I thought I was going to have this page up late because the background on this is so detailed BUT YOU CAN BARELY SEE IT because I covered it in fog (which was intentional).

The town in this pages is a real town! I was looking for areas of New Jersey that weren't too far from NYC with a port for uh logistical reasons. This town is Keyport, NJ and it is VERY cute. I was down in New York in August and I was like "I have to go visit the place I picked for the comic!" So I hopped on an NJ Transit Bus (plus a quick Uber) and went to Keyport! I'll have to do a post about it or a tiktok because I shot some video down there.

Keyport was a lot less gritty than expected though, who knows what it was like 20 years ago! I loved it (and the weather was great that day). I was hoping for a more industrial looking area (I probably had the Sopranos in mind when I first thought up this scene back in the day) but I was charmed, either way.  We'll see more of Keyport in Chapter 2 (and another location I scouted in the Bronx later on).

Alpha of the North Update! The tentative release date is October 20th! I've finished lettering the entire comic. Currently working on the cover page, re-inking pages 1 and 2 so they're more consistent, and just gotta do a deep dive edit of the whole thing! I feel pretty confident in getting the digital download version published by the 20th.