www.the-agencies.com presents The Agencies #17

[oblesklk1]

The Agencies #17 is now available for sale!

To see prior issues of The Agencies, along with dozens of other tickle torture comics, go to www.the-agencies.com

After taking a couple months off, we're back in the swing of things, ready to release another installment of our flagship comic. This is a big year for The Agencies. In July, The Agencies will be 10 years old! I never thought the comic series would come this far, but here we are. We have some neat stuff planned this year, all of which we'll reveal over time. The first announcement is the following:

In celebration of 10 years of The Agencies, Agency Publishing LLC is now giving its customers discounts on larger orders! All you need to do is order at least $25 of our comics and the discounts will be automatically applied as you check out. These discounts can be as much as 25% off your entire order!

And we're now accepting Paypal on all orders. Good stuff.

Starting with The Agencies #17, we have decided to put together the artistic dream team for our flagship comic. Javier will continue to do pencils/inks as he has for several issues now, and Patricia will move over as lead colorist on the series. She has proven herself a true master of the art, and the pairing has turned out some amazing art in their first issue working together. Patricia has colored issues of Tickle Magnet and Agencies: Frontiers so we are really excited at the prospect of putting her on our #1 title.

The attached cover for The Agencies #17 shows the two primary villains for this story arc: The Tickler (left) and Karma (right). They are after Agent Starlight's little sister Tiffany, and will stop at nothing to get the redhead in their clutches. When we left off the last issues (issue #16), we saw that Cat divulged everything she knew about Tiffany's whereabouts, Shroud failed to take on the power of a fully trained agent, and Karma/The Tickler were confident they would have Tiffany any second now.

Things are grim for our poor, beleaguered Agents. They lost one of their own in the line of duty (Agent Succubus, issue 13). Karma's forces now assault the city from all angles, forcing them on the defensive, and Miss Rachel Ghost is still in Karma's notorious dungeons (issue 10). Is there any ray of hope? Stay tuned to the series and find out...

In summary, this issue has:

• 12 interior color pages
• Includes a cover and sexy pinup of Agent Starlight
• Issue offered in hyperlinked PDF format
• Pencils/Inks by Javier
• Colors by Tricia Leonardo
• Written/Directed by Oblesklk and Jonathan Essex
• F/F and MF/F tickling
• Features all upper body tickling
• Features butt tickling
• Depicts breast tickling
• Depicts public humiliation
• Depicts great balance between tickle torture and erotic display
• Shows combat between an agent and Karma/The Tickler as they are in pursuit of Tiffany, their great prize
• Costs just $12.95 !

 

[oblesklk1]

Here are the two production sheets for the cover, the left showing loose pencils, while the right side is really just a quick sketch of the placement of the characters.

 

[10 armed tkler]

forgive me oblesklk but...

 

[oblesklk1]

forgive me oblesklk but...

😛unk:

 

[laughinggaszone]

So when is Karma gonna get hers?

 

[oblesklk1]

So when is Karma gonna get hers?

Great question.

Not to get too spoilery, but there is an interesting scene in Issue #18 (which isn't final, so I better not cut this scene now lol) that involves a flashback to a time in which Karma was still a member of the Academy, before some of the current Agents were officially Agents.

I don't want to say any more than that right now 🙂

As much as you want to see her get hers, understand how difficult it is for me to have a strong willed, intelligent, ruthless redhead character escape the feather for this long in the story...

OK, no empathy for my "plight"...? Understandable.

 

[oblesklk1]

Pinup for The Agencies #17

Here is the pinup for The Agencies #17, our upcoming release. This is the first pinup with pairing Javier (pencils/inks) and Patricia (colors) and we really couldn't be happier with the results. They truly do excellent work.

This pinup is a nice little implied (M/F) scene between Agent Starlight and her boyfriend Kedrick whose callsign is Agent Spectre.

To see the many giggles, laughs, and tickles created by these, and many other talented artists, check out our tickle torture comic book website www.the-agencies.com.

 

[laughinggaszone]

Great question.

Not to get too spoilery, but there is an interesting scene in Issue #18 (which isn't final, so I better not cut this scene now lol) that involves a flashback to a time in which Karma was still a member of the Academy, before some of the current Agents were officially Agents.

