I do enough talking of other people’s work on my blog. Weirdly enough, I don’t talk about my own work that often anymore (except for my post about recent personal projects).
Let’s remedy that.
I won’t lie, though: part of the reason I haven’t written that much about my work is because I’ve been drawing nonstop.
There are a few comics I’ve been working on, like…
Comic 1: Claire and The Hoard
In Claire and The Hoard (which, that is just the working title), a young woman named Claire makes a living fighting The Hoard across what is left of the world. On her trek, Claire has to stop in a small town named Citadel to resupply. However, the small town is growing more paranoid, and one lone girl named Tracy is the only one who notices that something is wrong.
This is still being scripted. Actually, I’ll be doing a massive re-write of the second chapter.
I am, however, satisfied with the character designs for this project. Next I’ll be doing some location sketches. That should be easy, since I’m basing the town of Citadel on a small town I grew up in.
Comic 2: The Uthers
This story is about a young lady named Riley, who’s out searching for a cyborg named Nautilus. Nautilus is a creation she made with her father, but Nautilus up and killed Riley’s father. Riley treks through a world where humans have been colonized by a race of aliens they call The Uthers, to find Nautilus herself.
Developing the alien race in this story is proving to be really fun, even if I’m not done coming up with designs for the Uthers themselves. Here are some concepts I whipped up recently.
I’m not sold yet, but they’re close to what I hope will be the final design.
As for Nautilus and Riley, both of these characters are fascinating to me. Riley is an engineer, and a smart one at that, who actually knows how to manipulate people for her best interest. If she weren’t a hero, I could see her being a Bond villain.
Nautilus, even though he killed a man, is actually relatively sweet. He’s mute, but his gestures and his facial expressions will be fun to play around with. And he loves hanging out with kids. Who knew?
Comic 3: Auxaton
Auxaton is the story of a Mountain Ridge elf who lost his village to a band of thieves. He’s on a quest to travel the world and reunite with his lost brethren and settle a new land. Along the way he’ll come across half-orcs, thieves, and hopefully more of his kinsmen.
To tell the truth, I haven’t written this yet. I just really enjoy the concept and drawing the characters. I’ve written blog posts about this story before, but I’m just now getting back to it. I look forward to seeing the direction this story will take.
Comic 4: Rosetta and the White Swan
The simplest way to describe this is “It’s a gender-bent Swan Lake.” The princess Rosetta is a huntress who encounters a swan, who reveals himself to be a cursed prince.
Honestly, I don’t know if I want to make this a comic. I imagine this as a childrens or young adult novel. But who knows?
This is the newest concept on this list. I only came up with this idea a few days ago, after having watched Nostalgia Critic do a review of Swan Princess and reading some of the comments there. I thought to myself, “You know, it would be great to have Swan Lake told as a story with a tomboyish princess.”
Combine that with my fondly remembering Patricia C. Wrede’s Dealing with Dragons series and The Paper Bag Princess, and I went, “I know what I must do!”
I still need to do research (my favorite part of writing) and develop the characters. Otherwise, this project is really exciting to me!
Comic 5: The Legend of Jamie Roberts
According to legend, a trio of pirates, lead by the genderqueer pirate Jamie Roberts, abandon their old ways and search for treasure in the country of Corith. On their journey, they meet dangerous creatures called Mocktaw, a band of women warriors, and Dragons. One dragon, Raguna Ranki, seeks to take over the country of Corith and place himself as emperor. It’s up to the pirates, the women warriors, and their allies to stop him.
I’ve written about this story before, and I’ve posted many sketches for this work. I even have a section devoted to this project on my Sketches page. I’ve been working on this for years.
So what’s happening?
Right now it’s on hold. I have too many projects on my plate and I want to finish a few of them before I return to this.
The rough draft of the script is finished. It’s just a matter of making edits and rewriting bits I don’t like.
Comic 6: Wahid
This is actually a short story I’m illustrating with Kristen Kellner for a comics anthology. It’s about a young lady with severe depression, who finds new purpose in life when she adopts a one-eyed cat.
Fun fact: “Wahid” is the Arabic word for “one.” The title of the short story was decided on by Kristen, who learned to speak Arabic in the Air Force.
I’m still making pages for this. It’s taking a while. Sorry!
That’s all the comics I’m making right now (and that’s not counting the soon-to-be-released Charlie & Clow).
However, here’s an extra sketch I did recently.
This is one I made on my way to Intervention Con. Along Interstate 70/76, in Pennsylvania, there was a long stretch of forest with a line of dead white trees. And this line of dead white trees was perfectly straight, running parallel to the highway. It was one of the creepiest things I saw in my life.
And on that note, thanks for reading! I’ll see you on Friday.
