Between Worlds

Hi guys.

So as you all know, I’ve been on a bit of a break to sort out some health worries and to refocus on this project among others. It’s brought me to think about this project as a whole and the future of the comic as a piece.

BW is terribly important to me. Probably a bit too much so. I find it hard to think of life without it. It encapsulates the core of my ideals in storytelling and even though I don’t necessarily believe it’s gonna take over the world any time soon, I do want it to stand strong as a representation of who I am and what I do.

I’ve been seriously considering how it does that in its current form however. Every time I consider this, there is a big elephant in my room that I’ve been struggling to either ignore, or be cool with. And that is the huge and striking difference between the quality of Part 1 and the rest.

Part 1 is a very different animal to the rest. I created it for my degree in 2009. It was the first time I had not only created a comic in full colour, but I actually taught myself to paint digitally via its creation. It represents a new way to make comics for me. Concentrating on atmosphere and feeling with an air of grandness I’d never ventured into previously. It changed the game for me. I’d originally planned to continue the comic in black and white inks in a very standard way, but due to the reaction I got, I decided to just continue as it was.

However, I started the second chapter just under 1 year after completing part one. I was already a different person at the time. I had learned far more in the way of painting, pacing and dialogue. I stumbled along for the first half of part 2 and made a balls of it but halfway along I hit a new stride. My work made a quantum leap in quality and my methods and philosophy in quality took on a new life. It caused me to look back on part 2 and decide that the first, somewhat shady looking, half of said chapter must be replaced to meet the standards of the rest of the comic. I did so, recieved pretty much no interest and more “Oh it was fine the way it was” comments, which I must say, hurt at the time. I then vowed never to redraw any part of the comic again lest I be faced with the same disappointment.

Time has passed, seasons change etc. etc. and I’m finding myself in the position I’d vowed never to let myself fall into.

Part 1. It needs an overhaul.

I’ll probably be met with disdain for doing this. I doubt anyone will be excited or even vaguely interested in my plans. ( I posted a question on tumblr and twitter to see what people thought and I got absolutely NO response, who needs friends eh? haha!) And it got me thinking even more.

No one cares. People might make passing statements that I shouldn’t do this and that, or as is the case, ignore me completely. I realised that if no one cares, why should I?

The fact is, I have no evidence that this comic is as important to anyone as it is to me. that my fears can just disappear into a sea of internet without even a passing comment shows me I need to take the decision fully into my own hands. I’m going to rewrite and redraw 100% of part 1.

I’m not going to change any of the fundamentals, the story will be the exact same, the same stuff happens. I’m just going to tell it better. Way WAY better. I want to close up a few of the plot holes that gape ever wider at me every update. I’m going to tell far more in a far more economical and effective way and I’m going to make it FUCKING GORGEOUS. And most of all, it will fit, and I will be happy with it.

When my luck changes and I’m not living hand to mouth, I’m going to print it, along with several future chapters into the most awesome book the world has ever known. And I’ll be proud to call it mine.

I can understand if there are going to be naysayers. I understand the “fine as it is” sentiment. But the fact that life is so hard for me right now shows I shouldnt be compromising myself by the past. The original part 1 was incredibly rushed. I was banging those pages out at lightning speed, working 15 hours a day. I had a very tight deadline and really didnt know myself. I didn’t feel then, and I don’t feel now that I properly had my say. So now, I’m going to have my say.

Thanks.

PS: I did this test for a bit of fun yesterday, will that convince people? XD

Zee old:

And zee NEW!

He did indeed call her Lynx

Why? I dunno, cos she smelled bad I guess.

Smelled a bit too bad in my opinion.

“Why Anna..” I hear you cry “What are you on about? your fictional character cannot smell, for she is a drawing that you do several times in different poses with words in a thing beside it, she cannot smell!” Well dear reader, I didn’t mean literally, and by the rules of fiction, she can smell within the story, but I digress.

