Been working all weekend on this. My brain has been slow and unwilling to grasp fundamental things like words, so it is a rough draft. However, I need to publish this fairly quickly in order to get the books in my hands in time for a crafts fair in December. If you’d all be so kind as to read this and give me your feedback, I’d be much obliged!
It falls at the end of the first book, and the beginning of the second, which would be right here in the web archives.
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Previously…
In Jam, Washington, it is the first day of fifth grade for Sally Robertson. And Sally has hopes for the day. She’d like to make a great impression, to be a leader in silliness and frivolity to her classmates, fill the day with cheerful snark, and enjoy the lunch she made herself. But when Sally introduces her new adopted brother, Carl, to her class, the immediate reaction is underwhelming.
One would think that they’d be impressed, since he is apparently a goat fish. Or was one. And partly still is. He’s got horns, weird eyes, green skin and things sticking out of his chin. Barbels. And he eats everything he can get his hands on. Or almost everything. It’s actually kind of annoying. Maybe really annoying. But, that’s just what happens when your parents are the heroes of a webcomic.
Sally’s mom and dad are members of the Harmless Free Radicals. So are the parents of her best friend, Marshall. The Harmless Free Radicals are a band of adventurers who’ve worked to protect their home county from bizarre and inexplicable threats since before Sally was born. All at the behest of a reclusive cartoonist, a dragon who lives in the wooded vacant lot across the street from Sally’s house. His name is Fenmere, the Worm. And he has been chronicling these stories and publishing them online for over a decade.
Maybe that’s why no one was all that impressed. They’ve gotten used to this kind of thing. Sally’s kind of bored of it, too. But, living with a new brother who has less than stellar habits is embarrassing regardless of why he has them, or where he came from.
Fortunately, there’s most of the rest of the day to work that all out.
Introductory Text for Issue #2 originally appeared on Drawing Contraption on 2013/11/25.