So, there was no Death or death. But what about the strange figure from her hallucination? She has seen him before (as shown in Chapter 1) and will see him again. You are right, Amanita. He needs to be reborn.

An important thing to learn from this; Amanita isn’t that good at magic.

In dreams (and possibly drug-induced hallucinations), size is a funny thing. I once dreamed I was chasing a spider around the living room, trying to squish it with my shoe. As I moved the couch to look for it, the spider was now the size of a large dog.

And for those of you playing the drinking game, here’s another close-up of an eye. Bottoms up!

I had so much fun with this page! I love drawing wolves, and rather than giving Pepper’s wolf form a more stylized look (as glimpsed in my earlier sketches), I took a more realistic approach. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn wolves so I had to shake off the dust and rust.

I’m back from vacation! I had a nice time in Orlando, FL, visiting parks, riding rides, and getting sick. I literally got sick. Stayed in bed for two days. Missed Epcot. Made up for it though on our final day at Magic Kingdom. While at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, I got this shirt. (I couldn’t leave the comic shop without it.) And at Magic Kingdom, at the Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop, I finally bought myself a “crystal” skull! I plan to get one of those LED, color changing bases for it to sit on.

On to today’s page! Now we get to see what Pepper is seeing. Or is she really seeing this? Maybe she actually fell into the water. If so, wouldn’t big, bad Warden Sol see this as an attempt to escape? Where is that guy anyway?!

Batman, is that you?

This is the page where I started using Manga Studio 5. No more SAI for me! I didn’t know much about MS5, and I really wanted to wait until I started on Chapter 5 before I made the switch, but I couldn’t wait. And I’m glad I didn’t! I’m having too much fun with this program now. The panels, text, and word balloons are still created in Photoshop, but I’m looking to go all MS5 for Chapter 5. The reason I wanted to wait before switching art programs, I was afraid the art would look drastically different. Looking at the pages now, I don’t even notice a change, though I am finding it a lot easier to color the pages. Where I have been fighting with the tools for certain looks and textures in SAI, I’ve found that MS5 is a lot more artist friendly (in my opinion).

I can’t wait to see what goodies Manga Studio EX 5 will have. And with me already owning the “Debut” version, an upgrade won’t cost as much.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit that this page reminds me of “Breaking Bad.”

Looks like she made it as far as the bathroom. And is that snow? Nope. It’s flour.

With all of these dilated eyes, I’m having flashbacks to the movie “Requiem for a Dream.”

Huzzah!

Ha! Jacklyn, responsible?! That’s like Noni ordering a hamburger from McDonald’s.

Now that I recently found out I have an alcohol intolerance, I think straight-up moonshine will kill me. Maybe I should try some zombie blood and see how that works out.

I guess it takes the “near death” of Momo for Noni to forget about the rules of her kitchen. “The kitchen is off limits. No Exceptions!… Unless an ambulance is needed.”

You may have noticed the softer shading in this chapter. That’s about to change. Along with the detailed backgrounds, the softer shading and highlights were eating up most of my time. I’m still pushing myself to work faster; however, the start of this chapter left me struggling to meet my deadlines.

Party or not, Momo’s having a good time.

Three things about this page: 1) Noni is apparently ambidextrous. 2) Zombies sparkle on the inside? 3) Momo has broken the 4th wall and now peers into your soul.

The last panel was from one of my original sketches of Noni. *looks at the linked image* Damn! It’s strange looking at old character art. I’d imagine that years from now, looking back at these pages, I’ll have the same reaction about the artwork. *raises a glass* Here’s to the evolution of style!

Testing out some exaggerated perspective and other things in the last panel. I love any excuse to try something new.

Oh, I recently learned that my comic now has it’s own page at TV Tropes. Feel free to contribute and fatten that page up with yummy, monster goodness.

Foooood!

These upcoming pages… I started to notice that I spent too much time working on backgrounds. I wanted things to look sketchy/painted, but I kept polishing and polishing. I think it took me three days to create this page. *grumbles* Backgrounds.

He loves making cookies.

Once upon a time, there was a ghost who liked to float around, touching things.

(The painting above the fireplace is “The Return of the Crusader” by Karl Friedrich Lessing.)

It’s the beginning stages of the newest supernatural, teen drama, “The Zombie Diaries!”

You need to speak louder, Bo.

Stop slouching, Pepper. It’s bad for your back. And Amanita, nice to see you without makeup.

Zombies, though at some height in the food chain, I always wondered if they carried around parasites or other nasty creatures. Or perhaps Bo is merely imagining them. Oh, about the bare shelves, those were once full with odds and ends when the place served students. Everything’s now kept in the kitchen, away from possible thieves. (Noni doesn’t trust the new house guests.)

Is it January 1st already?! Wow, time flies, but it’s good to be back! I had a nice time off, though I did feel bad for taking the hiatus. What did I do? I played a lot of Guild Wars 2. Then I had to re-break that addiction as I started back to work on the comic. Those who’ve known me for a while, know that I was a huge fan of Guild Wars 1. I could easily play 24 hours straight. Played it for years! But as I started to work on “Monster Soup,” I knew I had to give it up. Even if I play for an hour, that can quickly turn into 5 hours. Precious comic making time down the drain. So my hiatus allowed me to get GW2 out of my system, as well as spend time with my family visiting from out of state. Now I’m back to what makes me truly happy; my comic! And looking back, I doubt I’ll ever take another hiatus again. Updating my comic has become my new addiction.

Now for some comic news. My trusty, old Intuos2 has been replaced with a Bamboo Connect. It’s not the Cintiq I’ve been dreaming of, but it’s holding its own. Why wish for a Cintiq (or a tablet monitor in general)? I have bad carpal tunnel and I can only work on a page for twenty minutes before I’m forced to take a break. I also heard that working on a Cintiq/tablet monitor can help ease carpal tunnel symptoms as well as increase productivity. Heck, I’m always on the lookout to streamline my workflow. I have been looking at the Yiynova MSP19U as a cheaper route than a Cintiq 22HD, but I’m still not sure. I also have a new regular monitor; an HP 23″ ISP LED. Oh, wow! Talk about a big difference a better monitor makes. Looking back at the previous chapters, the colors look… blah. Not exactly how I intended them to look. So expect some small color(ing) changes in the future. (I try to preview the pages on various screens, including my smartphone.)

This chapter’s cover and upcoming pages were all created using SAI, Photoshop, (as usual) and my new Bamboo. Whenever Manga Studio 5 is released for digital download and purchase, I’m certain I’ll be making the switch. It will be nice to only need one program for my comic. I have messed with the demo version of Clip Studio Paint (Japanese version of MS5), and I love what I’ve seen. I can’t wait to start working with it. But I have to wait; perhaps mid to late January.

This chapter will be a long one. The previous chapters were actually two that I broke down into three. From here on out, my plan is to have the chapters set up like episodes, with each having a beginning, middle, and end. (Chapters 8 & 9 will be the exception.) As of now, this chapter will be around 60 pages. I’m also looking at ways to speed up my process. I would love to increase my updates to three times a week. There’s so much story I want to get to and more characters to introduce, and I feel impatient at times. Also, I want to apologize for the lack of a dropdown menu. I lost that feature when I switched from Comic Press to Comic Easel. And I still haven’t found a plugin that works the way I want it. Again, I apologize. I find myself missing this feature, as well, especially when I want to jump to a certain page without having to dig through the archive.

If you’ve made it this far in my rambling, you get one of Noni’s special cookies. They allow you to taste colors.

I hope you enjoy all the nakedness craziness this chapter has to offer!

(See the progression of the cover here, and the illustration without text here.)