I don't want to say any more than that right now 🙂

As much as you want to see her get hers, understand how difficult it is for me to have a strong willed, intelligent, ruthless redhead character escape the feather for this long in the story...

OK, no empathy for my "plight"...? Understandable.

Just don't go pulling and x-Files and make us wait 9 seasons. 😉

 

[oblesklk1]

The Agencies #17 is now available for sale!

OK, so when I said it would be ready the night of June 3, I lied. I just couldn't make you guys wait any longer. It is now ready for purchase, I truly apologize for the delay in release.

You can either visit our website at www.the-agencies.com or just click below.

• 12 interior color pages
• Includes a cover and sexy pinup of Agent Starlight
• Issue offered in hyperlinked PDF format
• Pencils/Inks by Javier
• Colors by Tricia Leonardo
• Written/Directed by Oblesklk and Jonathan Essex
• F/F and MF/F tickling
• Features all upper body tickling
• Features butt tickling
• Depicts breast tickling
• Depicts public humiliation
• Depicts great balance between tickle torture and erotic display
• Shows combat between an agent and Karma/The Tickler as they are in pursuit of Tiffany, their great prize
• Costs just $12.95 !

 

[oblesklk1]

Here is an art sample from page 9 of the comic. Here we see a view from behind the ticklee as Agent Starlight moves in for the kill. For those following our books over the years, I like this positioning quite a bit. Not necessarily the angle, per se, but rather the part tickled. It's a red zone for a lot of women.

From our work on the www.tickletown.com site, I know women are usually very tickling near the top of their ribcage and/or the sides the their breasts. My own wife, a redhead and quite strong willed, will melt into desperate and spastic begging and laughter when touched here. It's a classic spot.

So here it is, set up in The Agencies #17. Agent Starlight is no longer screwing around 🙂

 

[Sinister-Lurker]

Firstly, allow me to express my appreciation of the new PDF format. Very convenient and a wonderful step forward.

Concerning the comic itself, Agencies Publishing once again delivers high-quality art and a change-up from any norm a book might be settling into. While the last few issues (and indeed, many tickling comics in general) have been set in the dungeon or similar, secluded setting, this issue sees the action happen in a very open space, in the middle of a bustling city, and in broad daylight. Quite a change-up. Most of the usual upper-body spots are seen to in this session. Bits of the advancing, overarching plot are also sprinkled in amongst the action.

All in all, another wonderful installment of The Agencies.

 

[10 armed tkler]

I also agree with everything Sinister has said. And may I add, I now see that Kharma may have a chink in her armor. If I may take a guess, her ability can not activate if she does not see it coming? Or to fast? I did like the public humiliation. It is good to shake it up everyone once in awhile.

May I ask if there may be perhaps another scenes of desperation scene in the comic like there was in issue 4?

 

[oblesklk1]

The Agencies #17 - Page 1 Sample

Issue #17 starts off where #16 left off. Shroud, Karma's henchman who attempted to kidnap Tiffany, is taken prisoner by Agent Starlight. Agent Starlight races to get the would-be kidnapper back to Agency HQ where she can be interrogated and hopefully some of Karma's motives would be illuminated. As we see on page 1 here, Shroud starts to wake up from Agent Starlight's gas while on the back of her motorcycle. She is feeling giddy and feels tickling Agent Starlight while racing down the road would be a fun thing to do. Agent Starlight, ticklish and unable to keep the bike straight, pulls over and decides to perform the interrogation on the spot.

While Shroud is giddy and semi-conscious in the first few panels, but the time she is taped up and shirt removed in the final panel, she is fully aware of what's going on...although a little confused.

 

[oblesklk1]

Just don't go pulling and x-Files and make us wait 9 seasons. 😉

Ha! I love the comparison.

I don't know what comic equivalent of nine seasons is, but I am sure it's a lot 🙂

We had similar comments back when issues 11 & 12 launched. People were seriously jonesing to see Succubus get it after so much build up and suspense. I think some of that frustration stemmed from downgrades and changes in the quality of the art, but certainly a bit of blue balls from lack of Succubus action. We're seeing some of that with Tiffany too privately but not as much.

