178 – Haliyalujah
If you’ve been wondering what the symbols are from, they’re from Baybayin, an old Filipino script. Apparently, they’re originally read/written from bottom-top though when the Spanish came here they changed it to left-right (or rotated), which wasn’t a bad idea actually. Anyway, I just like it cause it looks cool. Play around with Baybayin yourself using this translator.
Not that I want to focus on religion or politics into the comic, but the Philippines is majority Roman Catholic, so it’s no surprise some of the characters will be Catholic/Christian.
Haliya worshippers were possibly real. Dunno their actual name, if any, and excuse me if I took some creative liberties with them.
Sorry it’s been taking so long guys, I’ve been finding it difficult to write the dialogue/narration for the 2nd set of panels for this page. Just can’t seem to articulate it properly and I’ve realized I can’t really improvise the story every page, at least for these story-heavy Episodes. So I’ve been brushing up on my writing and English skills (English is my 2nd language), and doing as much research as I can regarding the manga industry. That last part seems unrelated, but I was thinking that I might pick up on some of the useful habits and techniques of mangakas (particularly with efficiency), and I’m interested on how the heck some of the famous mangas make around 19 pages per chapter/week (like One Piece). In short, they have insane schedules and their lives basically revolve around their manga so… I’ve given up on playing video game (again) so I’ve also been a bit cranky the past week or so haha.
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Transcript
Cruz: So Isog is it? Mind telling us more about yourselves and your uh... indie religion? You have an interesting culture here!
Isog: Not at all, and it's fine to call us a cult! Now, where do I start...?
Isog: We are the Haliyans, named after our Goddess Haliya.
Cruz: Oh, like Christians.
Isog: She is the goddess of masks, the moon, and battle, so naturally we're all about those!
Cruz: Oh, not like Christians.
Isog: Yes, except our Goddess is real. Like, these other "religions" should be the cults am I right?
Cruz: Oof, quite the bold claim! Okay so... what about your masks?
Isog: Before facing the Bakunawa when it was rampaging long ago, Haliya donned her enchanted mask and vowed to never remove it until one of them is slain. Haliya won in the end, but only managed to seal her away that time.
Isog: We wear masks to show our resolve like our goddess, but as time went on, now we also wear them for other reasons like art, fun, or work. More importantly, Haliya also taught us the Mask Arts, the secrets to making enchanted masks. The one I'm wearing for instance enhance my senses. Helps with guard duty you know? Plus it's cute.
Isog: In fact, the masks you're all wearing have Night's Vision, and I think you can already guess what it does. Us Haliyans are already blessed with it so we don't require a mask, but you'll need them since the only lighting we have in the village is moonlight. Unfortunately it doesn't let you see colors that well.
Keith: Hmm, apparently the Bakunawa cursed me so I can't perceive the moon at all, therefore I can't see moonlight. Thanks for letting us borrow these.
Tammy: It might be dark for us "normal" people anyway because of the eclipse.
Isog: I-is that what the Bakunawa cursed you with?! What a truly horrifying curse!
Read order… All over the place!
Sorry, was it too confusing?
Is it top-to-bottom then left-to-right?
If you decide to do a different format then what you have established (have you?), you may want to make it easier to readers by noting the proper order (with arrows for example) IMHO.
Nice comic. Just… dropping this of… Awkwardly…
Noted and thanks… so should I fix this or not? The panels are vertically divided into three parts. I guess it’s my fault since the middle panels were originally supposed to be one.
And I suppose it is indeed a hiccup on my part since some things that I think should be obvious to readers… are apparently not.
Er… I don’t know. I just shared my idea on how I think you could (or I would) improve it, or what I think a reader might expect. I don’t want to tell you what to do to be honest, after all it is your creation. And most definitely didn’t wanted to fault you. Sorry if it sounded like that. ^.^’ (Couldn’t figure a way out how to loosen it up.)
I also gave a second thought about the occasional different ordering over night, and I thought it is an interesting idea. Perhaps could be used to add additional expression to the story by making it different. Also, nothing wrong with experimenting, I can endorse that. 😉
I wonder if maybe it would be more clear if you just adjusted the vertical gutter width between the 3 groups of panels, making it wider. However since there are a bunch of borderless black panels, that might not be enough to make it clear.
Dunno, that’s just my seven cents on the matter.
I mean it made sense to me, for what that’s worth. Didn’t have any trouble following the layout.
Yay! New page!
And I think your English skills are wonderful, better than many native speakers I’ve encountered. You should be proud.
Yeah thanks. And ehem English was my fav subject back then and get high grades for it. :p
However, writing and editing is a whole different beast! We didn’t have any creative writing classes too.
I like the Mask Art thing. I find it interesting, the idea of being empowered by donning a mask, like in Majora’s Mask or Dungeons & Dragon’s prestige class Master of Masks.
Oh, thanks for mentioning Master of Masks. Gave me some good ideas for their abilities… or maybe just outright steal them heh.
The official one from Complete Scoundrel, or the homebrew one?
I read it from this page, so yeah Complete Scoundrel I think.