Not dying is awesome.
Today’s voting incentive is my goofy thumbnails for today’s page!
Here’s that page that explains things! Like I promised awhile ago! I haven’t had a page with this much dialog on it in awhile, which is kind of an odd feeling, but Marisa and Elias are the chattiest characters in this story. Vincent is glad to be alive, but not particularly concerned about his own mortality, I guess. It’s worth noting that I assume that after being bitten, if there’s not enough magic involved, someone else could shove a bunch of magic into you and try and jump start the process, but that’s not guaranteed to work. I mentioned this in a comment to someone, but most of the time, an older and more experienced werewolf (usually the alpha) will be the one who bites new recruits. That standard helps reduce the number of times the transformation doesn’t take. Something something randos who died after being bitten at the beginning of this story something something don’t worry about it.
Poor Malaya isn’t sure what to think about this new development, but she looks really hopeful. I kind of love drawing this massive werewolf who always looks tentative and confused :D. Mal has her moments of decisiveness, but her default is being inherently unsure of herself. Maybe that’ll change more over time?…Maybe that’s the point of writing a story?
I’m feeling better today! Overall! Though I’m still coughing like a motherfucker, so being legit healthy is still a few days off. I managed to wear pajamas all day yesterday, which was a real accomplishment for me. I’m not really good at being lazy, which is probably how I ended up cleaning the kitchen last night, but oh well. I was reading the comments on this person on reddit complaining that her roommate and boyfriend never clean, and someone commented on all the stuff they clean everyday…this commenter bleached the floors, cleaned all the tile in the kitchen, cleaned the walls, dusted the house, vacuumed, cleaned the front windows, and scrubbed the bathtub EVERY DAY. Like, what is your LIFE. I consider myself a fairly clean person. I’m known as “the clean one” in my group of friends, and I still feel like a lot of aspects of my housekeeping go by the wayside…mostly due to my house being constantly under renovation, ergo why clean carpentry mess? But I clean stuff every day…different stuff. What needs to be cleaned. Why the hell would you dust the whole house every day? Is this a hobby? Has this person never heard of spot cleaning? Anyway, that kind of blew my mind. Cleaning that often sounds like a great way to destroy your floors over time, but whatever.
Okay, I’m off to pull myself together mentally and physically and try to reintegrate my sick self with human society. I’ve already taken steps in the right direction, but I had a lot of really weird dreams last night and I kind of want to go back to bed and get actual rest :P.
Hope you feel better soon! 😀
Also, Marisa. personal space. plz.
Thank you! I’m feeling a lot better today! Not into this little baby cough I still have going, but I’m off to the doctor tomorrow :D.
Marisa has no concept of personal space lol.
I keep getting shades of “Peter is the Wolf” from just how BIG Mal is.
She may be huge, but in the last frame, she looks like she wouldn’t hurt a fly. Unless the fly just bit her brother, in which case she may …
IDK what that is, but as a wolf, she’s a bit taller than her dad, so about 7′? And Elias is a bit taller than her as a wolf. A lot of that height comes from the way their feet change, though.
“Peter is he Wolf” is another werewolf webcomic (that has a NSFW version) where unprotected sex can turn you. (Peter didn’t know that when he and his girlfriend hooked up.)
You say it has a NSFW version. Does it have a SFW version? I’m not really into porn, but I’m always on the lookout for good webcomics.
Never mind.
http://www.peteristhewolf.com
This comic, run by Kris Overstreet, who is a great guy. A bit naughty, but it definitely tries to be even-handed, fun, and fair with the naughty. And, at the same time, respect the characters. Got some actual morals to it. Definitely a step above the average hentai.
Now’s as good a time as any to catch up on the comic, considering that the writer and artist recently parted ways and updates have practically been non-existent the past year. Kris is auditioning new artists, so hopefully it’ll pick back up soon.
hope you get to feeling better! can’t wait for tuesday/wednesday to roll back around again! 🙂
I’m feeling a lot better today! Still a bit of coughing, but it’s a pretty reasonable cold as colds go. I also can’t wait for next Tues/Weds because we’ll be even closer to the end of this chapter finally lol.
So it’s possible that she did it instinctively to protect part of her pack.
Also I’m envisioning warrior werewolves as wearing nothing but kilts and having their face fur dyed in war paint.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6bLUdfykrQM
No, she did it in a moment of anger (siblings are like that). But that does not mean that only bad things came from it. Mal just never saw it that way.
Scottish werewolf warriors. Probably less confusing than Viking ones, I mean those guys already covered in fur the only difference would really be the tail, maybe.
I could also just see a Malaya sized wolf just one handing a claymore.
