Vorthosian Inquisition - a Magic: The Gathering webcomic for Vorthoses...

# 008

2011-11-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

We don't have Thanksgiving around these parts, but this strip is going to be a more literal way of giving thanks (goodness, me doing a bad pun, forgive me) to all the people who are still there whenever a new strip goes up.

The past months have been a bit chaotic, I'm gonna spare you all the drama but most of it is about job-hunting. Actually, this strip was planned to be released on October but was hampered when I had to finish something before it. :P

So anyway, with this strip at least I broke the record of last year of... I think of only one strip made in the whole entire year? *GASP* I'm gunning for another one before the year ends hopefully but that's still a bit murky.

There's also the gift arts that I haven't finished... I can't promise anything solid but do expect the easier subjects (e.g. humans/humanoids) to be finished first. :P

So, Seasons Greetings to all of you who have Christmas~! :)

# 007

2011-07-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

And that's how it really happened ;) Welcome to perfection. >:->

This is actually quite an old idea, created around a year ago - just before the time when the Elspeth vs. Tezzeret was announced (in May/June of the last year). All we knew back then, was that Scars of Mirrodin will be the first set of a new block, and then the appearance of a new Duel deck only made it more likely that Elspeth will set her foot on Mirrodin for some reason.

Of course, my intention was to rip on Elspeth's failure to find an utopian home and present my take on what was supposed to be the role of the Mirari in the new story. But, is that just me, or the strip screams freaking retcons! now? Everything seems to, recently...

[Now, I know Karn would finally fix the Mirari (Right?), but I liked the idea too much. And who cares about canon these days, anyway? Right?]

As for Mirari again, what really happened to it? Where is it? Who has it? Or, who is it now? I'd bet Glissa, or some of the Praetors got it. That, or it was turned into another Phyrexian creature. It could be nice to see its interaction with Tezzeret if it still granted wishes, although not exactly along intentions of its owner >:)

I have no idea, and it's equally possible that it was destroyed or just didn't take any role in this story, but I still haven't read the Quest for Karn novel, so please, avoid any spoilers in the comments. I'm allergic to spoilers. And I think I'm getting that book soon.

As for the title, well, I just love this version of the song. Basically, because its harmonics show the singer's real perception of song's - otherwise hopeful - message.

And the world will live as one. ^^

Oh, and wasn't that our second anniversary last month? Boy, the time runs fast.
So, as promised before - after reading the Quest for Karn I'll appear on the forums again for some time, to comment the book, discuss in new threads, and finish some affairs (I'm preparing a little surprise too). But after that, I'm gonna have my first, real, looooong break from Magic. I'm simply not happy with it anymore. Maybe things will change for better after few years? You will still hear from me now and then, but mostly on Vorthosian Inquisition. Hell, maybe I'll try to finally draw something?

Yes, this is pretty much alive! It took me to be booted off my work to finally finish the strip that you're seeing right now. (Well, after a couple of days of accepting the fact that I am indeed out of work.)

Yeah, I've been reduced to working on this strip a few hours (or sometimes no hours) because of work and akin to a pre-Bradywalker person that ascended because of some distress I realized some random stuff along the way.

I mean, why the heck do I even try to polish this webcomic when the source material ain't even trying? :P I mean, they get paid for it and I am not... so why even bother trying on my end, no? However, at the end of the day the art side of this craft gets to me and I am reminded of the amazing work of guys like Jeremy Jarvis and the wonderful artists that he gets for this IP. I may not get inspired by MtG as a game (and sometimes a storyline/continuity) source anymore, but from the aesthetics I find a way to continue this... some nostalgia doesn't hurt too :P

Heck, I'm blabbering already. Anywho, I didn't forget the Art Gift thing that I mentioned from the strip 6 months ago (ACK!) and some of them I have already rough drafts off and stuff. I am on work on one of them already, so to those who think that they qualified for that, just wait for something on your mail and stuff. I think I misplaced my handy list of that but I already have the rough drafts on one file so I still know.

