An executive summary of The Dualist from a Heirotus perspective. A refresher if you’ve read it and the cliff’s notes if you haven’t. Also the only planned appearances of the Bodkin, the Peregrine, and the Sabrosa in this chapter and a fitting start to the final installment of a story arc that entered production in the spring of 2003.

Today in ATC history: The original CMS post dates for Commitment -6- and Commitment -7-, originally Convergence -1- and -2- in May of 2003. Subversion -18- was posted on this date in 2007 – the year production on Transitional Voices started. Commitment -6- and -7- aren’t the first pages of ATC – they aren’t even the first scene – but they’re close enough. They’re the point where things get serious and they’ve only been redrawn and retitled once. The really for reals first page of the comic was originally something totally other than what it turned out to be. The scan and creation dates on the first couple of actually actual ATC pages are 2003.05.23 and 2003.05.27 with the original version of what became Commitment -6- sitting at 2003.05.24 so “5.25” has been settled on as ATC’s official production anniversary out of convenience. Also in no small part as a nod to the Gridlock album, which has some of the best packaging ever.

Speaking of nods the page layout was in no small part influenced by Warhawk. Any one of the three panels spent more time rendering than I did playing that game – if memory serves I took it back to EB and traded it for store credit I put towards Twisted Metal 2. A decision I do not regret.

Holiday updates are a thing, Wordy metadata is a thing. This is ATC Year 12, there are 39 pages left of this chapter and this book. I intend to post the next page this coming Sunday.

Normally I’d stick with standard procedure and get a buffer of completed or at least rendered pages built up before lurching into production, so the scene is consistent and I can make major adjustments to page two if page four says I need to and stuff like that. However these are the only exterior shots near GAC-5263 in the chapter so the only thing they really need to match against is Air -44-. This being the right to that left.

It’s been a busy few months – a fact I’ve blogged about extensively. Most of the environments have been prepared, all of the vehicles have been modeled, and the script has been written and laid out. All 40 pages have base paneling and dialogue in place. The only thing throttling production at the moment is the fact that I need to get paid for at least some of the work that I do in order to pay the utilities I need to do the rest of it – to that end I’ll hopefully have something to say about Patreon within the next few weeks.

In the meantime I need to shut up and post this while it’s still the 25th so the page has that sweet sweet totally legit unedited CMS publication date I’ve been eying for the past couple of weeks.

Courage.

Mastering notes, 2016.12.07 – Tweaked dialogue positioning in panel one.