In my head, this page was very different. It was done manga style, meaning the sequence of Flash Drive going down the mountain road took 6 pages, and the panels were much larger. One panel of him cycling fast, a shot of his face with wind roaring past, a shot of him thumbing the gear shift thingy, a shot of the derailleur clicking the chain over, another shot of him cycling with a slightly blurrier background and at a slightly Dutch angle. Then a panel of the shockfront starting to form, then maybe another bike shot with an even blurrier background, even more Dutch and Flash Drive would be covered with some filter that makes him look like he’s vibrating, then another of the shockfront large enough to draft off of, then probably a full page shot, possibly so Dutch it’s upside down, of him just blasting through the desert, and the vibration filter is gone, but the background is basically just speed lines.

You know how manga is. When you’re putting out 10 pages a week or whatever they do, you gotta fill em with something. I think that scene would be pretty cool, though. But at two pages a week, even if I had the time to compress all that into two double sized pages, it would still feel a little obnoxious, IMO. I’m sure most of you can picture almost the exact sequence I described in anime form, with Sydney bursting on frame, yelling, “Is he drafting his own shockfront!?” Then the camera pulls back to reveal the image is Dabbler’s Televoyance spell.

I’m not sure “shockfront” is the actual correct word to describe the plume of… whatever that is when something breaks the sound barrier. But then Sydney just said it because it sounded cool. She’s not submitting a scientific paper here. Oh, I just looked it up. It’s actually called a vapor cone, which is pretty cool. Alternatively it’s called a Mach Diamond, which is super cool, but also kind of sounds like a 14 year old boy named it. A 14 year old boy whose own original character is a Utahraptor who pilots an F-22 Raptor – an F-22 that transforms into body armor around the Utahraptor that makes him look like a giant raptor (Naturally this configuration is called the Double Raptor), but one with normal sized arms so he can wield a sword – except it’s not a sword, it’s a macuahuitl, one of those Aztec cricket bats with the obsidian blades along the edge – only instead of obsidian blades, its Utahraptor talons! Oh, and the Double Raptor still has wings and can fly and shoot missiles, naturally. And his nemesis is the evil Dr. Vintana, who sort of looks like a 20 lb capybara and is trying to bring about the rise of placental mammals! He has a cape. That’s how Utah tells him from the other proto-mammals.

Please enjoy the increasingly stale vote incentive.

This month, I’m closing on a new house, selling my Mom’s house, finishing packing Mom’s house, moving city to city to the new house, forwarding mail, canceling utilities, all that. And after that’s done, I get to start the process of selling my old house, which needs a little work before it can realistically go on the market.

SO. I’m going to try and do this vote incentive in stages. Currently it’s just pencils. The TopWebcomics one will update with colors and detail until we get to the no clothes versions, then that will continue over at Patreon. Also there will be a comic or two in between each version to fill out the story.

I know it’s hard to tell from just the pencils, but this is Heatwave and Jiggawatt. The comics will explain why they’re doing what they’re doing. Although I feel like even saying that much makes it easy to guess, but hopefully the journey will still amuse.

Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.