Kitsune .44 page 1

Notes

1. Before you read very far, some things must be said about format: This comic has been darkened and tidied up a bit by Boaj, Lord of Cashews. Initially it was this side of unreadable. Boaj was good enough to fix it as best as could be done, and also made this observation: "His art has NOT gotten better. This is frightening if you think about it. How can you turn out thousands of pictures per year and not get any better? HOW?" How, indeed. Anyway - this has been tampered with slightly, and so you may see a few inconsistencies here and there - trust me, it's better than the alternative by far. If you want to send thanks to Boaj, that would be splendid.

(Note: Another version still was sent in by Jen White - a second version from her - that was cleaned up, had all 24 pages, and contained pages about a quarter the size, give or take. Considering space concerns, we decided to use her version in the final. Boaj's contributon is still invaluable, however, and we thank him for this and for all the other works he has kindly contributed. -ed.)

2. Top panel: The longer we stare at the back (and fore) ground, the more mind-boggling it becomes. Are those mountains in the background? A plateau? Is that a waterfall on the left? Is it flowing down anything? Are they in a canyon, and if so why is there only one tree? As far as the white space in the foreground - your guess is as good as ours, but Isobel's guess (and mine too, really) is that it's the speech bubbles of the background, which is speaking silently. Agreed, this makes no sense, but no less than anything else that we are seeing here - or that is about to happen.

3. Second panel: The puff of breath emitting from the mulleted protagonist's nose is a standard thing in manga - it denotes determination. Its inclusion here is indicative of the heavy influence manga has had on Gonterman. To provide a frame of reference: Tod Browning was a heavy influence on Ed Wood, and look where that got him. 4. Second row of panels from the bottom: The dark-haired person of indeterminate gender is wielding a sword. Yes, it looks like a banana in the first panel and a toothpick in the second, but it is, in fact, a sword.

5. Note to aspiring artists: When drawing guns, it helps if you've ever seen one before.