Defiance has consequences. Maxine and Damien find themselves battered and bruised, but alive, deep within the confines of a makeshift prison. Its in here where Maxine grapples with a secondary battle that rages inside.

FireStarter returns in 2025 in the thrilling fifth chapter! Chapter 5 is titled Burns and is available to read here: Read FireStarter Chapter 5: Burns

Sanctuary

Facing Drill was Maxine's end goal. In the years since their first encounter, Maxine vowed to take revenge someday. She joined the NSPD, trained hard, and intentionally went awry whenever possible to increase the chances that she would run into the man who took so much from her. When she finally found him... all those years of training and planning went out the window as her inner rage took over. Unfortunately for her, that simmering heat was nothing more than a candle to Drill, who quickly quelled Maxine's flame.

Now, humiliated and battered, Maxine is forced into resting, and we see just why she's always on the move, always keeping busy. Because when she

Production Notes

It's now been a whole year and some months since the release of the last chapter. Again. I guess I'll be back sometime next year with Chapter 6. I don't know where I keep going wrong. I guess at some points I realize that I bit off more than I thought I could chew and become lost in a midpoint where I feel that I've made no progress, but also feel that the finish line is nowhere in sight despite the miles of track behind me.

Over the past year, I've taken up inking a lot more seriously, and my work with pen and ink has finally become what I believe is my artistic strong suit. I found a new way to ink hair and, more importantly, have learned to embrace speed and roughness within my inking. This might seem like a minor adjustment but having confidence to lay down lines and accepting them despite not perfectly matching my intended pencils has done wonders in the final stretch of inking! I also learned that I need to make more fun panels. I have a bad habit of just making a series of panels that are just talking heads, and while I love drawing faces, it does get tedious drawing the same thing over and over.

I have another project on the stove as well. Another chapter of Feigned Toughness is 90% finished; I just need to get it over the finish line. I've been creating this past year, but I do realize I need to get these projects over the line to really feel like I made progress. Onto Chapter 6, I guess.

My Next Moves

The next installment of Feigned Toughness should see release soon. It's just part 1, but this one has taken so long because I decided to fully color and render it. IT was lots of work and I don't think I'm going to keep up this level of art for the rest of the installment, but I guess we'll have this one at least!

I'll start production of Chapter 6

FireStarter 6 is titled Combustion and will chronicle Maxine and Damien's escape and the surrounding parties of the conflict. I had to add a chapter: Heatwave between here and Inferno, as I felt that there's still more I need to cover before the conclusion.

• Combustion <---- We are here

• Heatwave

• Inferno

• Cinders

Soon enough, I will have more details to release, but for now, I look forward to details on the print release and updated panels!