Eleanor!
Hope you have a safe and fun weekend. Monday-well, it’s been far too long since we’ve done a strip showcasing Stephanie’s ability to be silly. I think it’ll make you smile.
And jimtullis, you asked about the stars? They’re from here:
This is Lyssa and Eleanor from the third “Utopia, Unlimited” comic. I scanned the stars (white paint splattered with a toothbrush on a black background) and made the background from that.
Oh man… suddenly things seem to have gotten very dark.
At least pudding makes everything better.
I know its good for the story, but I think that this is totally irresponsible for Eleanor not to tell Larry what the blue blazes that is going on with Stephanie. Though I will make the concession that she was smart enough not to tell him with Stephanie in earshot of this conversation. There is something about Eleanor that puts me off anyway. She’s just, for the lack of a better word, antagonistic. Again I think she’s good for the story, I just don’t like her as a person.
It puts a whole new layer of ambiguity of what Stephanie knows and doesn’t know, especially that she made the promise not to hurt anyone ever again. Especially, when I went back and read the suggested comic on Wednesday. This has me wondering if Stephanie was a war machine of some sort.
Larry, well I kinda feel for him at this point, he’s stuck with the ambiguity of Stephanie and well right now I just don’t see how he and Eleanor connect as friends.
But everything should be better with pudding… I hope.
I’m off to work, have a wonderful day everyone!
I think she’s actually trying to be kind and avert disaster. Think of all those other amnesia stories. The character spends some time adjusting, creating a new life from himself while trying to find out about their old self. Eventually he finds out that his original personality was a right foul git, and he either decides to abandon the past or return to it.
Elenor is trying to give Stephanie time to become a new person and make good connections. If she told her right away, there’s a chance Steph will just go back to her primary programming, which is probably “conquer humanity.”
I just assumed Eleanor is the “villain” of the story for now. That is a vastly oversimplified way of saying it, but I haven’t gathered enough hints from G,K to form an opinion of whether Stephanie is a secret death-bot or Eleanor’s casual sadism extends to everyday conversation.
See I don’t see her as a villain. While she is an antagonist causing problems for some of the cast, she is somewhat sympathetic to the ones she knows overall. She just does what she wants in the way that she want to do whatever she is doing, and would do things against someone else wishes if she thought that it would be for there own good (“Pirates” has some good examples of what I mean).
Ah, I haven’t purchased copies of the offline published versions, yet. I admit that I am still building my fandom after just discovering this series. Are the previous publications needed to understand the present storyline? I thought the online storyline was flowing quite well without them, but that may just be the magic of our host. Thank you for the insight!
I hope you can follow along without having to buy “Lyssa & The Pirates,” though obviously I’d love it if you did.
All you really need read to get a better understanding is “The Comic!”, which is the one shot sequel to Lyssa.
Panel 4 is not a look I ever expected to see on Eleanor.
I love the Lamp in Panel 3, Is it Eleanor?
I can see her having her own Deco lamp.
How do you do the Star backgrounds?
Wow, you all are awesome.
I think, like Eleanor, that it’s best if I don’t give out any clues and let everything unfold through the story.
I will say this: I love your comments. During the course of my otherwise busy day, I find myself stopping and checking: “how many comments are there? Any new ones?” Thank you again.
Now, jimtullis-yeah, Eleanor’s never really looked that way before. It was a fun place to go.
That is indeed an Eleanor lamp. Not only is she the kind of person who would have a lamp of herself (the gift of a grateful lover, I’m sure), but I wanted to suggest that she was naked behind the screen, without actually drawing her.
And I took many of your comments to heart, and drew Eleanor a little “rounder” than she would normally be. I must saw I really like her li’l double chins.
Pudding for dinner does not sound too great. I can’t stand the stuff…
That pin up is awesome! Reminds me of a cross between something you’d find in Cerebus meets The Ballad of Halo Jones, but with girl-on-girl action (which Halo Jones had underlying tones of).
What kind of paint do you use for your stars? When I try doing the white paint splatter effect, I sometimes have a hard time doing that, myself. The paint (or in my case, Pure White) can be difficult to get the right consistency, so it globs up or becomes too runny and not opaque enough. What I do when this happens is splatter black ink onto white paper, and then convert the black to white using Photoshop. It produces the same result with just one extra step. Works especially well for blood splatters (just convert to red).
Ah, but you’ll soon see why Stephanie likes puddin-I’ve said too much.
Thanks for the compliment. Someday I hope to be 1/10th as good as Cerebus. Halo Jones? I haven’t thought about that book in a long time!
I think the paint I used (this was 6 years ago, so bear with me) was just an acrylic white, thinned down to decent splattering consistency. Then I cut some tracing paper to make a mask and took it outside to splatter. This was before all this fancy computer stuff. Now I’d do it the way you did-black on white and negativize it.
Heck, on the first Utopia I used WhiteOut and a toothpick. It took forever.
You’ve mentioned the third “Utopia Unlimited” but I’ve only seen (and have) two issues. Was the third a more limited release, from another publisher, or did it just come out when I had less access to comics?
Still loving this story, and look forward to seeing what’s ahead.
Unfortunately, Utopia III (which is a Christmas story, no less) never got published. I spent a whole year drawing it, and I still have all the pages. I just never lettered it and got it into print.
I suppose I could create a new, ‘adult’ page, and publish all three…
I’ve gotten a few other comics as digital downloads, but I don’t know much about the systems they use to offer/deliver them. I would definitely be interested, in any event.
I would definitely buy a Digital Download package of all 3 “Utopia’s”.
Or you could make an “Adult” page that is accessed via Donation and E-Mailed Links.
A third one? Yes, please! So very much yes.
Thanks for the Info on the stars. And Thanks for the Gorgeous Pic from Utopia Three.