that one time when liz wrote a friggin novel
There's a lot of things I could be doing right now. Instead I'm going to barf creative gross into a journal entry. Feel free to skip.
Angela and I were talking at work about the idea of traditional superheroes on a non-modern setting. Specifically, a fantasy setting. It's kind of the concept of Robin Hood, if you think about it. Robin Hood, Zoro, uh... probably a few others... Anyway, it's really appealing to me for some reason that I can't quite place, and she said her attraction is because she's a hardcore fantasy fan, and is turned off from the idea of superheroes because they're usually associated with scifi. So you take that and you put it in fantasy, and hopefully you have a broader audience.
ANYWAY. I started thinking about it in the context of Split Poison, right up until I realized that everyone in that comic is an asshole. They'd work as supervillains, but the best I could do for the other side is an antihero. But I kept coming back to the idea of Aranya and Samhain as totally awesome supervillains, so now I have to do something with it. :< I had to do something about a good guy though, so I went and dug up Ralin! He's now my derpy retarded shounen-hero type, with whom my antihero-type works because he'd pretty much get himself killed on his own.
Character designs and balance!
I want to keep the "superhero theme" in mind, but also make it look like it really is a fantasy world. I'm sticking to Split Poison's main city, Sinai, because it's hella fun to draw (Middle Eastern architecture is so cool), and because I don't want to imagine Aranya anywhere else. IT'S HER CITY, MAN. So my theory is helms instead of masks, where needed. But I only have one character actually using a mask so far, so maybe that'll change for traditional domino masks if more are introduced. As for the powers and stuff -- there's more "badass normal" in here than I necessarily wanted, but I think I can live with it.
scanners are for squares! sorry for the cellphone pictures. :<
Ralin-- (I had to do a find/replace to get out all the times I typed "Raul" instead. :( )
He's usually drawn as... well, a pretty typical male anime build, I'd say. Slightly built but mostly slender. If he's going to be my retarded shounen hero (and especially if his buddy shares the same build), that has to change. So he gets a typical American hero build instead! If I can draw that, oh god. It always looks so stupid when I try. But I'm hoping this will be good practice! Because I'm more familiar with Ralin than, say, Superman, so I'll know how to draw him better. Right? Hopefully. So, his build changes. It looks like he'll be the strongman, BUT NO. I LIE TO YOU. His power is basically just... fire. I'm keeping his fire elemental powers, but making it so he's just a... I don't know. Something that's not a fire elemental. But he can burst into fire and mold himself/create objects with fire (they harden into real weapons/clothes/whatever and aren't hot, but they're still essentially made of fire). So he doesn't need a mask, because he can just change his appearance when he's not heroing. His weakness! Is, of course, water. It really hurts, dangit. :| Enough of it will kill him, but even droplets of rain really sting. He can't fight crime on a rainy day, sigh.
Ralin, that's just pathetic. Vanadi is ashamed to know you.
Vanadi--
Ah, Vanadi. The cyborg in unhappy servitude. He's sort of a badass normal, but in a Captain America kind of way. Enhanced everything. He's going to be the antihero, who's only doing good out of a debt owed to someone else -- but who might eventually do good just for good's sake.
Why don't I have cool codenames for any of these guys yet? Sigh. Ralin will probably have a really lame codename, and insist that Vanadi pick one too. But anyway, he uses a helm as part of his basic costume that he wears while under servitude to Venus. Ralin accidentally frees him from this servitude, and Vanadi either... hmm. Either it's a program Venus put into him that he serves his master always, and his master changes to Ralin when he kills Venus, or he views Ralin as his master with no programming to insist, or... it's just plain old sense of debt. Either way, he basically works with Ralin because he's sure Ralin will get himself killed out there on his own. (Seriously, you can't just bring an umbrella to fight crime on rainy days?)
