Goblins XVI: Corrupted to the Kore

[Lethologica]

Welcome to Goblins, you must be new. Do not look up how long the current situation has lasted, or what the situation was before that.

I like the comic, I really do, but I'm not even trying to ridicule the update schedule anymore.

(It's practically worse than OOTS, imagine that!)

Hey now. Hey, now. Goblins' update schedule has been way worse than OotS. The only reason for even making the comparison would be Rich's thumb.

But take heart--at least this isn't Prequel purrgatory.

[Tutorix]

This was at least Thunt's seccond attempt at drawing this particular page, possibly third. I know he tried to draw the page at least once before, and got pretty far in it, but he wasn't happy with how it turned out, so he scrapped it and started over.

Really? Well, good for him. Thunt draws some crazy stuff, but this flea demon is IMHO his best work yet. That entrance on the path of teeth!

[Anteros]

Welcome to Goblins, you must be new. Do not look up how long the current situation has lasted, or what the situation was before that.

I like the comic, I really do, but I'm not even trying to ridicule the update schedule anymore.

(It's practically worse than OOTS, imagine that!)

Also, wow, that is some Batlock Holmes Who level deduction there. If he's right (and it looks like he is), respect.

I don't actually care about the update schedule. He can update however he wants. It's just more mind-boggling to me that he can work on something for the better part of a month and this is the result.

In the past, the constant delays were always explained away by Thunt's obsessive perfectionism, but now we have a half drawn page that looks like it was cranked out in an hour by a 5th grader. I'm genuinely curious if there's something going on in his life to explain it.

[EnragedFilia]

With the eminently predictable rise to immediate prominence of the axe-bound demon-deity, I am reminded of an exchange from about three threads ago, in which my (admittedly simplistic) interpretation of events and foreshadowing drew a comparison to the situation of a different webcomic. Would it be fair to say that comparisons between the thing in the axe and Lord English may have now become somewhat more accurate than they appeared at that time?

[Draconi Redfir]

If nothing else i will say this: The Demon deity is at least getting some good buildup and forshadowing, and unlike English, his role of primary villain is not already taken up by a more established, better character.

So no, the Demon Deity is not like English. He's better.

[Emperor Time]

That true but still think it was interesting that English was four different characters combined. And I guess the Demon Deity can not lose to anyone unless Kore helps in his defeat.

[archon_huskie]

I don't actually care about the update schedule. He can update however he wants. It's just more mind-boggling to me that he can work on something for the better part of a month and this is the result.

In the past, the constant delays were always explained away by Thunt's obsessive perfectionism, but now we have a half drawn page that looks like it was cranked out in an hour by a 5th grader. I'm genuinely curious if there's something going on in his life to explain it.

The Short-Short answer is yes.

He's shared his troubles in the past. My summary would not be complete nor do it justice. But the gist is that he took on too much and had a breakdown. At the same time a business partner walked out on him taking most of the funds his fans had raised for his card game. He feels that he owes his fans, but is not able to deliver it to them.

[danielxcutter]

... holy ship i just realized.

Hammer/axe of prissan. = Prison. Hammer of Jale: Jail. *facepalms for not getting it sooner*

Realized it because of you lol

*casts Bugsby's Exparated Facepalm*

[The Glyphstone]

The Short-Short answer is yes.

He's shared his troubles in the past. My summary would not be complete nor do it justice. But the gist is that he took on too much and had a breakdown. At the same time a business partner walked out on him taking most of the funds his fans had raised for his card game. He feels that he owes his fans, but is not able to deliver it to them.

Wait, he got screwed on his card game AGAIN? Or are you referring to the initial kickstarter incident?

[Yuki Akuma]

I'm actually hoping for Big Ears's wild conclusion jumping to be wrong, but I really don't expect Thunt to do that.

[Draconi Redfir]

Wait, he got screwed on his card game AGAIN? Or are you referring to the initial kickstarter incident?

most likely the initial incident. as far as i know there's nothing recent quite that severe. He's just a little bit sick at the moment.

[Zweisteine]

a half drawn page that looks like it was cranked out in an hour by a 5th grader.

