Lumian magic is neat! By reciting ancient scriptures they can cast some incredibly complex spells, this one in particular temporarily charms an Unlit, opening a window of weakness to attack!
Other types of magic includes physical and magical barriers, along with the regeneration of battle scars. All of which require reciting one of thousands of different magic scriptures!
So, what kind of languages can you read?
Well, Lacie got lucky there…
I am madly interested in languages, so I tried to learn at least read most of them. Didn’t quite work out, but in the end, I’d say I can read English and German. If we got into what i could decipher with dictionary support, well…
We had the chance to do French or German in high school, I took French only because my homeroom teacher was leading the class and she was awesome.
That and our German teacher hit students with belts.
A bon? Quelle dommage…
Mais la langue de francais est tres utile et tres belle, non?
Vraiment, mais je n’ai pas apprendu le francais dans l’école…
Well, I am a native German speaker, so that’s less of a surprise now.
In MIddle School we didn’t even have a choice, French was mandatory (our school was critically underfunded), and only in High School we had a choice between French and Spanish, so I took up Spanish, and then they also offered Russian, which I also picked (and virtually nobody else). But I wouldn’t go as far to be able to speak or read any of these three languages, I just plain lack too much vocabulary…
Really, they actually still did that?
We had something in Gesamtschule called “Wahlpflichtfach”. I chose French because they told me it would help me later when I’ll choose Latin as “Wahlpflicht II” – they really got it wrong. My Latin teacher told me French is easier if you learned Latin first.
Because of lacking motivation I didn’t get good marks in French , but one good thing came out of it: Because I’ve had French for 4 years I didn’t have to chose a second foreign language besides English in vocational school. Now I have English, Business English and Translation,
I’d rather speak one foreign language fluently than two or more badly.
Jkun, is corporal punishment still allowed where you come from?
What, the UK?
No I don’t think so.
The teacher I mentioned earlier got fired pretty darn quickly.
But it just had to be the German teacher physically punishing his pupils – it has something of a stereotype if you ask me.
Well, as long as he didn’t shout in German while doing that…
Hell, they’re lucky, in Vietnam, the teacher gets a bamboo stick and spanks the kids right in front of class. It’s a good thing that kids are usually disciplined before entering school.
Reminds me of something Max Uthoff said about how South Korean parents prepare their children for elementary school.
Shelbie is the only person to fall “Heels over head” for someone. xD
Have to admit, I thought she finally had Lacie there, must be that outfit making her more believable!
Loving the artwork as per usual, Lacie looks better now in my opinion, especially with that look she’s giving in the forth panel!
As for Shelbie, she’s still awesomely cute.
I still can’t draw simple folded arms, someone needs to upload a tutorial somewhere.
It looks fine to me, although I’ve would’ve drawn in a bit of the wrist/arm above the other arm.
But I didn’t notice until you pointed it out! It looks fine tbh.
Hadn’t you mentioned it, I wouldn’t even have noticed. Though, I think I can tell exactly you what’s wrong:
Lacies left hand (i.e. her right one from our view) which she holds to her right-hand side (left-hand side from our view) should be in front of, not behind her right (left from our view) upper arm/elbow.
Mmm, okay, practice makes perfect!
how I learnt was by drawing coiled snakes when I was in grade school. try drawing a few of those for practice if you find it a tad frustrating. hope that helps :\/
side note: woot, my Gravatar finally went through!
side side note: I’d go for Lacie (looks she has sexy lingerie hahaha) but the whip would make me go back to Daifuku (minus Mochi..)
Thanks! I’ll try this!
Heels over head has more logic.
Head over heels, well, unless you’re a bat that’s probably the position you’re in right now…
whether Heels over head Or Head over heels it still sound like someone getting axe kick, Crescent kick, Hook Kick, Reverse roundhouse/heel kick, Flying kick, Scissor kick, Multiple kick, high kick, axe stomp, bronco kick, foot stomp, and finally Curb stomp by Dominatrix to me.
Silly Shelbie. The phrase is actually quite simple. It says “love pure, love undying. May thy love grow to forever bloom”.
See? Quite simple.
wow. Those two look amazing. Lacie is just sexy and Shelbie is just gorgeous. nice work sensei.
That whip Lacie is holding, i’m not sure if she was gonna use it to just “wake” her up
I’m sure she’ll use it for other stuff too.
Like buttering her toast or something, I dunno.
I guess you can say Laice likes Whip butter on her toast. Or that She likes to whip herself a hot cup of coffee, in the morning. Or possibly she trying to get everyone on this new diet plan and she needs to Whip everyone into shape. Lacie secretly Harison Ford, who not so secretly Indianna Jones, which explains why she’s carrying a Whip.(That’s is all the Whip jokes I got.)
I imagine she uses that whip whenever a problem comes along.
On a completely different subject, I’m suddenly having a hankering to listen to Devo.
Now that I saw the redesign in action I can say only “Awesome!”
Thanks! Glad you like it!
So…we finally get to see some Lumian magic in action! Shame it didn’t work.
