I CAUGHT UP! Kind of delighted I only started this now, I don’t know how I would have survived waiting to the timeskip. Love this comic—cool art and worldbuilding that’s fun and strikes this great balance between tropey and fresh, great pacing, really fun characters…
Bernard is way more interesting than I thought he’d be at first, I was like “oh he’s the gruff assistant/bodyguard/right hand man/boytoy” but that last twist, where he was recommended for the position and his old comrades are PISSED he’s used it to “climb into bed with the king” immediately added so many layers of complexity. I’m not going to try to track down the exact page where Bernard and Hadrian discuss Bernard’s employment, but to me it left it sort of ambiguous what happened while implying that Hadrian definitely picked him because he had the hots for him. But was that before or after Hadrian noticed his fighting prowess (you did mention in one of the notes that Bernard is actually pretty tough). How much of that was a factor? Did he have interest in Bernard before? Did Bernard resist a relationship for a long time, but he genuinely fell for the king—because it’s obvious they have an intimate relationship that’s important to both of them, even if Hadrian is kinda stupid about it sometimes. How much does these worries populate his thoughts? Does he FEEL like a traitor, or is he sure that if they gave him a chance, he could explain, that it all makes sense? Is he actually working towards helping the lower classes in any way in the background? Just this one extra scene has made him immediately fascinating.
Other things I wanted to say: uhhh exposition game is on point. Wow it’s hard to make the amount of expositional dialogue and storytelling this comic has to set all of this up feel natural, but it DID. It DID. That is hard to do. Helps that is, indeed, a really cool world!
Love the banter. And the cute moments. Just so many fun character moments woven into the story so far! Mixed up loving boyfriends! Adorable toddler adopted by monsters! The joy when baby ripped into his very first limb and all that blood on him!
Personally, I’m also just excited for this comic because it’s such a fun premise. I love these kinds of stories! Those stories with a child and their awesome supernatural evil family who adore him and yet are kind of terrifying monsters plus juicy internal conflict plus loads of other stuff, the struggle against one’s nature vs the world around them, the internal conflict over WHO AM I, two worlds colliding, etc. (Okay I might be getting ahead of myself on some of this but I can hope.) And it’s GOOD. It’s one thing to have tons of cool ideas but for the artist behind them to execute them with patience and skill? Mannnnnnn.
Anyway, I cannot contribute money but hopefully this shows how much I’ve enjoyed this comic so far, and how I eagerly await getting to know Aged Up Boy and what kind of person/ferocious hellbeast he’s become and reading more.
Aaah thank you for the in depth comment, I love hearing people’s thoughts on my work so this was a lovely gift, thanks so much and I hope you continue to enjoy it!
6 thoughts on “Page 165”
Sandy
aw look at his lil face
Jamie
Awww! Hellborn playing tag!… I hope.
Pennylogue
I CAUGHT UP! Kind of delighted I only started this now, I don’t know how I would have survived waiting to the timeskip. Love this comic—cool art and worldbuilding that’s fun and strikes this great balance between tropey and fresh, great pacing, really fun characters…
Bernard is way more interesting than I thought he’d be at first, I was like “oh he’s the gruff assistant/bodyguard/right hand man/boytoy” but that last twist, where he was recommended for the position and his old comrades are PISSED he’s used it to “climb into bed with the king” immediately added so many layers of complexity. I’m not going to try to track down the exact page where Bernard and Hadrian discuss Bernard’s employment, but to me it left it sort of ambiguous what happened while implying that Hadrian definitely picked him because he had the hots for him. But was that before or after Hadrian noticed his fighting prowess (you did mention in one of the notes that Bernard is actually pretty tough). How much of that was a factor? Did he have interest in Bernard before? Did Bernard resist a relationship for a long time, but he genuinely fell for the king—because it’s obvious they have an intimate relationship that’s important to both of them, even if Hadrian is kinda stupid about it sometimes. How much does these worries populate his thoughts? Does he FEEL like a traitor, or is he sure that if they gave him a chance, he could explain, that it all makes sense? Is he actually working towards helping the lower classes in any way in the background? Just this one extra scene has made him immediately fascinating.
Other things I wanted to say: uhhh exposition game is on point. Wow it’s hard to make the amount of expositional dialogue and storytelling this comic has to set all of this up feel natural, but it DID. It DID. That is hard to do. Helps that is, indeed, a really cool world!
Love the banter. And the cute moments. Just so many fun character moments woven into the story so far! Mixed up loving boyfriends! Adorable toddler adopted by monsters! The joy when baby ripped into his very first limb and all that blood on him!
Personally, I’m also just excited for this comic because it’s such a fun premise. I love these kinds of stories! Those stories with a child and their awesome supernatural evil family who adore him and yet are kind of terrifying monsters plus juicy internal conflict plus loads of other stuff, the struggle against one’s nature vs the world around them, the internal conflict over WHO AM I, two worlds colliding, etc. (Okay I might be getting ahead of myself on some of this but I can hope.) And it’s GOOD. It’s one thing to have tons of cool ideas but for the artist behind them to execute them with patience and skill? Mannnnnnn.
Anyway, I cannot contribute money but hopefully this shows how much I’ve enjoyed this comic so far, and how I eagerly await getting to know Aged Up Boy and what kind of person/ferocious hellbeast he’s become and reading more.
aszabla@alumni.risd.edu
Aaah thank you for the in depth comment, I love hearing people’s thoughts on my work so this was a lovely gift, thanks so much and I hope you continue to enjoy it!
Lorelei
Ahh! He grew!! I’m so excited!! As an aside, I’m not sure if you plan on printing your comic? Forgive me if you’ve answered this elsewhere )
aszabla@alumni.risd.edu
Yep! If you pop over to the shop link on the top of the page, Chapters 1 and 2 are already available in print!
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