Also, he's going to have to... change his usual role, I think. Most often he's the "HEY HEY HEY WE SHOULD DO IT DON'T YOU WANT TO DO IT and afterward you can handfeed me grapes because i'm too lazy to pluck them from the bunch" type, but in this case... he's going to have to be responsible. :| For keeping Ralin alive, for being the smart one around... actually, maybe he can outsource that last part. Hmm. Anyway, he's going to be stoic and linefacing and all. Maybe his sexylazy can come out when he gets more comfortable, or something.
As far as abilities go, it's what you'd expect of a cyborg. Faster, stronger, more agile... this will be kind of fun, that Ralin looks stronger but Vanadi can totally own him. He's got neat little Assassin's Creed looking blades that can sprout from his wrists, but he'll be susceptible to hacking. Also, water in exposed wiring, and he can be overloaded by electricity. He's smarter than Ralin, and will help him not immediately die, but he's not as smart as...
he's learning to squaredance.
Aranya!
Her codename's easy, because it's the only one she ever uses. She's the most badass normal, because I don't think she actually has any abilities... She'll fight with weapons (mainly daggers) and probably something to do with spiders. Poison, razor wire webbing... that sort of thing. No Spider-Man gimmicks -- she'll be more deadly than him. She also doesn't use a mask, because it seems like villains don't really need to. They really just have the one identity, after all. I guess she's the top villain around, but I can't quite figure out how Ralin is... you know, still alive. Or, I suppose with him being so powerful and her so badass normal, I guess that is kind of a stalemate. She's great for schemes, but if she doesn't know that weakness to water (and it doesn't rain much in the desert), he's just... kind of invincible. BUT ANYWAY. I don't have much worked out for her yet, except that she'll have less of a shady network. Just lots of contacts that aren't all super loyal like they are in Split Poison.
I actually kind of really like this angle/overlapping... I'll have to turn it into a real picture at some point. And fix the proportions.
Samhain--
He... probably needs a real superpower. In Split Poison he's just really strong/skilled, but that won't really fly here if Aranya's got badass normal covered. MY VILLAINS NEED TO BE MORE BADASS. So... I'm still working on that. But mostly he stands around looking dark and dramatic behind Aranya, possibly with a dark cloak on? Which he throws off when it's time to be badass. Hmm, what could his power be... to be determined.
Caitlin said that she'd be interested in a story about heroes from the civilian's perspective, but I'm not totally convinced that's the way to go. On one hand, I'm only not interested in that because in the typical hero comic, the civilian is just a nobody that has nothing to do with the story. If they're integrated into the story, and you care about them -- they just happen to not be a hero -- then maybe it would work better... because while Split Poison has the problem of having way too many characters, four is not enough to carry a story like this. So there's going to have to be a few more one way or another -- maybe they can be civilians that actually get a role. It's worth thinking about, anyway.
I think I also need another villain. But two will probably work for heroes, unless they get around to converting a villain or something. Man. I have like nothing worked out on this. OH HOW IT CONTRASTS TO SPLIT POISON, WHERE EVERY DETAIL FOR THE NEXT MILLION YEARS IS THOUGHT OUT. Oh, right, and Split Poison's Lighthouse will definitely make an appearance. A jail for dangerous superhumans/monsters, how cool! It'll be outside the city, surrounded by a super high wall, and the only way into it is a tunnel that begins somewhere inside the walls of the city. I'm not sure how it plays into it yet, but a jail is a great place to find new friends...! Most obviously friends for Aranya, but it could go either way.
I really want to start drawing it, though. ;_; If nothing else, it would be something to show editors that's more up their alley than Split Poison pages.
So now I just have to watch Aladdin and play the first Assassin's Creed a thousand times to get the setting down.
hnnnnggg Middle Eastern architecture... so neat...
So that's cool.
