COMIC: Phantasm Dyad

[JezMM]

My web comic series about an average girl named Alice who ends up investigating ghosts with the charming but odd Professor Chin. Neither of them could predict the ridiculous things the afterlife could spring on them, from toaster ghosts and cereal killers... to the repercussions of finally reuniting with lost loved ones.

Usually funny, sometimes dramatic, occasionally sad. Hopefully always entertaining.

 

New Reader?  Click Here!

If you don't want to stray away from SSMB, open the spoiler tag below to read the original version of this opening post, which contains a choice of tasters to the series that you can read right here.  Naturally, only pages made since the creation of this topic are posted from here on out.  Note that to save bandwidth, pages not from the latest episode will be in spoiler tags.

 

Click here to read on Tumblr, which is currently uploading the entire comic in small daily portions of 2-4 pages, perfect for new readers who don't want to spend over an hour or two catching up to the point that comic is currently at in one go.

Well this topic is sort of an experiment... I don't know how much attention it'll get because it's quite a hefty task I ask of you. See I've done this comic since 2005 and as such there's a fair bit of backlog, approximately 200 pages+. In order to try and ease you into it, there are two ways to start reading.

Your first option is to read the extra episode "Her Last Night". This is an episode that can be enjoyed standalone, which introduces the main characters and general style of the series, while also allowing you to see what the art is like these days.

Click the spoiler below to read the first seven pages uninterrupted:




If you're enjoying yourself, click here to read the rest!
(There are 51 pages total in this episode).

Alternatively, if you're feeling brave (or just want another bit of preview before you continue with the above), here is the entire first episode (10 pages), uninterrupted and with the art and quality of writing as it was in 2005.

And if you're going the chronological route, click here to start reading Episode 2!

I'll be continuing with updates starting November 19th. I update every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, though to respect the 3 day updating rule for art topics, I'll probably lump all three pages into a weekly Friday update here.

Fortunately the next episode, while wildly different due to how circumstances have changed story-wise since the start of the comic, is also going to be fairly convenient in terms of "readability without prior knowledge of the series" so feel free to check it out when it comes even if you haven't caught up.

Thanks in advance to all my existing readers and any new ones who are feeling brave and/or bored enough to tackle the task of catching up! <3
 

Edited August 6, 2013 by JezMM

[Anti Alias]

JezMM's cartoon girls are sexy, I tell you that.

[Jeffhog]

'bout damn time you're advertising this here!

[JezMM]

'bout damn time you're advertising this here!

Haha I was waiting until I had that extra episode finished. I didn't wanna start posting updates of an episode already halfway through, and before it was done I didn't really have any one episode that is a good "taster" of the current quality of the series without majorly spoiling stuff from previous episodes.

[Lady Soniko]

Just read through the extra chapter, I really liked the cute style and humour you applied to it, you could put a bit more effort into the backgrounds though, the whole thing seems very focused on the characters more so than their surroundings too but it was an interesting read, I'm not sure what It is, but I really like your girls.

I'll continue reading this series, it's really entertaining.

[JezMM]

Just read through the extra chapter, I really liked the cute style and humour you applied to it, you could put a bit more effort into the backgrounds though, the whole thing seems very focused on the characters more so than their surroundings too but it was an interesting read, I'm not sure what It is, but I really like your girls.

I'll continue reading this series, it's really entertaining.

Thanks! Yeah backgrounds aren't my strong point. I use references when I NEED a believable background for the sake of the story or an establishing shot but otherwise they somewhat come second lol. Especially when I'm having to draw them a million times like in that final scene from the extra episode (so many hills with little undetailed clumps of trees... so many... Q_Q). It's something I'm slowly getting better at though... slowly. I'm just kinda riding it out and practicing where I can lol (I'm not a perfectionist with comic art coz if I was I'd never get the damn thing done haha).

Glad you enjoyed enough to continue! C8

Edited November 8, 2012 by JezMM

[Lady Soniko]

Thanks! Yeah backgrounds aren't my strong point. I use references when I NEED a believable background for the sake of the story or an establishing shot but otherwise they somewhat come second lol. Especially when I'm having to draw them a million times like in that final scene from the extra episode (so many hills with little undetailed clumps of trees... so many... Q_Q). It's something I'm slowly getting better at though... slowly. I'm just kinda riding it out and practicing where I can lol (I'm not a perfectionist with comic art coz if I was I'd never get the damn thing done haha).

Glad you enjoyed enough to continue! C8

I know it's tedious, but taking your time with a comic page is the way to go, one time I did a comic where the main protagonist was shoulder barged through a window and i had to draw shards of glass everywhere on a single spread page whilst making the spread and pieces look believable and ugh.. it took so long! but was worth the wait.

I'm sure you'll pick up hints and tips that'll ease your workload the more you look, digital artists these days can get away with a ton of things traditionalists can't xD

[JezMM]

I know it's tedious, but taking your time with a comic page is the way to go, one time I did a comic where the main protagonist was shoulder barged through a window and i had to draw shards of glass everywhere on a single spread page whilst making the spread and pieces look believable and ugh.. it took so long! but was worth the wait.

I'm sure you'll pick up hints and tips that'll ease your workload the more you look, digital artists these days can get away with a ton of things traditionalists can't xD

Oh, for sure, it's not even the tedium that bothers me, but just the impatience that I wanna get the "story" out there, if you know what I mean. XD I do about an hour and a half work every day which gets a page done every 3 days on average. I work longer on the pages that NEED to be pretty for the sake of story/scene-establishment. D=

Probably the page that took me the longest to do was an establishing shot of the interior of a night club (Episode 13, whenever you reach there). It's not even properly coloured but it took me about 2 weeks to do with my "working an hour on the comic every day" schedule. D8 Worth it though, coz I didn't wanna draw just a generic clump of faceless people with like ten unique people at the front etc.

