Today’s decorative display of masculine fisticuffs was brought to you by our noble sponsor VAL TRULLINGER, art director extraordinaire! Val participated in the latest donation incentive drive, and very handsome books about Caravaggio are on their way to her right now.

This comic page brought to you by ROBERTO MACEDO ALVES the noble proprietor of Livraria Setima Dimensao in Funchal, Portugal! Thank you for your generous donation!

The uber-awesome donation incentive continues! Get something (or a lot of somethings) from Colleen’s Closet and finance A Distant Soil while you’re at it! GO HERE for more info. HUNDREDS of items must GO! YES, I am serious, it’s all going in exchange for donation support for my comic. Collectibles, autographed books, rare limited editions, cd’s, dvd’s, videos, statues, busts, trading cards. Our noble sponsor today: Isabel Fine. Thank you SO MUCH for your support and I hope you enjoy your goodies!

We’ll be back on Monday! Thanks!

If you would like to donate to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake disaster, may I recommend Food for the Poor. This organization has an outstanding financial efficiency rating, with less than 2% of donated funds going to administrative costs. Charity Navigator gives them a four star rating. Food for the Poor specializes in serving the needs of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean. Check out Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, Guidestar, or the Wise Giving Alliance for the best value for your donations.

UPDATE: Blown video card. Not a major problem, but Big MAC is in the shop for a few more days. I will post a pinup on Monday, and I should have Big Mac back on Tuesday. No data was lost or anything, so no worries. Just takes a while to get the replacement part I need. At worst, there won’t be a new story page until Wed afternoon. But check back anyway. We might get lucky. Alas, just had to turn down two nice jobs. Can’t do digital painting without Big Mac! This little snafu has put me a week behind on my digital art, but pencils and inks go…

Calista Brill, editor of First Second Books, lists giving A Distant Soil a read as her guilty pleasure for 2010! My guilty pleasure is drawing it. Once again, my sincere thanks for coming to the official A Distant Soil website to read the comic! Your patronage helps fund this project! I am most grateful!

This is one of the creepiest scenes in the series, but it has some of my favorite work. All details and patterns are drawn by hand. These scans are from the printed book. Tone sheets tend to print better using the old photographic processes, and all pages in volumes I and II of A Distant Soil were shot on negatives. Quebecor, our printer, did a particularly good job on volume II.