Hardly. Half-drawn, certainly, but I don't know any fifth grader that could do this in an hour (or any amount of time, for that matter). This page looks like the unfinished work of an experienced artist.

I'm genuinely curious if there's something going on in his life to explain it.

I'm pretty sure he has some mental issues, and has for a while (he mentioned that he's on anti-depressents in a blog post a while back, at least). That kind of issue tends to get in the way of other pursuits, and coupled with perfectionism...

[Quild]

I don't actually care about the update schedule. He can update however he wants. It's just more mind-boggling to me that he can work on something for the better part of a month and this is the result.

In the past, the constant delays were always explained away by Thunt's obsessive perfectionism, but now we have a half drawn page that looks like it was cranked out in an hour by a 5th grader. I'm genuinely curious if there's something going on in his life to explain it.

Thunt usually posts things on twitter like "updated should be tomorrow" during a few days before posting a finished page, except for light effects usually, which takes a while afterwards.
I think that he didn't post anything of this kind for this page.
So I don't see where he told that he took the better part of the month on this one.

Thunt already has issues with schedule (which let to an absence of regular schedule now), maybe he don't need us to add some imaginary ones

[Sapphire Guard]

It's right there under the latest comic. He has been sick, and then had to go away, so he couldn't work on it as much as he wanted to, but he didn't want to not update until the middle of September.

[Frecus]

Thunt already has issues with schedule (which let to an absence of regular schedule now), maybe he don't need us to add some imaginary ones

Yeah, he made a big post about it once. He basically said "F*^& the schedules, I'll finish a page when I have the energy to do so". He's going at the pace his condition allows him to, and we read at that pace, and buy his books and his game (well I don't because I'm poor, but that's neither here nor there).

Frecus
The glade wanderer
Madwarrior

[Starbuck_II]

So, he was planning this moment for over a decade. Wonder what other moments he has planned months in advance.

[Draconi Redfir]

i know he spent a long time anticipating biscut's arrival into the story, probably a few years at least.

[Anteros]

Thunt usually posts things on twitter like "updated should be tomorrow" during a few days before posting a finished page, except for light effects usually, which takes a while afterwards.
I think that he didn't post anything of this kind for this page.
So I don't see where he told that he took the better part of the month on this one.

Thunt already has issues with schedule (which let to an absence of regular schedule now), maybe he don't need us to add some imaginary ones

Probably the part where it was the better part of a month between updates? I'm just spit-balling here.

Hardly. Half-drawn, certainly, but I don't know any fifth grader that could do this in an hour (or any amount of time, for that matter). This page looks like the unfinished work of an experienced artist.




I'm pretty sure he has some mental issues, and has for a while (he mentioned that he's on anti-depressents in a blog post a while back, at least). That kind of issue tends to get in the way of other pursuits, and coupled with perfectionism...

I'm going to disagree. For one thing, I was doing volunteer work with a group of 3rd and 4th graders earlier today, and we had them draw their favorite animal. I doubt any of them would create anything as structured as this update, but a few could get close to this half-drawn quality.

I don't actually care about the update schedule. Goblins could end tomorrow and I wouldn't blink. I just hope the depression isn't getting the better of him again. Sharp declines in the quality of someone's work like this is one of the warning signs we look for.

[Lizard Lord]

I must admit I had actually forgotten I even had a favorite character in this story. Big Ears has reminded me that it is and will always be him.

[Murk]

Also, about slow update schedules: the guy draws incredibly slowly. You should watch one of his live drawing sessions once: it explains a lot.
He zooms in and out and in again after every little stroke.
The pupils of the goblins aren't just black circles: he colours them in pointillism-like style. Every black pupil consists of fifty smaller dots.
He can't just draw a line, it goes more like: stroke, zoom out, zoom in, delete stroke, stroke again, zoom out, zoom in, second stroke, zoom out, zoom in, delete both strokes, stroke, zoom out, zoom in, two strokes, zoom out, zoom in, shuffle the page a bit, third stroke, shuffle the page some more, zoom out, zoom in, fourth stroke, delete first two strokes, stroke, etc.

I honestly believe him when he says he works hours and hours on end on this comic (and often doesn't sleep for several days, which probably doesn't help with the health) and I really, really admire his discipline and work ethic, but he's still slow.

