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Blog Webcomic Interviews Webcomics

Wayward Fall Interview – Part 2

The Wayward Fall Interview with Taversia continues… Click here to go back and read part one.

Q6. What challenges do you face in a Live-Action (photo) comic compared to a cartoon one?

A6. Aside from the obvious health risks involved, such as standard fight choreography and the slave-driving of hungry, sleep-deprived actors who are often much bigger and more menacing than I am, other challenges faced are making sure the script properly aligns with the storyboarding of panels. I am both acting AND directing, so it is a little difficult to be doing that while seeing to it that the photographer is capturing the right angles for certain shots. The last shoot we had, it was a bit of a fight with some faulty equipment coupled with a race against time. We need natural lighting for the best shots, and getting all of the scenes we need in a timely fashion is often a pain when there is a full cast of characters to accommodate for. Eventually, the sun goes down and then it gets to be too dark to take pictures! Beyond that, I have many more hours ahead of me for editing and photoshop work.

Snippet from the vampire webcomic Wayward Fall by Taversia

Continue reading “Wayward Fall Interview – Part 2”

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Blog Webcomic Interviews Webcomics

Wayward Fall Interview – Part 2

The Wayward Fall Interview with Taversia continues… Click here to go back and read part one.

Q6. What challenges do you face in a Live-Action (photo) comic compared to a cartoon one?

A6. Aside from the obvious health risks involved, such as standard fight choreography and the slave-driving of hungry, sleep-deprived actors who are often much bigger and more menacing than I am, other challenges faced are making sure the script properly aligns with the storyboarding of panels. I am both acting AND directing, so it is a little difficult to be doing that while seeing to it that the photographer is capturing the right angles for certain shots. The last shoot we had, it was a bit of a fight with some faulty equipment coupled with a race against time. We need natural lighting for the best shots, and getting all of the scenes we need in a timely fashion is often a pain when there is a full cast of characters to accommodate for. Eventually, the sun goes down and then it gets to be too dark to take pictures! Beyond that, I have many more hours ahead of me for editing and photoshop work.

Snippet from the vampire webcomic Wayward Fall by Taversia

Continue reading “Wayward Fall Interview – Part 2”

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Blog Webcomic Interviews Webcomics

Wayward Fall Interview – Part 1

Taversia, author and artist for the Vampire webcomic Wayward Fall, takes the hot seat.

Example snippet from the vampire webcomic Wayward Fall featuring Vigana

Q1. What’s your webcomic ‘Wayward Fall’ about?

A1. Over the course of the past couple of years that Wayward Fall has been online, its storyline has continued to unravel and evolve. I first began the comic with my co-writer, AntiType, in Autumn/Winter of 2008 (it was a transitional period; the first pages were created on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. But the comic itself did not go live until December 17th). It centres around a vampire, Vigana, who grew up in the Dark Ages, now reawakened in the modern era, in an urban underground society. She fell in with the mob, operating the fictitious city of Wayward Falls, and soon came in to working for them as a hit-woman. It outlines her inner struggles, coming to terms with the trials and tribulations of her rather unfortunate life. Although there are many comedic elements within the comic, at its core, Wayward Fall is an ongoing romantic tragedy with a strong fantasy/sci-fi theme. There are also subtle religious undertones abound. As the story continues to develop, it will gradually become much darker. Furthermore, not any one character is safe from at some point, facing destruction at the discretion of the writers (currently, just me).

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Blog Movie Reviews

Movie Review: The Gamers

The Gamers is an Independently produced comedy by Dead Gentleman Productions, and focuses on a group of student role-play gamers (I can confidently say they are playing Dungeons & Dragons – I recognise the books). It fully embraces the concept of this being a game and interchanges between the game-world and the real-world, which adds much of its humour. The Gamers succeeds in accurately showing what the experience of gaming is like: to the outside viewer just a bunch of nerds sitting around a table, but once you enter that imaginative world you see it is much more, and a ton of fun!

Role-players sitting around a table from the movie The Gamers

The Movie is very much carried by its humour, the plot itself isn’t very robust being a basic defeat the villain, rescue the Princess cliché but nonetheless serves as a good vehicle. Likewise the characters are very stereotypical but that’s okay because it’s what the movie is making fun of.

