What's good yall. The third chapter of my webcomic wrapped up a couple months ago, so I figured it's about time for the annual Squires for Hire storytime thread. Come read along if you like fantasy stories about cute girls going on adventures and getting into fights. (Mostly with each other)https://www.squirescomic.com/
Starting off with chapter 3 this time. If I have some time and folks are still interested I could post the first couple chapters afterwards
Quick recap of the last chapter. The girls used a couple of mimics to clone themselves and cut classes. It didn't work out like they planned and they almost got cut themselves (in half). We pick up right after they got caught and sent to the headmaster's office.
Robin's starting to really regret finally making friends
Team Building!
Oh look, Gwen is back from being entirely absent from the last chapter. She was off on a quest to finally find a pair of pants (It didn't go well)
The postal nights will come up again at the end of the chapter. They're fun.
I spent way too long designing a super detailed carriage that only shows up for one panel. Story of my life.
Gwen is fun to draw. I really gotta find more excuses to put her in the story.
I really liked making these backgrounds.
Well of course sleeping outside is so foreign to her. She's been sheltered her whole life!
Pajama time
Bump along if you're reading.
Oof drama
Aaand Robin with the save.
>>154764703Awkward timing concidering this is SoP week and you'll be competing with multiple storytimes but I'll give it a read
Clearly Beatrice is upset because she wanted to be the big spoon.
>>154764986SoP... SoP... Sorta odd parents? Squires on Parade? Fraid I can't remember what that stands for.
Ooo spooky text
>>154765031Storytime of pain is what I meant
I'm sure this won't be at all relevant later.
Oh hey these guys again.
>>154765060Ahhhh. Yeah that's pretty bad timing on my part yeah. But ehh, fuck it.
Ahhh the french.
>>154765121Do serial killers get a guild too.
Beatrice goes through the wringer this chapter
Aaaand Morgan from the top rope.
>>154765144Yes, they're called adventurers.
Oh hey there she is. Almost forgot Robin was still in this comic.
Falcoooon...
Oh, never mind.
Getting a little too anime for my liking.
The secret technique of every big brother ever.
Oh shit little kid, you done fucked up real bad.
>>154764703Hi DaffYour comic is great and you should feel great.>>154765217kek
Incoming cutie alert.
>>154765334Appreciate it my dude, I think you're pretty great too.
Hetero shit? in a modern webcomic? Unthinkable.
Oh, never mind. False alarm.
Oh, it's your comic? This is the only chapter I've caught, but looks great. >>154765379He did, in fact, pick his words carefully.
Girl can't catch a break.
Make way for the new star of the comic.
I like to think she makes the same sound Velma from a pup named scooby doo makes when she walks. Or maybe Mr. Krabs
Say goodbye to Robin.
In order to make up for the lack of goblins last chapter I decided to make a best goblin for this one.
Gettin' a little loony tunes up in here.
Morgan's basically a goblin herself. She knows how they work.
Half of Xitlali's job is just making up new rhymes for her class.
>>154765395It wouldn't be a webcomic without a few of these.I am surprised it was treated so casually, but.>>154765554Which is more impressive since she's whatever-they-speak-in-this-country as a second language.
Aww, that's nice. She made a new friend.
Oop, there's that drama rearin' it's ugly head again.
>>154765570Huh that's a good point, I don't think I named the language yet. I can't really call it Paragonian because Paragon actually has a few different languages in it. Beatrice speaks fantasy french while Robin speaks fantasy Dutch. I'll probably just call it Tradetongue or something.
>>154765642Either that or you make some kind of pun, call it Acutish or Obtuese, because it's.... Angle-ish. g-get it?
>>154765642They really get fast at each other's throat without their third friend.
Critical Hit.
>>154765661She really is the glue that binds them all together.
Well well well, Look who's back!
I'm sure what's on the next page is probably nothing important.
Jinkies
>>154765765Should probably skip it next time.
And that wraps up chapter 3. Well, other than a couple bonus pages of course.