[Gez]

The pupils of the goblins aren't just black circles: he colours them in pointillism-like style. Every black pupil consists of fifty smaller dots.
He can't just draw a line, it goes more like: stroke, zoom out, zoom in, delete stroke, stroke again, zoom out, zoom in, second stroke, zoom out, zoom in, delete both strokes, stroke, zoom out, zoom in, two strokes, zoom out, zoom in, shuffle the page a bit, third stroke, shuffle the page some more, zoom out, zoom in, fourth stroke, delete first two strokes, stroke, etc.

Seems to me he should take some vacations from his comic and instead work on drawing faster. Maybe do some fast and loose cartoons, like those drawn by Kate Beaton. Try to participate to some 24H comic event. Watch Boulet's twitch stream, because Boulet is a cartooning genius.

[Murk]

Seems to me he should take some vacations from his comic and instead work on drawing faster. Maybe do some fast and loose cartoons, like those drawn by Kate Beaton. Try to participate to some 24H comic event. Watch Boulet's twitch stream, because Boulet is a cartooning genius.

I guess that would be good for his overall productivity, and I'm pretty sure he has tried. I know for sure he used to be even more of a perfectionist and took even longer for each drawing, so he has been working on it.

On the other hand, it's art. I mentioned pointillism - well, that's completely useless and unproductive too, but it's art, so everything is allowed to increase the artsiness.
The problem with goblins is that the art isn't worth millions, so the artist has to balance artsiness with productiveness.

[halfeye]

productiveness.

productivity

[Murk]

productivity

Yes, but the word artsivity sounds way worse than artsiness, and productivity doesn't mesh with artsiness as good as productiveness.

Words are difficult.

[Traab]

Productivation is what embiggens us all.

[-D-]

I'm actually hoping for Big Ears's wild conclusion jumping to be wrong, but I really don't expect Thunt to do that.

I'm going to go with, "Me too". Train of logic here seems sketchy. But apparently he planned for this a long time? I get the feeling UberDemon is not as compelling as Thunt thinks.

[Ibrinar]

He is jumping to conclusions there a bit but good observation. Though maybe not even that much conclusion jumping with the info that the big demon can't just enter the world Kore creating the axe elsewhere is reasonable. And Kore isn't on the level of some super demon so it is a reasonable guess that they let him imprison them.

Anyway I guess this changes some stuff since it is not a genuine prison returning it to its origin solves the problem.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

So, he was planning this moment for over a decade. Wonder what other moments he has planned months in advance.

The whole story the comic should eventually tell was supposedly written in advance, although I don't know to what level of detail.

[Quild]

I'm going to go with, "Me too". Train of logic here seems sketchy. But apparently he planned for this a long time? I get the feeling UberDemon is not as compelling as Thunt thinks.

Yeah me too, it looks like a very weird exposition.

Ears already jumped to wrong conclusions when the axe started to break, thinking he was not worthy, that he falled for wrong reasons and stuff...

The story he "invented" here, is weird.

So, there was this Demon God in his plane. The Greyhill paladins went there to defeat him and... imprison him in the realm he was already stuck in. Doing that, they created an item that would release the demon where the item is and brought that item back in their plane...

Wait what?

[Draconi Redfir]

You're misunderstanding.

Ears is saying that (he believes) the paladins did not create the axe at all, it was actually the demons who created the axe.

The paladins went to defeat the demon yes, but one of two things happened. Either they failed, and the axe was thrown out with the last survivor, or they were lead to believe they succeeded, and found an already complete axe and used it to seal the demon, believing that they themselves were altering it to do so, when in fact that was intended. Or perhaps something else.

In either case, the Axe got to our world, and the Demon Deity, along with apparently a fair variety of minions, are locked away inside in stasis. The demons intentionally made it this way, so the axe could travel to another plane, inevitably break as it needed a constant source of good deeds to keep it sealed, and eventually someone would screw up, and then the axe acts as a teraformer slash portal, allowing the sealed demons to spill free and make room for the deity within.

Baseline is: The axe was made by the demons, either the paladins were tricked, or it got past them and out into the world some other way.