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Blog

Asrai

An old watercolour painting that I finally finished.
Asrai water faerie by Amy Letts
Asrai is a type of water faerie that loves to bathe in the moonlight (which is what I fancy she is doing) but if she is captured or exposed to sunlight turns into water.

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Sea Gate

No comic this week, so here’s something pretty for you to look at.

Watercolor Painting by Amy Letts

‘Sea Gate’ Watercolor painting by Amy Letts

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Blog

Webcomics: What’s Cooking?



‘Webcomics: What’s Cooking’ is a charity cookbook in support of American & Canadian food banks. Over 50 top webcomics (including Epic Fail) have collectively contributed thousands of hours to making this book possible. It features food-themed comics, each with an accompanying recipe to keep you fed through breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Comics + Cooking = Fun Cooking! Kickstart ‘Webcomics: What’s Cooking?’

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Blog Webcomic Interviews Webcomics

Prepare to Die Interview – Part 2

The Prepare to Die interview with Michael Dellheim continues, now on the subject of the WAGON Webcomic Battle Card Game.

Click here if you haven’t read the Prepare to Die Interview – Part 1

Do you have any hidden talents?

Oh I have many hidden talents, like… um… actually I can’t think of anything specific. Maybe my hidden talent is the ability to pull things out of nowhere when people least expect it of me. My talents are so hidden that I don’t even know I have them half the time! Like a magician! Or a ninja!! A Ninja Magician!!!

… yeah I’m not buying it either.

Wagon Webcomic Battle Card GameIn fact you’ve invented your own card game! What is WAGON: Webcomic Battle and how is it played?

THAT is a long question to answer, but here’s the general idea…

The World Alliance of Geeks Online Network (W.A.G.O.N.) was established as an organization that supports independent creative websites across the internet. WAGON Webcomic Battle is a collectable cardgame created to help promote and support the content of webcomics in particular, though we do have a few cards that have come in from other sources of Geekdom.

Using creator-submitted artwork we create cards that translate the essence of a comic’s characters and plot elements into a form that can interact with the cards from other webcomics on the battlefield. This fight of course isn’t just for the fighters… sword-wielding psychos, mad scientists, and even angry videogame playing geeks can all contribute to the battle in their own unique ways. I dare say there ISN’T a comic that we couldn’t somehow integrate into the game system.

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Blog Webcomic Interviews Webcomics

Prepare to Die Interview – Part 1

Michael Dellheim, creator of the RPG webcomic Prepare to Die takes the hot seat.

What’s your webcomic Prepare to Die about?

In the simplest terms, “Prepare to Die” is a webcomic about three tabletop roleplayers who somehow get sucked into their own gaming campaign. Inside the game we find a world that was created by Mike, the Game Master, for his two friends Bill and Manda to play in… however the world they enter isn’t exactly the way that it should be, and over time the details of the original campaign continue to change.

Prepare to Die. Get it? 'Cos it's a die...

As the plot progresses, the story is also about the NPCs native to the campaign and how they deal with the changing world around them.

I think of it a little like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ but with more puns and geek references than true madness.

Prepare To Die’s art style appears to be a collage of techniques. How do you create the comic?

When developing the style of the comic, I created what I call a “puppet” in PhotoShop, which is essentially a poseable figure made of different body parts created in layers and grouped in folders which are then colored and shaded using Layer Styles. That way, whenever I move or rotate a body part to pose one of my puppets, PhotoShop will automatically create the bevels and shading for the overall figure for me on the fly. When the pose looks right, I then save out a “sprite” and move a copy out into the main strip scene. The addition of edited photographic backgrounds, special effects for light and shadows, and text bubbles complete a comic.

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Blog Uncategorized

The NaNoWriMo Song

Thanks to the internet’s Indie music scene Geeks now have their own soundtrack and it’s called ALLCAPS. The Band consisting of Kristina Horner and Luke Conard have a repertoire of geeky songs including ones about Comics, Robots, Zombies, World of Warcraft and Harry Potter.

But this month November, or National Novel Writers Month. I have a lot of friends who are writers (actually I’m drowning in original manuscripts) and they all have their noses to the grindstone to get that wordcount. How better to cheer them on than with a little song? The NaNoWriMo Song!

‘It’s mixture of relief, perseverance, and caffeine and just little touch of going mad.’
Good luck with NaNoWriMo you crazy, crazy people!!