>>154765659Ohhhh I actually really like this. Well done.>>154765776Tis a silly place
>>154765765I'm sure he's reasonable. Do -you- kill level 1 rats as a level 100 knight?
Aaaand that's it for the chapter! Man, I am amazed I didn't forget to post an image like during the last two times I did a storytime thread.Chapter 4 is currently in production, along with another big ol' project I'm working on... I can post some bonus art I've made in the thread if yall are interested.
>>154765765Just now noticing the floating broken towers.That feels like the magic equivalent of just laying down new floor over your shitty old floor. whatever, good enough, move on.
>>154765849And the lights are still working.>>154765842Sure!
>>154765842hell yeahand if there's time, I'll drop you some fanart.
I'll start with some random character sketches I made of Morgan. She's the most fun one to draw, I really like willowy sticc girls. >>154765834It's like the T-rex in Jurassic park. Surely he wouldn't chase after something so much smaller than him right?
>>154765931Rad dude, looking forward to it.
>>154766013>The toppest of taste
Morgan's older sister Moira. She's not gonna appear for a couple more chapters, but she will have a cameo in the next one.>>154766036Hell yeah brother.
Made this one on a whim a couple weeks ago. Will probably finish it around halloween time.
A little peek into Robin's future.
>>154766172Accompanying fanart a buddy of mine made.
>>154766172man I love me some short hair but that might be shortening a little TOO much. Still, supreme abs and awesome spiked gloves>>154766197getting fanart of future versions is awesome. It's like a little fan in-joke until it happens for real.And once in a while, someone draws what they THINK the future version will wear, and now you get to steal that and be like "you predicted it!"
Morgan and Beatrice are like Pete White and Billy Quizboy.
Model sheet for the bandit instructor. >>154766208Personally I like it a lot. But I also realized just now she looks like a hybrid of Luna and Lynn Loud.
Went through a ton of outfit variations before settling on her current style. This is only a fraction really.>>154766298"Eat the pennies Betty Quizzgirl""Just eat the pennies, so you poop pennies for a while, so what?""Listen to your sidekick Betty, and eat the pennies."
Actually, if we're talking outfit variations, Trinket went through a crazy amount.
>>154766360Too much really.
>>154766394Picking her colors was even worse.
Hrm, what else do I have... Oh, here's a character sheet for Lucra from last chapter.
I really outta make more of these.Also gonna grab a quick bite to eat. When I get back I can answer any questions about the comic if yall have any.
>>154766487might have the most immaculate colors in the comicI mean yes, blue and gold on people with brown skin is EZ mode, but how often do you see specifically dark goldenrod and denim blue like that? It's a little more feminine.
>>154766394*covers eyes* ayyya!
>>154766033Greer was super interested in catchin' goblins, right? I just separately saved them as cute characters to draw sometime, but it occurred to me...
>>154766548The crocodile looking species on >>154765786 would be a fit for one of those pages.
>>154766832That smile says she's got special plans for this one.
>>154766835Oh yeah. I wanna know what the beaky guy is too
>>154766877I guess it's mostly the beak but I do get a birdman vibe from it.
>>154767045Probably just because we've seen so many armored bird people. Metroid's Chojin-zoku, uhh what was that fun webcomic with the beaky knight lady who never talks? I want to say her name was just Spear or something
>>154767058The stick legs with a huge upper body are the other thing that made me think that; plus the arms have sort of a crow shade of black.
>>154766337I think the final version is the one I like the best though I have to say that the underboob version is a close second.
Aaand I'm back>>154766550Yeah for some reason brown and blue really works for me as a color scheme. Actually I tried to give each of the girls in the class an assigned color on the color wheel. Robin is red, Beatrice Blue, Morgan yellow, Lucra orange, Paige Purple, and Greer Green.
Made a couple emotes for my twitch drawstreams which I'll share.>>154766832Oh that's fantastic dude. I've been meaning to make a model sheet for Greer for a while now, a bunch of other projects kept getting in the way. I should move that up on my priority list.
>>154767222Aww she's so nerdy. So then does she have a southern beau cousin that looks just like her?
