Castalia-Kane Special

I have another present for you, today.

It's called... what did Castalia really see that night?

English Version...

Versione Italiana dello speciale: Cos'ha visto Castalia, veramente, quella sera?

Hahahaha... please don't kill me... it's was Fickle's idea!

<_3_>___l --- I spit on you, lady, Fickle only wants to be voted! Spit.

Pifetto Special n. 1

As promised here's the second post of the day... with our Pifo's Special.
I took the whole afternoon off - got a new pirate lego... and new bandanas! Alright! I finally got a black bandana (fount it a Daiso - gotta love Daiso, everything there is just 2Sin'Dollars!)
I met a frog shaped like a snake's head on the way back home. She was so cute... pretending to be a snake, even sticks her tongue out at me ahahhaha... oh Fickle got a crush on her right away!
Anyway, here we go:

Speciale Pifo n. 1 - in Italiano!

Pifo Special n. 1 - in English!

Chapter 6 final curiosities.

Here we go... we finally know why the girls have had a nice, quiet and safe life on board the ship: women are sacred!
It might sound odd but pirates, even though they are to be considered one of the most democratic societies of all times, had very strict rules when it came to life on board.
We saw part of the laws dictated by Gilbert Sullivan at the beginning of chapter one... but then each captain would pick another set of rules to keep his crew in control.

Because I don't like to sit there and just list the grocery shopping list to you... I will hint at things and you will have to piece things together, by the end of the story you'll have the full picture. But don't ask for the full picture right away, it would clutter things up and only confusion would come out of my head hahahaha... you will learn about things with the girls, as we go along the story because life does not come with a manual and you just have to sit back, relax, enjoy the ride and trust me: your questions will be answered. :D

Some of the toughest laws, for pirates, concerned: women, gambling and drinking.
You could not steal some one else's wine. Gambling with money was forbidden. Bringing a woman in disguise on board was punishable by death. These rules are to be considered: on board... on land you could do whatever you liked (almost).
A ship is a very small place, a closed circle. Everything needs to be under control. On land, what you do with your own money is your problem... you get in brawls, you spend all your gold gambling, drinking and with women. It's up to you.

Society on board is about sharing everything, almost to the extent of a communist society and still keep private property sacred. How can this double standard survive? The sharing concerns common areas and common belongings, like the loot. Once that something has been allocated or given to his owner, though, it cannot be touched anymore... it's his property.

Now when it comes to women... I said once, before, that pirates were rapists... on land (especially the Pirates of the Caribbean, pillaged more villages and cities than actual ships, there they got to assault women, in the confusion)! Maybe while you pillage another ship you might try to get a go but it depends on the woman.

In the Mediterranean area... normally a very nice looking lady is to be sold to a slave market in Arabian countries. For Harems. You don't spoil good merchandise especially if they are virgins and virgins sell for more.
A noble lady can go back home untouched if her family is willing to pay a nice, juicy ransom.
In general, though, nobody gets to touch a woman on board... otherwise there might be mutiny: everyone wants to have his share of fun.

So how comes Kane breaks the rules by keeping Castalia? Ahhh, now is the moment to wonder why the man married a girl he doesn't know... on the spot! Especially after his friends said he is a misogynist.

A treasure room is somewhere, somewhat slightly above the water line. Treasure is not only made by gold. Spices would be considered precious, silk and damask fabric, glass, olive oil, wine and fresh food.
Wilson Kane stores everything in this room. Of course there's some silver and gold too but we are not always talking about money... but more about plates, cups and ornamental objects. Some types of ceramic and china too.
What's inside a treasure room is divided amongst the member of the crew before touching land... so that it can be spent during their times on shore.
I am going to make a little joke about this page.
You shall see it in a few days.

You might have noticed that there's a lot of talk about food in this comic.
I am not a gourmet person... but back then food was precious.
Food and gold are almost equal.
That is why food is a good peace offering and that is why Castalia does not smack Kane silly in the head for being kept locked in, with apples, the whole day. Eventually she would not hit him for these types of reasons, that would be more of a Cassandra reaction. She has her own way of getting back at people and sometimes... she does it without even realizing it.

Did you enjoy Kane making fun of his brothers? His turn will come soon! This man has yet to touch the bottom hahahahaha!

Il Pirata Baldassarre - Capitolo 6 FINE

Eccoci qua! E con questo si conclude il sesto capitolo de Il pirata Baldassarre.
A presto con un piccolo speciale! Fatemi sapere cosa ne pensate, eh!
Buona lettura!

