After a brutal encounter with a pair of vandals, Maxine and Damien try to return to the NSPD to end their partnership. However, they are pulled into another situation when a mother begs the officers to rescue her freshly kidnapped daughter. Maxine is forced to reopen old wounds as she learns that the kidnapper is the same man who murdered her mother.
FireStarter returns with its longest chapter yet! Chapter 3 is titled "Embers" and is available to read now!
Fanning the Flames
FireStarter is a story that centers around Maxine. Sure, it has elements of reforming the NSPD and bettering the city of Northern Serenity, but Maxine's true motives are not perfectly aligned with that of the higher-ups. This creates this back-and-forth between wanting to keep an effective and promising officer on the streets and reining her in when she oversteps her boundaries.
Like her mother, Veronica, Maxine has her definition of "Justice and the Greater Good." Maxine's ideals and beliefs drive her to do the reckless and brash things she's known for. Maxine becomes a wrecking ball when she wants, destroying norms and physically breaking barriers that no one else is willing to. While this trait often puts her in hot water, there are times when the rules must be broken to pursue a 'Greater Good.' Is now one of those times?
Is Maxine just being selfish with her actions? Is her goal nothing but petty revenge, or is it her strong desire to uphold her beliefs about Justice?
Who knows? Is Maxine who she says she is, who she pretends to be? How much will Maxine destroy to reach her goals? That's Damien's problem to solve. Entranced by Maxine's hardy resolve, we see what Damien thinks of Maxine in FS02; he wants to bring the 'real' Maxine to the surface because surely Maxine can't be this angry and abrasive all the time.
This has to be an act.
Right?
Embers focuses on the contrast between Damien and Maxine. When there is conflict, you know Maxine will run headfirst into it, but Damien? Never.
When a young daughter goes missing, how will Maxine and Damien react to the news that a famous serial killer is behind it?
Production Notes
The rough production cycle and a tough semester of school. Honestly, this time it wasn't a flow issue; it was simply that I didn't have enough time or energy to make as much progress as I would have liked because of school. This chapter was being chipped at every chance I got, but it took this long. Fortunately, I am done with the semester and I can devote a good amount of time to upcoming projects for the summer. My Fall schedule is light too so there should be a good amount of progress being made for the rest of the year.
Art-wise, I don't believe much changed beyond my lineart brush. I moved to a slightly jagged G-Pen brush that gives me a better line width variation and the ability to switch between smooth controlled lines and short fast jagged lines. You should be able to tell that with this brush and inking style the art looks slightly 'rougher', which is a good thing! I love the look. I also decided to manually make most of the speed line effects in this chapter and I think the extra effort paid off! I love the speed lines and other little effects I put in effort to really make the panels look good. Theres also a nice mix of styles in the panels of this page. Some are done with pencils, some the usual way and others in slightly different color schemes/shading methods. Artistically, not much will change going forward, but I want to try to keep this level of detail and reduce the time it took. We'll see if i succeed for FS04.
Isolated Fears 2???
It's back! Isolated Fears was a one-shot comic I did last year that focused on the stressors in Maxine's life and her relationship with her best frenemy Juliette Sandover. I loved the little short emotional story and have been plotting out a small trilogy that focuses on this part of Maxine's life. Isolated Fears was meant to be a primer to FireStarter and I plan to follow it up with a mid-FireStarter one-shot of a similar nature.
The title of this new one-shot will be called Hearts Like Ours and will once again feature Maxine and Juliette in a different setting tackling a similar emotional issue together.
I love the script and setting of this one and am super excited to get started on it. It's a lot longer than IF, but not as long as a FireStarter Chapter, so I'm not sure how long it will take. It will be the next project I'm working on but I think I'll switch between this and FS04.
Speaking of which...
FireStarter Chapter 4 will be titled Flames and I hope to reveal the cover art soon! I won't have any substantial updates on this for a month or two but hopefully, Hearts Like Ours can be close to finishing before then! I'm super excited about these two projects and don't know which I want to start first!
Finally, there's been issues with updating the website and I think it's due time that it undergoes a massive overhaul on the backend so keep an eye out for updates on that front too. If I succeed, we can expect a FireStarter Hub page! And I might have some updates on the whereabouts of Madeline Harbour ready by the next blog post.
Stay tuned!