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For a while now I’ve been tossing around the idea of hiring a full time colorist to work on NN4B, and that’s finally happened! This is the first page, and likely to be many pages onward, colored by the talented Yoko. “But, Alex, why hire a colorist? Clearly you are also capable of coloring!” Well, the truth is that with a full time art job, occasional commission work, and the comic, I’ve been gradually losing steam. I want to draw the comic, but I no longer want to put ten or more hours into each page. With Yoko on as a colorist, I can get a page drawn and inked in five to six hours, or possibly less depending on the complexity of the page. This also lets me draw more pages, which, likely, will result in more frequent updates! I can’t promise when this will happen, as we’d like to build up a buffer of pages first (usually I’m finish a page just before it’s updated).

Does anyone here watch this little, barely known show called Game of Thrones? It’s alright, I guess. Actually, it USED to be alright, even quite good, through the first three seasons! Now my favorite part of Game of Thrones is Preston Jacob’s hilarious review videos. It’s not really that I hate the show at this point; if it were any other show it would easily be top quality spectacle entertainment. The problem is that GoT went from being a nuanced, morally gray drama with anti war and anti oligarchy themes and storylines that frequently subverted expectation to a good guys vs bad guys slug-fest where a lot of people randomly die with no story resolution, and everyone acts in ways that serve the plot rather than the characters.  As a fan of the books and the first three seasons of the show, it’s like watching a very disappointing train wreck with a few beautiful dragons thrown in. Then again, maybe I’m upset over nothing and should be happy to get any resolution on this story!

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  • Skralin

    When Genchu said “death” I mentally added a “dun dun DUN” sound effect.

    • Flaming Squirrel

      and, somewhere out in the woods, a gopher dramatically turned to look at them.

  • Hfar

    You’ve hired a colorist eh? Well it’s worked for Girl Genius since ’07 and I can see it working for you guys. I hope to see more of your work, Yoko.

    • http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai

      We’re one step closer to matching Girl Genius’ success!

  • Turul

    Let’s see what the Senshin say about this…

    The new colours are looking all right. Hope it goes well for you all!

    • Kid Chaos

      Who’s in charge while Ina is away? Lord Maru? General Tanaka? Bueller? 😜

      • KungFuKlobber

        Farmers.

        • Flaming Squirrel

          Dude, you’re saying it wrong. It’s pronounced “FAAAAAARMERS!”

        • Turul

          (This is, of course, the ***correct*** answer.)

      • Turul

        I think it should be Tanaka? He considered himself in charge even while Ina was there. And lord Maru isn’t happy with him atm, so things may get funny if they meet again.

        Unless of course Masuhiro has made it to them in the meanwhile, then he’d be the boss.

  • SlugFiller

    Couldn’t he have simply said “Weapons”? Direct, accurate, and gets the point across. And only one syllable extra. In Japanese too!

    • http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai

      He’s got a flair for the dramatic! Unappreciated by Maru.

  • Flaming Squirrel

    “Sorry. Boom, boom, bang, owie, death.”

    Also, I noticed a slight difference in the coloration as soon as the page loaded. It looks good, though. Looking forward to seeing how Yoko does in the future!

  • spas

    In panel 4, I would go all fan-girl if Genchu touched his two index fingers together, instead of one hand on his neck and the other randomly a fist in the air, like he’s posing for GQ. This suggested change would make panel 4 more comical in comparison with his ‘death face’ in panel 6.

    AND THAT IS WHAT YOU GET FOR BLASPHEMING GoT! yes, i would prefer panel 4 that way, but bc i love and appreciate your comic that you just had colored by a new colorist, perhaps i should say ‘perfect!’ but since you WENT THERE, i will speak it like it is! after that insane season finale, you complain? it wasn’t the best season ever, but return of benjen stark, return of aryah stark-as-faceless! yasss! also, ramsay bolton eaten by his own dogs – yasss! also, sparrows and beloved margaery and loras being burned by wyldfire or whatever, heck yes! even tommen going over the ledge and cersei taking the crown, hells yes! no end to the yes! walder frey getting his just desserts! i really could GO ON. as a book reader for i don’t know, maybe 15 years, i am as angry as anyone about the publisher’s failure to just send a live-in editor to move into GRRM’s home and help finish. and yeah, apart from that, i like SOME of the changes. obviously not Dorne – everyone knows Weiss and Benioff threw that down the toilet. but there are some exciting changes. and seeing some things (like bran’s visions) played out on screen are just so WOW that there really are no words to describe it. it is like when LOTR came out on the big screen. if one is a fantasy buff/nerd then this is nerdgasm insanity. period.

