#beasts without burden

[jojotier]

Man I love giving characters pieces of myself. Whit gets super enthused about his research when he has it and still reads research papers for fun even when he doesn't need to. Eva is a dramatic theatre kid in spirit despite not having been in a theatre class in years. It's beautiful

[beastswithoutburdencomic]

🧧🧧🧧🎉🏮HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR GUYS🏮🎉🧧🧧🧧

Have a festive lil jackalope < 3

[Image ID: a digital drawing in shades of peach, yellow and red, depicting a large fluffy rabbit with fluffy ears and cherry blossom branches as antlers. Whit is wearing a red T-shirt with a bunny logo on it and flops down on the rabbit’s back, hugging it. Xiyun is wearing a qipao top with striped pants and poses on the rabbit’s back as if riding a mechanical Bull. The text says “新年快乐” while Xiyun uproariously shouts “红包拿來”. Two dragonflies flutter at the rabbit’s face and one of them alights on its nose.

End ID.]

[beastswithoutburdencomic]

Update.

Whit didn't come back right.

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Click here for image IDs on all published pages.

Image ID for the promo in both the alt text and under the cut.

IMAGE ID: In the middle panel, Whit vomits speech bubbles. The strings flow through his fingers as he tries to keep it in and populate the rest of the page. 

A ring of speech bubbles in the middle read, “... Is he in there?”, “There isn’t much to tell.” “But it was quiet for a long while after.”, “Quiero ver tu cara de nuevo-”, “Right here.”, “He was always so gentle…”, “Is he in pain? Is he angry? Did he tell you what happened to him?”, “But the curse can’t be broken-”, “... but it’s not Danilo, is it?”, and “There was a monster.” 

In the center of the ring is a white-outlined sketch of Violeta from the sternum up, raising one hand, worry in every line. It isn’t that Whit is merely echoing what’s being said.

Whit mimics the exact sound of Violeta’s voice.

In the triangular panels in the top left and right corners of the page, Danilo stretches out, his line art stretching around the middle panel. The top right panel shows the formless gold sewn into abstract, flowing lineart. The top left panel shows Danilo’s shocked face, his white eyes wide with recognition. 

Danilo’s body flows into the middle panel and is partially lost among the dark grey of the background and the faint outlines of the mask of Whit’s face embedded into the mudbender’s head from case 1, containing Whit’s soul.

The bottom panel shows a close up of Danilo’s head as several tails from the white speech bubbles wrap around the abstract black lines of his line art, as though attempting to put him back together. The gold color between the lines takes on a metallic sheen as Danilo’s original face is warped within the still-too-thin lines of his skull. End ID.

[beastswithoutburdencomic]

Case 4, Page 4!

Hi all! Since we're switching to a page per week schedule for awhile, we're gonna be posting the full pages up here so you can follow along!

Read it on Tapas || Read it on webtoons

Read the image IDs of all published comic pages here!

Image IDs under the cut!

[Image ID: The top left panel shows a medium close up of Xi from the diaphragm up, a Chinese-American young person wearing a sleeveless cheongsam with a high neckline and a shawl around his shoulders. The shawl holsters six brush-like wands, three on each side, making the symmetrical framework of wings on either shoulder. His medium-short dark hair is slicked back and his smile is disarming as he says, “Eva. Dante. You’re doing well, I presume?”

From off-panel, Dante says, “Never been better.”

Xi holds a cloth bag with a mysterious blue glow emanating from the opening in one gloved hand. He asks, “And the honeymoon?”

“Never wanted it to end!” answers Eva cheerily in the top right panel. There is a medium close-up shot of both Eva and Dante as they sit in their respective seats and Dante looks fondly at Eva. Eva is a large Filipino woman with a muscular build, medium-short black hair to the nape of her neck held back by a black headband, and her hands and forearms permanently stained with what appears to be black ink. She sits backwards in her chair, resting her crossed arms over the back of it. As she makes a loose peace sign with her left hand, it’s possible to see her wedding band.

Dante is a chubby black woman of average height, medium-dark skin, and braids pulled partially up into twin-tails on either side of her head. There are white beads scattered throughout the black braids and she holds onto the back of her own chair as she leans ever so slightly into Eva’s space.

Eva laughs, eyes closed and smile wide as she says, “But when the Xings call…”

“Strictly between us,” Xi says in the middle panel, raising a hand to cover his mouth scandalously, “The Xings didn’t call.” 

“Oho?” Eva asks from off panel.

Xi leans forward shown from the waist up across the table as he sets the cloth bag on the table. He says, “I did.”

“About the demon you saw,” Dante says, shifting into professional mode. We see her profile from the waist up in the foreground as she sits across from Xi, her eyes directed toward the cloth bag Xi has set precariously close to his still very full cup of coffee. The bag opens more, revealing its contents to be strange, bulbous, and glowing electrically blue.

The bottom left panel shows a close up of the contents of the bag. There is the lightest bit of eyestrain as the contents of the bag take on a strange, bismuth like consistency, though it’s impossible to tell where the sharp lines and angles begin or end. Xi says, “And more besides.” in a speech bubble in between the bottom left and right panels.

Xi continues, “There’s been a certain material I’ve been collecting for personal study…” 

The bottom right panel shows a close up of Dante’s eyes, framed by her braids, as the blue glow is reflected partially back. It’s obvious that she can see the colors. End ID.]

[beastswithoutburdencomic]

A regular bat out of hell, that Ves💙

[beastswithoutburdencomic]

New Beasts Without Burden!

Everyone makes it back to reality.

Read it on Tapas // Read it On Webtoons

Click here for image IDs on all published pages.

Image ID for the promo in both the alt text and under the cut.