Also, I LOVE the blue lipstick on Shelbie. She looks kinda sexy with it. Like…in an all grown up sort of way.
But she’s still the illiterate Shelbie we know and love.
Fuck, “Waking up to to the cracking whip of the wake the fuck up whip” the thought of that alone makes me cringe.
Well at least Shelbie smart enough to admit that she need a few years under her nonexistent belt to learn how to read… ancient Lumian scriptures.
Pfft, you should see Etna.
Pttffff, bwhahaha, Oh disgaia, and your quirky over the top what if modes.
Jkun, to be honest I was a bit worried to see my favorite characters change when I saw your blog post.
However, seeing this comic has completely changed my mind.
Love the new look!
Haha, glad you think so, Cliff! Hopefully these new designs will leave some even better memories.
I do not see what the big deal is. I can read the spell just fine.
Tell Shelbie it reads:
“Love pure”
“Love undying”
“Love in forever bloom”
Man, when I start reading ancient writings like that, I know I need to get off the internet.
Oh man. Delete that one, please.
No! That’ll teach you to think before posting! ;D
Learning from your embarrassingly stupid comments, only makes Stronger, son. Unless they’re really really really really ridiculously fucking stupid, then you have all reason to plead, beg, and cry to the guy or gal in charge of the comments to delete that shit, son.
I love the new Lacie design simply for the smallest detail that has been lacking in the past – The eye lashes. (You know the ones I mean… She’s never really had the ‘feminine eyelashes pointing out the side of the eyelid thing” before that we see most prominently in the last panel)
It’s great, because it adds a bit more of femininity to her design, but doesn’t take away from her character whatsoever, as she’s still the Lacie we love~
And Shelbs is always major D’AWWWWW in multiple ways. lol
Glad you noticed! Everyone’s getting eyelashes expect Peppers.
Even Hershel?
I think they would suit him to be honest.
Shelbie just went to the future!! I want to go to her world!!
One of really neat things I like about this stripe in particular is the design for the ancient Lumian scripture scroll, the way it flops (rolls) out like ordinary paper scroll, yet still has that shiny clear hologram look to it is actually pretty damn bad ass. I also like how Shelbie psychically holding the hologramic paper giving it a more unique look to it, as oppose to always holding the printer looking scroll handles on the sides. Which gives a unique touch to the set standard that all hologram screen are just floating window touch screen. (which is kinda true.) excellent job, Jkun, hope to see more ancient or Modern Lumian technology.
Oh good… I thought we were going to have a Naruto moment there.
“So, what kind of languages can you read?”
I can recognize a few non-Latin alphabets (Cyrillic, Japanese [all three], Chinese, Korean, Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic; though I can’t actually *read* any of them), and know enough cognates from French, German and Spanish to get the gist of a conversation if it’s not going too fast.
Twenty years later she discovers it is an e-mail from a Nigerian Prince…
Ahh! Black hole! Failure so epic there’s a hole in reality now. *sucked in*
the scroll says….
drink more..
olavatine
stupid…
Now I want some of this. http://www.ovaltineusa.com/
Wow, just noticed the eye lashes on Lacie. She looks mature, you could say. Though her personality doesnt seem to show it XD
So I decided to look at this scroll and something occurred to me. This is Shelbie. So, I rotated the image 180 degrees and I noticed that some of the glyphs begin to resemble some basic lettering. So in other words, learn from your Facebook Shelbie and turn the damn thing around!!
I only did that for the “e” shaped one, everything else is just scribbles!
Always happy when Shelbie is trying to read something up-side-down.
So, every time she reads something then!
Why does that scroll say “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts. There they are, all standing in a row.”?
What if i tell you its only Peppers shopping list? See, it reads ” a net of onions, milk, 3 servotronic nanojoints…”.
*high pitched squee of delight followed by the most embarrasing laugh known to mankind*
Oh mein Gott, this is just… yes! Just yes! *smiles in pure bliss*
Panel 4, the faces alone. Really made my wednesday after a hard nightshift.^^
Please continue the awesomeness sensei. m(_ _)m
Hurray! I hope you had a relaxing sleep after work!
Dang it!!! SO CLOSE!
Come on, Shelbie. Valentine’s day was last week.
Maybe it’ll be ready by next year…
Hmm, for some reason with the new looks it feels like the next major arc will focus on Shelbie
So that doesn’t translate to anything? It would have been cool to have it translate to something like “If you figured out what this means, you have way too much free time.” And I still don’t know any second languages. I’m kind of disappointed in myself.
You’ve just made Lacie indubitably sexy.
Awesome.
Hahaha, thanks! (Is this a good thing?!)
Oh yes, yes it is.
Third post: kudos on the redesign. Smexy.
Thank you~!
Thanks very much!
Love these comics! Your art style is just great, and the characters are a lot more detailed than most web comic characters are. I just hate myself for not finding these sooner
Just a question… Do you have any tips for someone who’s just starting to draw characters? I can kind of draw faces… but the body and hair is just a mess usually..
Keep up the good work!
