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The Tengu Project

17 September 2025

Hey all!

Way back when I first set down the timeline for this Project, I chose the crumbling summer days of September for a climactic episode, titled
"The Last Convocation," when this fragile community of self-interested Clans loses its glue: the Old Man himself, Lord Tengu; Steward of the Enclave (we know the area as San Francisco). As with the rest of the story, my goal was to allegorize what I saw, and really see now, the breakup of America into affinity groups.
Just as it's doing right now.

I'm currently halfway through my third book's first pass at inking. Following the advice of my instructors at the Sequential Arts Workshop, I got all the lettering and word balloons done at the outset, which simplifies my layouts greatly—the acreage covered by the balloons doesn't have to be worked on, which saves me inkwork. Twelve more pages of inking to go; I've provided a couple of sample pages below .

Well it's been cold here in San Franko! Coldest summer in sixty years, and while I don't mind that as I love the fog and hate on the heat, my panels' backgrounds have featured occluded skies in this issue. As it turns out, the Owl Clan is engaged in some pretty shady undertakings, so that fits well with late-afternoon fog in Glen Canyon where I've situated their turf. Since the storyline's events are season-specific, background photography has to be consistent!

Next stages in the process: refining the krood inks I've set down; then coloring, followed by shading the figures and adding shadows; a final overall review, and off to the fine printers at Mixam toward the end of the year at this rate. Each book improves the efficiency of production, so the next NINE planned books should come out more frequently, barring onset of senility, my other hip going out, or the collapse of our Republic into whatever Drumpf's people have in store for what's left of our country ...

No rush! I started this project in 2005 ferchrissakes.
Here's to the next twenty years! 2045'll be here before we know it!!

Here's page 7 from my upcoming book,
situated in San Francisco's Glen Canyon
on a soon-to-be-foggy late summer afternoon.

Here's how the Clans see what we call San Francisco,
and what they call The Enclave.
This map will change from episode to episode
as I add more Bird People to the scene!