1010lilfoot

Chapter 20, Page 11

That didn't last!

Chapter 20, Pages 9-10

We can finally breathe easy...right?

Chapter 20, Pages 7-8

Starting the chapter off with an unparalleled save!

Chapter 20, Pages 5-6

Oh!!

TDL Chapter 20, Pages 1-4 Thumbnails

Forgot to grab the blue-lined sketches for this batch! (They'll be back for pages 10 and up.) Anyway, fun little slow-mo section we have here!

What sort of overwhelming disaster do we have to look forward to...?

Chapter 20, Pages 3-4

Are you bulletproof enough for this?

Chapter 20, Pages 1-2

Holding my breath...!

–

It's the final chapter of Arc 3!! I've been pretty busy, so it took a while to get back into the swing of things. On the same note, it's possible that the number of pages per update will dwindle back down again. U_U

Hopefully, if that does come to pass, we'll have a long stretch of multi-page updates first! And I may be getting busy, but that just means I should have lots of fun comic news to announce these next few months. ^^

☔

Here's another peek at a project in progress! I was accepted into a comic anthology a couple months ago, and I've since been working through pages. (Maybe I'll post some previews of those too! We're allowed to share process work.) My bit of the book is a mystery about some pricey fish gone missing and the detective tasked with finding them. Want to know more? Keep an ear out and I'll let you know when it's ready for crowdfunding! >:)

👿

TDL extras are running low, so here's something totally new! (Depending on contract details, I may be able to post some other current WIP projects as well, next time.)

I've been thinking about participating in the upcoming WEBTOON contest, starting in March. A whole new "pilot" for a whole new story! I'm working out the art style, script, character designs, and etc., so I may be posting more of it as the contest approaches.

That being said, here's the back-of-the-book summary!

Conny’s high school life is just terrible. Their classmates either ignore them or bully them, and Iva, their only friend, ditched them years ago to hang with the popular kids. Can things get any worse?

Maybe they can. People across the country are falling into strange and sudden comas in the night. Iva abruptly and desperately wants to reconnect. A world of dark dreams beckons...and once it has you, it will never let you go.

The current working title is, of course "just TERRIBLE"... >:)

TDL Chapter 19 Sketches (+AUs)

There's a lot dumped on these pages! I'll go through them bit by bit and attempt to give context, haha.

Well, page 1.1 is self-explanatory...and page 3.2 is just goofy stuff.

Page 2.1 is more Sambre divorce content, this time featuring Ambre's fundamental failure to ponder her own self on more than the shallowest possible level! Maybe that will change? Also, a tidbit about the Defectors–specifically, some of their favorite things about each other. As you might expect, Ambre enjoys the way Sarah and Penwood have never taught her a whit about morality or self-reflection, Penwood likes her and Sarah's blunt honesty and abstention from pleasantries (even when that's probably needed for coworkers), and Sarah enjoys the excitement the other 2 bring to her life (whether for the better or the worse). They have been, and continue to be, kind of terrible. <3

Page 1.2's got Yusarah art! We'll dive into their past relationship a bit later on, but this peek is spoiler-free enough to include now. Sarah had braids when they were dating, and Yuma had long hair! Aside from that, I can say nothing else on the matter. U_U

Lastly, pages 2.2 and 3.1! This is a string of AU's from a very vague multiverse story I thought up, starring the Defectors + Yuma (not canon, btw). I drew 4 out, but there may have been more, I just ran out of steam. Anyway, explanations!

The first is a sweet, drama-free slice-of-life roommate story. (Sarah and Yuma have never even dated in this one.) But these 2 clueless friends are the main characters forced to confront a billion different iterations of their relationship in alternate worlds–what will it do to their friendship?

