Episode #17 sees the General snap out of his day dream — his recollection of the events of 2 years ago when so many lives were lost.

As he leaves the landing pad we see some familiar faces, everyone seems to be here, reunited with one common aim — to finish this thing!

“I downloaded all the episodes and really liked the many variables added by new artists each time. It as a great lesson in suspense story telling and the art styles gave me the incentive to see what I could do. What the story probably needs is a final battle but I leave that for someone with better skills. Meanwhile, I had this idea and had fun developing it to this point and wanted to share it.”

“There is a tongue-in-cheek quality about the writing which not only references that the comic project was started two years ago, but also the last line could suggest an ending to the whole thing. Which of course sets up the viewer for a sequel if there is any interest on behalf of the artists.”

“I realize the story is ready for an epic battle, but had this idea which I hope you like. It picks up from General Claymore’s initial concern …so many lives lost.”

- Stevie B

Hopefully this episode will be the spark that the project needs to get it moving again — where will it go next? and just how will they finish things?

The project’s been fairly static this year and it’s been difficult to build momentum but Stevie B from Los Angeles sent over a great episode that was intended to form #16. Myself and a couple of the other contributors sat back and looked at this page and felt it just needed a quick intro panel to tie it into the storyline a little better. With Stevie B out of town, the job fell on my desk.

“Stevie had a great idea for how to get the story back on track and get us to a climactic ending at episode #25 and I was all for it. What I needed to do with episode #16 was just ensure that readers weren’t confused about where (and when) we’re rejoining the characters.”

“This episode steals a bit of Stevie’s thunder but I think we needed to actually see the General snapping out of his daydream before moving on.”

- Dave

I urge you to turn the page quickly to see where Stevie B takes us next.

Following his recent interview, Chris Tinkler has contributed the first episode of 2008. We once again join the General on his drunken walk through the sleeping bunker - trapped in a faulty elevator.

“After being given the unenviable task of following the wonderful work featured on page 14, I decided to use my page to show a bit of the claustrophobic atmosphere around the bunker.  Placing the entire page in a small, faulty elevator and using no dialogue showed, in my opinion the General’s solitude.

I used the contrasting emotionless “WRRRing” of the elevator motor and the gutteral “CHURRRing” of the young badger in lieu of any dialogue. The flickering lights showed the presence of possible danger for the General, and the bunker at large.

I liked the idea of showcasing the badgers as not only the giant destructive beasts, but also as tiny critters who could be anywhere around the bunker… in the walls, inbetween floors… just an everpresent (possible) threat.

I hated using the bunker photo, as I felt it was a bit of a cop-out, however, I just couldn’t get the picture I wanted to draw there right.

As for the formula the General was reading… well, it has to do with radiation… but I’ll leave any digging deeper to the oncoming artists.”

- Chris

What’s he looking for?

What exactly does his chemical formula do?

Is he looking for Irina or does he have something else up his sleeve?

We get the impression that the General is a man on the edge, that he might be close to breaking point. We’ve already seen the bunker infested with ants but Chris now shows us that the badgers have infiltrated the lower levels of the secure facility - is it dead or just lying in wait?

We’ve now got an established story and do with some more exposure to get the roster for volume #2 rolling - so I said yes.

3 days later and the interview is now online over at comicnews.info (http://www.comicnews.info/?p=1232).

After asking around I’ve decided that we’re going to try to “wrap up” the current story arc — try and close some of the open plots, ideas and questions.

This leaves plenty of options open for the first artist of volume #2 to create a totally fresh story but should also leave the opportunity to bring some of the existing characters through as well.

We’re also starting to look for ways of publicising the project a little more now that it’s establishing itself. If anyone has any bright ideas of where we can spread news of the project, let me know. It would be great to get some fresh faces on-board for volume #2 and even better to get some diversity in there - can you believe we only have 1 female contributor so far!?!?

Slots are still open in volume #2 to any of you regulars who want to sign up again and there’s still some spare pages in the back of volume #1 for any sketches or pinups you might want to donate.

I’m really excited about how the project is moving and love the collaborative feel it’s taken on. So, in the spirit of collaboration, if any of you have thoughts on the future of the project let me know. I can’t wait to see what 2008 brings!

After a bit of a re-shuffle (Dan Dunham had to retire due to school commitments) the story passed all the way back over to Europe - Austria to be more precise.

Following on from his highly popular cover design, Michael has contributed this great page for episode #14.

“I did this page with the intention of giving General Bradley some more depth. Badgers and ants sure are nice, but I don’t want to forget about the humans! Up ’til now he stumbled trough the story like an “idiot” (as Irina called him).

Well here he is now, at the breaking point of his career. A man who takes a stand (even if he is shaking a bit) and will fight ….something?

What will he do? Something good? Or very bad?

I don´t know. Ask the next artists. And where the hell do all those ants come from? And where do they go?”

- Michael

As Michael says, “where will it go, ask the next artist”, and that artist is Chris Tinkler.

He’s managed, surprisingly, to capture everything that’s gone on over the last 13 episodes in a single image - fantastic!

If everything falls into place, the workload will be split between Michael, Steve Sloan and myself and we should end up with a great cover that really reflects the philosophy of the project.

London based Flash developer Jonny Crook has contributed lucky/unlucky episode #13. We join Hijo, once again, on his quest to destroy the badger overlord.

“I wanted to get some action into the story after the plot/dialogue-heavy last two episodes. The story traces Hijo’s journey into the Himalayas where he is to fulfil his Father’s quest against the evil badger hordes. It is only when he reaches his destination that he is faced with a shocking discovery. The episode is left open to the next contributor to decide what happens next – can Hijo stop the badger army alone if at all? How has the Badger Lord managed to amass his army? Have the badgers taken control of the portal device?

I really enjoyed this project. I’m not really into comics so it was a bit of a challenge! I wanted to get back to basics so most of the illustration is just pen and ink.

I think there’s a ‘vermin’ feel to the final scene – probably influenced by the fact that my flat was being invaded by mice at the time of creation!”

- Jonny

Now, this episode poses some questions for the next artist. Are we seeing something that’s really happening? Is this a view into one of the parallel universes that Irina has been talking about? Or could this be the last of the pages discovered in the prisoners cell?

Only Dan Dunham knows…

We’ve got (the ever eager) Steve Sloan collaborating with Michael Benyuska on some cover art with lettering/design coming from myself and Matt Wenger is going to try and squeeze out a pin-up to slot in the back of the book.

Don’t worry — there’s still time to contribute. If you feel you can offer any of the following then get in touch:

• Character designs or sketches
• Pin-ups, posters or splash pages
• Alternate cover designs
• Episodes for the second volume

If you think you could offer any of these to the ongoing project then we’d love to hear from you.

• d13diary was starting to struggle with what I was trying to do with it and I just didn’t have the time to keep updating the code every-time I needed something or if something broke
• there’s tons of support for WordPress making it dead easy to upgrade and update
• search engines seem to love it — and it’s about time the project got some more exposure

The design’s still a bit shaky and I’m sure I’ll keep adding to it when I get time but for now it seems to do what it needs to do.