oblesklk1
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I've posted this over at the TMF some time ago. Since it generated a bit of interest over there, I thought I'd post it here too for those that have missed it.
Our web site where you can buy all sorts of tickle ecomics is at www.the-agencies.com.
Our main comic universe is The Agencies, and features several issues of tickle torture, intrigue, and action. It's a spy thriller type of comic set in the near future. This post is about issue nine in that comic universe.
Interest in our tickling ecomic series The Agencies has received quite a boost ever since we published issue seven back in January 2005. Issue seven was the first part of a multi issue story arc, which continues in issue eight. We published issue eight November 2005, almost a full year after issue seven. Knowing that the readers of the books didn't really want to wait that long for future issues, we entered talks with our artists to see if we couldn't get on a production pace that would put us at three or four issues a year instead of one. It looks like we're good to go on that pace, but we had to shorten the stories to 10 pages each, as opposed to our 20 pages that we usually do.
Issue nine is currently in production. As of March 4th, it is penciled completely, and the inks are very close to being finished up. We're predicting to have the issue available for sale sometime at the beginning of April.
I believe the readers will really enjoy this issue. It is entitled "Sadism" and features tickle torture almost entirely. That's the benefit/drawback to doing a story arc: some issues try to explain the story a bit, and other issues are all about action. Issue nine is definitely tickle heavy. Its main theme is tickle torture, for its own sake. Sometimes there's only one way to resolve a vendetta properly, and the characters in this comic universe know it!
I'm happy with issue nine becuase it represents the last of the main characters that needed to be converted to the new artistic vision. In issues seven and eight we've met Mirth, her sister Karma, Agent Starlight, and Agent Succubus. The two agents that are missing from this cast of characters are Agent Deadline and Miss Rachel Ghost. I'm pleased with the direction these books are taking, because it's nice to have some continuity in the looks of the characters. I'm going to post several "before" and "after" pics of the main characters. The "before" pics are the leftside of each picture, and represent how these characters have been depicted in issues 1-6. In some cases they vary a lot. This is because each issue was done by a completely different artist. So while the characters were fleshed out, their looks haven't always been. And then the "after" part is how they look now, in either penciled, inked, or colored form.
So here they are:
Rachel Ghost
Here's the before and after for Miss Rachel Ghost (real name...well...Rachel). She's only really appeared in issue five, so she's only had one look before. Although I liked Martin's style (the artist for The Agencies: Issue Five and The Cyriaan Chronicles: Issue Three), the new Miss Rachel Ghost falls into line with the same artistic style as her other agent colleagues. Not too much more to say about her, she doesn't appear in issue nine yet, but will very very soon.
Miss Rachel Ghost's superpower is the ability to manipulate gravity. She got her name Ghost from the ability to use gravity to bend lightwave patterns around her, rendering her invisible.
Agent Starlight
This is the before/after for Agent Starlight (real name Nicole). Pretty tough to do, since I was never happy fully with the way she looked before. But the new artistic team has done a good job at nailing down the auburn haired beauty. She's arguably the entire universe's main character, so getting her look and mannerisms down was pretty important.
Agent Starlight's superpower is unknown, although she does have a penchant for seeing certain events in the future.
Agent Succubus
Next above is Agent Succubus, whose real name is Jennifer. Great job with her, too, she's made to be a bit bustier than the other agents. She's appeared in a couple issues before her makeover, and as you can see from the above "before" shot, they varied quite a bit.
Agent Succubus's superpower is the ability to change anyone's demeanor towards her. Someone that was once angry with her will find themselves infatuated and immediately protective of her, if she wills it.
Agent Deadline
Next up is Agent Deadline. Issue nine will be the first time she'll make an appearance, so we're excited about that. The character is a petite, blonde, very bubbly young woman. She's the ultimate cheerleader type, and in fact she uses that to her advantage on this particular mission. In the before shot, I actually liked Soojin's version of her a whole bunch, which is the top drawing.
Agent Deadline's superpower is the ability to produce a shriek which deadlines electronic eqiupment within a certain radius of her.
Mirth
Last, but most definitely not least, is Mirth (real name Lindsay). She's not officially an agent yet, just a mercenary that has done missions for the agency in the past. This story arc stars her, and she's a great character. At the bottom of the "before" shots, Sinjin again did a great job in getting a good look for her going. But ultimately the artistic team redesigned her a bit into the blade wielding, ass kicking vixen we know today.
