Favorable Winds

by Mandy Seley

This comic is part of a story arc about our invitation to Katsucon 2016!
Click here to go to the start of this story arc!
You can see all of the Katsucon comics here!

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 It was already cold in February, and Katsucon was right by the water, which made it even colder! Fox was grateful he could just walk outside to cool off in all that armor.

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Late update cuz I was busy today:
This was right outside the doors at the bottom of the escalators, leading to the pool. “Smoker’s Alley” it was called. Everyone out there was freezing, cuz it was a nook at the long end of the buildings. That, combined with the water being not more than 500 feet away created a wind tunnel that spun through that area at impressive speeds. The high temp that day was 26 degrees fahrenheit. We were in the shade, with massive amounts of windchill. I’d heard reports of anywhere from negative nine to negative nineteen outside.

Being in a suit of armor, I was unable to feel much of the windchill at all.
I’d have offered to help ‘warm up’ some of the female cosplayers, but you’re neither soft, snuggly, or warm wearing cold weather while clad in steel.

47 comments on “Favorable Winds”

  2. Is that Sailor Moon dog character standing outside because of the evacuation? As always, great art and a lot of extra details.

    1. Nah, this was in ‘Smoker’s Alley’ before that, in the little nook near the pool.
      Door was by the bottom of the escalators.

    2. I’m not so sure she’s a dog. I see twin stripes on her wide fluffy tail. That tells me shes a skunk. On the other hand, her muzzle looks like a fox muzzle. Maybe she’s half and half.

      1. I seem to recall Mandy drawing a few skunk characters like that, so her muzzle is probably just her style.

        1. I now think it might be a skunk. I Googled different skunk colors and saw they can range from pitch-black to light tan, so this might be a different breed.

        2. Maybe. I know that Max Blackrabbit draws Zig Zag with a relatively long muzzle, too.

        3. Skunk, yep. Their faces look pretty long from the side to me, but I’m also certainly prone to stylizing and fudging details because I just like how they look! (see: all tails are fluffy tails)

          1. Mandy, if you like skunks with fluffy tails, you should look at Eric Schwartz’s version of Zig Zag. Now SHE’S got a fluffy tail. It looks like it’s wider than she is.

  3. Fox, you dog. LOL. I can’t say as I blame you. If I see the wind blowing a skirt up, I believe it’s something worth looking into.

    BTW, Mandy, with my eyesight, I’m glad that you’ve enlarged the panels a bit. It was getting to the point that even with my laptop’s screen 6″ from my face, I was having a hard time seeing. (I think I need new glasses.)

      1. I didn’t know about the Ctrl-+ enlarging the comic. Maybe I accidentally did that and that enlarged the comic for me.

      2. I just tried the ctrl-minus and everything got smaller. So, I guess I must have accidentally enlarged it. Thanks for the information.

        2. Ctrl-plus is the hotkey for larger, Ctrl-minus is smaller, I think up to a factor of two in either direction (so 50% or 200%). If you want to zero back to 100%, do Ctrl-zero.

          1. Thanks. I’ll try that. When you say, “ctrl-zero”, you actually mean, “ctrl-0”, right?

    2. I did make them larger!
      Recently I started drawing my comics on 11×17 instead of 9×12 sheets, and decided to change the site layout a bit to accommodate larger images online too.
      I’m glad you’re liking the change!

      1. Like I said, thanks Mandy. My eyesight is horrid-ble. So, making the comic larger is a real big help for those like me. Thanks again.

  4. Ah, well. Some years ago the guys at a rival game company thought I looked strange and exotic (I’m Cherokee) and based a character on me. Then they had the idea of dressing me as the character at trade shows. They had the armor built for me, full plate over a mail jacket with all appropriate leather and cloth layers on the inside. 112 lbs altogether compared to my own 140 – fortunately a lifetime training in Kyokushin, Kendo and Iaido left me able to carry it. It was murderously hot, this was never in the winter, and they wanted me to stay with their display all day. They did provide these neat cooling fans taken from professional racing that draws air over dry ice and through tubes they could slide inside my armor. It was my introduction to ‘fan service’!

