R is for REMUS

R is for Remus, first son. Well, not really, but sort of. So, I started drawing comics when I was 17, mainly just aping what I saw and what I liked but it was fun and nothing really serious came from that. Remus was the first thing I created that had some depth to him.

Remus was the son of a business man and a Romanian dancer. His dad was rarely home, and when he was, he was abusive and mean. Remus's only solace was his mother, who was both kind and naiive, and unfortunately she couldn't leave her husband as the times just wouldn't allow it and she was a stranger in America. Well Remus's father brought home danger with him, and in the middle of a skirmish, Remus's mother was killed and Remus was left at the mercy of his father's enemies, The Wolves of Sariel. The Wolves was a sect of religious vampires that sought to use their strength to fight for God's flock, using the devil's gift in the name of the Lord. So Remus joined the group, and in the 80 years since then, he's been one of the Wolves most proficient and steadfast killers. Remus is the only vampire in the Wolves that is feared by their opposite number, the Crusaders. The Crusaders were vampires who, unlike the Wolves, were victims of religious persecution or of the law being used by the corrupt. While the Wolves represented the strength that people could draw from religion and each other, the Crusaders represented the hate that festers in people and they were survivors of their own tragedies, like hatecrimes and racism.

In the end, the Wolves of Sariel was probably too big for my 19-22 year old mind, so I ended up leaving the comic aside after a while to focus on other stories like Good Night Mrs Goose and KCNO, which were more managable with smaller casts and more focus on character building than social commentary. One day I'd like to return to Wolves but in a more restricted and more pointed manner so I don't end up with my cast in various places and it feels hard to jump between them. SHEESH!

Tools: Zebra Brush Pen and Pentel color brush
Paper: Stillman and Birn gamma sketchbook

M is for Marie

M is for Marie, a character from KCNO. The entire book is available online to read here: KCNO

Marie is not a character who was very popular, in fact for most of the book, people tended to dislike her because she had ideas that ran against the other characters of the comic. I think characters like Marie are ESSENTIAL to storytelling. To create characters the audience can disagree with, that is important to creating a world that feels real. Too often I'll read a comic, or watch a movie, or see a tv show where characters are all in agreement, or it's a character who is so unlikable that you hate them, but either of those can be boring. Like, SUPER boring! Character's should feel like people, not motivations, or cut outs or NPCs in a video game. A good character, whether you agree with them or not, is a character you want to see become better, no matter what they do or who they hurt, and Marie does hurt some people in KCNO. But I find that most people, after they read the book, like Marie a lot because she does become a better person. She's one of the more dynamic characters in the story in that she makes amends for being a jerk and she ends up happy. I don't think I knew what I was doing when I created her, but I think now I understand why a character like her is so important to good drama.

Tools: Pentel pocket brush pen
Paper: Stillman and Birn gamma sketchbook