Comic Current Events

[Dragonaur]

She's in it for what she can get, and that's a sexy new body. As matterial possessions go, that's way better than being given a new dress or some junk jewellery.

Hello Greyman and welcome to the forum! Looking at it from Arai's point of view, that sure sounds reasonable! Possessing a body is an expensive difficult endeavor. He spent alot of money trying to lure Xara in! All for Rhea! What did she do to deserve such a great guy.

[Dragonaur]

Just as things are picking up around here, I'm sorry to announce I've got to take a week off of the comic. I've got some family events occuring and I need to be away.

But until I'm back, here's some fun filler inspired directly from Hitoshi Okuda's "Detatoko Princess". Or translated, "The Unprepared Princess." I happened to be working on a sketch of princess "Lapis" when suddenly I have to pack my bags. So I decided to make this quick sketch for fun. Please don't "throw rocks" at me! Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Detatoko Princess is a comic from 1995. It was the second published comic from Mr Okuda that I know of. It was followed by the very familiar "Tenchi Muyo!" On the back of the 3rd Detatoko manga is a sketch just like this one. I've loved it so much since I saw it I thought to make one of Xara inspired from that. I'll probably make another of Carla as filler too until I can work up the next page.

I'll see if make two comic pages next week to make up for the gap.

[QuadManX]

Hey, no problemo on the delay in comic pages. Family is more important. Hope you have fun, if it is something to have fun over. We'll still be here by the time you get back...hopefully.

I'm liking the little Xara pic there, the title is rather appropriate for her.

[Dragonaur]

Well, as I mentiond over on DA. It turns out, I'm not going to be gone until next mid-week! So there's a chance I'll get next week's comic finished before I leave. But we will see!

In any event, here we are after around 7 years! We are just about to find out what's up with Xara! She's a maturing dragoness and yet she's still limited to simple fire spells. Whatz up with that?

I originally had an ENTIRELY different idea how Xara was going to learn about herself. It was going to be her grandfather who was going to break it to her. But I ended up making a radical story change and here we are with Xara in some insubstantial ghost form talking to her ghost father!

Ah, I love drawing Xara being all emotional. She's such a drama queen! ^_^; Xara wears her emotions on her sleeve, ever since giving in to her grandparents. It was supposted to be dramatic and difficult. She's a proud dragoness. She doesn't like being told what to do any more than any of us do! But she saw the error of her past ways and was determined to right them. But event that didn't seem to be working out! And now we're just about ready to find out why!

[QuadManX]

All I have to say, is that, for now, Xara and her dad better watch out for the Ghost-busters!

No, wait, that isn't all I have to say. I don't want to spoil anything for myself or other readers, but I couldn't help but notice that Xara's horns have been missing since she became ghosterized.

Going back a few of the posts here on the forum, you said... "New Xara" (then I made jokes of Super Saiyan Xara). Hmmmm

[Greyman]

No, wait, that isn't all I have to say. I don't want to spoil anything for myself or other readers, but I couldn't help but notice that Xara's horns have been missing since she became ghosterized.

Horns and tail, both. Clearly, her spirit form is only displaying the elven side of her heritage. I didn't want to say anything earlier, but going by today's comic, I'd say her dragon nature has been magically surpressed. Something like that.

[Dragonaur]

Kudo's to both of you!

I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say there is the possibility of magical tampering! Tho' no one has mentioned one salient feature of Xara at present...

[Greyman]

I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say there is the possibility of magical tampering! Tho' no one has mentioned one salient feature of Xara at present...

Oh, what could that be?

Let's see... could it have something to do with the way Xara gets extra spiky when she goes into battle mode? With spines and wing ridges forming, and skin going deeper purple and thicker scaled? I guess that could work in reverse when she's feeling underconfident about her undragonish aptitude.

Or could it be the way she's acting all emotional and childlike with her ussual bravado stripped away?

Or could it be the way her physical body remains glowing red, while Trista's turned back to normal on completion of the possession, (Though it also fell apart immediately after.) Obviously Xara's body is better able to handle the demon's magic.

Or could it be the fact that her spirit is sitting around free, instead of being locked away in crystal like --oh my-- is that Trista?

[Dragonaur]

could it have something to do with the way Xara gets extra spiky when she goes into battle mode?

It is indirect evidence that there is something going on.

Or could it be the way she's acting all emotional and childlike with her usual bravado stripped away?

Heh, heh, not directly. She really got trounced by her grandmother early in the story and it messed up her self confidence. Then when she "reverted" to a more dragon form it really upset her. She tried committing suicide. Which brings us to her present state of mind. We can revisit this issue after a few more pages.

Or could it be the way her physical body remains glowing red...

Well, yes in some respect. There's more to Xara than meets the eye.

Or could it be the fact that her spirit is sitting around free, instead of being locked away in crystal like.

Well yes and no. This is complicated. Consider Xara's father. He's dead and yet, he's happily floating around. Xara could be dead like him. OR... more could be going on that we don't know about yet. I have a couple of very serious story decision points I need to make in the next few pages. And Trista, yes that's her, that's a whole different story! Let's visit this again after a few pages!

