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I'm just nothing short of awesome, thanks for asking.

Here's my latest. I did the English and Japanese versions in parallel this time. Got nine pages of both done in one week.

This week, we watch Sheila go through her day. Every time I draw her, she just gets more moe. I wonder sometimes whether that's a good or a bad thing, but I'm in too much of a hurry to care too much. As for her day, she's just not tenacious enough. And she doesn't know what she's got going for her. Which begs the question, what does she have going for her?

The Magick Academy "trains" all the magicians in the Ruritanian Republic. Really, it's just an initiation center; students usually spend three to six months there. After that comes their apprenticeship under a real magician; the apprenticeship will last for ten to twenty years, if nothing unusual comes up. While here, the students only learn the very basics of using magic tools (not much more advanced than the alchemy scale); most of the instruction is on the ethics of using magic.

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All right, I'm getting things done. As of now, I've got the e-mail set up (it actually wasn't that much work). And I've got a donation button. It's my first step towards being filthy stinking rich. Send me all your money, it's cool. Or a dollar for every cool issue I put out, whatever.

Say, that means you already owe me five dollars, doesn't it?

Clarifying on the Magick Academy's teachings (I was going to leave it ambiguous for the sake of adding tension to the comic, but I've decided against it), the "ethics" they teach aren't anything special. Its backbone is the commonsense 'Don't hurt other people', but it has the additions of 'Obey the Mage's Guild' and 'Don't teach this to anyone who might abuse it, i.e., anyone whom the Mage's Guild has not approved.'

This is based on the classic version of the Hippocratic Oath. That last part is intended to keep the supply of mages small, making their social standing and remuneration higher than it otherwise would be. They are like we know doctors; it's not that their services are special, it's that people aren't free to enter the profession. This alone gives them that "professional" standing and heightened income. Of a normal course, it would have no more prestige or income than a job as some other kind of skilled worker.

Blackblade
by B.J. Black

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