These are/were the first three pages for ‘The Lesser,’ originally the next chapter in this story.

However, as I was breaking down page 15, it occurred to me, it was really kind of boring. That revelation had been sneaking up on me over the course of the summer. I was struggling to find that image on each page that I saw as the focus. The picture that really said, this is what this page is about. At 15 I hit a wall. I flipped back through what I’d completed already, flipped through my notes for what was coming up, and the realization hit home that none of it was very compelling. If I hadn’t read the story the whole summer, and this was the issue waiting for me, I’d be pissed. It was a lot of talky-talk, more set-up for grand things, but that’s kind of my pat-line isn’t it? I set-up other set-ups, and have never satisfactorily landed any of them.

So instead of ‘The Lesser’ being the next chapter, I’m skipping ahead to ‘House of the Devil,’ which wasn’t actually the next story, but the one after that! I really need to work on being exciting, because another chapter of set-up is a terrible idea. However, I’m not one to let a bad idea go entirely unrewarded, so I’ll be mashing ‘The Lesser’ and it’s follow-up ‘Road of Whispers,’ into a prose tale with complementary illustrations. Which I’m still aiming to have ready by August 1st.

As for ‘House of the Devil,’ I’m going to say Oct 1st. Which is way longer than I would like, and a bit of a stretch to ask you guys to wait, but I want to get this thing right. It’s going to be longer than a normal 22 pages, I don’t want it to look rushed, I want to get the web-site ready for the new format. In a few years time hopefully we either won’t remember this hiccup or we’ll look back on it fondly as the turning point towards a better, more consistent story.

So in October, we’ll be going here:

and meeting this guy: