Breaking All Barriers 077
 

Breaking All Barriers 077

[SPOILER] Click here to see my commentary for this page!

My comment for this page from Gaia: sic mundus creatus est:
Dear Gaia! The bookshelves of horror! After all the pages taking place in Lilith’s room had been published, I noticed that the bookshelves in it were all over the place. Sometimes Powree drew the same shelf with three compartments, sometimes with two. Sometimes there were boxes in it, sometimes not. It was like the shelves constantly changed their shapes. I later asked Powree to redraw them all. But even the redrawn pages still required hours of my own work to make them completely consistent.
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notes from the resistance…

Comparison between Gaia and Scarlet

I plan to publish the first page of my new comic The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer on 29 January. Just like Gaia, it will be a serious, long adventure story with some humorous scenes here and there. However, Scarlet will also differ from Gaia in several aspects. In order to align the expectations of the readers, here’s a short overview of the main differences between the two comics:

Gaia Scarlet
Setting Science fantasy with many elements from high fantasy Dying Earth subgenre of science fantasy with limited fantasy elements
World Young world in full bloom Old, dying world
Conflict Man vs. Man Man vs. Nature
Species Humans, elves, dragons, imps Humans, anthropomorphic foxes and wolves
Story Complex main story with several side plots, created ad-hoc during publication Straightforward main story, entirely planned out in advance
Duration Story takes place over four months Story takes place over many years
Cast Ensemble cast with several main characters and many supporting characters Strong focus on the two main characters Scarlet and Tibor

Despite the differences, all Gaia readers should also enjoy Scarlet. My general approach to storytelling hasn’t changed. Moreover, Scarlet Carolus will share several personality traits with Gaia’s most popular character Viviana. Like Viviana, Scarlet is brave, smart and practical. I hope you’ll like her, and Tibor, as much as I do.


MH370 UFO video proven fake!

The satellite video allegedly showing the abduction of flight MH370 by three spherical UFOs, which was the subject of strip [1340] MH370 until proven otherwise, has been proven fake! The original photographs of the clouds have been found. Jonas De Ro, a concept artist and illustrator, took them from a plane near Mt. Fuji in 2012, two years before the incident.


Artist for Scarlet

I’ve found an artist for my new comic The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer! Please welcome Elli Puukangas! It’s now probably only a matter of weeks until we’ll post the first pages of Scarlet.

Elli is originally from Finland. That means she’s used to long and cold winters like those on Lavarel. We all know how the unforgiving climate has shaped the character of the Finns. “An introverted Finn looks at his shoes when talking to you, an extroverted Finn looks at your shoes.” as VisitFinland.com summarizes it.

This demeanor is of course also reflected in Elli’s artwork. Her strict lines and sparse coloring are precisely what is needed to capture Lavarel’s somber character. You’ll see what I mean when looking at the following panel from one of her old comics:

…. Okay, scratch that. 😉

As you can see from just this one panel, Elli’s characters are full of life. You can look forward to dynamic character poses, expressive facial expressions, detailed backgrounds, and a lovely coloration. All in all, her unique semi-realistic style is a perfect fit for Scarlet!

Before I posted my job offer in various art forums, I had looked at several thousand accounts of comic/manga artists available for hire at ArtStation and other websites. And Elli was my top pick right from the moment when I saw her portfolio!

Here are some other comic pages and illustrations she has drawn:





Concept art and info for my new comic “The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer”

I’ve been working hard on my new comic The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer. I have now written the dialog for almost 200 pages and will soon be ready to hire an artist to draw the comic. However, I will need the rest of October to understand better how many pages exactly the comic will have in the end. At the moment, I project around 500 pages, so a little over half of Gaia.

If you’re interested, you can find more info about the setting of Scarlet on the linked page. Of course everything there is still subject to change.

I used the fantastic new image generation tool Dall-E 3 to generate a lot of concept art for Scarlet. Some things I can’t show yet of course, but none of the following pieces of artwork can be considered spoilers so I want to show you some of the cool artwork I generated:

The main character Scarlet Carolus

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Scarlet Carolus

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Scarlet Carolus

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Scarlet Carolus

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Scarlet Carolus

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Scarlet Carolus

Logos featuring Scarlet Carolus

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Logo
Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Logo

The second main character Tibor Frey

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Tibor Frey
Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Tibor Frey

The Machine of Eternal Summer

An illustration of the machine will be shown in the second page of the comic, so it’s not a spoiler to show it here.

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - The Machine of Eternal Summer
Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - The Machine of Eternal Summer

A mysterious yellow megastructure

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Yellow megastructure
Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Yellow megastructure

The Master Crystal

The Master Crystal is located in the center of the Twin Cities (Capella and Callisto), the political and cultural center of Lavarel.

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Master Crystal
Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Master Crystal

Some landscape impressions

Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Landscape
Concept art for The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer - Landscape

Page commentary now hidden by default

My commentary for the comic pages from Gaia: sic mundus creatus est is now hidden by default. New readers no longer may inadvertently encounter story SPOILERs this way.