“Emory.”
Today. Is a big day.
Old fans of the comic will recognized (and possibly be a little scared) the new character appearing above, none other than Emory. Her entrance is a slight homage to the original comic, which in itself was a nod to all the Final Fantasy games I was so obsessed with in my youth. In any event, redesigning her was a whole ton of fun and I’m excited she’s finally arrived to wreak the havoc we all love her for.
Tal might be less excited…
Fun fact: Though not super visible in this update, Emory’s sword has a lot of graffiti she’s painted on the end, prominently the tag “All Smiles”, which of course is the name of the blade X)
New character reveals aside, we get a bit more to the thick of the episode with Rain and Tal’s exchange. Tal’s been pretty willing to decimate herself to get what she wants, and it’s taking it’s toll. Rain’s sentiment was tricky to write…I don’t want him to come off as preachy but rather just…determined to stay true to himself. We’ll see how that all pans out for him, but hopefully the exchange read clearly x)
And LASTLY…an announcement about the next update. We are perilously close to the end of this chapter, and rather than divide it up I’d like to get the remaining pages all finished and post them in one go. That’s a good deal more than a single update’s worth of content, so I’m going to be updating four weeks from today on 09/18/14. A bit of longer wait but I feel like it’s gonna be worth it :3
In the meantime, I’ll be posting some of the making of content for Emory that I’ve been sitting on over at the The leveL Tumblr which, if you aren’t following, you should be following.
See you all in Septermber!
35 Comments
EMORYYYYYYYYYYY
IT’S ONNNNNNNNNN.
My reaction is best summed up in this old comic page: http://levelmanga.com/comic/4page74_L.JPG On the one hand, Tal has lost her chance at a better life and is horribly injured. On the other hand, she was injured by someone awesome with a giant sword and hair that dramatically blows in the wind. Tal is either having a really bad day or a really great day.
ahahaahaha OH GOD that old leveL page! Hopefully you didn’t wake anyone up around you XDD
It’s true, things aren’t looking great for Tal…she shoulda taken the powerchips and ran XD Maybe Emory will show her some mercy though, right? Emory’s all about mercy…
SO EXCITED FOR EMORY
YESSSS. Things are deeefinitely gonna get interesting X)))
Oooh, Emory again, eh. Alrighty then.
(Incidentally, at first I thought the graffiti on the sword was reflections. I was tripped up by my brain assuming it would be reflecting Tal, and so I looked for quite some time before realizing it wasn’t reflections. xD )
Yes, certainly nothing could go wrong now…
(lol oh really?? That’s funny I wasn’t sure if it was gonna read or not…I think it’ll look cooler when we’re not under this harsh red lighting too…)
Zomg! Yay! Another awesome Character returns!
Yesssssss, and just in the nick of time. Or maybe a moment or two too late, lol
Hey, Just wanted to let you know I stumbled upon your comic today, and liked it enough that I marathoned through the entire thing. Your style is really clean and expressive, and you seem to be an amazing storyteller. I can’t wait to read more (especially since your next update is planned for my birthday)
Hey Matt! Wow, impressed you marathoned the whole thing in one day, awesome man! Thank you for the compliments on the visuals and story…you’ve no idea how encouraging and motivating it is to hear that, I really really appreciate it :D
Awh, and how awesome the next update is your birthday!! It’s a big one so I hope it feels appropriately celebratory x) THanks for reading, sticking around, and saying hi! :D Welcome to leveL!
Just wanted to say I totally dig this comic. The energy and flow and unique style fill me with desperate envy. You have a new reader!
Hey Mark, thank you so much much! Those are high compliments, I’m glad some of that feeling is coming through in the art. Glad for your readership, welcome to leveL! :D
Love your comic man. I dont know if I will ever reach further but I just want you to know that you did an awesome job of entertaining me while I sit behind me desk here at work for the past 10-15 mins. All the best. Nash.
