Laughter from the Dungeon E-Comic *New 8/29/08

[MTJpub]

LAUGHTER FROM THE DUNGEON
Art by Kalamos
Written by “J.R.”
Editing by AnnieHall

The cruel and ambitious Lady Zamora has acquired three most intriguing prisoners; young girls who claim to be serving-girls from the neighboring kingdom of Dravinia. The good Lady is certain that one of these lovelies is really the Dravine royal princess - and therefore a valuable hostage. But which one of the three is it? Haughty Mian, timid Rhana or silly Jendhi?

Lady Zamora secures the services of Kii, a young mercenary torturer. Kii has been instructed to use a light touch to secure her prisoners’ confessions - unfortunately for the girls, tickle-torture is her specialty. One by one they will succumb to the most fiendish torments in any torturer‘s bag of tricks:

* Hungry lion-cubs - and their hungrier mother - licking milk-soaked soles!
* Hanging by a chain over a bottomless pit, struggling to hold on while feathers caress tender flesh!
* Spiders and itching powder!

Kii enjoys her work...but the girls have surprises in store for both her and Lady Zamora. Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to mess with a princess.

**12+ Full Color Pages
**8 Bonus pages of artist sketches and commentary.
**A total of 22 pages in all!
**Direct Digital Download

Product & Ordering Information
http://www.mtjpub.com/ecomics/LaughterfromtheDungeon.html

 

[Journia]

And i see Aanniehall is in the coverpage. Nice touch nice touch.

 

[Kalamos]

and i see aanniehall is in the coverpage. Nice touch nice touch.

...

 

[Low_Roads]

What a pleasure to see Kalamos back in action as part of this impressive new project! The story allows him to exercise all his strengths: strong period flavor (graced by beautifully appropriate setting, wardrobe, decorative filigree, etc.), a bevy of ruddy-cheeked, distinctively fetching tickle-victims (creatively restrained) put upon by hordes of demonically eager inquisitors (totally unrestrained, it seems!) Thirsting felines and bottomless pits present the wickedest of opportunities for his famously sadistic pen to push into fresh realms of gleefully harrowing image-crafting! And no one's better prepared to score big against such a challenge than our own formidable Sir K!

 

[Kalamos]

Thanks LBH; you commentary is as cunningly crafted as ever.
I humbly thank you for your support.



...

Forgive the paucity of my replies - but drawing-rush left me bereft of words.

 

[scavenger]

Itching powder eh? we don't see that much used in sole-torture tickling art... Interesting though...

But really, I believe this what many people have been waiting for; a full comic by Kalamos. And being a great fan of his art, this looks very promising indeed!

The cover looks awesome, and so do the intro pages, which are a really nice touch (as are the sketched pages spread out as a visual element itself). Again, it looks like Kalamos has delved deep in historical reference to achieve yet again that realistic, tangible fantasy feeling. Great and impressive work, kalamos!

And is that really Anniehall on the cover? Heheh, that WOULD be funny...

 

[Kalamos]

Itching powder eh? we don't see that much used in sole-torture tickling art... Interesting though...

It used to be a staple of many actual racks and stocks tickling scenarios.
I had to tweak the thing a bit, turning it into "tickling powder", for a little graphical joke of mine to work...

But really, I believe this what many people have been waiting for; a full comic by Kalamos. And being a great fan of his art, this looks very promising indeed!

I guess I'll be repeating myself... bear with me, I'm just a proud "parent", fighting for words: LFTD was a labour of love; months in the making, for a number of reasons, and somewhat of a breakthrough to me, since I had to tweak my tricks for something new and different.

Main challenge was keeping quality to a consistent level, so I could create pages reasonably fast - and never get stuck with details so much as to miss the bigger picture behind.

Also, I had no idea how panels would flow, so I created a much smaller mock-up page about 10% of the whole thing, with ALL the pages together on a single sheet, "cut" the thing out, and then enlarged them and started tracing my own roughs.

This also allowed me to tweak story flow along the way, since some pages were more crowded with action than others, and I couldn't really fit everything as expected.
Since I am still drawing on paper I cannot move and resize sketches; I am usually stuck with a certain line thickness too - which prevents me from cramming as much stuff as I'd like on a single page.

The most impressive feat of mine was actually drawing everything together without having to merge different pics; something I sometimes do when a pic become too large for the actual canvas, or I want to dabble with different depth planes.
I couldn't simply do that, or project would swell beyond manageable level.

And you wouldn't be reading this just yet...

The cover looks awesome, and so do the intro pages, which are a really nice touch (as are the sketched pages spread out as a visual element itself). Again, it looks like Kalamos has delved deep in historical reference to achieve yet again that realistic, tangible fantasy feeling. Great and impressive work, kalamos!