*Pictures a naked Mal with her fur dyed blue in Pictish patterns with a properly sized claidheamh-mòr* O_O
Her scratching him was definitely a happy accident! Not sure it was instinctual, but maybe on some level she hearkened back to some weird primal werewolf moment.
I love werewolf Malaya. Love her. She is the most precious floof, and the best sister.
I love her tooooo. She’s the awkward, fluffy werewolf I always wanted to write about :).
Parents look so proud 🙂
They are very proud of their giant, hairy werewolf daughter 😀
I imagine she’d start crying after such news. I know I would
This is a big shift in her world view! Her scratching Vincent was one of the things that solidified that she was dangerous in her own mind, so this is a big leap!
Vincent’s deadpannitude is so much fun. XD
I relate to Vincent on a lot of levels :).
ooohhh That means my theory from a few pages back was kind of right, albiet not all the details were there.
I am happy 🙂
It’s always my goal that people can figure out most of the twists ahead of time! If they come out of nowhere, then it just feels cheap :).
The next big question is what the fall out for Elias is going to be? He will need to face the consequences of his actions
He totally will be facing consequences! Some of which we’ll learn about next chapter, but I’m going to try and space it out a bit.
A happy nearly-lethal accident!
Exactly! She lucked out :D. Which I knew she would since I started writing this story whaaaaaat
Mal still looks uncertain, understandably so. Also I think part of that uncertainty at this point is an “Ok that’s great now how do I go back to being me as I had nothing to do with that happening last time.” line of thinking. That and some of it is that she still feels bad for hurting her brother in anger and she has a constant reminder. Also I’m still wondering about 2 things. 1) Does Vincent still get a scar from the bite or did Marisa fix that too? And 2) would it be possible to override the inoculation? Admittedly this is because I’m actually a little curios how Vincent would look as a werewolf and what “specialty” he would have.
A lot of her uncertainty is stemming from disbelief at this point, that this thing she considered a reminder of her ultimate failing (hurting her brother and therefore solidifying that she’s a dangerous person to everyone) is actually a roundabout good thing. Kind of a huge perspective shift there.
No scar from the bite! She fixed it quickly enough :).
I’m sure there’s something that could override the inoculation, probably using magic of some sort, but that’d be something fanfiction will have to explore ;). I’ll never get around to it!
I’d say there was a silver lining before this whole idea. I mean he didn’t shy away from her so to me that means he knew, even back then, how to be mature about things. As for on Mals side, I don’t know what you could see on the good side before and all she could’ve done in a positive manner would be to have let it go, although that’s not to say dwelling on it was a bad thing as knowing you have dangerous attributes means you can take steps to prevent them from manifesting themselves. Kind of like the psychotic individual that takes medication to prevent such episodes.
So, even with proper medical treatment, a werewolf bite lacking the needed magic will still kill you?
Maybe not. I mean it sounds more like a 50/50 shot as to whether you die from it or not. Of course proper medical treatment for a bit that probably doesn’t want to be closed except on it’s own would likely be very hard anyway so. Also amputation could be a possibility in extreme cases.
It’s more like, the subsequent infection from the bite forces your body to try and transform and finish the turn into a werewolf, but without any magic behind it, the infection will waste most of your body’s resources on something your body just can’t do. And then eventually you’ll die, maybe from sheer exhaustion.
“Cleaning that often sounds like a great way to destroy your floors over time” It’s also a great way to weaken your immune system, as you’re not allowing yourself to build up resistance to the germs you’re killing. I can see it if you’ve already got a compromised immune system & can’t afford an infection, but otherwise…. some years ago, I had a co-worker who was a “clean-freak.” Having kids made her even clean-freakier, constantly disinfecting everything to protect them, and refusing to have a pet because of the dirt it would track in. And she fussed that her kids were always getting sick from everything going around at school. Our son had asthma, but we had a cat, and a dog, and ferrets, and just about any kind of pet (and their dander) you could imagine. Plus we both worked full time, so the house got spot-cleaned, and deep cleaned when we could. Aside from carrying his inhaler, and taking occasional allergy medicine in the spring, our son was ridiculously healthy, and his doc approved of his exposure to as many things as possible to keep his tolerances high.
On the cough? if you like ruby red grapefruit juice, try nuking it & drink it hot like tea. It’s one of my go-to comfort drinks; helps with congestion & clearing the throat. I hope you shake the last of the cough & feel well soon!
Passive immunity at it’s finest. Somehow I have ended up being the healthiest person you could know up to now and hopefully into the future. Only been ill enough to miss school/work about 3 times in my life. Of course my luck has it only 1 time was it when school was going on.
I think the biggest culprit in the spread of germs are those damn antibacterial wipes that people clean every surface with. I admit that I use them to clean the toilet, but everything else I clean with vinegar and a rag. All the antibiotics they’re putting in every damn thing now is just making all these bacteria stronger and harder to ward off. I was always pretty sickly as a child, though I think most of that stemmed from anxiety.
