Strip 12: MANTRA II

Okay, there’s a lot going on in this strip. First off, what the hell is happening to Roger? Is he just overwhelmed by the grisly scene in the hallway? Did Dy-Gar’s prayers for a fatal error come true? Or is this something else? I don’t expect anyone to know what’s happening to him yet, but I can guarantee you’ll find out soon (and by soon, I mean within the next 20 strips). While mystery and techno-arcane weirdness are an intrinsic part of Steel Salvation, I’ve come to realize that the pacing of a comic doesn’t really allow for a burn as slow as I’d intended, so revelations that would have come several parts into the future have now been bumped up to Part 2. This scene originally wasn’t supposed to happen until the very end of Part 2, but for pacing purposes, I’ve decided to unleash the hounds early.

Also, you might have noticed that the art looks more crisp and the layout of the strip looks a bit different. That’s because the previous strips were all assembled by Alex from extremely high res panels sent to us by mecha.red, but starting with this strip, mecha.red has begun putting together the panels himself and designing them to match the resolution on our site. This allows him to switch up the panel lengths for an even greater control over the strip’s pacing, and we won’t lose any of the amazing details he includes in his artwork. Oh yeah, remember the first strip entitled MANTRA? Well, it’s not an accident that the font used in this strip is different than the Goddess’s mantra at the end of Part 1. I’ll just leave it at that...

- J.S. Conner

March 19th 2015