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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

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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 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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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!!

Pg 46: Role Play

This week in Epic Fail: Amuletts tries to get Dirk to participate in the sexy kind of Fantasy Role Play. He runs away.

Creator’s Commentary: I wasn’t at all sure whether to be this blatant, but luckily this is a comic on the internet and I know that in comparison to a lot of the stuff out there this is pretty tame.

Some of you will be pleased to hear that this is the end of the ‘Shopping’ storyline. It was fun, and I could go on, but I think I’ve said what’s necessary.

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Blog Webcomic Interviews Webcomics

Cosmic Hellcats Interview – Part 2

The Cosmic Hellcats Interview continues with Chris Maverick, and its Artist Maximillian joins us.

Click here if you haven’t read Cosmic Hellcats Interview – Part 1.

Epic Fail webcomic Interview with Cosmic Hellcats

Hmm, you’d need to find some very dedicated cos-players… which leads me to ask: If you were a character in a Sci-Fi show who would you be and why?

Mav: That’s a hard one. And one that I don’t really have a good answer for. The thing is, I’d change my mind every three seconds. I’ve thought of 10 shows that I’d love to be on for one reason or another since I started answering the question. I guess the great thing about being a writer is not having to decide. I like that the universe can literally be anything I want it to be. I like different kinds of stories depending on my mood. So while I would love to be piloting the Millennium Falcon one moment, two seconds from now I’ll want to be Batman.

Max: Batman is tempting. I’d sure like my superpower to be “ridiculous wealth.”But I don’t see how anyone can be asked that question and not answer Jayne Cobb.

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Cosmic Hellcats Interview – Part 1

Writer Chris Maverick (Mav) takes the hot seat to talk about his Science Fiction webcomic  Cosmic Hellcats.

Epic Fail webcomic Interview with Cosmic Hellcats

Mav explains what Cosmic Hellcat Adventures is all about:

Cosmic Hellcats follows the exploits of a scrappy crew of catgirl Science Ninjas as they explore the universe while battling aliens, robots, gigantic four-dimensional children, pirates, monsters, the laws of physics, and their own pathologically destructive tendencies.

The main team consists of: tough as nails leader, Captain Amaya Solace; brilliant but nymphomaniac science officer Dr. Sarah Prankha; adventure loving pilot Lt. Damsel Reed and the homicidal weapons officer with a lolcat speech impediment, Chaste. They’re joined by Andrew, a silent battledroid with an inferiority complex and Fluffy, their sarcastic ship computer as they travel the universe causing as much trouble as they get out of.

Epic Fail webcomic Interview with Cosmic HellcatsOther characters that make appearances include the members of competing units from amongst their allies in the Federated Union of Confederated Kingdoms. The Tactics Espionage and Defense Directorate: Intergalactic Justice Advocates: µ (Four space faring teddy bears: Kennedy, Rooselvelt, Pendergrass and Riley); a fellow Hellcat Unit led by Captain Nikki “Shipwrecks” Kitai and consisting of team members: Bambii, Glover and Ensign Matt; and most recently the Starfoxes, a superpowered special forces team led by Sahara and including members Miaa, Shiima and Trix.

Their primary enemies are the Rigellians, a race of one-eyed reptile people with bunny ears who are amassing a vast empire throughout the universe despite their comical ineptitude. They’ve also encountered Jessi and Junior, a pair of four-dimensional space giants who eat planets and a band of pirates led by the maniacal Captain Arkady and his first mate, Lucy.

Whilst formatted as a joke strip, the stories are serialized with one episode leading into the next, taking one year to tell a complete tale. In addition there’s a weekend strip called Hellcat Cosmos that while not part of the main story is used to tell anecdotal one-panel stories about characters in the Hellcats Universe – frequently characters that haven’t appeared in the main comic as often as we’d like!

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brushie brushie brushie

brushie brushie brushie guinea pig by amuletts of the webcomic epic failThis is my additition to the brushie brushie brushie meme which started with a bat having it’s head brushed by a blue toothbrush (so cute) and spiraled into a series of images using the same motif created by different people. Thus we have been brought such delightful imagry as Picard transported from dispair to delight by the miraculous blue toothbrush. It even got made into a comic strip!

Well, I just had to find out if a blue toothbrush really had that effect, so using scientific method, I tested* it on a Guinea Pig. She seemed to like it. Mind you she does like strokes on the head best.

*No Guinea Pigs were harmed during brushie brushie brushie

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Blog Sketches

Fan Art for Children of the Tiger

Kinrou from the webcomic Children of the Tiger. Fan Art by amulettsThis Fan Art is of Kinrou from the Fantasy webcomic Children of the Tiger by Melissa Stone aka purenightshade. I am every grateful to her for being the person to introduce me to the fact there is a webcomics community out there, and I read her webcomic regularly. This version of Kinrou is based off a pin-up she drew of him (you might be able to tell).

In the current storyline he is in a love-triangle with Kishandren and Sahiren, but in order to preserve an element of mystery I will not tell you which one he is in love with. Ha ha!

The story in Children of the Tiger very much hinges on the world, and society, in which it is based. It’s a slow reveal, where we’re gradually given pieces to the puzzle that connect events to wider politics. This is an example of a story that is not happening in a vacuum – the main characters aren’t the only people to exist or indeed the only people who are important. That’s something I like, but I think it’s hard to do. I can’t say whether the script succeeds on every level – all the pieces are not in place yet and the author is still learning.

What I like about the artwork is the bright colours. I’ll be honest: the anatomy isn’t great, but I’m a little guilty of that myself. Actually this put me onto Posemaniacs (which I never heard of before) and is such a useful resource. It basically has 3D models of nudes in all sorts of poses that you can move and practise drawing from different angles. They even include muscle structure. I might post some sketches from their references at some point.

Until then, just enjoy sexy Kinrou.

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Blog Sketches

Fan Art for Wayward Fall

I drew some more fan art, this one of Vigana from the fantasy webcomic Wayward Fall by Taversia Borrelli (now there’s the name of an Artist if ever I heard one)! It’s a fairly adult webcomic with plenty of violence, a dash of sex and a dark, Gothic feel – but what do you expect from a comic where vampires stalk the streets?

Vigana from the webcomic Wayward Fall; Fan Art by amuletts

And that’s just what Vigana is: a sexy flame-haired, red-and-black-wearing Vampire (just the sort Amuletts would probably go for)! She’s pretty awesome in my opinion – I like strong female characters.

Hmm, I think I just came up with a new tagline for this comic: Love Buffy? Hate Twilight? Read Wayward Fall!

And now I’ve stirred up that shit-storm allow me to explain: The Vampires in this story are very traditional, they are dangerous, blood-drinking creatures of the night. And like Buffy this comic combines elements of both fantasy and horror, with a hidden, dark world of magic and supernatural creatures. It’s not a teenage angsty romance. Well… I mean there is angst and romance but it’s adult angst and romance :p