I am jobless for the next 3 months (hopefully just 3 months! XD) so yeah, I have more time on my hands. So let's see where this goes. :)

# 006

2011-01-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

One thing I like about doing these comics about the MtG Continuity is the fact that most of the time the official MtG Continuity develops so slow that a subject we choose can still be in some way relevant months after it came out, or so what I tell myself to ease the fact that I am not able to deliver as much strips as I want to. :/

Well, that announcement (the topic alluded to this strip, the Oil related to Phyrexia) months back gave me the biggest twitch on my head when Creative seemingly openly embraced retconning and even used the Western Comic model for it as a factor to reason their decision. Retconning is seen as an accepted way when applied in few doses but using the Western Comics for defense? Well, thanks for making me worry less seeing that the current Creative has enough trouble on making the current continuity less shaky. And don't get me started on that ticking time bomb called "Clockworking", I'm glad that majority of avid storyline followers and starters opposed it but I still have doubts planted on my head about that. We'll see about that in future Continuity developments.

Anyway, it's a New Year and still in my lists of resolutions is to at least deliver every month for Vorthosian Inquisition. And seeing that I miserably failed to upheld that one for 2010 and wanting to test my recently acquired resolve when it comes to drawing, I am planning to make up for the past months by doing some sort of a promo (is this the right term?): I'm going to draw a character that you want from Magic in the art style of the Vorthosian Inquisition comics and I'm going to send it to you in acceptable resolution~!

So leave a comment on this entry with:

(a) your name
(b) the character that you want me to draw. Do remember to give a link for reference, like maybe from Wizards' Gatherer and Magiccard.info or a link to a picture. Remember that I'm only going to entertain ONE character. If the subject is from the Magic Cards, make sure he/she/it is a visible subject on the card, if not I am going to forfeit your entry. I'm not going to limit character requests with just Creatures, the subjects can be from any card type as long as I can decipher it from the art. You want me to do that random dude from this spell? Sure, as long as I can see him in the card. Be specific to point out who I'm going to draw.
(c) your e-mail, written in the comment area. This specially applies to those who notch a slot so that I can send you away the piece when done. Be careful on giving your e-mail so that your inbox won't get spammed to death.

As already mentioned, this is in part to make up for lost months, so FIRST SIX commenters who gives the above gets an art.

I'll try to be as fast as I can. > x <''' Let's go 2011~

# 005

2010-06-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

Again, the Inquisition will "only die" when I myself declares as so.

I bet some of you guys have already given up on the comic, can't blame you with that. I got so pre-occupied by my former day job for the past few months and I only got the free-est of time when I got retrenched from it a month or so ago.

Anyway, enough of that apologizing. This strip was influenced by the recent "set-related" book Teeth of Akoum. In that said book, followers of the franchise get to know that Nissa Revane and Sorin Markov... apparently has PHOBIAS! I seem to remember that one of the reasons of The Mending was to make the Planeswalkers more relatable to players of the game. Is this one of those factors they're incorporating to make them as such? XD

And you thought that the fact that Sorin "sings" would take the LOLWUT award for that book.

Gawd, this is one of the reasons why I find making comics about the Continuity right now so fun. You don't really need to think hard anymore, it's just spoon fed to you.

So yeah, Happy 1st anniversary to Vorthosian Inquisition. (Talk about a crappy way to celebrate it, after months of inactivity. >_< )

Yeah, it’s kinda late edit, but since it’s our anniversary, I thought I’d say something too. Few more words about the origin of the part #005.

Some time ago, following fresh spoilers of the Zendikar block novel, we had a chance to see a new face of mortal Planeswalkers. And it was weird to see that. I mean, Nissa is an elf, yet she’s so afraid of snakes? But Sorin’s case is much much worse. He’s a freaking vampire! Sophisticated, hedonistic, educated, millennia old, experienced vampire neowalker! Yet, in the novel he was knocked out easily every few minutes, and was scared of heights! A VAMPIRE?! Really... That’s just wrong :/

We instantly agreed we need to use that in some strip, and seconds later Moppi come up with the script.

That would be all about the origin of the idea, but I think one more matter needs to be touched. Yes, that cloths hanger on the vampire’s back Moppi decided to include. Some of you may recognize it from the MTGSalvation forum. But let’s start from the beginning.