>>154766835>>154766877>>154767045>>154767058>>154767101The lizard man is a bog standard beastfolk. There's a bunch of wolf folk, rabbit folk, ratfolk, etc. that are all bundled under the beastfolk classification. They all come from an archipeligo to the northeast. A monster guide page on beastfolk wouldn't be a bad idea actually. I didn't really have any hard and fast ideas for what the beaky dude's deal was. I really like bascinet style helmets, like the corvus helmets space marines have. I just exaggerated the crap out of it until it looked like a mesquito, then put it on a burly dude for a fun contrast. I think in my head this is just the normal outfit that minions of the black knight wear. iirc I was also inspired by the minotaurs from centaurworld.
>>154767380Ah, that old chestnut. In fairness, animal people are fun, and, very much like how Stan Lee didn't want to think up origins for each X-man so he made one for them to share, it is more narratively convenient to lump them all together.I just personally prefer there to be lizardmen, with their own culture, and ~separately~ the likes of ieles, poleviks, werewolves, bagini, etc
>>154767192Yaknow, I keep trying out underboob outfits whenever I have to design a woman but I never end up selecting them. Shame really.
>>154767434underboob is amazing, but I have to think it's pretty hard to draw from a lot of angles.Then again, you seem to have that shit down.
>>154767420Honestly if I had more beastfolk characters I would probably put more effort into their lore. Actually, I really should put some in the comic now that I think about it, hrm. I actually had another idea for a monster guide on mermaids. They're not technically classified as beastfolk for some unknown scholarly reason, but they have a lot of variations. Saltwater merfolk are the classic sirens who drown sailors, freshwater merfolk are little trash goblins that slither onto your boat and steal your tools, and selkies are mamalian mermaids that sleep on docks loudly bark all day.
Oh right, I also have a couple AMA's I did that I can post.
>>154767492It is one of those things where it's fun as fuck to analyze in a nerdly fashion,but if you pull the thread too hard, you start asking yourself why marine and freshwater mermaids both have the same body layout. Or why 'lizardmen' are a thing but some are iguanas and some are gila monsters and some are komodo dragons.. like.. how the fuck did that happen?Either way, casually homicidal and trashy fish people are just fun>>154767519was this on the tumblr? I didn't know people even did asks anymore.
>>154767443Honestly the complexity is more of an incentive for me than anything else. I love complex poses and outfits, it's like a puzzle that needs to be solved. I seriously need to add more adult women to the comic, I've been drawing kids so much I've almost forgotten how to draw boobs properly.
>>154767524Patreon actually, but in the style of old tumblr asks because habits are hard to break.Also yeah, it's like how one piece's fishmen are the same species but all different variety of fish. If you stop to think about how that works you'll drive yourself mad. Actually, in my DnD setting I have a lore reason for why there's so many animal folk races out there. Basically when the titans made the world they each created a sentient race, humans, elves, dwarves, etc. The only one that didn't was the god who created all the animals because he thought humanoids were boring. Eventually they peer pressured him into making one and he just made centaurs. They told him that was cheating because it was just a horse and a human combined and that he should try again. He wound up making Minotaurs, Gnolls, lizardmen, and every other beast race out of laziness and spite.
>>154767563masochist goblins of a 'simp' variety as the young people would say.. that's a fun combination. Suits them.
>>154767606Is Makoa an orc or troll? I remember seeing a group shot of these guys with a bunch of goblins and I think he was massive compared to everybody else in it.
>>154767649He's an orc. Orcs in this setting are pretty big, and also pacific islanders culture-wise. Thought it'd be fun to subvert the standard fantasy race stereotypes. Like in this setting dwarves aren't scottish, they're italian. Elves are also Australian because why not.
>>154764703Huh, this looks cute. I'll give it a read later. Thanks anon.
>>154767434
>>154767685>Like in this setting dwarves aren't scottish, they're italian.Mamma mia, that's-a just-a like real life!
>>154767717No, that's the Mushroom Kingdom.
>>154767692It's a fun read. And this is coming from a very unbiased source.
