Rizhnir

Greetings, fellow mortals!  Today I have news.

As of today, I am ceasing work on the first comic I've posted here and had continued to work on until Summer of last year. 

Why?

Well, the comic started with this scene:  (technically, it was page two). The goal was nothing but to showcase an OC that I'd been working on since middle school, and just throwing her into a fight. 

And that's exactly what I did.  A random fight between a hot, blonde character (directly inspired by Sara Irene from the Ragnarok Korean manwha) and some random character with lightning powers.  The focus was just on creating a fight, and then maybe putting it into a story that I built up at random over time (fun fact, it was originally set on Mars and the original lead was a self-insert male character that never showed up). 

Then, one day in a university library in spring 2012, I drew this character:

When I drew Camarra, she was originally male, but then I realized I hate drawing males (which is why there is almost none on my page).  Camarra was supposed to be the cool character who had a plan for everything, and always had a cigarette-looking thing in her mouth.  I drew inspiration for her from Piccolo and Zoro (Zolo?) from One Piece, the badass support character. But over time she became who she is today -- adorably oblivious and always happy.  Something about her positive, bubbly personality and design kept me coming back to her, since I had never drawn a happy person like that before (I tend to draw dark, brooding characters).  The more the comic went on, the more it became clear she should be the main character, but it was very hard to do given everything I'd already built with Aly being the main character.

And I can't forget another character that became part of the trio, drawn in a parking lot while waiting for a job interview:  .  Darramere's name was taken from a cool place in World of Warcraft, Lake Darrowmere.  She was supposed to be a witch who had a dark personality, reanimating plants and the dead and all Halloween-based stuff.  But by the end of the comic, she was deep down a softie when she saw what Camarra was going through at the hands of her tormentors, and never really took off.  Some of the scenes Camarra and Darra were in are scenes I actually regret drawing -- perhaps I was trying to be gritty and real, but I feel terrible for putting Camarra and Darra through all that. 

So the story developed into something of a hodge-podge of different ideas -- futuristic society, civil war between political factions, a thirst for revenge by a trio of characters, a disease which was a good idea at the time but poorly implemented, and probably the crowning achievement:  the concept of Witches, which were basically androids with super strength.  If I was smart years ago, I would have thought of that first and then built the story around Witches and the conflict between technology-infused androids and humans and the meaning of freedom. All this culminated in my greatest set of comic panels that I've ever put together:   .  If I had drawn like this from the beginning, I'd have a way better, cooler story. But it just became too complex having to grandfather in ideas that I came up with four years after starting the comic without actually having a sensible plan for the world in which it was set -- just neat addons and powers and concepts that together don't work the way I want it to.

Halfway through the comic, I drew a parallel storyline with new characters, the first visual being this:  .  A great concept that was originally intended to, at some point, cross over with the main story.  Arias (the character's name) would be the unassuming college student dragged into a political conflict beyond her understanding.  I really like Arias' design -- something about it visually works.  And that's the story I've been working on for a while now. But as I've spent the last few months working and progressing on her story, I've been looking back at the old comic that the new one was suppose to connect with, and realized that the old one just isn't working -- first it was the "magic" system (runes), then Witches, then the plot, then bouncing to whether Arias' story should take place in the future or the past or parallel (the original plan) to the old comic. I've reached a point where I think about this comic everyday (even if I don't post anything) but spend more time trying to reconcile the old comic's clunky ideas with the new one that is way more refined.  [If you wanted to know the endings I had planned, it varied between Arias vs. Camarra/Darra/Aly, Camarra+Arias vs. Darramere/Aly, or everyone vs. Aly's plot to destroy all Humans.  And there were like robots and epic battles and stuff that I can't realistically draw.  Also, the official "ships," as some people are into, were either Darramere x Camarra (a tragic one) or Camarra x Aly, or in a really oddball plotline, Aly x Arias.]

So that's why I'm cancelling the old comic, after 70+ pages.  It was great practice, but it doesn't work as a story the way I need it to. 

But I have great news for those who actually like my comics (and read this far!):  All of the characters in the original story are going to appear in the new comic that will be the focus of this webpage.  The story I'm working on, CIFR [B] will take the mantle as my main work, and Camarra will be the main character.  This is me giving myself a second chance with these characters to do things right, and although the setting will be different, Camarra will be the same, Aly will be the same, Darramere will be altered slightly to better fit an archetype (the hot-and-cold tsundere type, probably), and Arias will play a huge role in the story, especially early on.  My goal is to make a cool, but easy to follow story with very simple "mechanics" for the superpowers that show up, and to have every ally Camarra has to naturally gravitate to her because of her awesome, bubbly personality and incredible abilities.  Before that point, though, Arias will be the main character, and hers is (at current planning) a story of a "nobody" fighting against a crooked system, since I always like those kinds of stories where some random, weak character grows and evolves into a real hero.  Won't be spending too much time in that arc since it's really Camarra's story, but bare with me while we get there -- Camarra will be making an appearance in about two pages or so, in a very surprising way.

For those who supported the other comic, thanks for sticking with it.  This is the new and improved Rizhnir with the shiny, sharp, lean new story and I think ya'll will like it.  Expect the next entry soon™ (I'm writing in the speech bubbles as we speak).

Until next time,

PS:  Sexy pics will still appear.  Arias is next in line.  SHE IS NOT PREPARED...!

~Rizhnir

Hiya!  Small update -- just started the digitizing process on a combo piece -- one new page for CIFR [B] as I intended to update every week (bogged down in some plot related thinking), and a silly comic with Camarra and friends. 

ETA on both is end of the week, hopefully. 

~Riz

Quick update to say yes, I'm still alive.  I am currently working on a new technique that may get me to post one new comic page a week using good ol' pen and paper, with possibly light coloring.  I've got about 6 pages sketched for the parallel story, CIFR [B] after spending months rethinking the story.  I've also got about 5 new panels for the main story (of which there is more of) for what would be like page 73 or 74. 

So even if I don't respond to the new watches and faves (or log on here often enough) just know I've not forgotten!  I'm still hard at work in the lab, crafting new pages.  The wait will be worth it.

~Riz

Currently hitting a severe block, which is why I've not done anything lately.  Not for lack of ideas, but I'm absolutely struggling with the best way to get my art here that doesn't involve the old, slow way of jumping from MS Paint to GIMP and back. I have a WACOM tablet, but it's really uncomfortable; I have Adobe Illustrator, but I don't understand it at all even after hours of tutorial watching.  The last thing I haven't tried is Photoshop, but I'm not feeling lucky.  There has to be a better way to get my art a clear digital black line without messing it up and that doesn't involve struggling with anchor points, but I don't know how.  The daily struggle to figure out these programs is draining my energy.

In theory I could start using pencil sketches and greyscale instead closer to a manga, but then you lose the color aspect.  And I do have colored pencils, but I'm terrible with them.  Just not sure what to do at this point.  Argh. 

I'm taking any and all ideas at this point.  I'm pretty much at my wit's end here with process.  If going the black-and-white manga route is necessary I'll do it, but I would still have to upload it to colorize it the right way.

Riz