Open publication - Free publishing - More web comic

Branding, undies and ancient sayings

This time around we see Cat play the hero - spiderCat or something lol, climbs like a Cat and does not fall (sing with me)- and go to Feetsie's rescue... the girl finally calls him by his proper name (probably afraid he might really look the other way!). It takes her a while to load the C though hahahahah.

What if the riggings hadn't broken? She surely could have managed to go up and down and be praised by everyone. Let's thank Tonno's poor maintenance for the romantic moment - round of applause.

Goooo Tonnooo! (Btw Tonno means tuna and it's used to describe big, sturdy guys: you're a big tuna!)

Jacopo's fans... wasn't it nice to see him actually work on crow's nest(the last time he was pooping) and give us his two cents on Cat's behavior?

Just how gossipy can pirates be?

You have no idea... and they love to tease each other too. You'll see.

Many of you had already noticed this from the very first chapters: Cat is branded on his forehead, that's why he wears a headband.

We talked about human branding in this particular post.

Foxy's branding is very different from Cat's. His branding is used as a punishment for criminals. Cat's branding refers more to the another category and he is branded on the forehead... so everybody can see he is branded, obviously.

Eventually he will tell you his story so you just have to wait a little longer.

Let's talk about... underwear now!

Many of you may know this already but I'll say it anyway: women did not wear underpants for many centuries and almost up to the Industrial Revolution.

I will not put links because the best place to get an idea is a Museum, trust me. Find a Museum of clothing or underwear and go visit. I managed to see a few exhibit and they are veeeery nice and enlightening! *ç* More than books.

Anyway, going back to our ladies: for many many centuries they would wear corsets, chemise, even stockings and other very unhealthy things like crazy baskets and petticoats but no undies. In fact when they had their period they merely bled in their clothing. Eew? I know!

For many reasons underwear/pants were considered unhealthy... they would not let genitals breathe and that area needs to breathe oh so much, so that the moisture gets absorbed, somehow, and there would be no smell of stockfish between a woman's legs. Yeah, right... how about washing it sometimes, ladies? Bah.

For many years underwear was considered a very naughty thing. It was worn by prostitutes, so a nice lady would never wear undies.

Bathing? Optional... people bathed with the chemise on.

But who's our doctor? That's right... and he comes from a total different culture so our girls wear underpants - the ones Cassandra washes daily for the whole crew - and definitely cannot go around bleeding in their clothes!!!!

Lucky Callista! If she were to be a "nice lady" the Heavenly Vision would have been the type you must censor (else google penalize you and Smack Jeeves would kick me out for not putting mature content to it)! Ha ha ha

But, oh poor girl, indeed. The moment of total embarrassment, with Pea, at the end of the chapter (when she is handed back her pants) says it all. Showing legs to men is such a "no no" thing for a pure maiden! No need for words, there!

And next is our final topic: ancient sayings.

First one: Outside of danger everyone acts smart! (Fuori dal pericolo ognuno è bravo).
This is very old, so old that Italians don't know it. It's to be used when someone acts cool when commenting other people tribulations. "If I were you I'd be so kewl about it, man..." of course outside of the dangerous situations everybody talks talks... then you put them in the actual position and God knows what happens, right? Ha ha ha

Well, you can say now that you've learned an Italian Proverb.

Second one: here comes the rescue from Pisa! (Arriva il soccorso di Pisa).

This one is super funny. You can also find it as: bring the rescue from Pisa.

It means, merely: your help comes too late.

It is not related to the leaning tower of Pisa... but to the history of Pisa itself.

You may notice from the Wikipage I linked that in 1099 a fleet from Pisa took part to the First Crusade. Well, even though they say that people from Pisa were fundamental to the take of Jerusalem... the proverb states otherwise.

The fleet was held back by opposite winds and the Pisans arrived to the Holy Land that all the games were closed.

Imagine them: we came to the rescue.

Crusaders: Gee, thanks, we're all done, already!

Did Cat's help come in too late? Well, he helped saver her neck... but the Heavenly Vision had already dropped from above... *_*

From the point of view of a girl, Kane is absolutely right. Cassandra, though, is right above rights: I am kidnapped by the pirates who would believe to my virtue anymore? Might as well find a husband here... Go girl!

Pirates were rapists, most of the times, if I were a man and a girl came to me saying: I still have my virtue...

I'd probably go: are you kidding me? Ha!

Final comment is on "hand over hand" (in Italian "andare a riva"). It's sailor lingo.

It's how you call the way sailor climb up the riggings, one hand after the other.

Now you can all climb up the riggings hand over hand, right? Ahr ahr ahr...

Ah, Fickles says: don't forget to vote <3> (<--- he is pouting, see?) click on the TWC button at the bottom of our page.

