Archive for October 31st, 2010

30 Characters Challenger: Jande Rowe

Hello all,

I’m Jande (aka @eccentricOrbits). I’m the wearer-of-all-hats behind Aedre’s Firefly, the graphic novel fantasy about a starved dysfunctional young girl who has been made the town scapegoat. I hadn’t intended it to be a long form graphic novel. Originally it was a simple short story of about fifty panels at the most, but somehow the main character kept on at me to tell the whole story. I don’t script it very far ahead, so I still need more character designs for her story.

I also create Wheeler’s Orbits which is a more humorous comic about a couple of guys trying to get their inherited outer-space haulage company out of the red. That one will soon to debut on my website. Plus, I have a number of novels and short stories (mostly fantasy and science-fantasy) on the back burner waiting their chance to debut. And my husband also has a number of stories that cry out for the graphic novel approach. All of these are going to need more characters.

I’ve been in the webcomics venue since January 1st of this year and so far its been quite a ride. I’m still struggling to set up my web site properly (using Comic Press), and the graphic novel I’ve been posting has gone through a number of format changes, trying to find that balance point between work-a-holism and still having sleep, food, friends, and family.

Life was certainly easier when all I had to do to justify my existence was to make a painting –landscapes and abstracts being my forte. And then I had to go and challenge myself to claim a small corner of the webcomics world, and commit to updating weekly to boot. I have always loved comics. I have been drawing since the age of three. Self-taught, I discovered the rules of perspective late in life. I was almost thirty. But what a transformative discovery that was! Yet there is always more ways to improve my art. I hope to learn more from some of you, and perhaps, you too will learn something from me.

I’m normally a very shy, very private person, so getting involved in all of this is challenging in the extreme for me. But I have been gradually making happy acquaintance with some wonderful creators as well as being able to tell a story that showcases the resilience and the capacity for growth of the individual human spirit.

30 Characters Challenger: Sake Anih

Hello everyone, my name is Sake (As in “For Pete’s sake, I am not an alcholic drink!”) Anih and I’m…feeling extremely young and humbled amongst all this talent, ahaha. I’m currently in my last year of high-school and have decided to take on this challenge while juggling band, leadership positions, six AP classes, and ten college applications for twelve schools. As all my friends have already told me, I’m clearly insane.

But uh, a little about me. I was born in China, came to the United States when I was six, and now reside in a little place called Plano, Texas, a nice little suburb outside of Dallas that is, according to Forbes, “The best place to live”. I’m hoping to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, to study Japanese and Chinese and, if I’m lucky, Design and Media Arts. I’m looking at a career in game design, and am in the works of starting a club at school with a few programmer friends to create a full-scale computer game.

I grew up around Asian/Japanese sub-culture, and so I have been heavily influenced by manga and Japanese RPGs, notably the works of CLAMP, Obata Takeshi, Nomura Tetsuya, and Soejima Shigenori. My more realistic style has been influenced by online artists as Emily Warner (“Frozenlilacs”) and Helen Zhang (“Lokklyn”). Unfortunately, school and other committments have drastically reduced my drawing time, so I’m hoping that my joining this challenge will give me some much-lacked practise.

30 Characters Challenger: Bob Learned

I am a old school comic book geek…unashamedly. I have been reading and drawing comic books since I was able to draw at all.  I now work as a graphic artist in corporate hell… and enjoys  drawing comics on the weekend and after work.

I love to share my knowledge and abilities with anyone who loves comics and drawing.  Whenever I can show off my website http://www.oxymoronpress.com or my webcomic http://www.beyondcomic.com I do.

I love drawing pop culture characters as well as my own characters. I love the idea of creating new characters and showing them off to you, and have you to share them with your own art friends.

You can follow me at @BobLearned on twitter.