Then we released issue 13 and all that talk just vanished. That issue was so amazingly epic it could easily have ended the series right there and I would've been ok with the stopping point. At any rate my main point through the rambling is that we try to take care of our customers. We purposefully tease a bit and avoid spoilers because you never quite know what to expect and we love that. We've had readers tell us each issue is like an adult version of Christmas because of that (admittedly controversial) artistic decision.

Karma is an interesting case. She is not really the primary focus of this story arc, it is Tiffany and (to a lesser extent) Agent Starlight. So there is no implied guarantee of eventual ticklish torment for her. She is a villain and her primary purpose is to antagonize the protagonists.

Having said that, you might like issue 18. Maybe. Just sayin' since I hate spoilers. But you might.

 

[oblesklk1]

Also, I keep meaning to finish the story Bad Karma on our site. Been years in the making. You would like that too.

 

[omnimegatickler]

Things are grim for our poor, beleaguered Agents. They lost one of their own in the line of duty (Agent Succubus, issue 13). Karma's forces now assault the city from all angles, forcing them on the defensive, and Miss Rachel Ghost is still in Karma's notorious dungeons (issue 10). Is there any ray of hope? Stay tuned to the series and find out...

I have to ask though , did you guys really have to kill off Agent Succubus ? She was my favorite character in the series .

However , like Marvel and DC do routinely with their characters , maybe you could bring her back to life , for a future story arc ?

 

[oblesklk1]

I have to ask though , did you guys really have to kill off Agent Succubus ? She was my favorite character in the series .

However , like Marvel and DC do routinely with their characters , maybe you could bring her back to life , for a future story arc ?

We didn't have to kill her off, but I looked at the situation, and it was the most logical outcome given the characters' personalities. Yin is a heartless killer, finally has supreme control over Succubus, and is pissed off with her. Not a great combo. And Yang, with her newfound compassion, has now to live with the fact that in trying to ease Succubus suffering by forcing her to climax during this torment (thus blocking out the torturous tickling), accidentally aided in her death by ramping up her sensitivity to it.

I looked at the scene from different angles, but this is was the only outcome I felt preserved the integrity of the writing of the series.

In terms of bringing her back, I don't want to give away any plot points or spoilers. However, there are plenty of clues and foreshadowing going on between The Agencies and The Agencies: Frontiers for those interested in where the story is going. (information specific to your particular interest is in The Agencies: Frontiers #3 and The Agencies #15).

 

[omnimegatickler]

We didn't have to kill her off, but I looked at the situation, and it was the most logical outcome given the characters' personalities. Yin is a heartless killer, finally has supreme control over Succubus, and is pissed off with her. Not a great combo. And Yang, with her newfound compassion, has now to live with the fact that in trying to ease Succubus suffering by forcing her to climax during this torment (thus blocking out the torturous tickling), accidentally aided in her death by ramping up her sensitivity to it.

I looked at the scene from different angles, but this is was the only outcome I felt preserved the integrity of the writing of the series.

In terms of bringing her back, I don't want to give away any plot points or spoilers. However, there are plenty of clues and foreshadowing going on between The Agencies and The Agencies: Frontiers for those interested in where the story is going. (information specific to your particular interest is in The Agencies: Frontiers #3 and The Agencies #15).

I agree that it was probably the best decision you could come up with in those circumstances , although I am still melancholy about her demise . 🙁

Edit : I am pretty sure that you'll eventually bring her back , although I am not making a guaranteed prediction here . Just based on my experience of reading comics for nearly a decade , in which mainstream characters are killed off , and then brought back, the most prominent example being Jean Grey aka Phoenix(how apt is that name for her) of the X-Men .

 

[oblesklk1]

I agree that it was probably the best decision you could come up with in those circumstances , although I am still melancholy about her demise . 🙁

Edit : I am pretty sure that you'll eventually bring her back , although I am not making a guaranteed prediction here . Just based on my experience of reading comics for nearly a decade , in which mainstream characters are killed off , and then brought back, the most prominent example being Jean Grey aka Phoenix(how apt is that name for her) of the X-Men .

I understand your sadness at her passing. I love most of the characters we create, and it is hard to see any of them go. You're thinking "Hmmm this is what would likely happen, but it means I won't be able to write about her again in the continuity which kinda sucks."

And that's a bold prediction :cool