[JezMM]

I hope you guys all did your homework and have read the entire thing so far because this week saw the start of episode 15. As said I'll be posting in three-page batches each Friday since the "no updating your own topic twice unless it's been three days" rule doesn't apply to a Mon-Wed-Fri update schedule.

This episode should be enjoyable enough if you still haven't caught up, but it'll be more enjoyable if you've at least read Episode 13, which will be more enjoyable if you've read Episode 11/12... which will be more enjoyable if you've read everything beforehand... which will...

Bare in mind as well I hate jpegs with a passion but am using them here for the sake of bandwidth. To view at png quality, click here to read on deviantART.

Episode 15: Cover Page - Page 1 - Page 2

 

This episode continues in spoiler tags for the rest of the pages to save bandwidth.

Edited November 9, 2013 by JezMM

[JezMM]

Episode 15: Page 3 - Page 4 - Page 5

Edited November 9, 2013 by JezMM

[Lady Soniko]

MOAR

[JezMM]

Episode 15: Page 6 - Page 7 - Page 8

We've reached the mid-point of the episode so there'll be a week's break before it continues. A bonus page will be posted on Wednesday.

Edited November 9, 2013 by JezMM

[Lady Soniko]

Oh gawd, Alice's awkwardness is adorableeeee ;3;

You've got me hooked Jez, ARGH! :B

[JezMM]

Yay! 8D And thanks, I was kinda going for that.

[JezMM]

New midpoint page. For those who are reading the current episode anyway despite having not reached the University storyline, this current series has little question-answer pages in the middle of and at the end of each episode.

Click here to view the introduction comic!

Or here to submit a question via Formspring!

I've actually run out of my buffer of questions, so if any new readers here have any for any of the characters, don't hold back!

[Faseeh]

I love your humour dood. It's awesome.

[Lady Soniko]

Question for Alice: Boobs, Butts or ANUS?

:3 lawl inside jokey

[JezMM]

Question for Alice: Boobs, Butts or ANUS?

:3 lawl inside jokey

Lmao we need some more in-jokes, this can't be all we ever talk about. D8

[JezMM]

Episode 15: Page 9 - Page 10 - Page 11
 

Bonus!

I worked my butt off to complicatedly ink/colour panel 1 so I could create this:

On your Nintendo 3DS, enter the following URL:
h t t p : / / 3 d p o r c h . c o m / 2 n 1 8
Without spaces and click "Download .mpo File" to view a 3D version of the first panel!

Alternatively, if you have ways of viewing 3D pictures on your PC monitor, simply click here. If all else fails, you can still click the link to view a pseudo-3D "wiggle" version. It gives a vague idea of how it should look.

Edited November 9, 2013 by JezMM

[JezMM]

Episode 15: Page 12 - Page 13 - Page 14

Edited November 9, 2013 by JezMM

[JezMM]

Episode 15: Page 15 - Page 16 - Page 17

Edited April 5, 2013 by JezMM

[Alluusio]

Well I finally decided to give this a try after admiring the boobs art in your avatars.

 

Good job! I didn't read though some of the earlier stuff (only enough to get some sort of feel for what's going on. I know, I'm lazy like that ^^) but I enjoyed reading this quite a lot. The art is nice and simple and I love the expressions on the characters' faces. In fact the only thing that bothers me about the presentation is that nearly all of the characters have the same face. Even the male and female characters with the only difference between the two being the eyelashes. Of course they have different hairstyles but especially in the black and white panels it can still be difficult to tell characters like Venus and Alice apart since they have similar hairstyles. Well, that's pretty much my only complaint so far. Of course there are small flaws every now and then but they're not important.

 

Anyway, I'm impressed you've been able to keep making this for so long. I usually tend to lose interest in my comics after about 10 pages so I can't help but admire your patience. Looking forward to seeing more of this!

 

[JezMM]

Thanks!  Yeah I ended up embracing the simple face style for "budget" reasons (i.e. keeping things as simple as possible within reason so I can produce as much comic as reasonably possible in a reasonable amount of time).  I've been sloooowly trying to ween on the characters to have just a couple of facial "things" to seperate them, though granted now the comic is in full colour it is less of an issue since everyone has wildly different hair colours lol).

 

Glad you're enjoying what you've read so far.  =D  It's such a pain to "sell" a comic with over 200 pages of backlog to new readers so I really appreciate any effort at all people are happy to put in lol (it's also nice to get multiple compliments on facial expressions because I always worry I don't do them interesting enough, even though I do really enjoy drawing facial expressions, so glad to know that's just me being temperamental artist).

[JezMM]

Episode 15: Page 18 - Page 19 - Page 20

 

 

And since that's the end of the ep, another Interroghostions Page:

 

Click here to view the introduction comic!

Or here to submit a question via Formspring!

 

 

Aiming to start the next episode on either the 28th of January or 4th February.

Edited April 5, 2013 by JezMM

[JezMM]

Updates have begun again!

 

Episode 16: Cover Page - Page 1 - Page 2

 

New readers, having read (up to, preferrably) Episode 8 will benefit you in understanding wtf happened at the end there, but is otherwise not necessary for the rest of the episode.

Edited April 5, 2013 by JezMM