Clare, I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be doing that; I don’t think stainless steel has been invented yet.

And now here’s something extremely cool. For some time now, Tomoyo Ichijouji has been producing a video adaptation of the comic,  using the original  artwork with voice actors, sound effects, and music. (If you’ve seen the Watchmen “motion comics”, it’s something like that, except with a full voice cast, and also I am not Dave Gibbons.) Well, the first chapter is complete! I’m going to try to embed the video below. In case that doesn’t work, watch it on youtube here and leave comments to tell Tomoyo and co. what an awesome job they did. I’m told that Chapter 2 will be coming very soon!

Happy New Year! Resolutions for this comic include finishing chapter 5. That may sound like a very modest goal, but it’s still more than one page a week, which will require me to speed up my current rate of production. I also hope to finish the script/thumbnails for chapter 6 and the next interlude, and to post in my art tumblr at least once a week, even if it’s only sketches and junk.

I’m going to try doing a one-page update next week.

A few months ago, when the site got infected by some spambot script and I was desperately scrambling to scrub it clean, I ended up deleting the entire forum. Prior to that, the forum had long been overrun by spambot posters. I guess now what I’m wondering is if anyone would be interested in a new forum? I have very fond memories of the community that formed on old No Rest forums; but I’m not sure if webcomic forums is something that people still do (wow I sound old). Blog comments seem like less fuss. But maybe people would prefer something more conducive to discussions? I don’t know.

Trivia: the trees in this chapter were loosely inspired by Kay Nielsen’s illustrations.

If you haven’t been following my art tumblr, I’ve posted more of those weird character dream comics: one for Perrault and one for Red. I still have a couple more of these in the works.

The story of the girl who turned into a raven is from the Grimms, who also had a story of seven brothers who turned into ravens. (So no, the raven thing is not solely based on my obsession with Princess Tutu. )

Revamps for the rest of the website haven’t progressed much, but at least I managed to get rid of that malware/adware that kept redirecting people (I think) (I hope? Please let me know if you still have problems accessing the site). In the meantime, I’ve posted a weird November comic on tumblr, with several more characters to follow. And please check out this elegant Red fanart by ValDeCreez.

September and August have appeared two or three times in the comic (including the very first page), but this is their first speaking part. In case you wanted to refresh your memory on the story without having to reread the archives, there’s this handy summary of the previous chapters.

Last week a number of people told me that the site was setting off their antivirus alerts and/or redirecting them to some sort of ad site. Now I believe I have fixed the issue, but if you’re still encountering problems with the site please let me know.

So, a new chapter, and  a new site design… kind of. Actually only the main page and the About page have been touched at all; click on anything else and you’ll find yourself looking at the old site. Knowing me, if I wait until I get the site to be completely presentable before updating the comic, I’d probably just end up sitting on the new pages indefinitely. I apologize to the loyal forum posters; the forum is still down. I’ll work on that next. The Fanworks and Links sections will probably be a long time in coming. In the meantime, please check out this beautiful fanart sent in by L.S. Zwarenstein of Geist!

As I posted before on Tumblr and Deviantart, I’m doing things a little differently this chapter. In the past I would dive into producing pages with only a basic outline for the chapter. I’d do thumbnails and dialogue as I went along. For this chapter, I’ve thumbnailed the whole thing  in advance, which will hopefully make things easier/more efficient along the way. That’s the theory, anyway. Come back next week to see how well it works.

The composition in the first panel of page 1 is inspired by a well-known painting; see if you can recognize it.

CHAPTER 1: The Moon is Rolling in Her Grave

Princess November has run away from her home and her impending marriage to a peasant boy, in order to find a cure for her insomnia. An old woman she meets on the road informs her that she will sleep again when the missing Moon is brought back from the dead. The woman tells her to find the Moon by searching for a coffin, a cross, and a candle. To help her on her quest, November seeks out Perrault, a talking cat with a reputation as the cleverest man in twenty kingdoms. Perrault is eventually persuaded to accompany her, though he soon has doubts when he meets November’s other traveling companion: an infamous red-hooded witch.

CHAPTER 2: Whose Woods These Are I Think I Know

November tells Perrault the story of how she stumbled across Red’s home in the woods one stormy night. Following Red’s nose, the three break into an ornate mansion in the middle of the woods. Its sole resident is a Beast, whose sullen temper over his true love leaving him is exacerbated by the arrival of these vandals. Red throws him out the window, and the three head back out into the woods.

CHAPTER 3: A Modest Proposal

November, Red, and Perrault arrive in a village that has been plagued by numerous child disappearances over the years, the latest case being a woodcutter’s two children. The alleged culprit is a woman with silver hands, found in the woods and set to be burned in the square the following morning. November questions the woman, Clare, and learns that Clare actually met the Moon several years ago. November sets out to prove Clare’s innocence.

With Perrault’s help, November finds an old witch living in a strange house in the woods. November talks to her, while Perrault and Red rescue the woodcutter’s two children. They soon discover that the other missing village children were all eaten by the witch. Red flies into a murderous rage and burns the witch in her own oven. The next morning, Clare is set free. She offers to take November to see someone who knows how to find what November is looking for.

CHAPTER 4: Idle Hands

Clare brings the group to a grave under an old tree deep in the woods. Red and Clare track down an  acquaintance of Clare’s — a former soldier who now wears a bearskin as part of a bargain he struck for his soul. Meanwhile, November and Perrault meet a talking bear, whom Perrault tricks into digging up the grave for them. The bearskin soldier gives the group directions, and reveals that Clare’s husband King Gareth will be returning home. Clare and November open the “grave”, which is actually a door, and fall in. Red and Perrault follow.