One of the Doug Beyer’s feature articles mentioned that Eldrazi enslaved the vampires of Zendikar and then changed them in some ways. One of those changes were pointy horns growing up from their shoulders, which seemed to be pretty cool concept. Up until the release of the Teeth of Akoum novel though, we had no idea what they were for – the description was vague enough to theorize. I thought about many things. Maybe that’s the way Eldrazi feed on vampires, maybe they were just modified that way to be more scary, or maybe it’s just a sign of ownership and control over their race, and so on. Having no idea, and some spare time, I photoshopped this image, as a sign of hope. “Whatever it is, at least it can’t be that stupid”, I thought. Apparently, I was wrong. The hooks were used by vampires to bind and drag stones and rocks, to build structures for Eldrazi. That was simply as underwhelming and anti-climatic to me as it only could be.

Yes! And now, Eldrazi, with this new vampire-hangers, you can fit twice as many vampires in your closet!

#004 (LBZ - #001)

2009-12-09T12:42:00.000-08:00

Epilogue:

Yeah. That's what happens when weird ideas get into my mind... But first things first.

Do you remember when the price of Agents of Artifice was announced? I don't care it's a hardcover and how much it was discharged later on. 25 bucks was a ridiculous price to begin with. I remember many people expressing what they think of it...

Especially Eid's comment caught my attention. A scene in a store, with $25 AoA, next to George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones... for $8! (Which one would You choose, btw? Go back and take a closer look at them again).
Anyway, Brady Dommermuth was proud of that. Good for him.

But don't get me wrong. I've heard Ari Marmell (aka Mouseferatu) did a great job with this novel. Many storyline fans claim it's the best Magic book in years! Many years! What can I say? I wish him well, and hope we'll get more Magic fiction from him in the near future... for a reasonable price.

Speaking of which. Now, after NINE MONTHS of waiting, AoA is finally back in a soft cover and for a standard price of $8. Sounds better?

Interlude:

Ant WTF r LOLBEEBLZ?

I've been thinking of using these ridiculous Magic creatures almost since the beginning of Vorthosian Inquisition project. A number of ideas for the comics included them, and I shared them with Moppi on his hidden forum (not yet the new, official one). In our discussions, Moppi used so many abbreviations, like LOLZ, ROTFLZ, and others, that my mind happened upon an idea of adapting LOLCATS to Magic. I only needed some weird little creatures instead of cats. The choice was a gut reaction.

In other words:

Afterwords:

Some enraged people might ask, why two parts, and why such mystery? Let me explain.

It all began with my original sketch, made of these two parts, one next to the other. I thought they composed well that way, but since LOLCATS are always just one picture, I wanted to stay in this tradition, and decided to release the first part as a somewhat mysterious prologue - the idea for this experiment was born.

The lack of any description under the strip #004 (beside of invitation for seeing you today), and the feeling that something is missing (no frame? no title? what's that strip about, anyway?), was meant to lead you into conclusion that it's not the end of the 'story', and to speculate on what would happen next...

However angry you might be at me now for this little experiment, I thought it would be interesting to see your interpretations, and some really good ones were delivered (opressed men of medieval Europe - priceless! Just priceless, luminum can - and how close! XD ).

I thought more people would know about A Game of Thrones though (or at least, say that on forums/comments). So if you didn't know of it till now, and you love to read fantasy stories, you might really want to consider putting your hands on this piece of fiction. It stood next to AoA, but not as shiny, for a reason too. Now, it's not my intention to advertise anything here. I want to point out that cover is not everything, and we should always keep in mind quality/price correlation, and personally, I wouldn't give $25 for ANY hardcover Magic novel so far. There are some limits you know...

Last few words, if you're still with me. A good eye will spot that Martin's $8 AGoT is actually a soft-cover, unlike in our comic. Well, that's my fault - my initial sketch was made when I didn't really think of the details yet, and later I totally forgot to point it out, before Moppi finished the strip.

