This week on Locked in Love

Alex and Addy have descended to the depths of The Velvet Reserve, found Dr Morgan Blackwood and her ever dutiful PA Gwen Han, but when tensions rise between Addy and Morgan over the treatment of Alex, Gwen is quick to diffuse the situation by proposing a game… with higher stakes than most would be willing to accept…

If that sounds intriguing, consider joining us at Patreon.com/Godofurii to read it as it’s released!

Are you ready for a gambling arc? I’m going to channel my Yu-Gi-Oh! energy as players are mind crushed into the shadowrealm. And I just realized how little terminology I’d have to change to make a Yu-Gi-Oh hypno doujin. Huh.

Anyway, I hope you guys love it, because I’ve been trying to work out the how, who, and why for actual months. We’re set for heavy bondage, and even heavier hypnosis. And the fallout is going to be huge.

What do you think is going to happen? What would you like to see? How’s your week going so far? How’s your ma?

The following is from my Substack/Blog, “Bold Strokes and Sketchy Thoughts”, where I talk about some often overlooked topics and bugaboos I have about art. If that’s a thing you’d be into, consider joining signing up at: https://godofurii.substack.com.

Sketchy Thoughts: The Style Trap

Alex and Addy have descended to the depths of The Velvet Reserve, found Dr Morgan On Bluesky last week, I went on a bit of a rant about how young and inexperienced artists often confuse developing their voice with the more vapid development of style. And it’s a trap most of us have fallen into. There’s no shame in it, I’ve been there, you’ve been there, we’ve all been there.

But focusing on style really holds artists back, because it’s just superficial. Even the super special styles that “make” an artist, like Mike Mignola or Yoji Shinkawa aren’t who they are as artists because their work looks cool. They’re who they are because their art says something. It speaks to how think. I can teach you to draw like Mike or Yoji, their styles are amazing, but they’re superficial. If you aped them, you’d be making hollow facsimiles, not art. Because they’re using their voice to inform their art, not the other way around.

So what is a voice and how do you develop it? Well it’s literally informed by you being informed. By knowing your medium, by knowing other mediums, by know about current events, by knowing history, by having non-creative hobbies, by talking to people, by talking to people you disagree with. By having informed and nuanced opinions. To wit; by touching grass, feeling, and thinking.

And remember, our safe word is “subscribe”.

-Godfrey

Mia and the Drones sounds like a band name.

When I was brain storming ideas for what the Velvet Reserve was, I had wanted to add a bit of levity and absurdity to the story, mostly by making the personalities of the characters start getting bigger, and by introducing a lot of side characters in quick succession, I was really able to do that, I think.

This week’s Locked In Love page is out NOW! Go read it at: www.godofurii.com/comic/65/

Gwen is always prepared. She’s like a horned up Batman.

We’re back! After getting the least timely case of the flu possible, I was able to pretty quickly bring tomorrow’s page together! Luckily I wrote out a rough draft of the next few pages, so I was able to get over the “what do I do now?” inertia hump.

I hope everyone has been having fun with the story developing a bit over the last few months. I’ve been having fun with it, I like getting to flesh out some of the characters a bit.

Aww, who knew under her overly eager front, she was actually just overly eager all along. That Addy, she’s just down for some fun.

Go read it NOW!

This week Locked In Love is on a quick break, consider it a tease, as once we get back, the gang is going to find out the game and the exact stakes, and I’m gonna throw this out there, I think it’s gonna be really good. Addy and Alex are in for the fight/drops of their lives, and there may be some collateral damage.

In regards to the longer trajectory of Locked In Love, after this chapter is done, we may be tabling the current story in order to redraw the first few pages, as well as adding in a few pages to introduce the story properly. I’m eyeing a potential kickstarter later this year, and the formating of the first few pages doesn’t work (and is too small) in print. Also, I need to actually highlight Alex’s struggle before we just toss him into the hypno thunderdome. But before we do that, I owe you guys one long, crazy scene. You deserve at least that. What are your thoughts?

Also, many of you may have noticed that I’ve been posting a lot of Shibby art, and that’s because I’m sorta working for her/being repeatedly commissioned by her. I’m having a bit of fun with the pieces, as they give me a chance to make non-sequential work and experiment a bit with ideas.

But sadly that means that currently Vaporware Vixens has to take a pause. It was tough already keeping up with it and Locked In Love, but now that there’s something else, I really don’t have the time for it. It will come back, maybe when I have to take a break on Locked In Love.

And for my fellow Americans, make sure to at least file an extension with the IRS today! Now that I’m no longer working for a certain board game publisher, I had a significantly easier time filing taxes, even though technically I had way more complicated taxes this year due to my art income.

But enough of my rambling, let me know what you’re thinking. What would you be psyched to see in Locked In Love? Would you want to see something different in the same setting? Or a different setting? Do you just want raunchy little one shots? Or do you like the longer narrative?