Mirth's superpower is the ability to control vibrations. She got her codename Mirth because part of her ability is to vibrate someone's skin, causing an unbearable tickling sensation all over. Her powers are not a parlor trick however, because she can also disintegrate matter with the vibration if she chooses. She's one of the most powerful humans alive. Her sister messed with her head a bit in issue seven, and she now goes by the moniker "The Tickler" and has turned to a life of crime. Why do the good always go crazy so young?
Now those were all the character redesigns that we've had. So while the characters have undergone pretty substantial design changes, their personalities are still intact.
With that done, here's the beginning of issue nine. If you remember at the end of issue eight, we left the story with Agent Starlight, Agent Succubus, and the magistrate Veronica (a very powerful but very corrupt judge) in the clutches of "The Tickler" and her venemous sister Karma. While Karma was allowed free reign to torment her old friend-turned-enemy Agent Starlight, Agent Succubus and the magistrate Veronica were sold off as bounties to a local crime lord. That's where issue eight ended.
So here we begin with Agent Succubus as she listens to the magistrate being continuously tortured by the crime lords minions. As the story continues, we get to see what's going on behind closed doors. And will poor Succubus suffer the same fate?
Here's a picture of Karma, getting ready to commit vile acts for her own gratification. She's one nasty redhead.
Here's a pencil and ink done of Karma trying to intimidate Agent Starlight. Nasty redhead, indeed! Notice the sketch, Starlight has no hair yet. That's pretty typical of the initial storyboards we get. Usually they're to ensure that the camera angle is proper, zoomed in where it needs to be, and that the script was detailed enough in the kinds of things that should be depicted in the scene.
Here's a shot of Agent Deadline being "convinced" to enter the room.
Karma again. Told you she was evil. You might begin to see why the issue is entitled "Sadism" Not just in the super cartoon villainy kind of nebulous "take over the world" kind of evil. She's sadistic and loves tormenting agents with her games. As you can guess, she'll be making more guest appearances in future issues.
Below is the cover artwork for issue seven, which can be purchased today. I would advise anyone planning on purchasing issue nine to also purchase issues seven and eight to get a good background on what's going on.
http://www.the-agencies.com/agencies/issue_seven.htm
Below is the cover artwork for issue eight, which can be purchased today.
www.the-agencies.com/agencies/issue_eight.htm
Our web site where you can buy all sorts of tickle ecomics is at www.the-agencies.com.
Our main comic universe is The Agencies, and features several issues of tickle torture, intrigue, and action. It's a spy thriller type of comic set in the near future. This post is about issue nine in that comic universe.
Interest in our tickling ecomic series The Agencies has received quite a boost ever since we published issue seven back in January 2005. Issue seven was the first part of a multi issue story arc, which continues in issue eight. We published issue eight November 2005, almost a full year after issue seven. Knowing that the readers of the books didn't really want to wait that long for future issues, we entered talks with our artists to see if we couldn't get on a production pace that would put us at three or four issues a year instead of one. It looks like we're good to go on that pace, but we had to shorten the stories to 10 pages each, as opposed to our 20 pages that we usually do.
Issue nine is currently in production. As of March 4th, it is penciled completely, and the inks are very close to being finished up. We're predicting to have the issue available for sale sometime at the beginning of April.
I believe the readers will really enjoy this issue. It is entitled "Sadism" and features tickle torture almost entirely. That's the benefit/drawback to doing a story arc: some issues try to explain the story a bit, and other issues are all about action. Issue nine is definitely tickle heavy. Its main theme is tickle torture, for its own sake. Sometimes there's only one way to resolve a vendetta properly, and the characters in this comic universe know it!
I'm happy with issue nine becuase it represents the last of the main characters that needed to be converted to the new artistic vision. In issues seven and eight we've met Mirth, her sister Karma, Agent Starlight, and Agent Succubus. The two agents that are missing from this cast of characters are Agent Deadline and Miss Rachel Ghost. I'm pleased with the direction these books are taking, because it's nice to have some continuity in the looks of the characters. I'm going to post several "before" and "after" pics of the main characters. The "before" pics are the leftside of each picture, and represent how these characters have been depicted in issues 1-6. In some cases they vary a lot. This is because each issue was done by a completely different artist. So while the characters were fleshed out, their looks haven't always been. And then the "after" part is how they look now, in either penciled, inked, or colored form.