He wants to be popular, apparently. Pat Pat, Fickle.

Il pirata Baldassarre - Capitolo 6 ABC

Ecco a voi le nuove 10 paginette: Cat alla riscossa!

Il capitolo 6 ABC in italiano! (scusate, come sempre, per gli upload su Issuu dovete rileggere il capitolo da capo perche" faccio economia sui pdf, sono un pirata taccagno)
Buona lettura! - se trovate errori fatemi sapere!

Open publication - Free publishing - More web comic

Tic tac 21!

The chapter is ready and will go for proof tomorrow.

I am still not able to work very much ahead of myself but that's probably cuz I've started on these crazy illustration/inspiration rampage! LOL

And tomorrow I will work on the cover for volume 2.

Here's a teaser of what's going to happen... now don't blame the boy for thinking like a boy. He is not blond, tall and handsome and probably, unless he pays, he really does not get cute girls to be nice to him. He is a moor after all... for all people know.

So were people racists back then? Hell, yeah! Believe you me, moors were not looked in a kind way! Poor poor Cat...

Il Pirata Baldassarre - Capitolo 6 AB

Ecco a voi... il capitolo 6 AB in italiano! (scusate, come sempre, per gli upload su Issuu dovete rileggere il capitolo da capo perche" faccio economia sui pdf, sono un pirata taccagno)
Buona lettura!

Open publication - Free publishing - More web comic

work in progress

In 5 more days... the world goes pink again!

It's a miracle!!!

Are you ready for the miracle? XDDD


miracle by ~Dedasaur on deviantART

Starting from the fact DA says that deviation does not exist... but if you follow the link... tadaaaa! It's a miracleeee!

Il Pirata Baldassarre - Capitolo 6 A

In Italiano! Buona Lettura!

Open publication - Free publishing - More web comic

Tic tac 20!

Heeeee, now what will you do to tell them apart?

Don't worry, from now on it will be easier to tell them apart!

Cassandra goes from Ariel to Snowhite.

Pea stays the same.

Feetsie will look like Cat (you shall see why XD)

Lio... is always around Foxy so you can't go wrong.

Easy chart, right? You can do it!

Work in progress chapter 6

I hope you enjoyed the little exta 3 pages of sweet sweet luv between Cat and Feetsie!

Now... I even managed to make the two flash dolls for our beloved friends and am almost done drawing the next release (2 pages away... so tomorrow I'll finish up drawing and begin clean up, yah!).

Today I have to clean my house... I stepped on something last night and my floor is stained now - it's been raining like crazy in Singapore and it's supposed to be dry season, as they tell me - then I'll make a sandwich and go over to my friend's house to swim in her pool because it's very hot and I need to relax a bit. (still not very used to my bed).

To reward myself for being able to upload a flash doll on DA... special post today.

As you may notice something really cool happens to the sisters... (Wes doesn't look happy - I gues it's because he has a special relationship with hair).

And there are 2 pages missing where you see Kane yelling at Foxy...

Kane is really really upset and yells at everybody, including Cat (and somehow he yells at the doctor too but Fox will help him LOL).

You cannot really yell at the doctor, he would bite back.

Pifo will do something very Pifoesque... and that's actually something I did when I was a kid and still keep a good memory of it (cuz I was an evil pirate back then too).

In 13 pages Kane will be hated by everybody who is everybody on the ship, except Castalia - but simply because we don't know that, she is not there, we don't see her... someone should go ask her: do you hate him now?

Life works by contrast so... be prepared... from page 14 onward sweet Love kicks in.

One question.... could you really hate him, though, when he has such worried expression on his face? I wish I knew what he was thinking... for sure: it sucks to be a pirate Balthasar!

I still don't understand why these guys want to be The Pirate Balthasar sooo bad.

Chapter 6 - cover - work in progress.

So... mhhh... I was going for something like that for the next cover.
In short the stuff that looks woven is like... the texture of the sails XDD
The stuff in the background are Egyptian patterns.
I will never say, in the comic, that Cat is from Egypt... I'll say lots of things about him but you know, I think the Cleopatra look kinda give him away, yah?


These two, to me, are like the sun... so they deserve a warm, bright, yellow background.
How is it? (p.s. yes, the title is from chapter 5 still, this is a mock-up... soon to be changed to the actual title: Love or Hate - the pirate way!)

The pirate Balthasar - Chapter 6 - Cover

How's this for a cover to chapter 6?

Colors colors... we have reds for Kane and Castalia, purples for Wes and Kes, greens for Lio and Fox, oh Pea will definitely get blues... what colors should these guys get?

I'd say... yellows... yellows would be nice.

Let's see how it goes.