AAaA Gralor
That first word is a “hail and well met” acronym, ICYMI. We’d associate it more firmly with Byron after this, though it’s meant to be a general “adventurer’s greeting.”
Cartoon logic clearly applies here, but I still hope E-Merl didn’t tell Gralor that he was one of those responsible for the false mating call that led him back out to sea. Because if I’m reading that body language right in panel 4, the hunt for mates could be going better.
Not sure if Phil spelled “Kraken” with an extra K to distinguish the Arkerran species slightly, or if it was just a slip.
I don’t think we’re depriving you of too much for the sake of this punchline! Gralor’s species is unintelligent sea life: he really only gets to be a named character because others herded him into a starring role. What do they do for fun? They swim around and eat.
Speaking of cartoon logic, were you (or was Jason) going for a Sunday funnies / newsprint aesthetic with these? The inking is much flatter (?) and in the large fills of sky you can see an ink-dot kind of texture. I dunno if I’m describing that properly, I’m not at all an artist. Either way, curious to know what’s behind the particular look of these AaA comics.
Yeah, I think that’s Jason’s doing. Sunday Funnies comic strip look. Turned out pretty good.
I thought Phil did some modifications there for the texturing, but I might be mistaken. I’ll look into it…
It looks like a bonafide halftone rosette pattern. It’s just missing offset alignment errors and trapping that would seal the deal.
And the color scheme would almost suit “psychedelic 80s garfield coloring”, but mainly by way of a magenta main character and a somewhat purplish sea”.