A black and white digital comic with two panels. The top panel shows a slightly panned in view of the Merritt house dining room, showing the stillness of the house before the big rip. There is the gentle shaaaaahhh… of rain outside the newly shattered window as a doll’s hand sticks out from between four stacked tables. To the right of the panel, we see the head of another doll as it reclines amongst the tables.

The middle panel shows the dining room of the Merritt house, now inundated with copies of the same tables and Xiyun decoy dolls. Outside the window, lightning still flashes. 

Running down the page vertically is a thin line of opening, showing the white background behind the comic panels. Everyone is spat out of the portal with a delayed …. CRASH!!!A black and white digital comic with two panels. The top panel shows a slightly panned in view of the Merritt house dining room, showing the stillness of the house before the big rip. There is the gentle shaaaaahhh… of rain outside the newly shattered window as a doll’s hand sticks out from between four stacked tables. To the right of the panel, we see the head of another doll as it reclines amongst the tables.The middle panel shows the dining room of the Merritt house, now inundated with copies of the same tables and Xiyun decoy dolls. Outside the window, lightning still flashes. Running down the page vertically is a thin line of opening, showing the white background behind the comic panels. Everyone is spat out of the portal with a delayed …. CRASH!!!From left to right we see Xiyun’s top half as they’re spat out, tumbling into Whit with a disoriented look. While Whit’s legs are still partially in the portal, he has mostly tumbled out onto his back and now tries to hold himself up with one arm. One of his eyes is closed against Xiyun’s hand, which is stuck in his face. Whit’s other hand holds the fabric sling full of the golden paint that used to be Danilo’s body. Xiyun’s other arm cradles a tin holding the same gold color. The beads on Whit’s wrist still glow gold. His visible eye and the tendrils slowly flaking away from under his bandage still glow pink.In the foreground we see Carmen from the chest up as he tumbles out, knocked out of the way by Whit with a wide-eyed look. In the background we see Violeta crash into the back of the panel, her eyes screwed shut. One hand still holds one of the tins filled with gold. The other clutches Danilo’s thin and rapidly deteriorating body, yanking him out alongside everyone.

From left to right we see Xiyun’s top half as they’re spat out, tumbling into Whit with a disoriented look. While Whit’s legs are still partially in the portal, he has mostly tumbled out onto his back and now tries to hold himself up with one arm. 

One of his eyes is closed against Xiyun’s hand, which is stuck in his face. Whit’s other hand holds the fabric sling full of the golden paint that used to be Danilo’s body. Xiyun’s other arm cradles a tin holding the same gold color. The beads on Whit’s wrist still glow gold. His visible eye and the tendrils slowly flaking away from under his bandage still glow pink.

In the foreground we see Carmen from the chest up as he tumbles out, knocked out of the way by Whit with a wide-eyed look. In the background we see Violeta crash into the back of the panel, her eyes screwed shut. One hand still holds one of the tins filled with gold. The other clutches Danilo’s thin and rapidly deteriorating body, yanking him out alongside everyone.

[beastswithoutburdencomic]

New Beasts Without Burden!

Something puts Whit back together... again.

Read it on Tapas // Read it on Webtoons

Click here for image IDs of all published pages!

Image ID for the promo in the alt-text and below the read more:

[Image IDs:

A black and whit digitally drawn comic with small notes of color. In the top panel, Carmen and Whit try to catch their balance, arms rising to try and protect them from the soot tags. None seem to fall on Carmen.

Whit isn’t so lucky. The top right panel shows Whit from the waist up, arms partially raised, as soot tags drape themselves over his forearms and hair, his mouth slightly agape in shock. 

The middle panel shows what the soot tags do. Whit’s face splits down the middle, as if both halves are being pulled in separate directions. Whit is undergoing mitosis.

The first half of the middle right panel shows the process suddenly stopping. The separating halves of Whit’s face are snapped back into place with pink, fleshy stitches sprouting from his monochrome skin, eyes wide in shock and pain. The second half of the panel shows a close up of Whit’s wounded temple. 

Whit’s bandage from case 1 lifts just slightly. Small tendrils slip out from under cloth and glow a vague pink; each tendril ending in the smallest approximation of hands. They look the same as the ghostly hand that was in the mudbender’s face.

End IDs.]

[beastswithoutburdencomic]

An illustrated study of the fantastic micro-animals of local wardview.

Dame-o-the-doorway*

Camurkey warbler

Pants Kinkrell

Cranial lanternoodle

Basking Robby*

Mimi Caterscillar

Pod Pachy

Zoree medusa

Snimp

* Creatures 1 and 5 are sapient species with their own cryptozoologists that can be reached for further information on their respective communities. The Dames are to be approached with caution as offence to their sensibilities may result in your being sent molecule by molecule through their door to a yet unknown location over a period of two weeks. The Robbys, on the other hand, are understanding of cultural differences, reproduce often enough to not mourn the many deaths of their kinds, and are overall lovely.

Image IDs under the cutoff.

[Image ID: a collection of black and white line drawings depicting strange creatures. One is wearing a tiered bonnet and has a door on its front. Two looks like a hand turkey with floating bits on the finger parts. Three is a quadruped with billowing legs and a plant-like protrusion dangling in front of it. Four is a taller quadruped with a hanging head that looks like an orb with holes through which rings pass through. Five appears to be a small clown face on a skittering hand that raises its multiple hands to the sky. Six is a caterpillar-like creature with a parachute shaped protrusion on its head. Seven is a cross between an elephant and a frog with some parts resembling leaves. Eight is a stumpy creature with a face, striped nose and tail, and three disks growing from its head. Ninth is a three-eyed, four-mouthed aquatic looking creature with several shells on its back and a shrimp tail. End ID.]