    To make matters worse, I had very long, dense hair that was always catching in the pieces – and I had to use a temporary dye that turned my black hair to pure white. At least they let me keep the armor, which cost them 22,000 US!

    1. Your statement about “fan service” reminds me of a comic by Tom Fischbach, creator of “Two Kinds”, I saw on Deviant Art. It’s called “Freefall Fan Service”. If you haven’t seen it, you should take a look. Tom’s DA page is called Twokinds.

        1. Yeah, that one’s okay. But, I was referring to the one that Tom Fischbach did on his Deviant Art page. It shows Florence working on a tabletop fan and turning it on. It then rips the top of her yellow uniform off. A few of the yellow pieces are strategically placed, if you know what I mean.

          1. I did my own version about 4 years ago. A couple of people I know were working at Neopets at that time, and I drew a ‘fan service’ of their character Jhudora the Dark Faerie. There was deliberately nothing sexy about as part of the joke – it was just Jhudora sitting on the floor surrounded by tools while she oiled her oscillating fan.

          2. I guess Tom’s drawing was fan service about someone (Florence) performing fan service. I’ll tell you what, when Florence got through, that fan worked GOOD.

          4. Thank you. I always appreciate a logical explanation to things like this. I just KNEW there had to be a reason. LOL.

      1. It was actually an NPC character design for the Square Enix Valkyrie Profile series starting with Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria. Being Native American with Paedogenesis, I have rather elvish, childlike features and large eyes with a Native American/Asian shape. I’m sometimes mistaken for a girl (I have a waist-length pony-tail) and I still look like I’m in my late teens. I’ve been snagged to model for several game and animation characters or races. In real life I can do a scary-accurate cosplay of the Avatar Korra without makeup or a wig – I even have her mouth and nose.

        2. Genetics Jackpot
          So now ya gotta marry someone that looks like Asami?
          I hated Fox Mulder all through high school. Now I dress like him (unrelated) and married a red head. *shrug*
          Oh, right. And drive a cop car.

          1. I actually did marry a Mescalero Apache veterinarian who does look a bit like a shorter, darker version of Asami. And we have a kid who looks and sounds just like a younger version of Iris from Pokemon. But I don’t ride a giant white hound or hang out with fire ferrets, although I do ride a Belgian and we have a deaf grey fox we rescued. No cop car, although the East Mesa Veterinary Rescue Hummer does have emergency lights and siren.

        3. I read a couple of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs about someone that was supposed to be Geronimo’s adopted son. (I know it was poetic license.) I read Geronimo’s autobiography and ERB had to have read it because he used a lot of the things in that book in his story’s. I was much impressed with Geronimo’s story and the books by ERB and I’m not much of a western fan.

          1. Geronimo is a distant In-law of mine – how scary is that? And my Lady Vet is also a seventh generation Apache shaman. Although I’m only Apache by adoption, her grandfather selected me to replace him as the tribe’s Kha’diyin, the Shaman of the Ceremonies, so I’ve been learning all things Apache for the last few years.

            On my own side, my last name Blackfox indicates that I’m a direct descendant of Enoli (Black Fox), one of the last great Cherokee War Chiefs. Indicates, not proves, mind you!

          2. Cool. I’ve always been fascinated by the great Indian/Native American war chiefs, most of whom were never actually defeated but lost only through attrition. In the books I mentioned, Geronimo always said he wasn’t at war with the United States; he said he was at war with the Mexicans because of the things they did to his family. I’ve been told that, because my family came from North Carolina, I had Cherokee blood but my grandfather always said it wasn’t true. So, I don’t know. (I believe most Americans who can trace their ancestry here to at least five generations back have at least one Native American ancestor.)

  5. A convenient breeze changes the meaning of “Smoking Area”.

  6. Marilyn would be proud; and John would be having another affair.

  7. gotta hand it to her though, thats a practically long skirt and not a tiny inadequate one…. perhaps putting small weights in the edge?

  10. Comment for last week:
    I am presently playing through Yellow, and just got to Lt. Surge. Everything up to there is lv. 22 or lower, and I am suddenly faced with a lv. 28 Raichu. Yay!

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