I’ll try the grapefruit juice idea! I’m mostly feeling better after taking it easy for a few days, but that sounds pretty good regardless.
Any citrus (i.e. anything with citric acid) _should_ help to loosen mucus; cut back on milk as well for the duration (or follow it with OJ or something), as I’ve been told milk prompts mucus production (thus worsening congestion).
I’ve heard that! Luckily, I own a lot of oranges and I can’t really digest dairy, so I’m good on both fronts :). Unfortunately, it seems like everyone I’ve talked to who has already been sick this season has had the same cold as me for just about as long, so I guess I just have to wait it out :P.
“Kids should eat more dirt.” You know that stage kids go through where they put _everything_ in their mouth? I think it has more purpose than just finding what tastes good. Their bodies are developing at a phenomenal rate; this applies to the immune system as much as any other function, so they’re also jump-starting their antibodies. Statistically, kids who grow up with pets in the home have fewer allergies, so that one’s kind of obvious.
Incidentally, I’d never heard of the warm grapefruit juice thing. I don’t know if the heat would affect the citric acid or not, but whatever works.
Mal being this great hulking mass of fur and muscle and SO UNCERTAIN is just so precious.
She got her fight on, her one moment of certainty to protect her brother, and she’s right back to her normal anxious self :). Regardless of size!
I only discovered this comic a few days ago, and have now read through from the beginning. I also read many of the comments. I want to say that I am glad I did not discover this at the beginning, as reading it THIS way gave it even more impact. It is impressive, and I have enjoyed every frame. :: On a personal note, I am OLD, occasionally rude, nasty, ugly, and mean, but patient. I would encourage you to take good care of yourself, rather than ignore your health to get something out a day or two earlier. I want to be able to read a LOT more of your work, and that cannot happen if you drive yourself ill, dead, or into quiting. Keep up the good work, but work wisely.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it! I know there ends up being a lot of extra info and theories that wind up in the comments, so I’m always glad to hear that they’re engaging lol. And the people who don’t mind me rambling about TV a few times a week, since that goes hand-in-hand with drawing this beast.
I think as you get older, being occasionally rude is an earned indulgence ;). I’m definitely not working myself too hard, though! I promise lol. I’m off to the doctor tomorrow to make sure this cold is finished for good, but I think I’ve finally beat the winter cold from hell 😀
Awwwww….. those clasped, clawed, immense hands are just so anxious and worried! I like this explanation; it makes sense. Also, here’s hoping that you get better; if it’s any help, a night of nonsense-dreams often means that you’re turning the corner of an illness.
She’s very anxious, regardless of size :D.
I’m feeling much better today! I’m still going to the doctor tomorrow just in case, but hopefully Winter Sickness Part II is on its way out!
I find it odd that Malaya has those teeth sticking out the side of her muzzle while Elias has the classic set of canine teeth when he’s transformed. Is there a specific reason for Malaya’s teeth, or is that just a distinctive attribute you’ve given her?
I bet it’s because there are werewolf dentists that specialize in transformative orthodontia. Elias was born a werewolf and his mother is a werewolf muckety muck, so he had the benefit of 8 years of magical werewolf braces.
Mal is a snaggletooth.
From a strictly character design perspective, I wanted Malaya to look a bit more “wild” and wolfy, whereas Elias is a bit more streamlined. I wanted to differentiate them visually and make it clear that she’s still a bit feral, untrained, less connected to her humanity in that form. Elias is in touch with the werewolf part of himself, but it’s less far from who he is on a day to day basis. So, just a design choice, really! Makes her look a bit more beastly.
If Mal’s clothing can get subtly stretchier over time when she’s a wolf, can Elias’s chest get progressively more hairy until it spills out of the rip in his shirt and takes over the living room?
It could, but then I’d have to draw all that damn hair ;). And it’d be for sure very luxurious, and that’d take me forever.
If I ever get the money together to commision a picture, I might commision that, if there’s a way it can be used as my avatar…
If you clean enough tthat it’s not dirty/dusty…
Then you have cleaned enough to handle NOT BEING OCD. OCD runs in our family. I know what being OCD is like. (I just got the ‘negative thoughts’ part, not the ‘superclean’ part…if I can’t find my wallet…ho boy.)
That’s all I could figure from this lady’s description, though maybe she’s just like, really really really really clean. She’s welcome to come clean my house, I guess.
Okay time to Scratch Ma and Pa!….And then for a good deed go run around town scratching everyone!! ;-D Maybe not.
Mom and Dad might not mind so much. Though I’m certain, as Elias said it was an extreme measure way back when, there’s other ways now. Also I could see the rest of the town now just from 4 or 5 werewolves and a witch proclaiming that it’s only for their safety.