Thanks very much! Don’t hate yourself – you know it exists now!
I am terrible at giving tutorials or hints to new artists – mainly because I still don’t consider myself good enough to be able to teach it. I cut a lot of corners growing up and to this day I am still paying for it dearly.
I guess that’s the best I can do? Don’t skimp on learning the basics like real life, anatomy, and poses, and don’t rush ahead on trying to stylize everything like I did, you will completely regret it later.
That’s really helpful, actually. My friends told me not to do those because it would waste time, but I didn’t know.
Thanks again
Why is Shelbie in love with in first place?
Lacie kissed her sometime before the redesign as a joke to make Shelbie’s lips purple. Shelbie has been love struck ever since. And now you know.
Blue actually. Which is probably why Shelbie now wears blue lipstick. Character development!
Well I want her to have lipstick in the past too so this theory wouldn’t hold. It works for now, but since the current comic doesn’t follow a strict timeline, it’s just a theory.
Shelbie fell for Lacie the moment she woke up from her accident, that’s all I’ll say.
i see she was a lesbo even before her accident….or maybe she became one the moment she saw Lacie? oh well i guess we will find out eventualy..
I’ve recently started learning Korean, though it’s hard to find any good tutors where I live (midwest USA doesn’t have a very big Korean population, sadly).
Also, loving the redesign. Awesome looks all around!
Thanks! My old flatmate moved to Korea, every time I see her update Facebook in Korean it blows my mind – every letter is either a line or a circle to me!
You know hypothetically if Shlbe wasn’t illiterate but, still an idiot, Lacie could still prevent Shelbie from using the ancient Lumian charm spell on her, by simply stealing the close scripture scroll with her whip. Then tactically retreating with it in hand, leaving Shelbie completely and utterly baffle & amazed at what just happen.
I think Lacie knew from the start Shelbie would mess it up!
Then again, did Lacie actually have high expectation of Shelbie Succeeding the Spell to begin with, Jkun? I think we all know the answer to that question. The answer for those who don’t it’s “a definite -1 out of a whole fuckton on a blue blown up moon.”
I love the new design.
They look great!
Shelb’s looks all growed up in Panel 2 and back to her loveable goofy self in Panel 4. I’m likin’ the character redesign especially Lacie in the peek-a-boo skirt. Methinks she might have some Succubus (Succubi?) in her lineage, or maybe all demons are capable of seduction. Unfortunately for Shelbie, she’s not on Lacie’s radar screen.
One of the biggest things I’ve noticed about the new designs is the new art style and coloring method that’s accompanied them. Instead of solid blocks of color, clothing, skin, hair, and many other elements of in the comic use gradients. It’s created a “softer” tone for the characters, and overall, I think it looks pretty good.
You know what’s also really impressive? The selective use of that shiny effect. I wasn’t a fan of it before to be honest, but it’s being used exactly the way I’d expect it to be now – subtly on the hair, on Shelbie’s torso and gold trim, lightly on Lacie’s stockings… extremely well done.
I checked out the Cast page and it looks great as well. I feel the costumes are just the right balance between complexity and simplicity, and successfully incorporate each character’s main color.
You’ve probably known this for a while now, but my favorite character is Peppermint – and her costume redesign was simply perfect. An air of science and professionalism, yet still includes elements that hint at her more childish personality.
Overall, great work! I look forward to what comes next!
Oh, and it looks like I’ll need to get a new Avatar! Hehe.
I apologize for not replying sooner, I have been too busy with laptops breaking and cars getting stuck in ditches along with being buried in meters of snow.
Thanks very much for your comment, glad you like the changes! Feel free to use any of the images as avatars!
i got to say,i loveeee the new looks!! specialy shelbie & candy.
shelbie look smart, to bad she is not…. -.- and candy looks totaly wild, that’s epic.
Glad you like them! Shelbie is the complete oxymoron, emphasis on the moron.
Shelbie’s redesign is hot!
She kept the pigtails, and that’s all that really matters.
Yea! Those are the parts I like most too!
I keep drawing them at different lengths though. :I
I’m learning the major Ancient Near Eastern Semitic languages and their writings systems – which are very interesting, being primarily cuneiform (for those who don’t know, this is the writing system in which a stylus is pressed into clay to make wedge shapes). As reynard pointed out, cognates help alot and make learning mutliple languages (as long as they are in the same “group”) easier.
Enochian is the supposed (made-up) Angelic Language according to various magicians of the past. I haven’t perused my Crowley in years, so I’m not sure if your script is trying for that or not.
Wow how interesting!
Also nope, it’s just random shapes I made up, I haven’t gone as far as to make a second language within the CS universe. ;D
Perhaps you can make one for me! Hahaha.
Cuz as we all know, a way to a woman’s heart is through magical spells written in a language that no human being could possibly read or fathom…it all just makes perfect logical sense to me. XD
I love how Lacie seems disappointed in the lack of the spell working at all.
Prrrrrrrrretty sure she was being sarcastic.
How can you be so sure? Being the author doesn’t mean that you know everything.
These characters have a mind of their own!