what a difference twelve years makes.
the concept that would morph into this comic started back in 2010 back when I was in early high school. i was really into bionicle and sci-fi and history and i wanted a way to combine these interests.
At that time I had the fairly common habit of doing endless concept art and not much real comic work. but in hindsight I don’t really regret it or think it was a mistake. I personally wasn’t prepared at the time to do consistent pages. I was still in a major period of honing my artistic skills and I just needed time. I was learning. some pages or layouts were attempted here and there as tests but nothing took off. I wasn’t ready yet.
and I wasn’t even really sure what I wanted the story to be about. I had all these ideas for settings and locations and concepts (still the way i am!), but not really a good idea for the story itself. i am not a writer. i don’t deal much with plots, i tend to focus more on shorter character pieces rather than having some big overarching saga. but at the time i was more unaware of my own strengths, and wasn’t really working towards them well.
the original tale revolved around lain (a very different character from what she ended up being) and her journey across the land. there were always sci-fi elements and the sudden attack of the renes with an unknown weapon. it always took place in a pseudo-ancient setting with anachronistic elements. I enjoyed working on it a lot, despite angsting over it as only a teenager could. but i’m also glad looking back that i didn’t really ‘release’ it until years later. it just wasn’t very good. it did have core elements with merit, however.
i would take short breaks from it here and there, dabbling occasionally. i’d come back to it as I grew and wondered why I did some cringy thing and update it. then i’d look back on the update and update that. this happened for six or seven years. but gradually i began to feel that I could finally deliver some quality work as I became more confident in my art and my understanding of people. I began it in earnest after college once I finally had time.
the character interactions definitely became the primary focus over the years. i realized how much the story was changing over those years and saw no reason to think that it would really ever stop changing. i’m just not a person who can sit down and commit to a decade long story. in hindsight i really think it was a wise choice to go with the anthology format because it makes the story so much more flexible. I can basically do whatever I want and I can switch off when I get tired of one thing. It was probably the best choice I could have made with the way I work. but I don’t think I would have known that was a strength of mine unless i doodled and didn’t ‘have much to show for it’ for those years.
it’s hard for most creatives to not cringe when looking at their old work. creatives tend to be detail people, and being a detail person means you notice flaws easily. this very much includes your own flaws. but I think it’s important to keep old work around for the sake of others. for a curiosity of course, but hopefully also as an encouragement. if I could get something out there then many others can too. 🙂
more of the saga to follow.