Mostly, you wouldn’t normally need to scratch anyone because there’s enough rules and civility in place, so a werewolf running around biting the humans in another pack would be dealt with accordingly. It’s super old school to worry about the humans that way, basically.
Fair enough, and even still leather and chain mail work pretty well I would think so there’s always that option in a worst case scenario.
I doubt leather would stop a werewolf bite, and if the chain mail hold up it will probably crush whatever it is “protecting”. Gotta remember how strong werewolf jaws are…. and now I just got the image of Tim running around to the theme song of Jaws stuck in my head
I was thinking of the leather as padding and the stiffer stuff would be more of a defense against scratches rather than bites.
That’s good! Rules and civility are nice to have. For a minute there I was thinking Vincent would be howling at the moon within a fortnight. P.S. glad to hear you’re on the mend. Good job on chillin’ in pajamas all day. I have to remind myself sometimes that recovering is a productive activity and an investment in the future too.
I imagined Malaya werewolf less bulky or meaty but ripped with defined muscles like a kung-fu crack.
Ah, but then I’d have to draw all those muscles and that takes too long ;).
Thick and long hair often covers the rippling and definition of muscles. I like how Malaya is drawn, She’s such a sweet little badass pup!
With every wolf there is fluff, so seeing those muscles is probably not likely to happen. Unless she needs to visit the vet for a surgury. 😛
Just realised Vincent has an 8-pack – He must spend so much time at the gym!
Was thinking about your post last week, regarding merchandise shirt designs. Some cool, non-rainbowy LGBT+ things would be amazing, tbh – I’m a guy who doesn’t really do blindingly bright cheery colours, but would be open to wearing something that expresses who I am a bit. Have you considered any designs that combine a love of werewolves with LGBT+ themes? Imagine the puns you could have – defiant female werewolf, and a caption ‘Just don’t expect her to clip her nails’; a burly male werewolf, captioned ‘Why have a bear when you can have a wolf?’ 😛
Keep up the awesome comic work, and I hope you get better soon!
I figure he’s benefiting from a strong metabolism, his mother’s cooking, and spending all summer gardening :). And hey, I bet the university has a gym, so there’s probably that too. Gotta stay buff!
I don’t know if I’d do werewolves right off the bat, just because it’s pretty niche, but I could if any more general designs take off! I’m thinking some trendy, simple designs that are still undeniably LGBT focused to get started, so I can catch a non-comic-reading audience too :).
Thanks! I’m still sick, but I’m hanging in there!
Oh no. I’m all caught up. I love it by the way, i love the story, and the characters, the art, all of it
Yay! I’m sorry you ran out of pages to read, but luckily, there’s new pages coming tomorrow and Wednesday! 😀 😀 😀
Here’s the link to how he got the scar
http://www.howtobeawerewolf.com/comic/vincent-has-made-a-mistake/
Thank you! I should have included that in my paragraph for people to refer back to :).
okay so i just wanted to share a theory i had about Malaya. she was bit by a wolf when she was a kid. not a werewolf, a wolf. based off of the information we have, it was probably an old werewolf that had already permanently turned. After her first encounter with Aubrey, when she turned 8 feet tall and tracked down Elias, Marin, and Marisa at their house, there was the whole thing with how their house was warded to be pack only, and how Malaya shouldn’t have been able to get there. Quotes from page 52; Marisa “I warded the house this morning! It should be undetectable to stray werewolves.” Elias “It should be pack only, right?” Notice the wording. Stray werewolves. Pack only. There is also the inclusion of Elias’s grandmother (Ziva Ross) on the character page, but I’m also pretty certain every character that’s appeared has a place there, so that could be irrelevant. You might have figured out what I’m trying to get at, but to get to the point: I think Ziva Ross was the wolf that bit Malaya when she was a kid. It would explain why she was able to find them when they should have been warded from her: she’s not technically a stray werewolf, and she kind of is pack, because Elias’s grandmother was the one to turn her. I don’t even know if this is obvious or if someone has already talked about this but I figured I should add my two cents.
I like you’re thinking and you’re on the right track! There’s a few more pieces of the puzzle that we all need, and then hopefully by the end of chapter 8, everything will make sense :D.
Maybe later today and tomorrow will add more puzzle pieces.
Lol, I think most of the puzzle pieces are out of the way for this chapter, so now we’ll introduce totally new information in the next chapter yay!
Malaya: “HULK DO GOOD! HULK HAPPY! HULK NOT WANT BE ALONE! HULK WANT HUGS AND CUDDLES!”
Find yourself a family who will look at you the way they look at Malaya, even in her half wolf form.
Right? They love her, even at her biggest and hairiest 🙂