And in other news, my computer is busted! Poor old Eddie, I knew thee well. ;_; He's out having his hard drive replaced (ONLY A YEAR OLD?? CRUEL, CRUEL WORLD.) and hopefully his data can be saved. Hopefully. We'll see, I guess. I keep thinking of more and more things that I'll have lost, and I'm... pretty okay with most of them. It is just data, after all. Nerdily enough, I'm most disappointed over losing an in-progress application and loads of icons. :|a
Angela and I were talking at work about the idea of traditional superheroes on a non-modern setting. Specifically, a fantasy setting. It's kind of the concept of Robin Hood, if you think about it. Robin Hood, Zoro, uh... probably a few others... Anyway, it's really appealing to me for some reason that I can't quite place, and she said her attraction is because she's a hardcore fantasy fan, and is turned off from the idea of superheroes because they're usually associated with scifi. So you take that and you put it in fantasy, and hopefully you have a broader audience.
ANYWAY. I started thinking about it in the context of Split Poison, right up until I realized that everyone in that comic is an asshole. They'd work as supervillains, but the best I could do for the other side is an antihero. But I kept coming back to the idea of Aranya and Samhain as totally awesome supervillains, so now I have to do something with it. :< I had to do something about a good guy though, so I went and dug up Ralin! He's now my derpy retarded shounen-hero type, with whom my antihero-type works because he'd pretty much get himself killed on his own.
Character designs and balance!
I want to keep the "superhero theme" in mind, but also make it look like it really is a fantasy world. I'm sticking to Split Poison's main city, Sinai, because it's hella fun to draw (Middle Eastern architecture is so cool), and because I don't want to imagine Aranya anywhere else. IT'S HER CITY, MAN. So my theory is helms instead of masks, where needed. But I only have one character actually using a mask so far, so maybe that'll change for traditional domino masks if more are introduced. As for the powers and stuff -- there's more "badass normal" in here than I necessarily wanted, but I think I can live with it.
scanners are for squares! sorry for the cellphone pictures. :<
Ralin-- (I had to do a find/replace to get out all the times I typed "Raul" instead. :( )
He's usually drawn as... well, a pretty typical male anime build, I'd say. Slightly built but mostly slender. If he's going to be my retarded shounen hero (and especially if his buddy shares the same build), that has to change. So he gets a typical American hero build instead! If I can draw that, oh god. It always looks so stupid when I try. But I'm hoping this will be good practice! Because I'm more familiar with Ralin than, say, Superman, so I'll know how to draw him better. Right? Hopefully. So, his build changes. It looks like he'll be the strongman, BUT NO. I LIE TO YOU. His power is basically just... fire. I'm keeping his fire elemental powers, but making it so he's just a... I don't know. Something that's not a fire elemental. But he can burst into fire and mold himself/create objects with fire (they harden into real weapons/clothes/whatever and aren't hot, but they're still essentially made of fire). So he doesn't need a mask, because he can just change his appearance when he's not heroing. His weakness! Is, of course, water. It really hurts, dangit. :| Enough of it will kill him, but even droplets of rain really sting. He can't fight crime on a rainy day, sigh.
Ralin, that's just pathetic. Vanadi is ashamed to know you.
Vanadi--
Ah, Vanadi. The cyborg in unhappy servitude. He's sort of a badass normal, but in a Captain America kind of way. Enhanced everything. He's going to be the antihero, who's only doing good out of a debt owed to someone else -- but who might eventually do good just for good's sake.
Why don't I have cool codenames for any of these guys yet? Sigh. Ralin will probably have a really lame codename, and insist that Vanadi pick one too. But anyway, he uses a helm as part of his basic costume that he wears while under servitude to Venus. Ralin accidentally frees him from this servitude, and Vanadi either... hmm. Either it's a program Venus put into him that he serves his master always, and his master changes to Ralin when he kills Venus, or he views Ralin as his master with no programming to insist, or... it's just plain old sense of debt. Either way, he basically works with Ralin because he's sure Ralin will get himself killed out there on his own. (Seriously, you can't just bring an umbrella to fight crime on rainy days?)
Also, he's going to have to... change his usual role, I think. Most often he's the "HEY HEY HEY WE SHOULD DO IT DON'T YOU WANT TO DO IT and afterward you can handfeed me grapes because i'm too lazy to pluck them from the bunch" type, but in this case... he's going to have to be responsible. :| For keeping Ralin alive, for being the smart one around... actually, maybe he can outsource that last part. Hmm. Anyway, he's going to be stoic and linefacing and all. Maybe his sexylazy can come out when he gets more comfortable, or something.
