It’s also closely referencing events in Start of Darkness if you haven’t read that book.
In the story there’s a reference to how Azure City is a mix of “Asian” cultures. There are characters with Japanese names, Chinese names, and Vietnamese names. The story also says the O-Chul and another character named Gin-Jun belong to the same culture.
Are their names indicative of a particular Asian nationality? I’m guessing Korean but that’s only a guess.
IIRC, all Korean names are three syllables long.
It’s a whopping 96 pages long, too. Thanks a lot, Rich, you’re the reason I didn’t get enough sleep last night.
Aren’t Kim and Park and Lee common Korean names?
I’m not so sure.
[spoiler] SOD’s paladin attack on goblin village happened decades ago. The O-Chul story looks like it happened between 5 to 10 years ago.
There’s a passing reference to events 22 years ago, which might be the SOD massacre. Can’t remember the exact timescale offhand. But not what I’d call *close *reference. [/spoiler]
By the way …
Hinjo and Miko are cousins by adoption? Has this ever been mentioned before?
More particularly, the implications for Miko’s end.
Worth the wait!
I was… not expecting that story about O-Chul’s childhood. I’m still not entirely sure I buy it, but that’s just me. Anyway, I think I’m gonna go read it again.
The current year in the webcomic is 1185 (presumably dated from the creation of the current universe).
The Sapphire Guard was founded by Soon Kim sometime in the 1120’s. They were given the mission of finding the wearer of the Crimson Mantle and killing him. As the new story shows, they originally misinterpreted this mission by thinking it was the individual wearing the cloak that was the key and not the Crimson Mantle itself. So they attacked and killed the previous high priest in 1149 but didn’t capture or destroy the Crimson Mantle. This was when Redcloak (who had been just a beginning cleric but was the highest ranking survivor after the attack) became the wearer of the Crimson Mantle and the new high priest.
In the story, Gun Jin describes this attack and says it occurred twenty-two years ago. So the O-Chul story is set in 1171, fourteen years before the current main story. (Hinjo and Miko were both born in 1155 and would be around sixteen in this story.)
Shojo explicitly says that Miko is older than Hinjo, and then tells Hinjo to wait two more years. What’s the source for them being born in the same year? Because that sounds to me like Miko is two years older than Hinjo.
The O’Chul story is one of Rich’s best works, up there with Start of Darkness. I perceive thematic parallels. It blew my expectations out of the water.
Complaints about Rich’s output are misguided. I spoke with one of the Hernandez Brothers once and got the idea that penning a single black and white page per day was pretty good, when you consider story construction, dialogue and administrative work as part of the package. The two brothers currently publish about 100 b/w pages per year between the two of them. That’s one page per week for each of them.
Over in Japan, Mangaka typically have multiple assistants as well as an editor on their team. Editors work on more than one strip, but they are considered to play a critical role. They put out about 20 b/w pages per week, but again multiple people are involved. Even so, burn out can be pretty high and many weeks are skipped. Say it averages at 14-17 per week. Those levels of productivity are generally unmatched in other countries.
In the US, 32 color pages per month might be typical in Superhero land. (Corrections welcome). But the whole production is done in assembly line fashion and the formulaic nature shows. I don’t know how many assistants the penciller, colorer, writer and editor have.
One of the dirty secrets of the comic biz is that it struggles to put out a product that is a good value, at least if your audience isn’t as fanatical/freakish as I am. Hammering out a short or long text story is quicker (fewer steps), but then again movies are much more resource intensive.
Rich is a one man show. His work is consistently innovative. That he found time for a 96 page work is amazing, even with the diminished output on the main strip. This stuff is harder than it looks.
Pet peeve: The unkillable goodass is blue, not green, and hence his name contains a hyphen, not an apostrophe.
I think Alessan means that while Korean names, surnames and clan names are typically one or two syllables long ; since their full names are three parters, it’ll always be at least 3 syllables total. Eg. Kim Il Sung, Sun Myung Moon etc…
Gah, haven’t had time to finish reading this. Must resist urge to read thread…
How big is this thing? Like, in terms of how much it will sell on Gumroads eventually, is it like the other two $1 works, the full priced works, or something in between?
Less than 100 pages.
According to posts on the GitP forum, he’s going to bundle it with the Therkla story plus perhaps some other short stories and make it a book. Which will no doubt be available online, like the others. Expected release: perhaps in late Fall, although (with his record on such things) don’t be surprised if it’s not 'til next year.
As far as size, it’s 95 pages plus the title page.
Oh, good! I hope it’s widely available soon, and not restricted to kickstarter backers. This is a really excellent story, with important background.
He’s got the following material to release:
Haleo and Julelan: 25 pages
Uncivil Servant (Belkar): 12 pages
Spoiler Alert (Therkla): 16 pages
How the Paladin Got His Scar (O-Chul): 95 pages
Gygax magazine strips: 6 pages
Plus four more stories that haven’t been released yet:
Julio Scoundrel
CPPD
Dim Sun
Sir Francois and the Dragon
So he’s got 154 pages of material already done and another fifty to sixty pages in the works.
For comparison’s sake, here’s the size of the books he’s released so far:
On the Origin of PCs: 72 pages
Start of Darkness: 96 pages
Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales: 112 pages
Dungeon Crawlin’ Fools: 120 pages
No Cure for the Paladin Blues: 244 pages
Don’t Split the Party: 272 pages
War And XPs: 288 pages
Blood Runs in the Family: 368 pages
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