That's all for today. See you next century ;-)

There is a pink version too. Which one is better? :D
Might need resize to fit it into the VInq.

Goodness, look at the gap between the months of this release from the last!. If you are still there, thank you very much for holding on haha. The release of this might've come off more early but due to sleep time probably hindering me from waking up hours before 12 pm (UTC+8) i decided to post this now. If the first three comics were introductions of the ideas from each of us the upcoming comics would feature different kind of formats that you could expect seeing here. First we get the normal type of comic like that of the first 3 releases and then there's this 2nd type: the LOLBEEBLZ. I think i do not need to explain that part as MORT has covered that already.

Other than my father being here until around mid-November i have been soul-searching on the direction of what the comic has become. Looking at the past entries i think i have veered too much from my first goal: to have the webcomic in a more western cartoon style. I think i have injected too much of my anime roots and have been critical on stuff that i should not be in the first place. So with this two-parter of sorts is the beginning of this "new art direction", i hope you don't find it bothersome.

You might say that the only visible difference is that i removed the shadows... actually you have a point there but while i was soul-searching i came to the conclusion that it's one of the factors that are hampering the speed of a release. The lost of shadows in the future comics isn't really for-life but more of it being added when it's totally needed. (i.e. night scenes, light explosions etc...)

So there, THANK YOU again for staying with us. I'm actually excited for the next comic as i've been spending quite some time brainstorming for it. It may not be too lengthy but i'm going to do my best on the visuals. See ya around!.

004

2009-12-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

Come back on 12 pm Thursday (UTC+8). No, not 3 months from now. 12 pm Thursday (UTC+8).

003

2009-09-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

Well, told you guys the wait would be LONG.

Wait a sec, you still there? *knocks*

Anyway my father is now mostly out of the house so i was able to finish this 3rd comic. I wasn't able to devote much of my time in this on his first month stay coz most of the time he's around. I apologize if it took so long, rest assured that we're still on this. :P

More on the comic, the idea for this installment was influenced by comments made by Eid and Wizards' Forum Veteran WereFrog about the pace of the character developments of the Neowalkers. And why Novel Limbo?, i remember chancing upon this Catholic Preacher on TV mentioning that if a person ends up in the Purgatory (or Limbo) prayers from his/her loved ones would help him/her elevate to Heaven and i can't help but associate that to the non-Lorwyn neowalkers that are now appearing every set. It seems that the only thing the newly gathered fans of the non-Lorwyn neowalkers can do about the chance of them appearing with their own novels is via praying that they'd end up having one.

You might also notice that the neowalkers potrayed here are suited with casual wear, i decided that since they're going to be put in the "real" world why not put them in "real" world clothes? (Other than the fact that their designs are sooo complicated). I think you can pretty much guess the decision for Chandra in this (CLICK HERE if you can't guess). Garruks' was inspired by a certain wrestler that goes by the name using three repeated letters. Lilianas' i came up via watching the anime Full Metal Alchemist. Nissas' casual wear was conceptualized after reading some newly released information about her.

Artwise i'm still on an experimenting stage and after these "Initial 3" releases the next release might have a different visual style.

Lastly i also created a FORUM for Vorthosian Inquisition which you can access on the NAVIGATION portion. If you have ideas that you would like to share and detailed comments about things about the comics you might want to post it there (although i read the comments area of every release post anyway), i'll be lurking around those parts and will be entertaining further discussions and questions if they occur. Hope you enjoyed this release and hopefully the next one won't be that long of a wait. :(

002

2009-07-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Shared world is something really hard to keep track of. Different authors may have different views on planeswalkers, mana, summoning, rules of the Multiverse, and it is obvious they won't read ~60 Magic books, all comics and online sources before writting their own novel... I can understand that. But seriously, some major events are commonly known, and there should be an editor to find any inaccuracies concerning them. Either there was noone in control with established plan for the storyline and J. R. King couldn't be stopped from resurrecting his beloved villain in the Scourge novel, or they did allow Yawgmoth to come back. Who knows...