So here they are:
Rachel Ghost
Here's the before and after for Miss Rachel Ghost (real name...well...Rachel). She's only really appeared in issue five, so she's only had one look before. Although I liked Martin's style (the artist for The Agencies: Issue Five and The Cyriaan Chronicles: Issue Three), the new Miss Rachel Ghost falls into line with the same artistic style as her other agent colleagues. Not too much more to say about her, she doesn't appear in issue nine yet, but will very very soon.
Miss Rachel Ghost's superpower is the ability to manipulate gravity. She got her name Ghost from the ability to use gravity to bend lightwave patterns around her, rendering her invisible.
Agent Starlight
This is the before/after for Agent Starlight (real name Nicole). Pretty tough to do, since I was never happy fully with the way she looked before. But the new artistic team has done a good job at nailing down the auburn haired beauty. She's arguably the entire universe's main character, so getting her look and mannerisms down was pretty important.
Agent Starlight's superpower is unknown, although she does have a penchant for seeing certain events in the future.
Agent Succubus
Next above is Agent Succubus, whose real name is Jennifer. Great job with her, too, she's made to be a bit bustier than the other agents. She's appeared in a couple issues before her makeover, and as you can see from the above "before" shot, they varied quite a bit.
Agent Succubus's superpower is the ability to change anyone's demeanor towards her. Someone that was once angry with her will find themselves infatuated and immediately protective of her, if she wills it.
Agent Deadline
Next up is Agent Deadline. Issue nine will be the first time she'll make an appearance, so we're excited about that. The character is a petite, blonde, very bubbly young woman. She's the ultimate cheerleader type, and in fact she uses that to her advantage on this particular mission. In the before shot, I actually liked Soojin's version of her a whole bunch, which is the top drawing.
Agent Deadline's superpower is the ability to produce a shriek which deadlines electronic eqiupment within a certain radius of her.
Mirth
Last, but most definitely not least, is Mirth (real name Lindsay). She's not officially an agent yet, just a mercenary that has done missions for the agency in the past. This story arc stars her, and she's a great character. At the bottom of the "before" shots, Sinjin again did a great job in getting a good look for her going. But ultimately the artistic team redesigned her a bit into the blade wielding, ass kicking vixen we know today.
Mirth's superpower is the ability to control vibrations. She got her codename Mirth because part of her ability is to vibrate someone's skin, causing an unbearable tickling sensation all over. Her powers are not a parlor trick however, because she can also disintegrate matter with the vibration if she chooses. She's one of the most powerful humans alive. Her sister messed with her head a bit in issue seven, and she now goes by the moniker "The Tickler" and has turned to a life of crime. Why do the good always go crazy so young?
Now those were all the character redesigns that we've had. So while the characters have undergone pretty substantial design changes, their personalities are still intact.
With that done, here's the beginning of issue nine. If you remember at the end of issue eight, we left the story with Agent Starlight, Agent Succubus, and the magistrate Veronica (a very powerful but very corrupt judge) in the clutches of "The Tickler" and her venemous sister Karma. While Karma was allowed free reign to torment her old friend-turned-enemy Agent Starlight, Agent Succubus and the magistrate Veronica were sold off as bounties to a local crime lord. That's where issue eight ended.
So here we begin with Agent Succubus as she listens to the magistrate being continuously tortured by the crime lords minions. As the story continues, we get to see what's going on behind closed doors. And will poor Succubus suffer the same fate?
Here's a picture of Karma, getting ready to commit vile acts for her own gratification. She's one nasty redhead.
Here's a pencil and ink done of Karma trying to intimidate Agent Starlight. Nasty redhead, indeed! Notice the sketch, Starlight has no hair yet. That's pretty typical of the initial storyboards we get. Usually they're to ensure that the camera angle is proper, zoomed in where it needs to be, and that the script was detailed enough in the kinds of things that should be depicted in the scene.
Here's a shot of Agent Deadline being "convinced" to enter the room.
Karma again. Told you she was evil. You might begin to see why the issue is entitled "Sadism" Not just in the super cartoon villainy kind of nebulous "take over the world" kind of evil. She's sadistic and loves tormenting agents with her games. As you can guess, she'll be making more guest appearances in future issues.
Below is the cover artwork for issue seven, which can be purchased today. I would advise anyone planning on purchasing issue nine to also purchase issues seven and eight to get a good background on what's going on.
http://www.the-agencies.com/agencies/issue_seven.htm
Below is the cover artwork for issue eight, which can be purchased today.
www.the-agencies.com/agencies/issue_eight.htm