Some of these AUs include...! A ~1930s hardcore historical setting (man, I had a document on this one but it's been lost to the ether) based in China or Korea; I can't recall which. To those who don't know, this time period/location was (incredible understatement -->) pretty unfortunate. Anyway, you can understand why I didn't do much for this little multiverse ditty. One of the timelines would have included a metric ton of research and it was literally only intended to be read by myself.

There was an apocalypse AU (pretty much no research at all, lol), starring Sarah and Ambre, two strangers who did not speak the same language. Where was it set? Somewhere in the Americas. What was the world-ending threat? I don't know; I don't even think I thought it up.

Then there was a slasher AU, which would've been campy and fun. (Does this one overlap with canon? Perhaps.) I mean, not for the peaceful, happy roommates. But it would've been fun for me!

Pretty sure that's a wrap on this sketch batch! This is basically how most of my sketchbooks look, haha. A stream-of-consciousness sort of thing.

TDL Chapter 19 Concepts

Here we go!! There are a lot of sketchy comics in this batch of concept art (pretty much all related to the Sambre confrontation), which tells you just how excited I was to get to it. But first, a note about the first page and a half!

As you may have guessed, this one's concept art for Arc 2: Plasma! Danger! Bright! (I don't think I've posted it before, seeing as it's attached to Arc 3 concepts.) Initially, this story was going to take place in Arc 4, but I moved it to a pre-canon time period. (Speaking of Arc 4–I'm now getting into the details of its plot, and it's going to be fun!)

The Arc 3 concept comic is almost beat for beat what ended up in TDL. I think it's the most recent art I did for that scene, so I had the best idea of what would happen.

These 3 pink-bordered pages were drawn a few years ago, by contrast (as you can see, I was contemplating the functioning of the TDL base at the time). The canon Sambre argument was extended (even at the time of drawing, I knew the real thing would be more involved), but I did keep a few bits.

Namely, the final 2 panels of proper dialogue! And for those who are wondering, the double page spread was indeed not planned this far in advance. In fact, I'm pretty sure I first thought of it while drawing the chapter thumbnails, about as close to the actual finalizing of the pages as we can get!

And this sequence is again, fairly close to the canon comic. You can tell I was puzzling through Ambre's weapon design a bit; in the previous 2 pages its shape is different. Also, she only has one!

There are 2 more pink pages to this bit, but they're a bit too spoilery to include right now. (I intended to conclude the entire big fight in Chapter 19, but it ended up way too long for that.) You'll see them after I start Chapter 20!

TDL Chapter 19 PDF

TDL Chapter 19, Pages 67-70 Thumbnails

Throwing Coda's Talent in the mix could take this situation from terrible to...well...even more terrible. Hey, do you think Ambre's "Bulletproof" is tougher than Coda's "Ripple" is sharp?

Chapter 19, Pages 67-70

A cliffhanger?!

–

One more chapter left in Arc 3!

What will happen to Coda? To the rest of the Big Three? To TDL and NYSM? And don't forget Ambre, who's learning for the first time that mindless murder does not actually make her likeable. You'll get the answers to all of these questions...after a little break.

I've got a lot of comic stuff in the works (more than just TDL), so I have to hustle and crack down on all that as 2025 begins. But don't worry! I'll be posting lots of behind-the-scenes content till we're back. I want to tackle Chapter 20 as much as you do, so I promise the break won't be more than a month, maximum. (I'm aiming for 2 weeks or less!)

I'll see you all soon. Get ready for everything that's coming next!

TDL Chapter 19, Pages 61-66 Thumbnails

There are some parallels between Yuma and Ambre, huh? Though I can freely admit that Yuma is like...solidly worse.

Chapter 19, Pages 64-66

Unhappy all around!

Chapter 19, Page 63

Well, there's a lot to unpack here.

TDL Chapter 19, Pages 55-60 Thumbnails

A verbal and physical smackdown! I wonder if these questions will stay with Ambre for a while...

Chapter 19, Page 62

Oh, okay! This is worse!

Chapter 19, Pages 60-61

She'd never! ...Right?

