Been a while, right? Hey, I said new comics would come back in June! I had to abuse that wiggle room for all it’s worth.

In any case the next Badnix story, CHAIN OF MEMORIES, will finally start on Monday. You will like it! I think it will benefit from the extra time it got to spend in the oven.

I have a few other lil’ announcements to make, but I think I’ll save those for next week. Stay tuned, True Badnix-lievers! (That’s what you’re called, now.)

Yeah, we’re taking a lil’ break! Hopefully a pretty short one. Regular weekly comics should resume sometime early next month – in the meantime, you can probably check my Tweetzone Social Media-type Account for updates, and maybe some news about other stuff I’m working on. If you’re into those kinds of things.

And when we do come back, the CHAOS STAR SAGA is gonna kick off in earnest – a slew of fast-paced, crazy stories that I’ve been dying to finally get around to. New worlds will be explored! Old questions will be answered! Maybe Kevin and Hud will do a thing? IT’S A DISTINCT POSSIBILITY!

It occurred to me while I was drawing today’s comic that most people will probably have no idea who this weird bearded creature is supposed to be and why he has a stake in the fortunes of the Badnix airship. The answer to these questions is… not particularly important, but in case you were wondering…

His name is Syd – though I’m not sure that’s showed up on-panel – and he’s a fairy who happens to be an aeronautical engineer. During the big Fantasy World storyline ~2 years ago, the Badnix got a hold of their first airship, and he was hired to serve as their pilot. Later, after Fantasy World was destroyed, he showed up in a crowd of survivors. Since then we’ve seen him helping out behind the wheel of the new Badnix airship from time to time. One imagines that Rog hired him at some point to look after the airship full-time.

So yeah, he’s kind of a deep cut. He was supposed to be one of the background characters I called out on this page, but he wound up being cut in favor of another classic knee-slapper about how Darrk likes junk food, which I think everyone will agree was the correct artistic decision.

Anyway, today’s page marks the end of another storyline! Although mostly it’s a lead-in to a whole slate of new stories. A bigger post on all that nonsense is forthcoming!

Sup homefries! Today’s comic makes a lot of references to recent stories – so, I thought I’d make a lil’ timeline to help you get back up to speed on bits you may have missed or forgotten.

• In Ghastly Murder Tales, the seemingly supernatural Puck revealed that he gained his powers from a mysterious red star.
• The Badnix decided to keep that star in their ship’s hold for safekeeping – where it was spotted by an unidentified spy (now known to have been Turner Page, AKA That Book With a Face).
• Charlotte Nidd, Arika’s sneaky/sinister mother, reported this to the equally sneaky/sinister Power Council. Sneaky/sinister plans are presumed to have been hatched.
• Under orders from another member of the Council, Turner headed up a plan to steal the star back from the Badnix, leading to some sci-fi type events in Revenge of the Space Menace.
• Turner was found out & captured – leading to the events at hand!

Where do these strange new glittering MacGuffins come from? What exactly are they capable of? We will probably be learning the answer to those questions soon!

(P.S. – a Chaos Star actually showed up one other time, in the possession of a character not mentioned above – if you can track down who it was, you might find a big clue to future events!)