Those are all good points, but they miss the one I'm thinking of. Here's a hint. Compare Xara right now with her father... and ignore the fact that Xara is all curvy and everything! ^_^

[Dragonaur]

.ps I'll be gone this weekend and so they're will be filler. I think it's a cute little bit of filler but I think I'll wait and let it auto update on the comic this Saturday/Sunday time frame, and I'll post the next comic page a couple days after that!

C-ya!

[Dragonaur]

I'm back! Yes, right at the grand revelation of my comic I had to take a hiatus! So sorry about that. But I made it back and here it is!

It has been mentioned that Xara is acting and looking rather elven. However, if you read the full page of this week's comic, you'll find there's plenty of dragon left in there!

So at last, Xara learns her magic ability has been suppressed since birth! But you knew that all along. She took it with great resignation. Xara has really grown in the last 7 years of the comic! At last, she is learning wisdom. But she does show her father that theres still dragon in there!

It took forever to get to this point. Years ago I had planned Xara to learn of her magic difficulties in an entirely different manner. But in the end, I think it's great that it was her father was there for her! Working on the story has made the continuity of magic in the Southwell family completely clear to me now. We will learn more about that later, but now I think it's just about time for a dragoness to learn how to use magic to kick some demon @$#!

I'd say catfight but we are talking demons and dragons here!

[QuadManX]

Demons versus Dragons. Where have we seen something like that, recently? heh

All kidding (and DvsS plugging) aside, ya got me curious about what will happen next. Will Xara be fighting Rhea within her own body, as a mental manifestation of some sort? Will Xara and Rhea become separated and they have a physical battle?

If the split and physical fight is the case, will Rhea still look like she currently does (as an orange Xara) and will Xara look like her elfy side? Or will Rhea be in her original, fire demony form while Xara goes back to being her purple-ish, dragony self?

Will Arai show more emotion towards the current situation? Will Batman and Robin ever escape from the clutches of the diabolical, Joker?

I got carried away there... eheh -_-;;

[Dragonaur]

I think your main question will be answered in the next page when Xara learns what she can do. But I'm not saying yet!

[Dragonaur]

Look see, it's Xara's dragon form! Cute as a button I think. She's gripping Xara's thumb as she sleeps. Awwww!!!

I've been waiting a ding dang long time to introduce Xara's dragon form. Xara is not a European dragon, but an Asian dragon river dragon! This is going to explain a few things about Xara's fire problems.

Notice Xara thinks it's a "worm." But Laurence knows it is Xara's "wyrmling" form. I've never really given it too much thought about just how much Xara knows about dragons other than next to nothing! She's been figuring it out all by herself up to now. But, of course, Xara has been trying to figure out "fire" magic. She's actually a "water" elemental! It's amazing that she can do fire at all!

Xara is very close to becoming a whole person. Now it's a matter of picking up all the pieces and booting out an interloper!

[Greyman]

The clue was the horns, wasn't it?

Plus, the whole oriental imagery. Like the the soul knife poetry. You know:

"Gold is Dragonish. A brilliant hue of fire, dragon temperament and desire."

"Silver is Elven. The shimmering blue of a laughing stream, leading to wisdom of the deep ocean."

Looking back through the archive, there have been these subtle hints seeded all through the story.

...

Oh, and that snowboard too. Subtle....

[Dragonaur]

It's the one thing I think I did manage successfully. Planting all those hints! The fact that her body couldn't quite figure out if it was elven or dragonish. Definitely the soul knife. The changing personality. The fire difficulties. And yes the snowboard.

I knew I wanted Xara to be an Asian dragon since very early on in the story. It was hard to keep her true physical form a secret! But it was worth the wait.

At this point I'm trying to decide if the little dragon will have it's own mini personality when Xara "isn't home" so to speak. Or perhaps it'll just be sleeping all the time.

[Dragonaur]

She's really a wyrm!

So Xara finally gets the message. Tho' she does seem a little underwelmed! After all, her mother is a big European Medieval style dragon. But I woudn't count this little pip-squeak out just yet. Xara is still in at least 3 pieces right now. Perhaps the sum is greater than the parts?

[QuadManX]

Well, if Xara is like some Asian dragons, then she could be a good 100 feet long or so.

Speaking of which, I saw this show on the History Channel a while back. It told of how many claws a dragon has, based on the rank of whoever wears the design on his clothing.

Royalty wore dragons with 4 claws, while everyone else wore them with 3. Does Xara have 4 or 3 claws? Will she show her royal roots?

[Dragonaur]

Ooohhh. How interesting I started drawing her with four claws, but as you can see lately in the comic I switched to 3 because the fit on her feet easier! I will have to consider this... hmmm....

[QuadManX]

I found the dragon-claw thing quite interesting also. Then again, I find dragons and all sorts of mythical/supernatural creatures to be fascinating.

One thing that I'm curious about -- earlier in the story, while Xara was at Laurence and Triona's house, Xara did that transformation thing where bone spurs and all sorts of spikey things shot out of her skin (thus causing her to be bandaged up and such), will those horns/spikes/bone spurs appear on her dragon form when she finally takes it, or are those some sort of strange mutation or "Saurian" magic or something?

Xara's transformations, up to this point, have been kind of confusing when relating them to that little, cuddly Wyrm. The Wyrm doesn't seem to have many spikes and/or other do-dads on it and all.

By the way, if the answer to these questions would be some sort of SPOILER, then you don't have to answer them...I'm fair like that.