>>154767685>Like in this setting dwarves aren't scottish, they're italian. Instead of The Great Book of Grudges, it's the Volumes of Vendetta and instead of ancient disputes over gold, it's about insults to their mother's cooking.
>>154767731Ah, the most unbiased and impartial source. You got pages under that name I'm guessing or is it all on your site in the OP?
>>154767717>>154767765An idea I had for a gag was that Beatrice is actually a quarter dwarfish (which might explain her height). and her great uncle owns a dwarven restaurant in town. Morgan hates going there. Not because she hates italian food, but because every time she goes there the dwarven women take one look at her and try to shovel several meals worth of food on her plate. She keeps trying to tell them she's just naturally twiggy but they refuse to listen until she's cleared at least five plates of risotto and a full dwarf pie (pizza)
Another piece of fanart I got that I felt was really important to save.>>154767766Yeah I finally got a website build so you can find all of my stuff there. I also post on tapas too.https://tapas.io/series/Squires-for-Hire/info
>>154767731aw jeez.. she already reminded me of a good friend of mine, and now with that ponytail, that is her exact look.. Not to bum people out, but I just found out she died. She would have liked this comic.>>154767794Hehehehe, I like it.
>>154766337Keep E in your back pocket for another occassion.>>1547663604 is fun if it's Trinket being told to be "nice", but you know she has something up her sleeve.>>154767685>Dwarves are Italian.Go to New Jersey for research.
>>154767794>her great uncle owns a dwarven restaurant in town.Home of the Delve Too Deepdish.
>>154767794Isn't this that meme where then the person on the bottom squeezes the shape into a dick>>154767930see that's what I meant, that's totally real life. South Park did a whole thing about it.
>>154767935Okay I was pretty proud of Acutish, but I think it's safe to say you win the thread
Why is there no porn of this yet?
>>154767935>>154767949 Yeah I might legit steal this for a future gag. Consider yourself plagiarized.
>>154768174TEENY TINY GIRL SQUAD!Leafeater!Pick-and-scabs!THE FUSSY ONE!
>>154768117I do have an alt account for that sorta thing but I haven't really done much with it yet.
>>154768174Hey, if a dumb joke like that can make somebody who creates something I enjoy laugh, I consider using it an honor, not theft.
>>154768200Cave goblin Morgan? Or some kinda forest type?
>>154766832so many goggles characters don't have them set at the width where their eyes would reasonably be, but we don't care, it's cute.anyway ALMOST finished this in time for sketchful fridays, but managed to sneak it in. Let me know if I missed any important details (the back of Trinket's hair is a mystery to me)
>>154768200it is a staple of the fantasy genre but it's not like, mandatory. Always up to you.
I spy Morgan. No idea when this was drawn, though.
>>154768294I wish I knew whomst these cutiepies were. the filename gives me little help.
>>154768117I'm waiting on something from a guy.
>>154768346looks very sweet and cuteI would love if people drew rule 34 of anything of mine, as long as it fits the tone and isn't gross and nasty and (worst of all) generic porn material.It's like Freddie Mercury said, do whatever you want with my music, just don't make it boring
>>154768200That's pretty cool of you. Got a link to the alt account?
Running out of new material to post, here's a little thing I made for my website.>>154768357That's my general attitude as well. Nothing you say or do will stop people from lewding your work. If you resist you'll just cause a streisand effect, so you might as well just embrace it. I like your use of that Freddie quote too, I might start using it too>>154768446You'll have to find it yourself unfortunately. I'll give you a hint though. https://x.com/gobbslop
Alright I've got a couple more things I can post I suppose. Chapter 4 is still in the works, but here's the cover page I drafted up.
>>154768518Robin's freckles glow? Or do two Predators have their laser-canons trained on her face?
>>154768677Right. Gotta fix that. I put her freckles on the line layer so it doesn't get affected when I tweak her colors.
>>154765352I love how she's easily the most supportive teacher we've actually spent time with. Her and Skullgrinder would get along great.