We are not here to discuss the nasally offensive wafts of a drawing of a girl, but the visually offensive wafts of the first half of Part 2.

In short, I hate it. Hate hate hate hate HAEET!!!

*ahem* excuse me.

“Anna! get to the point! you’re talking crap because you have a freezing issue when it comes to writing and find it impossible to know what to say when something needs to be said in a professional manner and so instead, bullshit your way along and…”

Yes, yes, I WAS getting there, but you were looking at me funny and…. *sigh*

I hated what I did for the first half of Part 2. Now, technically, a lot of the art was a small step above the art of part 1. And, okay, so I don’t hold Part 1 as my finest creation EVAR!!! No, its pretty rough looking, in some parts its downright ugly…

"You callin' me ugly, beeyotch?"

*whistles with embarrassment*

But even though I feel I could take Part 1 on again and kick it’s ASS… I don’t think I want to. It has a… sentimental place in my heart. I made the vast majority of it in about two months. It came as I started, quit, started and quit again and again on creating the story we now know as BW. I Knew all along I wanted to do a story about a stupid, messed up, and very angry gal with a daaaaark passst! (the originality! IT BURNS!!) But I never quite knew how to do it. Who was she? and more importantly, where was she from?

Every time I attempted to start BW, I got stuck.  I made… 6 separate attempts, all ditched. After all those false starts I realised finally what was wrong. I never thought to start at the beginning. Each one of my serious attempts (where I was doing it FOR SRS! about 3 attempts) Starts off in the second city, the bright, hippy, messy and colourful city of witches. There lives, and is settled, a bad tempered runaway soldier from the dark evil city of evil by the name of Juno. Why was she living there? eeeh… I’ll make that up as I go along!

When I started this (and very final) version, I decided, fuck it, I’m going to start in the BAD place! The EVIL DISTOPIA that our tempestuous friend comes from. And that’s where my real passion ended up emerging from. All of a sudden I was creating a world that stole my heart. Instead of making it a typical EEEEVIL NECRO CITY OF DOOOOOM *coughfakemidgarcough*I said NEIN!!! I was gonna make this a world built of romance, everything I love, Art Deco, European architecture, light snow, dark nights and fancy fancy fur.

So I created what we have now, loved every moment of it. Right now, I can’t bear to look at it it’s so ugly, but when I close my eyes, I do love it deep down. It’s my ugly baby.

"oh that's it, you gunna get Lynxslapped"

SHUT UP YOU ARENT EVEN REAL!

*cough* excuse me…

So, that’s Part 1, ugly as sin, but will always have a place in my heart. But what about Part 2? Doesn’t it have a place in my heart also? Well, when it gets into it, yes, from about halfway in I had a vision, I knew what I wanted to do with it. But I got caught where I always do, in the beginning. I honestly hadn’t a clue what I was doing in those first few pages, that first dream sequence. I knew I wanted to have one last hurrah in Minoka, I didn’t realise after Part 1 how much I loved drawing it, creating it from love. I didn’t want to leave it behind just like that. Honourable intentions, sure, but what I ended up doing was a mess. The first page was a mess, even by Part 1 standards. The colours and lighting were sickening and the sense of space and surrounding, the sense of environment was abysmal.

Shite

I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to replace it. I want this comic to be the best it can. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no perfectionist (as I’m sure you can tell XD) But the fact is, in Part 1, I put EVERYTHING in to it. I worked and worked into the night. it was rushed, yes, but by GAWD did I work. From the second half of Part 2 on, I WORKED. I’ve poured every bit of me, pancreas and all, into every page. But for the first half of Part 1 I did not.

This past couple of months, Ive redrawn and rewritten from the cover to page 19. And believe you me, I worked. I worked so hard, one of my eyes sloped downwards slightly… *ahem* injoke, sorry

So I Present to you all, the New, Part 2; pages 1-19

I hope people enjoy it, and more importantly, understand it XD

Anna~