One of the enduring images I remember from my childhood is a picture of Perseus holding up Medusa’s head (don’t ask), so I knew exactly how I was going to draw the middle panel. It actually ended up pretty close to what’s in my head (which doesn’t happen all that often), although our friend He-Jin’s head’s is probably not as fearsome as Medusa’s.
My little science illustration gig is still going… actually it’s gone from what I thought was going to be a short project to kind of a recurring thing now. It’s a lot of fun and I’m finally learning to draw on a tablet, so I’m definitely not complaining, but I’m afraid this comic will have to stay on the dreaded update-when-I-can type of schedule for the foreseeable future. But there’s some nice graphic violence coming up in the story so that’s good motivation for me to keep drawing 
A belated Happy New Year to you all 
Do you know if the signs/banners at the late Han period are written from right to left or left to right? (in this case, looking at 青瑣門) In some manhua I see it written from right to left, and then sometimes not. Thanks! Love the comic.
I was hoping no one would catch that
It would definitely have been written right to left. Writing from left to right in Chinese is a relatively recent development. I realized the screwup as I posted the comic last night, but was too sleepy to do anything about it, so I figured I’d post it and then try to fix it later. Now I’ll definitely have to get that fixed.
Heya Koad. Good to see an update! I’m always so impressed with how you use pen and ink to bring these pages to life! Love it!
There is a small typo in the dialogue second panel: “that his chariot IS awaits.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this in changing wording up. I think you meant it to read “That his chariot awaits.”
Thanks a bunch… I really should stop doing these updates late at night
Both the Chinese characters and the typo are fixed now… thank goodness for Photoshop.
You’re everywhere! EVERYWHEEEERE!
Power politics…It’s a lot of fun watching in front of your computer, but living it…ouch! My neck!
Vespasian (Pecunia non olet!) said, after resigning, that watching his cabbage grow was waaaay more pleasant!
To look at it with a glass-half-full mentality, doesn’t modern politics seem pretty civilized when you consider how people used to settle their differences?
“Used to”?
Judging by the frenzy some people flee their homeland, the practice is not for “settling differences” anymore but just as blood sport, if you can call “sport” the use of dull penknives for the surgery…
I stand corrected… in typical American fashion I was thinking of what goes on in the US and just sort of extrapolated it to everywhere else without really realizing it
Happy New Year Koad, and an early Happy Year of the Dragon to ye! Wonderful to see the updates to begin 2012 with and wonderful to hear that you are having a blast with your scientific illustration job!!
There is nothing like a severed head to make a point… but ware the consequences resulting from points being made
Thanks Vonbek, and Happy New Year to you too!
Severing heads must be pretty effective for point making since they do it so often in ROTK… or does that mean it’s not effective?
“Interesting”(In the Chinese meaning),
Dead men walking on a wall…tossing heads…
alright… i saw this today and thought of KOAD… i must have…
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/menu.aspx?menu=1150&category=8360
OMG.
There goes my Christmas bonus…
Made it to the end of this. I’m definitely going to favorite this page and check in once in a while to see the progress made! I love this retelling of the story!
Very glad to hear you like this comic so far, and thank you so much for your kind words
As I mentioned in the post, the comic is currently on a sloooow update schedule because of another illustration gig that I’m doing, but new pages will be coming at some point… the next page is about half way done…