and games. I won't look it up, but I think the earliest reference I have to the Orihalcon is either Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. Of course it's been translated into a few different sounding variants such as Kingdom Heart II's Orihalcum, but the gist is still the same. I figured I'd throw in the reference about the metal of the weapons in there.

As a side note when I was in Japan back in high school and Dragon Quest 4 was EXPLODING, my relatives quickly told me that Japan likes to shorten English words using the syllables in them. So Dragon Quest in Japanese is pronounced Doragon Kuesuto. So it was further shortened to Dora Ku-e (the last word sounding like Kuwait without the 'w' and 't' sounds). Dragon Quest wasn't the only thing to get the treatment. Street Fighter II was shortened to Sutotsu. A play off the Japanese pronunciation, Sutorito Faita Tsu. Other examples include Pasacon (pasanaru komputa) and pokeberu (poketsu beru) or in English a Personal Computer and Pocket Bell aka pager or cell. the concludes this little aside in Japanese culture. I'm sure things have changed or are different in other regions of Japan, but I have always been tickled by this phenomenon.

"Comic coming later tonight" Wednesday - May 10th, 2006

Just letting everyone know that I will have the comic up later. This one was just very tough for me to get down on paper. I'm not thrilled with the way the drawings came out, but I've felt that way about panels before and sometimes they end up turning out really good. At any rate be sure to check back by Thursday night to see Thursday's comic!! See ya then!