January 2022

Up top, i wanna thank Kami McConnell for the first of the guest cover commissions that i’m gonna start rolling out 💜

They were a joy to work with, communicative, and easy to approach. Highly recomend their work. 😊 You can find more of their art on their website http://msaether.com/, their facebook page, and on their instagram!! 💜

Ugh i’ve been trying to get this one out for, what? Nearly 2 months? My shift job has been chaotic and exhausting and i’ve worked every holiday since Halloween so even my days off have been spent making up time with loved ones and i’m still behind in taking care of even that.

Some Notes:
-Shamayim was name-dropped in a previous chapter but we’re getting to see it for the first time in these opening pages. This is Gabriel’s home base, the region of Heaven that’s physically closest to the corporreal plane, and it’s generally described as being icy, snowy, and cold.
-i intentionally tried to obfuscate the image, but if the colors don’t give it away: Yeah the tape they’re listening to is Disintegration. Below The Cure gets another light cameo in as their young 3-piece lineup silhoutetted in the background. Smith had not yet grown out his signature hairstyle in this year.
-Hoimetic Sigils are not a thing, but Hermetic are. There saved you a deadend google search.
-Shamrocks can be used to remove glamour. This is what Be’el meant when he commented on his looks when he first spoke to Gabriel. He’s got… issues with his appearance that will come up again. There can be no possible reason for this subtext what are you talking about-
-There’s a few other seeds of information being planted here and there, “Moon Day”, maps, families and relationships, but they’re gonna see further exploration soon so i’m not gonna touch on them.

i really floundered with the quality of this chapter. it can be difficult discriminating between the purposefull naïvety that i aim for in order to call back to classic punk zines + comics -and just plain, bad work that hinders decent storytelling. It must feel ridiculous to hear the concept of “perfectionism” even came close to these messy, inky pages, but i really do a lot of finetuning and i’m always learning. i’ve spent the past weeks feeling deeply unsure about the passability of the final product, but after scanning over them one last time before bed last night i honestly felt really happy with how it reads. i think i captured the feeling i’m going for.

As always, thx for reading.
lemme do the honor of playing you out

-AV
xx

There are seven regions in Heaven: Shamayim, Raquia, Shehaqim, Machanon, Machon, Zebul, & Araboth. Gabriel lives in Shamayim, “The First Heaven”, which is in perpetual winter. Gabriel’s Father reigns in Araboth, “The Seventh Heaven”, where the Elysian Fields may be found.