As far as abilities go, it's what you'd expect of a cyborg. Faster, stronger, more agile... this will be kind of fun, that Ralin looks stronger but Vanadi can totally own him. He's got neat little Assassin's Creed looking blades that can sprout from his wrists, but he'll be susceptible to hacking. Also, water in exposed wiring, and he can be overloaded by electricity. He's smarter than Ralin, and will help him not immediately die, but he's not as smart as...
he's learning to squaredance.
Aranya!
Her codename's easy, because it's the only one she ever uses. She's the most badass normal, because I don't think she actually has any abilities... She'll fight with weapons (mainly daggers) and probably something to do with spiders. Poison, razor wire webbing... that sort of thing. No Spider-Man gimmicks -- she'll be more deadly than him. She also doesn't use a mask, because it seems like villains don't really need to. They really just have the one identity, after all. I guess she's the top villain around, but I can't quite figure out how Ralin is... you know, still alive. Or, I suppose with him being so powerful and her so badass normal, I guess that is kind of a stalemate. She's great for schemes, but if she doesn't know that weakness to water (and it doesn't rain much in the desert), he's just... kind of invincible. BUT ANYWAY. I don't have much worked out for her yet, except that she'll have less of a shady network. Just lots of contacts that aren't all super loyal like they are in Split Poison.
I actually kind of really like this angle/overlapping... I'll have to turn it into a real picture at some point. And fix the proportions.
Samhain--
He... probably needs a real superpower. In Split Poison he's just really strong/skilled, but that won't really fly here if Aranya's got badass normal covered. MY VILLAINS NEED TO BE MORE BADASS. So... I'm still working on that. But mostly he stands around looking dark and dramatic behind Aranya, possibly with a dark cloak on? Which he throws off when it's time to be badass. Hmm, what could his power be... to be determined.
Caitlin said that she'd be interested in a story about heroes from the civilian's perspective, but I'm not totally convinced that's the way to go. On one hand, I'm only not interested in that because in the typical hero comic, the civilian is just a nobody that has nothing to do with the story. If they're integrated into the story, and you care about them -- they just happen to not be a hero -- then maybe it would work better... because while Split Poison has the problem of having way too many characters, four is not enough to carry a story like this. So there's going to have to be a few more one way or another -- maybe they can be civilians that actually get a role. It's worth thinking about, anyway.
I think I also need another villain. But two will probably work for heroes, unless they get around to converting a villain or something. Man. I have like nothing worked out on this. OH HOW IT CONTRASTS TO SPLIT POISON, WHERE EVERY DETAIL FOR THE NEXT MILLION YEARS IS THOUGHT OUT. Oh, right, and Split Poison's Lighthouse will definitely make an appearance. A jail for dangerous superhumans/monsters, how cool! It'll be outside the city, surrounded by a super high wall, and the only way into it is a tunnel that begins somewhere inside the walls of the city. I'm not sure how it plays into it yet, but a jail is a great place to find new friends...! Most obviously friends for Aranya, but it could go either way.
I really want to start drawing it, though. ;_; If nothing else, it would be something to show editors that's more up their alley than Split Poison pages.
So now I just have to watch Aladdin and play the first Assassin's Creed a thousand times to get the setting down.
hnnnnggg Middle Eastern architecture... so neat...
So that's cool.
And in other news, my computer is busted! Poor old Eddie, I knew thee well. ;_; He's out having his hard drive replaced (ONLY A YEAR OLD?? CRUEL, CRUEL WORLD.) and hopefully his data can be saved. Hopefully. We'll see, I guess. I keep thinking of more and more things that I'll have lost, and I'm... pretty okay with most of them. It is just data, after all. Nerdily enough, I'm most disappointed over losing an in-progress application and loads of icons. :|a