I'm curious to know how you're referencing the choreography for this fight. (I've not even tried to draw fighting/action but I can tell it's quite difficult to do, so I'm interested to know where you get your refs on this sort of thing.)

Also, admittedly.. I suppose I need to read up or find a synopsis cos, I don't quite understand where we are in the story at this point. Suppose I've been kind of late to the game.

There is a Speedreader, which I'll get you the link for; but the synopsis is that Kathy has been challenged to a duel for the right to succeed Songween as Duchess of Rackenroon. Jinjur is Songween's great-niece, and believes she is the rightful Heir. She thinks Kathy is an impostor brought in by Lt. Fred Kruger so he can avoid having to marry Jinjur, as per the terms of the contract his wealthy mother made with the Duchess. Kathy is Songween's great-granddaughter, but her grandfather gave up his title when he ran away to become a rock musician. He did not tell his son (Kathy's father) about his history.

Jinjur challenged Kathy both to try to publicly humiliate her, and to buy herself time to get her plot to assassinate Songween together.

Whoever wins this duel will become the Heir. The Empress of the Maramasai (queen of the hyenas, and Jinjur's grandmother) decreed the duel to be non-lethal, but Jinjur does not intend on abiding by that.

Jinjur's idea is to toy with Kathy and slowly take her apart, in order to make an example of her, and to torture Fred.

Fred has given orders to Koz, the company marksman, to shoot Jinjur if she gets the better of Kathy, both to save Kathy and to make sure Jinjur never gets to become Duchess, because she is a dangerous sociopath. But Koz has been stabbed by one of Kathy's bodyguards, who once dated Koz--and used to be a member of Jinjur's troop, the Black Watch. She went to work for Songween after plotting to kill Jinjur, but Fred suspects she's a spy.

Kathy has very little training in sword fighting, while Jinjur is described as being "the best swordswoman in the country."

Awesome!

I went back and read some of the first couple pages but, you're well into this. (A prev,first,next would be SO helpful for people coming in late to the game)

I absolutely love that the guy's name is Fred Kruger.

I really like your tenacity to tell this story, and not to rush through it. I started learning to draw so that I could tell the stories I've written or have stored between my ears in a visual format, so I am very happy to see someone who has a similar focus. I have several "big ideas" that I'm just chomping at the bit to put down but.. drawing is not just a pick it up and do it sorta skill so. I gotta nurture it a bit more so that it doesn't degrade my story.

I love the mix of humor, and the tiny bit of 4th wall you have going on with this, and now that I'm a bit more up to speed I think I can start to really get more into it!

I'd suggest you work on writing your ideas out as novels or novellas, first, and practice drawing as you go along, so that you'll have a working script ready when you feel your drawing ability is up to the job. I've seen many cartoons start and then die off after a few pages because, quite honestly, cartooning is HARD. It looks easy, but you are writer, director, set decorator, continuity, cameraman, AND cast for a movie that only you can see going on in your head.

IMHO, strong writing can carry poor artwork, but the best artwork can't really make up for a bad script.

And as you've observed, drawing takes talent and lots of practice. I know I'll never be as good an artist as, say, Tani De Real, or Rukis, or Phil Foglio, or Dark Natasha, or Tom Fishbach, but my art style is original and serves the purpose of telling my story.

I've been writing for years, but only recently started to draw. I started drawing honestly because I felt like the text wasn't getting as much attention as I would have liked, and, well paying an artist to do comics of full stories would simply be out of the question financially. I have a lot of stories that are partial or incomplete, or need editing, or that simply didn't work without a visual reference (like, having 2 versions of the same characters in 2 dimensions... can be tricky in text, but visually you can deal with shirt colors or environments or something..)

I'm not a strong writer, I've contended that if I were I would have had more success with it, but.. enjoy doing this, and I guess that's whats really important.

Here is the link to the start of this story in the Carry On Speedreader. The pages I've been putting up here are in a slightly different format, and I've edited some of the stuff that didn't pertain to the Rackenroon arc out when I was putting it together for Webtoons, which I then cross-posted those pages here.

https://crosstimecafe.com/Webcomics.....n.html?id=1052

I really hope she's not banking on Koz taking a shot, if he filled her in on his plan on the way in.

Poor Fred...

late? never noticed... and still loving it...

V.

Don’t slay the Unicorn Fred..., it would give you a 1/2 life...

This is some of the most gripping comic material I've followed in a very long time. Bravo, KD. You've done an astounding job of building tension and uncertainty. You blend humor into the panels well, too.

(Also... I'm personally biased, but please let Koz recover from his error!)

Thank you, Feren. I'm always so glad to hear that I'm doing a good job!

I really wanted to comment on this when it came out and I'm sorry its taken so long. Trying to juggle Christmas preparations and work. I really love how you've worked on their stances. However, I love how Freddy is freaking out, it's very unusual from usual calm and analytical demeanour. In some way, he looks like a cute pup in the last panel. I really admire the work you've put into these scenes KD, you are making entertainingly suspenseful and humourous too. Well done😊⭐⭐⭐⭐🙌👍

Thank you! I had to search a LOT to find sword fighting stances which were usable. Most were too posed looking.

Fred only pretends to be emotionally dead. He has a lot invested in Kathy winning. His life is on the line here.