Hey Nash, thanks so much man! I’m glad I could alleviate some bordem and you’ve enjoyed the comic so far, more is coming soon so I hope you stick around!0 Thanks again for the message :D
EMORYYYYYYY!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 I'd be lying if I said I wasn't waiting for her.
hahaha, I thought you might be happy :3 Good times ahead…..well, ‘good’ might not be the right word, lol
Now that I have caught up to the current update (after only finding out about this comic yesterday…) I have to say that this comic is definitely one of my favorites! Can’t wait to see what the future has in store for Rain and to see how all these characters will meet!
Nick, thanks so much!! Thank you for taking the time to comment as you read, it was awesome to read through and see you experience the comic :D Made my day, hahaha. Glad you’ll be sticking around to see where things go, thank you so much for reading!! :D
I’m glad you like my comments – I was very self-conscious and didn’t want to be annoying by writing on EVERY page (which I seriously wanted to do!) so I did my best to keep it to a minimum XD
lol seriously the feedback is great, and helps me get better as a comic artist too! Keep nothing to a minimum!! :D
Well, after reaching the last available page of the new Level, I went back to read the old level. A few hours later, the end of that, too. I’m left more in love with the characters than before, and TWO dangling story lines. Life is so unfair. You’re a great artist, btw. Hey, how come the old story didn’t mention the solid holograms the city is made of in the new story? Was that concept in your head back then, or did it develop later?
Hey ZV! WOW I’m impressed you were able to make it through all of the original comic, I don’t think I could stomach it, ahahah.
As for the holographic city…that was a convention I came up with only for the new comic…the old city was simply ultra futuristic (which, back when I wrote it, meant things like video chat and touch screens, lol, oh how fast technology moves) The worlds have similiar roots but went in different directions…wait till you see what I have in mind for some of the later locations seen in the original comic X)
Thanks so much for reading it all, and welcome to leveL!
Is… Tal’s hand ok? *waits impatiently*… I wish webcomic universes evolved *faster* than my home universe…I’d never catch up, but I’d always have more to explore.
Tal’s hand is decidedly not ok :C And I like your universe setup idea, who do we talk to about that?
I just read thru from the beginning up to date over the past couple of days. Great stuff man! I love the energy coming off the pages, and the story is super intriguing. Your art, especially the SFX, reminds me a lot of Scottie Young. His Rocket Raccoon #1 just sold more copies than any comic in recent memory, so there’s obviously a huge demand for this style.
I can’t wait to see what happens next! I’ll be following along from here on out.
Hey Coby! Ahhh thank you so much for reading though it, I’m glad you enjoyed it!! :D Holy cow I LOVE Scottie Young’s work, that’s a huuuge compliment (that I don’t think I deserve, lol), thank you!
Happy you are along for the ride! Big update is coming soon so look forward to it, stuff’s gonna get crazyyy.
Welcome to leveL!
Wonderful piece of work!
I’m a pretty old guy; I’ve seen plenty of ‘graphic art’, plenty of dull stories. Your work is some of the best I’ve seen in fifty-some years. Thanks for the ride!
Just give it a decade or two, AI will start writing comics faster than we can read them… but then there will be this whole new set of AI beings that are fans of YOUR work, adding to the clusterfuck of people demanding that you create faster. Your fate is grim no matter what, lol.
Awesome comic! Love the attention to detail in the artwork and storytelling. Looking forward to the next update!
Oh! Emory has two eyes, in this version!
Hey she’s got two eyes now!
Oh my GOSH! I just found this comic and read through it all in one sitting and you know what? I absolutely LOVE it! The characters are all interesting, the concept is brilliant, and, most of all, your art style, the colors, backgrounds, ALL OF IT is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I’m glad to have stumbled upon this comic and you will definitely see me sticking around for the future updates! Please keep up the good work and thank you for sharing it! <3
(I also did check out the old leveL after I finished this, it was pretty interesting to compare it to the current story, pfft. You've really improved in all aspects, dude!)
I’m so darn excited for the next update! It’s gonna be as beautiful as always! Keep up the great work, Nate! >u<