Chapter 19, Pages 58-59

You probably shouldn't have stopped punching her... :(

Chapter 19, Page 57

Does it?

Chapter 19, Page 56

Oh?

Chapter 19, Page 55

Knock some sense into her!

TDL Chapter 19, Pages 51-54 Thumbnails

These fight scenes read fast and take a while to draw... And yet, I love to draw them. (Though I can admit I never really reference actual fighting techniques, haha.)

Chapter 19, Pages 53-54

Not so one-sided after all!

TDL Concepts/Sketches (old!)

It's been a while since I had the time or opportunity to scrounge up spare art, but I was just going through old sketchbooks and I found some fun TDL content! (You can tell it's old because my current art style is, in many ways, quite different!)

Some are related to the current chapter (CH 19), and others are just fun doodles that sparked my memory. (like this drawing of the TDD polycule, lol)

 Below is what I believe to be the first drawing of Amily's current design! For a long time, she was a mermaid (pretty unwieldy talent for everything I wanted her to do, so I changed it), and she was also pretty twiggy. She's still a mermaid here, but I'd figured out her hair and body type! (and as you can tell, both were an upgrade)

 Next, we've got some Ambre content! I was having a hard time figuring out her Talent situation. What exactly is it? Why does it make her look like a cool robot? I won't get into spoiler territory on the nature of Talents (though I suspect you could get close to guessing it with just what we've seen in the comic so far), but here's the moment it finally clicked.

 Now!! Thoughts on the short-lived Sam/Ambre relationship!

 There are a lot of plot/character elements of TDL that I've had in my head since the beginning. This romance was not one of them! I conceived of it late in Arc 1, more as a "wouldn't this be wild?" than an actual dynamic. It was always going to be a failed romance, but the reasons for it's failure changed slightly over time. In this early beginning, it's hard to remember exactly what I was thinking, but I believe it was something like: "I don't think Sam could get over being attacked by Ambre multiple times."

 That line of thinking remained as I moved to Arc 2, and the pairing was in limbo. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to include it, or how I could fit it into the plot! But as I was planning out the end of Arc 2, Sam and Miriam Bosser's conversation finally clicked for me, and so did the vague premise of "Sambre". At this point, Sam had grown quite a bit, and she showed interest in Ambre's flirting at the end of Arc 1. "I don't think Sam could get over being attacked by Ambre multiple times" no longer seemed like an issue. I could write a Sambre whirlwind (shallow) teen romance that crashed into a confrontation at the end of Arc 3 and added to TDL's central themes. Nice!!

Back to random TDL concept lore!

 Let's all take in Early Coda, who was designed to be constantly wearing a trench coat. Why would a 12 year old dress like that? How does a short 12 year old find a small enough coat? I couldn't answer these questions, so I dropped the coat and promptly forgot about it, lol.

 Miriam Bosser used to be much blunter. Unfortunately I like her too much to write her as nothing but a mean-spirited boss...so now she can only think these things instead of saying them out loud. She's more of a "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" boss, but the truth is she's actually very very mad.

 More Early Coda! Without the trench coat and with Yuma and Kilo. (Yuma was going to have long hair in the present and short hair in the past, but I've effectively swapped that.) Anyway he CAN read! At around a 2nd Grade level, because he was put into Super Jail at 7 years old. Not going to dwell on that!

 Ambre was much less suave around Amily in my first plans. I changed that because why would she ever be hesitant or awkward with her maniac childhood? And it was funnier, too. Also Amily needs a project to fix.

Chapter 19, Pages 51-52

Yeah, it's not looking great so far.

TDL Chapter 19, Pages 46-50 Thumbnails

I suppose the sambre ship has just about sunk at this point...RIP. U_U

It may or may not be surprising, but I always planned for their awkward budding relationship to fail. Expect some old concept art and a word dump on the matter soon!

Chapter 19, Pages 49-50

This feels familiar...