19 14176

19 14176

#935 Freedom Tastes of Reality

Hey, look at this...

I'll be at next month's Fan Expo Comic Con in Portland Oregon at Table A520 in Artist Alley. This used to be Wizard World and in the past it was only 'meh' for comics and artists since they cater more towards movies and other fan stuff but I thought I'd give it a try with the new management. 

So if you happen to be in the area next month, come on down. I've love to see you! Grab a copy of the first Bohemian Nights book. Grab a Drinker's Hell game. I'll also be doing sketches if anyone wants one too. 

This will be a nice distraction but man, am I overwhelmed these days. Work is awful. I'm looking for new work which is exhausting. Other personal stuff going on too but I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say it's just one big clusterfuck of time and energy. Hopefully it will all get better soon and I can relaunch the Kickstarter for the 2nd book in a month or more. Didn't think I was going to get delayed this much but there it is. 

I will try to respond more to the comments, though. Don't think I don't read and enjoy each and every one of them. (But it's also hard to respond sometimes cos I don't want to give anything away, too.) 

 

 

 

19 thoughts on “#935 Freedom Tastes of Reality

  1. Great work at facial expressions, postures, gestures and Steph’ s manipulation. Very well done art wise.
    And don’t be sad Emrys. You lost pair of epic boobs, but you got deep love of Beth. That’s what I call win.
    Eric, please don’t worry about delay. We understand, that real life happens. No need to pressure youself. It will be when it will be. I personaly admire your effort, organizational skill and energy. That you can balance family, marriage, demanding job and provide high quality comic regularly. You’re more aporeciated than we write here.

    1. Thank you so much. It’s a balancing act right now, but still doable.

  2. This could be the last we see of Steph.
    But I hope not. Maybe this is a sad epilogue to the Steph story. And even if Emrys wasn’t with Beth, I’m not sure it would be good for them to be together. And yet.

    1. bohemiannightsthecomic

      It’s not the last of Stephanie. Where she goes from here……?

      1. I hope it is not demonstrative suicide.

  3. Emotions are hard. Conflict is difficult. Closure can and probably will help. And in the end Stephanie is “damaged goods” not something Emrys needs in his life. She needs to work through her issues, and she’s made a good start here. But Emrys is with Beth. Beth will have her challenges with the baggage she carries, but what she’s carrying will be far less of a burden on the relationship than what Stephanie is bringing to the table.

    1. bohemiannightsthecomic

      Very true. Let’s also not forget Emrys’ own baggage he brings to the table. As a result, relationships are hard.

      1. That’s what happens when I comment at O-Dark Thirty. I neglected to mention that Emrys brings his emotional baggage to the party as well. We are all flawed and imperfect beings. Each with our own challenges. The best we can do it to be kind to each other. As best we can. While it was hard, for his own sake, I think this was a kindness to Steph. Hi relationship with Beth is fragile right now. She’s got issues, otherwise she would be more open about Emrys to the group. Adding Steph to the mix in any way, shape or form would blow things up.
        Steph needs some support and I do hope she gets it. I think she might have a good thing with Emrys and never fully understood it until it was gone.

      2. Hah! The lot of them are damaged goods to one extent or another.

  4. I agree with Greg D, this is pretty tough to witness, but the situation is what it is, as they say. Given Beth’s trust issues and not wanting to share their relationship with anyone, I don’t see any way for Emrys to be supportive in any way that would be meaningful to Stephanie. I think it took a lot of courage and fortitude for Emrys to turn her away, as much as it took her for reaching out to him. I know it’s popular to consider her a manipulator, she certainly has done it in the past, but given the way she’s presented herself in this scene, how she’s handled the delivery of her news and how long she’s apparently been trying to find him (since before he returned from the road trip), I’m giving her the benefit of a doubt. I believe that she’s realized just how lucky she was to be with Emrys and that he’s the closest thing to a friend she has, at least locally. Her dad doesn’t care about her (or at least that’s what she believes), there’s no maternal influence in her life and she’s spent her time alienating Emrys’ friends, so she’s pretty close to rock bottom in the support department. Maybe she’s “damaged goods”, but personally, I’d be inclined to help her simply because she deserves a chance to put her life together. I don’t know what that help would look like, but it’s definitely something he should talk to Beth about first.

    1. Stephanie seems to be needing something which only trained and certificated professionals are able to provide. All of the people I’ve known at all well who come at all close to what Eric has provided us have all needed that sort of care.

  5. bohemiannightsthecomic

    Steph does have a long rocky road ahead of her. She will continue to be a character that has many flaws (for now anyway), but I just wanted to show she wasn’t ‘all’ bad. Everyone I write in this comic has both good qualities and bad. -some more than others. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, every one has flaws and everyone can rise with redeeming qualities as well. That’s what makes these characters fascinating for me to write.

    1. And for us to read 🙂

  6. Good choice Emrys, don’t stick it back in the crazy!

  7. This sub-plot might be called “A Tale of Two Psychos.”

  8. Stephanie, you just killed any chance of reconnecting with Emrys. She needs a FRIEND, not a BOYFRIEND. Emrys was there for Shannon when she needed to vent and have a shoulder to cry on regarding the guilt she had over Mark and he expected nothing in return. Shannon was able to grow as a character and has become very protective of Emrys’s well being, and was able to notice and call Beth out on her toxic patterns while Beth was convincing herself that going on a date with one guy while doggedly flirting with another was a-okay. Stephanie will never grow if she jumps right back into a relationship with Emrys, and that’s ignoring the fact that Emrys is now with the woman he’s been in love with since the start of the series.

    I sympathize with Steph. I know quite a few women like her, but most of them have realized that jumping from relationship to relationship won’t fix their deep-seated trauma. She needs a real therapist, or at least a friend who can listen to her without the sexual tension hovering over them.

    1. “She needs a real therapist, or at least a friend who can listen to her without the sexual tension hovering over them.”

      Heterosexual female therapist then 🙂

  9. This is very sad. Emrys could have said, “Yes, I have someone new.” but he didn’t, but he didn’t, so it’s even sadder.

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