And here's the latest thing I've been working on: a Squires for Hire animated short. I've been wanting to make an animated squires project for years, and with Ch.3 finished I figured now was as good a time as any. The project is currently in the pre-production phase so it probably won't be finished for a while now. I'm really excited about it though and it's been a ton of fun to work on. The real trick will be juggling both this and Ch.4, but I think that's still pretty manageable.
>>154768713that happens to me a lot. i've only just recently started USING a line layer
>>154768746The one teacher in the story that actually likes her job. I actually have a Gwen-centric story down the line that ends with her meeting Xitlali and they become buds. Then another school dance arc that sees the bandit kids and wizard kids come to the knight school for a group dance. Gwen, Xitlali and Moira all serve as chaperones. I may have been watching that one episode of camp when when thinking this one up.
>>154767260>>154768277
>>154768346Oh shit. Got a name we could look out for?
>>154768270Nah just a different skin tone. Though I should experiment and draw some different types of goblins. Mountain, cave, desert, etc.>>154768277Oh that turned out fantastic dude. Heh, the way you drew her running kinda reminds me of the moon vampire from adventure time.
>>154768998Ohhh yeahhh. The Moon was terrifying. And that was a fun little mini-series. I'm all about the Paul Williams vampire who willingly takes on the old vampire rules in exchange for power, then finds out firsthand why the others didn't
>>154768964Dushon.
>>154768875>I actually have a Gwen-centric story down the line that ends with her meeting Xitlali and they become buds.Looking forward to that though it'll be a long way off since you have so much upcoming to deal with first.
>>154769326Truth. Though honestly if this first short goes well I wouldn't mind just turning that arc into another short.
>>154769259Ooo he does good work
Late night bump
I liked this!
>>154768174Funny how Bea was the tallest at some point.
>>154767563I like the Goblin guards' tight singlets.
Another bit of Squires art from the co.llection.
>>154773029Reminds me of the ff9 alexandris guards
This deserves a bump
>thread's still upthat's how quality this is. Could be the next gotdang Avatar if the execs had brains.
>>>/aco/9258412
>>154775647hell yeah
>>154775568Let's hope the pilot comes out good
>>154776843is he doin' one? he should.
>>154777044>>154768765Yuuup. Just started work on it. Lotsa stuff to do, currently wrangling up a team of voice actors and finding a music composer
>>154765302>girl who “nyeheheh”sPeak actually
>>154777255aw hell yeah.. It's both the best and worst time to do something like this, but I want some fucking good TV on TV, so I will pray. and maybe like, actually buy it when it comes out? I don't know how paying for TV works anymore. I sure as hell don't wanna give the company any money for subscriptions.
>>154777381If there are action figures, I will buy them
>>154778218Honestly what I really wanna do is practice my 3d modeling skills and made STL's for 3D printing. My roommate's got one and we've been printing and painting up a storm. I would love to design and sell SFH miniatures. But again, already so many irons in the fire already.
>>154778489I've never been much of a figurine guy, but on occasion, it is the best way to get a representation of characters you like.
>>154778489plushies are the new hot (cheap to get) thing
>>154778969plushes are expensive as hell though. that has never changed, they are inherently labor-intensive.you need a built-in audience of hundreds of thousands before it's cost-effective and it's still insane for its size usually.but I mean, would I cuddle a Robin? absolutely.
>>154778489>what I really wanna do is practice my 3d modeling skills and made STL's for 3D printingThere are supposedly programs that can generate a 3D model from 2D sketches. That can probably get you close enough to polish rather than build from scratch.
>>154779178yeah the AI is getting good at that.it makes me simultaneously excited and discouraged. I hate 3d modeling, but I still wanted it to be my work. kinda. I guess it still is. but I'm sure it won't perfectly copy my 2d art.I want the AI to ask me questions "hey what shape is this meant to be, master? like this, or this?" and I go "like that, Computer" and it's like "thank you, sir. You are looking handsome today."
>>154764703I wanna fuck the one with dark purple hair
>>154779635That's a goblin.
>>154779718My favorite
>>154775647
>>154780309Well if you like that...>>/aco/9258627