    • http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai

      spas, I’m gonna rant, I can’t help myself! I do appreciate that the show got made! And I can’t fault the creators for making it before the book series was finished because it clearly paid off for them and I’m sure those types of opportunities are very rare. Still, the last few seasons have had very bland, cliche writing. All the characters feel very watered down and much of the world building has been dropped, forgotten, or simplified. did Dany suddenly realize she was fireproof or did she know the whole time? If she knew, why hasn’t she always using fire as a weapon against her enemies? And it used to be arduous to travel across Westeros, but now people leap all over the place at a lightning pace. There’s no sense of time or space anymore. Gilly’s baby is still small and mute after three seasons while all the Stark kids have become gangly adults. And the writing has lost all wit, no one says anything amusing anymore. So many plot lines have been dropped or simplified that major characters like Tyrion have nothing to do or say of consequence. It’s great that Arya’s a super assassin now, but we never really saw her get any training beyond blind fighting, so I don’t know how that happened, is she a magic user now? How did she immediately recovered from a gut wound when everyone one else who’s gotten gut stabbed has died? Margery and Loras’ death is hugely disappointing because we never learned if Margery had a plan, and the show made Loras admit that his homosexuality was a sin before he died. At least have him boldly state that he won’t apologize for who he is before the show blows him up! I LOVE Loras in the books, but show Loras was a big ol’ dud. And the High Sparrow kept giving alternate backstories for himself, which would make you think that maybe he’s always lying to hide a truth, but he just dies. It feels like the show is throwing red herrings out there to see what sticks and what doesn’t, kind of like LOST, which is a show I grew to despise as it continued.

      And if I’m being totally fair with myself, as much as I enjoy the book series, I only really love books 2 and 3, and I consider seasons 2 and 3 the best part of the show. So, if I’m being honest, I suppose I did get what I wanted out of it. Any complaints I make at this point or just me being a whiny nerd, which I am, admittedly.

      • spas

        you’re not entirely wrong, and i certainly can’t fault you for being a whiny nerd. haha!

    • Kalrakh

      Just a remark: The fist isn’t random in the air, he his holding his pack in place with it all the time. 😀

  • Sunwu

    Death:Sponsored by Guns! AND JESUS!!!!

    • http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai

      *Auto-tuned*

  • SuperAnirtakus

    I looooove your new colorist. 😉 (I actually read the other comic she colors for, so I was really excited when I heard you had hired her XD)

    • http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai

      I’m equally pleased to have her coloring for me!

  • Arthur

    There is at least one ad with “virus” scareware. Please find which ad provider has this – I’ve seen in at a few other webcomics sites and things like that will drive people towards ad blockers.

    Otherwise, I’ve enjoyed your work a lot so far, and the new coloring is great as was the previous one. Thank you both for your work!

    • http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai

      thanks Arthur. We’ll try to identify it and root it out.

      • Jake

        Palpatine’s voice: Wipe them out. All of them.

    • jwkovell

      Thank you for the heads-up. We take bad ads seriously. Can you email is any details? (http://nn4b.com/contact) we will direct the info to our ad networks.

      Until then, I’ll see if I can get the ad to show up for me… But that is often an hit-or-miss technique.

  • EBeth

    Welcome Yoko! Glad to see you will be getting some pressure off, Alex. A buffer will be nice to have! Very excited for the whole nn4b team (all 3 of you). <3

  • Falling Star

    Specificity is appreciated.

  • clogboy

    Definitely looks dramatic and very time consuming! Good decision if it helps the quality and the schedule. :)
    On Game of Thrones, I think this is actually the most rewarding season to watch. But from the second or third episode I also had the feeling they rushed story progression at the expense of character development. Everything that happens is just a convenience to lead to a certain outcome, rather than have it dictated by what realistically would happen in a worst case scenario. But even if this season is aimed at crowd pleasing it still retained much of its mature and gritty look and feel.

  • http://daughterofthelilies.com/ MegSyv

    Aw dude – those colors look SWEET, yo. I’m feeling like a protective and jealous boyfriend right now.

  • guest

    Is it just me or do I think this series should have a tragic ending with Senshin completely annihilated and Watero taken over by an Ursurper?

    • Xinef

      This series will end when a buddhist monk, a catholic priest and a hindu guru walk into a bar. Or something along those lines.

  • Jake

    “Business partners for what, you may well ask? I’m glad you did! because we have the finest selection of armaments in all this hemisphere nearly guaranteed to kill an enemy at almost any distance. as long as it’s under 500 yards. this fine sample could cost you thousands if it were offered to you by anyone else, but for the bargain basement price of seeing us to safety, this can be yours!”
    “i don’t know what it is. Besides wouldn’t it have been easier to have just said “death” and got on with it?”

  • Ladon

    Indigo has had an awful lot of character growth from simply hating peasants and children. Does he still hate peasants and children? He sure is hanging around peasants a lot.

  • Insane Disciple

    Duh, so translate

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