I had something fairly big planned, but I’m falling behind schedule so it’ll have to wait for next week. So let’s have a poll about art!
I am considering getting another artist for book 2, and even if I don’t it would be the perfect opportunity to make a change in the art. Nothing too major. But in case I do decide to change the art a bit, what kind of changes would you all like?
[yop_poll id=”5″]
↓ Transcript
Joey: You figured out the Guayaquil plague, did you?
Jacob: What do you know about it?
Joey: Hah -- after Kevin tweaked my augments, we discovered a side effect...upping my corticosteroids made me immune to the Lethe Protocol.
Jacob: The Lethe Protocol.
Lola: The Lethe Protocol...is for the most secret briefinds, when deniability is not enough. For the next two hours, we will be unable to create long-term memories. I'll record the results of the meeting, but no one will know how our decision was made.
Jacob: What do you know about it?
Joey: Hah -- after Kevin tweaked my augments, we discovered a side effect...upping my corticosteroids made me immune to the Lethe Protocol.
Jacob: The Lethe Protocol.
Lola: The Lethe Protocol...is for the most secret briefinds, when deniability is not enough. For the next two hours, we will be unable to create long-term memories. I'll record the results of the meeting, but no one will know how our decision was made.
Ok, following the science of this comic has pushed my PhD in cellular biology to its limits, but I’ve mostly managed to know what you are talking about. So I’m a bit ashamed that this one made me think “Corticosteroids? That’s what’s in my rash cream…”
I’ve been reading you since early in IndefPos, (the first time they went up God hill was my opening page, I think) I love your art almost as much as I love your writing. If you want to get another artist though, I’m just as excited about that. (voted option 4)
Thanks for reading, Sans-sanity! I’m glad I’m making you think. 🙂
Corticosteroids are also involved in memory processing, aren’t they? I’m going to have to check my notes. Perhaps ‘neuropeptides’ would be better written there…
My nose spray is corticosteroids …
There are many steroids about. Many corticosteroids too, perhaps?
Corticosteroids, as the plural name suggest, are class of hormones which are in turn a subclass of all steroidal hormones. They are named such because they were first discovered as being produced from the cortex of the adrenal glands.
In biology there is no “good” or “bad” or even “healthy” or “unhealthy” All things must be in their proper ratios. To little is a bad/good as to much.
Corticosteroids in small amounts are used in nose sprays, eyedrops and ointments to dial back the body’s overactive immune response to an allergen. Taken orally in doses roughly a hundred time greater it can suppress immune system problems internally. Injected in doses up to hundreds of thousands of times greater it can combat diseases like arthritis.
Corticosteroids are part of the body’s defense and energy production systems and as such have a powerful effect on cognition. Agitation and hyper alertness are common side effects. They have been investigated as treatments for ADD and depression.
However, if “lethe” protocol prevents the memories from forming in the first place (which some drugs do now) then no amount of mental stimulation will recover what is not there. It would be like expecting to recover a particular recording off a brand new blank tape.
Instead, the lethe protocol would have to allow the memories to form but to block recall. That would be very hard to do but plausible. If the memories existed then a rise in corticosteroids could plausibly trigger their recall.
As for the art question, I personally would prefer to maintain the consistency of one artist over the course of a work. If that same artist wishes to mix things up stylistically, that’s great. Art evolution, go nuts. But bringing a wholly different artist in would be less ideal, I think.
As you implement the tonal differences you see into a black/white comic, there have been some nice effects that imitate colour good enough for me; so I’m perfectly fine without colour, as it is not needed as a aesthetic element in this story.
On the other hand:
For Grendel they used to hire a helload of different artists over the same series of the comic (sometimes one to three different ones every issue). Seeing a new artist was a very nice opportunity to see different styles and learn about artists, as well as to see different approaches to a topic. While nice from an artistic pov, the aesthetic trade-off is that you have an inconsistency, which generally puts people off; and of course it can happen that some people might not like the looks that a new artist implements.
So, that said, any of those options for improvement is fine for me. You clearly become used to drawing Jacob, and I would enjoy to see the comic becoming a bit more detailed while keeping the same style, whence my vote for that.
But getting another art style with colour would at the very least be interesting.
I think this story, with its grey morality and overall depressing world (Not that they story isn’t entertaining, it definitely is) actually suits greyscale better than colour. I like the artwork as it is.
So, it seems that there’s a reason that the Genocide men are different to everyone else, but they don’t know why. Interesting. A clever way to keep it secret.
I think if you continue to “pencil” the art yourself and have others ink and letter it – you will get the best handle on maintaining consistancy while relieving you of much of the work.
The only qualm I have on the artwork is the hyperextended noses on some of the charachters. It’s a bit distracting, to be honest.
My reading of the Lethe protocol: Anything that happened before Joey was made immune, he never formed long-term memories of, and the tape remains blank. He will however remember any meeting occuring after being made immune.
So it comes down to timing: When did Kevin tweak his augments to the point of immunity? Since he remembers something about “the Guayaquil plague”, it must have been before that.
Or it’s magic. 😉
The posology here say that it need 8 hours of contact for absorbtion but cause lowering of adrenal corticosteroid secretion. But that’s for just common mometasone furoate…imagine what else these fancy labs can obtain…
The Lethe protocol is just a mild form of twilight sedation. There’s nothing speculative about it. What’s speculative is coming up with biochemicals that make you immune to it. 🙂 I think I’ll change this page to read ‘neuropeptides’.
As for noses, I like drawing different varieties of noses, and I like Joey’s nose. I regret Girii’s, though.
Oirish noses and chins…I got cousins with
exactly the same…as long as the ears are not pointy too…
Lethe protocol… no way that could be abused, right?
“For security purposes, you guys all made me chief, rememb-? Oh, wait… Lethe protocol. I forgot.”