APPENDIX: Episode 4, 'Gaijin' [the Webtoon cut]

See the Webtoon edit of a previous episode for the first time ever in this special behind-the-scenes entry.

Episode 4, ‘Gaijin,’ marked the return of Ronin Digital Express after both a hiatus and an exodus from its original home on Webtoon to Substack, where you read it now.

I’ve mentioned it in interviews here and there, but one of the main reasons for the move to Substack was time savings.

I draw Ronin Digital Express on a traditional comic page, and would spend several working days converting panels to the vertical Webtoon format.

Not only was there a significant loss of working time with this approach, there was also quality loss, awkward cropping, and all sorts of duct tape required to make the project work in the vertical line format.

I’m sure there are some folks who can do the both / and approach, but I don’t think I’m one of them, so I threw in the towel at Webtoon.

However, I did have ‘Gaijin’ completely converted to the vertical format and ready to publish when I made my decision to move to Substack.

So that’s what I’m showing you today: the entire episode, but in the vertical format, for the first time ever.

You can find the original episode (starting with Part I) here if you want to compare.

There are a couple of panels that I think work better in the vertical format, but overall I’m happy with the traditional episodes as the “canon” version, as it were.

But hey, what about you? Let me know in the comments. Otherwise, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy this bonus.