Covers are somewhat of a weak point with me, compared to interior art: I sometimes have to twist my own wrist, and repeat the mantra: streamline, streamline, streamline.
In the earliest draft, cover was supposed to be richer, but I knew my limits, and I've learnt a bit from my own mistakes.
Covers usually are smaller, 600*850 pixel things: packing too much action or detail means losing focus, or creating a murkier thing - especially without digital means, I find myself struggling for clarity.
So I had to streamline, swallow pride, and choose ONE crisp character.

Maybe, in the future, I'll try something new; PDF-packing is changing how comics get done and consumed.
LFTD was originally meant to be published as individual jpgs, so quality, layout and detail reflect *that* medium.
PDF is different. I'll have to act accordingly.

And is that really Anniehall on the cover? Heheh, that WOULD be funny...

Well... I am not going to answer *that*.
But... Morandilas dropped me a line just scant few hours before going gold.
AnnieHall had found a couple of typos in sketches I had missed... nothing ground-shattering: missing commas and colloquial terms.

That wouldn't be the whole of it, hadn't *I* found a much worse typo that had slipped under her radar...

I don't know about Morandilas; I was running out of hair to pull out in frustration...

...

So, I am not saying who I portrayed in that cover.
You are free to guess, though.

 

[dalekfire]

Bought it, read it, loved it. :happy: I rather enjoyed the diversity in the tickles, and also of the three girls, as well! Each's reactions were all unique to themselves. Very well-rounded. Me likies. :super_hap

 

[chicag0]

Well... I am not going to answer *that*.
But... Morandilas dropped me a line just scant few hours before going gold.
AnnieHall had found a couple of typos in sketches I had missed... nothing ground-shattering: missing commas and colloquial terms.

That wouldn't be the whole of it, hadn't *I* found a much worse typo that had slipped under her radar...

I don't know about Morandilas; I was running out of hair to pull out in frustration...

...

So, I am not saying who I portrayed in that cover.
You are free to guess, though.

I think you were running out of hair long before I edited this comic.



But it does kinda look like me, the hair anyway.

 

[Umojar]

"thumbs up" x 2 and an owl wl:

Good stuff.

 

[Kalamos]

I rather enjoyed the diversity in the tickles, and also of the three girls, as well! Each's reactions were all unique to themselves. Very well-rounded. Me likies. :super_hap

Me happy.
Diversity was my motto indeed.

Capitalising on J.R.'s script, I tried to craft as different scenarios as possible.
Opening vignette is a power-play between two strong characters.
Second one gets sillier and surreal - it works on the inherent zany side of tickling.
Third one tries to become sexier again, with a smattering of mild horror, working on char's fears.

I am glad you loved it.

But it does kinda look like me, the hair anyway.

...

"thumbs up" x 2 and an owl wl:
Good stuff.

An owl! How quaint! And it looks "familiar" too!



...

Yeah, my DnD elf char's got an owl familiar.
That's just how geeky I am...

...

Thanks for the thumbs, man.
You know I raised mine to you elsewhere.

 

[MTJpub]

Here is another teaser from Kalamos!

 

[His Divine Shadow]

So, I am not saying who I portrayed in that cover.
You are free to guess, though.

Cryptic as ever, it seems. :ggrin:

As I said elsewhere, from the previews it certainly impresses! I continue to be amazed by your ability to give bring out such vivid coloration in your works. It is a different sort than the average Photoshop coloration, not unlike Scavenger's unique style of color in that respect, and one I enjoy seeing a great deal. The setting is a fantastic pairing for the K-man and certainly looks to be interesting! Kudos to J.R. for that, yes indeed. When I get to purchasing again this one is high on the list to see! :happy:

 

[Kalamos]

It is a different sort than the average Photoshop coloration, not unlike Scavenger's unique style of color in that respect, and one I enjoy seeing a great deal.

Thanks for the comparison.
No complete surprise though: we got exposed to a similar set of artistic stimuli and techniques in our youths; production likely reflected that.

The setting is a fantastic pairing for the K-man and certainly looks to be interesting! Kudos to J.R. for that, yes indeed. When I get to purchasing again this one is high on the list to see! :happy:

At your leisure.

 

[dnc2423]

Would love to see tortures like this done to stockinged feet! Any chance of a nylon version sequel?

 

[Kalamos]

Any chance of a nylon version sequel?

From a technical point of view, I've drawn nylon pictures before, so it would be feasible.
Maybe we'll have to find a rationale for nylon in a medieval fantasy milieu.

...

From a publishing point of view, not mine to say.

 

[Kalamos]

On a not wholly unrelated bit of news...

Allow me to post a picture from fetish con, BergamoSex, near Milano, featuring fetish anchorman Mr. Veronese and a fetching lady guest, showcasing soles AND something that looks vaguely familiar to me.