Frankly though, I was quite excited that Yawgmoth was back *gets smacked by majority of vorthos-kind*. Sure, they killed him at the end of the Apocalypse novel and bringing back dead characters is something what should be avoided in general, but it's Y@wgmoth! He was basicly Magic's personification of Death... besides, what (real) Christian wouldn't be happy if Jesus was coming back. :P So despite loosing a bet in the second panel, I was ok with it.

But it seems that the (next?) Creative Team came up with some different view on the matter, and rather than leave it as it was, or ignore it, they tried "their best" to change it again... eh. Usually, many retcons of one subject do not have much sense, if any. And obviously, people running this buissness didn't read all Magic sources either, so they couldn't predict all after-effects of their statements, so confusions upon confusions arose.

As stated before it's not easy to keep the track of all aspects of Magic's complicated Storyline, so the sad conclusion is that the number of mistakes and silly retcons will be probably rising exponentially with every next Dominarian set.

I hope I'm wrong...

(Oh wait, they practically nuked the whole plane again, so maybe I'm really wrong).

One more thing, the Time Spiral novel we're reading up there with Eid, is more like a symbol of the entire TS trilogy. Yes, it had that major retcons we're addressing to in the comic (that Teferi and Jhoira had never phased out with Shiv, and that Teferi saw Karona in the rift for a first time in his life), but Planar Chaos also tried to convince us, via Lord Windgrace's "certainty" that Yawgmoth is dead. Not to mention the Urborg card.

That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed it. I guess you can't send me a hatemail yet, because we didn't establish any e-mail address for the comic matters, but you can always leave a comment here. And yes, you guessed it right. Third comic will be 100% Moppi product.

GAAAAAAAAAAAH! *gets out of his work cave* We survived the First Hit!. Thanks for all the comments you have given this venture of ours and i totally apologize for the huge gap between the initial outing and this one. Still trying to put a finger on a style and stuff and hopefully settle into something that would make churning out pieces much more faster. (Which i guess failed on this second one lolz)

As MORT mentioned already above the next comic would be an idea by me and that would cap the "Introductory" batch of strips. So you got an idea of Eid on our first outing, second one is from MORT and the next would be from me. Hopefully my ideas fly :P English is my second language and all and i'm quite a shallow person. :X

BTW, I'm telling you in advance, as much as i digress on announcing it publicly but the next gap might be TOTALLY large.

<Stuff-that-should-have-been-put-on-my-personal-blog>

My father is going home anytime on the following weeks and he is the type that doesn't tolerate prolonged ventures that doesn't generate any money whatsoever and looks down to anything that i get with meager salary than his (i.e. DOUCHE). And to think that making a comic was already hard for me and i cannot choose the option to move out of the house coz i still haven't found a day job, this happens. I somehow knew that Vorthosian Inquisition will face huge hurdles when i decided to officially release it a month or so before his arrival but i jumped on the schedule anyway.

</Stuff-that-should-have-been-put-on-my-personal-blog>

So for now i'm striving on getting commissions over my Deviantart site in order to be busy (as to not be scolded over being on the internet doing nothing "productive") and to at least generate moolas while still being able to moonlight some work on the comic. You can read about this Commission thingamajig i'm doing [ HERE ], details and prices are on the Journal part.

Again, Thank You, for your PATIENCE and patronage. Do remember that Vorthosian Inquisition will only close when we ourselves states so in this part of each entry.

WE'RE GOING TO DO OUR BEST TO CHURN OUT NEW STRIPS FOR US VORTHOSES, AND PEOPLE INTERESTED/GETTING INTERESTED on MtG FLAVOR. w0000000000000000000000t~

</Caffeine Wears Off >

001

2009-06-30T04:21:00.001-07:00

I've been a fan of MtG for a decade or so and have been using the internet for almost the same span of time. I stumbled upon webcomics a few years later on. The advent of MtG related webcomics didn't really occur to me until 2007 when i stumbled upon UGMadness. I then came upon other MtG related webcomics' along the way but one thing i've noticed is that most of them focused on the gameplay aspects of the game and although they feature a couple of Flavor related topics it's quite rare and mostly few. Then came one of the greatest changes that occured for the Continuity followers of MtG (i.e. The Mending). I am one of those who were against this change and i've found some people who share the same sentiments.

