tonycliff

Holding on to Summer, Georges Beuville, and Home Renovations

A friend asked me, "does it feel like everyone's just ready for summer to be over?" To which my rep...

Boat Notes

Happy August, everybody! I recently had reason to revisit Delilah Dirk's flying sailboat. There's a che...

Chapter Five: The Conclusion

Here we are, at the end of Chapter Five!

Alexandra's father is incapacitated by the side of a stream. She's taken his valuable historical artifact into her care and, presumably, promised to k...

Chapter Five: Pages 47 - 50

Last time, Alexandra's Father revealed his secret obligation, the reason that the "Red Dirk of Meles" is so important to him… and to England. He also had a personal moment with a god tha...

Chapter Five: Pages 43 - 46

The "tiny sword" that Alexandra's father was carrying turns out to be more significant than Alexandra could have suspected. The glittering red gems embedded in the scabbard are supposedly the magic...

Chapter Five: Pages 39 - 42

With his knee crushed, completely incapacitated, Alexandra's father has asked Alexandra to get back on Ataraxes alone, and continue the ride he meant for them to do together. Will she go? I suspect...

Chapter Five: Pages 34 - 38

Last week, Vignelli received a pummelling… not that it accomplished anything, as everyone was startled to see shells raining from the sky, each carried by a crow, each containing a small message....

Chapter Five: Pages 29 - 33

In last week's post, Vignelli was trying to convince the elderly townsfolk of Archipoli that Uncle Nikos and his sister had conspired with the British Navy to bring doom to their town. When the tow...

Chapter Five: Pages 25 - 28

Last week, things were not looking good for Alexandra, her father, and their ride for Barathron. But we will have to come back to them, because over in Archipoli, Alexandra's mother and uncle have ...

Chapter Five: Pages 22A - 24

Last week, Alexandra was ruminating on the horrible sounds that owls make, shortly before hearing a similar horrible sound from her father. He had simply been watering their horse upstream. What co...

Chapter Five: Pages 19 -22

"Hey TC, how's the comic book going?"

Well, all week I thought I'd already posted an update here, but it turns out that was actually last week. That's the state of my mind a...

Chapter Five: Pages 13 - 18

Last week, Alexandra and her father were rushing towards Barathron on the back of a horse that was clearly becoming exhausted under the effort, especially with two riders. Alexandra's father was un...

Chapter Five: Pages 9 - 12

This week: is it an omen?

This is the second instalment of Chapter Five! I put up the first last week, and you should be able to browse the updates easily using 2025-05-12 18:25:38 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter Five Begins!

Welcome to the start of Chapter Five of PRACTICAL DEFENCE AGAINST PIRACY!

When last we saw Alexandra and her father, they had just leapt on the back of the f...

Night Lights (Chapter Five Colour Keys are done)

Flatting is all done for Chapter Five of PRACTICAL DEFENCE AGAINST PIRACY, and I've spent the last week preparing its colour keys. You know what that means… it's almost time for finished pages! T...

A Compositional Investigation

Flatting continues! Chapter Five should be ready to colour by the end of this week. There still isn’t much to look at (such is the nature of the flatting step), but I had a strange encounter with...

Chapter Five Flatting Rambles (Style, Speed, and Composition)

I've been flatting, flatting, flatting, and it's all going at a respectable pace, but whoof whos...

Chapter Five Lettering is Complete!

All sixty-two pages of Chapter Five are now lettered and ready for flatting! Hooray! All the panel borders are in, too, and it's done the trick that you think I'd be used to by now: it looks like <...

Reliable Tools and Beautiful Nerds

I managed to sneak in my scanning chores, so all the pages for Chapter Five have been turned into little computer blips and blops thanks to the ancient but reliable large-format flatbed scanner at ...

Chapter Five Inking is Done!

Chapter Five of PRACTICAL DEFENCE AGAINST PIRACY is now all inked up, from beginning to end. If you want to take a look at the inked pages, they're displayed in full in the carousel above. (Is the ...

It's a very Napoleon-Crossing-The-Alps sort of week

I've reached the last page of Chapter Five! Old hands will know, however, that this does not mean the chapter is done yet — now it's time to loop around&nbs...

I offer you these uncut gems!

I feel like I'm finally getting up to speed with my inking! The downside to (long-running theme here) jumping in and out of disciplines as I have been doing (pencilling, then inking, then colouring...

There are two wolves inside of you and they both want you to tighten that jiggly cupboard handle

Happy New Year! Yes, we're already half way through January, but I haven't wished you a Happy New Year yet, so I'm within my rights. I maintain that if I don't see or talk to you unti...

Wrapping Up the Year With A Marathon of Crowd Scenes

Dear Secret Readers, I set myself a goal of finishing this difficult sequence (in the images attached) before the holidays and wouldn't you know it, I've only gone and done it...

Crowds and Architecture and Horses, Oh My!

A quick update this week! I was legitimately bewildered today when went to snap pics for this post and discovered I had inked… three? Pages? Since last week's post? I rifled through my finished p...

Inking continues, plus, "why is this book so long?"

Happy December, everyone! Inking continues! You’re welcome to browse the image carousel if you’d like to see what I’ve been drawing. I am protective about this sequence, though, so I am going...

Chapter Five Inks, Romantic Movies, and More…

Chapter Five inks are here! As usual, they're spoilery. If you wish to avoid that sort of thing, stay out of the image carousel above. Below, some chatter about a surprising movie pairing, how I ch...

Inking has begun, more Master and Commander, and a Book Length question.

It’s inking time again! I’m back to working on Chapter Five while, elsewhere in the comics greenho...

Sharing What I Can

Hello all! Just a quick public update to say that, in the spirit of wanting to offer something nice to the world at large, I've made the last two regular Patreon updates free for anyone who wants t...

"No New Characters!"

This week, I accidentally found myself doing a diligent job of something I thought I was bad at.

...