Thursday, October 19, 2023

Jackalope Mask

Another fine jackalope mask designed by Alice Aroumbeyski, a mask that Yost presented as one of her self-portraits. In the “The Ringer in the Substratum”, Alice has a conversation with her childhood friend Kamlyn about the suitability of wearing this mask to the wedding of a cousin who is essentially a stranger. (Alice had not spoken to her cousin for 16 years.) The two women decide that Alice should save the mask for her own wedding to Jack Loki.

Kamlyn was actually named Alice when they first met, when the girls were four years old. They did not become boon companions instantly, but because “a lamentable conspiracy beyond our control” (Alice’s words) kept throwing them together, they agreed to an alliance. The two girls decided that having the same name was “tiresome and traumatic” (Kamlyn’s words), so one Alice became Gwynne and the other Alice became Kamlyn. After a few years, Gwynne decide to become Alice again, but Kamlyn kept her name into adulthood.


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Saturday, October 14, 2023

The Five Masks of Aybahjee

These five masks of the person known as Aybahjee are a mixture of published and unpublished Geranium Lake Properties comics. I am not going to bother sorting out which is which in this post, for reasons that are not reasonable and somewhat inexpressible. Also maybe I wish to avoid possible adverse legal repercussions.
In the tales told by the Inultaru, Aybahjee is an entity best described (I think) as a giantess, although sometimes she has been called a troll, an ogre, or a queen of the wild. She does not seem particularly wild to me; in several stories she appears...


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Tuesday, October 3, 2023

The Green Map

There have been many people who have attempted to use the Green Map to find Ulciajheyld Shain Erin, aka Near Faraway Mountain, only to discover that this map can be a perilous pathfinder. The Second House Cartographers Guild in Outer Tald Busket will adamantly refuse any commission to draw or copy the Green Map. Jack Loki was an apprentice for 13 months at the Outer Tald Busket Guild*, where he gained his Journeyman Certification. He achieved his Mastership in Mapmaking through years of practical experience and independent study. When he felt confident enough in his skills in augury, thaumaturgy, cartography and mythopoeia, Jack made his own Green Map, which led to the grievous occurrence in “The Journey to Near Faraway Mountain”, which was one of the few barely-survivable adventures Jack came to regret.

* His first choice was the Cartography, Mythopoeia and Zymurgy (CMZ) program at Gurrackelleen College, his mother’s college, until almost the last moment, when he decided he did not want to be her legacy.


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Monday, September 25, 2023

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Seasons Change and So Do I

Summer is overblown and aging fast, so I feel that I need to post this one quick, before the season falls apart. There are four panels in this series, one for each season. I believe Yost used the Winter mask for a Christmas card in 1998, but other than that, the four masks (which I plan to post in their appropriate seasons) have remained unpublished until now.

Monday, June 26, 2023

Wise King Og, Tales of the Rephaim

King Og of Bashannon appears in two of Jack Loki's adventures, "Illimilku's Treasure" and "Feather of a Swallow, Blood of an Owl". Both are treasure hunts instigated by the visions of a character named Jonesy Stoneseer, a Mahquam-nanteerf of the Second House, who is also an infamous fascrinnaytor. King Og recommends Jonesy Stoneseer to Jack, telling him that the fascrinnaytor currently enjoys Lady Fortune's good and generous favor.

"However, I must include this caveat," warns the king. "Do not employ him more than two times. A broken clock tells the correct time only twice. Do not rely on him for a third."

A fascrinnaytor is a person with apparently fraudulent magic or "psychic power", who somehow manages, by accident, by luck, by who-knows-what-mystery, to produce an end result of real value.