From one of those peoples' posts over forums is a script from Eid. At first i thought it was just a funny piece of work so i kept note of it. A year or so later MtG's Creative unit the one mostly responsible for maintaining MtG's Continuity just kept on making some really nice decisions and ideas for a webcomic of some sorts just kept coming in. Finally after that long of a period i decided to go with a Webcomic that focused on MtG's Continuity and other Vorthos related stuff and was able to get some help from some fellow Continuity followers MORT and Eid.

This first comic page is from that script that inspired this project to be done that was made by Eid. I never knew that making a webcomic was so demanding, i take my hats off for those people who came before with MtG webcomics like the renowned guys from UGMadness.

For now i ain't going to be finalizing a release schedule because there are other things that are occupying my time and is currently facing some personal hurdles here and there. But for now we are targeting a bi-monthly release starting July (if all things go well for me :P ). Hopefully i would be able to go making webcomics to the point that i could deliver at least once a week. So to make sure that you get updated with future releases, i highly urge you to subscribe on our RSS FEED by [CLICKING HERE].

Also, excuse the fact that this webcomic is on Blogspot I've decided to do so for fail-safe purposes. For now i cannot afford my own personal hosting, i might probably get a domain but i think putting this webcomic on Blogspot will be beneficial for archiving purposes. I mean i have seen a couple of webcomics which sites you cannot access anymore (making their comics the same) due to the fact that they took down their personal hosting for their own personal reasons and wouldn't want to go back and put it on some free-hosting place for future access.

So there, hope you enjoyed this first outing of ours. :P If you have comments or suggestions, do comment on this entry we'd like to hear what you think. :)

About the Authors

2006-09-12T00:00:00.001-07:00

Moppi

Hailing from one of the worst places to be a Vorthos (Philippines) Moppi got exposed to Magic: The Gathering back in 1998. Urza's Saga introduced him to one of the characters that he would end up liking and would influence and fuel his adoration for Angels more than ever, Serra the Planeswalker. Mostly playing with his cousins and never competitively Moppi then drifted off the gameplay aspects and found himself liking the other stuff that made MtG like Art, Storyline and other Flavor related things more being a person who made art himself. It didn't help that his cousins soon drifted away from playing the game too giving him no nearby opponents to play with. The last expansion where he tried the gameplay aspect of MtG was Shards of Alara.

Nowadays Moppi continues on collecting card pieces that have Angels in them or cards that have relations to Serra the Planeswalker and her part in the continuity. He also collects some random Land card here and there that has good art. He still follows the Continuity and the novels but was handicapped by whoever decided within WoTC for the Fat Packs to lose the included novel. Due to this he owes his knowledge to the Spoiler mongers of the novels within places like MtGSalvation.

MORT

MORT... or Ashtok... these are two names he uses to waste his time all over the Internet. Both hint fantasy literature that he loves, especially Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and Magic: the Gathering stories, mainly because of the grand scale of these universes.

Magic was the first card game he played, and its Storyline was one of the first fiction series he followed. He did so very closely (probably too closely) for years, and has a great sentiment for it (although, honestly, it's not a great literature). But after being cut off from the sources in Fat Packs, it probably won’t be possible anymore. And being allergic to spoilers doesn’t really help… Even so, Wizards can’t stop giving him reasons to facepalm every now and then, both because of the changes in the game and the Storyline.

Eid

Eid served as continuity moderator and character profile writer for Phyrexia.com. He is responsible for such travesties as the acronyms TBTSNBN (The Book That Shall Not Be Named) and TSTTBTSNBN (The Sequel To The Book That Shall Not Be Named), as well as the theory that every single character in the Magic: The Gathering universe is indeed Volrath.

Eid has recently graduated from a major university with a degree in Management Information Systems. He recently moved back from South Pacific, on the tiny island of Kwajalein in the Marshal Islands, where he worked for a government contractor as a software analysts.

He is currently employed as a systems analyst in Huntsville, Alabama where he wonders why in the blue hell he left the South Pacific.