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Feb 5


(art by Mariel Leister)
Honestly my most popular chapter is the first one, but the inspiration behind it was the day I won the H.G. Wells Competition and received the Turnill Prize. It was actually a little depressing, and stems Alicia's feelings from thence forward. I kept waiting for them moment when it would hit me, and I'd be over the moon with joy- it was the biggest achievement of my life - but it just felt like i fizzed up a little and then fell flat in less than 20 minutes and then it was just...back to my normal day to day life, and nothing was better than it was before. This inspired the unique kind of depression Alicia feels in the first chapter, when she's on her way back to the hotel after winning the Vegerra Award, but she doesn't feel happy, as hard as she's trying to be.

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    Feb 4
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    Jun 5
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The pilot episode has the most likes...

My inspiration? Obviously the chaotic state of our world that's the result of the egoic mind. Many religions and sages have identified that problem since a long time ago yet it seems to be ever just the same.

And yes I understand that some of you may disagree with my positions on things... and some of you know me personally and may be aware of my not so nice history (I go way back to the late 1990s to early 2000s) and write me off as a hypocrite. Then just do as I say not as I do. I'm a sinner and can't hold a candle to any monk.

But I feel I'm guided by someone or something far greater than myself though I feel ashamed and unworthy. I don't understand. Sure whatever write me off as insane. :slight_smile:

only one of my episodes has ever been viewed so: the inspiration behind the first episode of "Lion Proof" is my lifelong hair struggle as an African American woman. I've always been annoyed about hair ties and combs not being strong enough for my mane, so I decided to write a comedy revolving around the idea. I'm also very businesses minded, so it seemed fitting for Eliza to try to deal with the issue the same way I would (if I had money and friends to drag into the endeavor with me) by creating her own business.

13 days later

Currently Mini 1 is the most liked chapter so:

This is a series intro. I can't remember the original inspiration for the series, but I started writing it when I was fourteen and after four years I've come back to it again as a collab project with @EMJI. It has been hell (my brain, not her, she's great.) But reworking old idea seems to be infinitely harder than creating a new one, at least when your old ideas gave you so little to work with. But what was there seemed like it could make a pretty story idea, and so far it seems to be proving true. It's just sort of like how flour COULD make a great cake, but I had none of the original ingredients in the original draft lol.

Well the first episode is most liked at 24. Have a pretty consistent ratio of likes across the board of this version of Dragon Sparking. This is a reboot.
Ahem anyways... inspirations?
Dragon Sparking is the culmination of a story I've been daydreaming on for almost two decades now... ultimately it's a story that I wanted to make that falls somewhere between a Battle Shonen and a 90s Saturday Morning Cartoon.
At it's core there is a theme of dealing with rage and the damage that can do to people around you. But it's also an excuse to draw a dragon boy punching monsters while trying to be a good guy.
DS is a bit of a self indulgent work, as I'm trying to follow in the footsteps of my favorite authors and create something exciting and visceral while kinda keeping it as PG as I can.

Naturally, my first episode is also my most liked. It actually used to be one page not two, cut off before the title card..

It was a test comic I drew after contemplating on the concept of a "friar" fryer chicken, and since I decided to go a slightly different route from newsie-black-and-white-funny, I fired up IbisPaint and started drawing for reals.
I wanted the first episode to introduce the overall world (the farm/coop) and establish who the "top cock" actually is (though it occurs to me that he appears to be the protag, which he isn't) I also wanted to end on a funny moment, with Gallus waking up the real caretaker of the coop (Alec). That's where the original page ended.
As to why the first two pages/episodes were stitched together? I think I realized the problem was that Friar wasn't introduced until the second episode, and it further establishes him as the main (cause title, duh), and introduces the "faith" or practice he undertakes, as he is a friar/monk. Why he worships humans? Well, I initially thought it was a very humorous contrast, as most humans kill/eat their chickens, but I also wanted to explore religion/institution/society in a different sort of environment while telling it an humorous, entertaining and dramatic way. It was also a chance for me to create my own lore/cults, and eventually the Four Orders spawned off that.

As for production time of that first page, it took 16 hours to work to completion (I remember it taking 8 hours to color/render, yeesh) Surprised I didn't feel discouraged then, I was super excited actually - thought that ugly face of Alec didn't look too bad XD.

BTW, I can relate to your winning-but-feel-like-nothing-changed story. I busted my butt on a 3D animation project back in school, and was so burned out/tired afterwards that I didn't care about the accolades--I just wanted to go home and rest...Just part of the creation process, I guess. Least I love this comic enough to chug through.

I created this book for my students. I am a Middle School Special Educator, and I was sick and tired of hearing my kids say they were "stupid". This book is for them because I find a lack of representation of characters with disabilities.

Check it out here: https://tapas.io/dashboard/index

My most popular episode is the first. To sum it up, it's the main protagonist playing the violin with her family. I liked the idea of music representing a person's life - how your parents can influence how your life plays out, for good or for ill, and how good parents can inspire and motivate you to keep their "music" alive in your own.

1st episode. Re-read it I can see the initial passion I was having when I drew the scenes. And the sense of wonder & discovery... I hope to rekindle that again on my next chapter.

Overall about the my story opening I want it to feel cinematic, as I treat many scenes like movie scenes. The big 'title-showing panel of the hill' was inspired by the game Ghost of Tsushima when I first saw its brilliant opening title scene in YT. From here is where imaginary soothing folk music kicks in while Maor is returning to his village.

Little do my readers know what he sees on his way back, in some ways, represents his important future aquiantances/events.

21 days later

Surprisingly enough for "Sun with a Painted Crown" the most liked chapter is not the first one (actually it's not that surprising, it's one of the more flirty episodes)

The inspiration for "A Spoonful of Sugar" was Kattar's stoic nature. He's always hidden his feelings from Alicia, while she's bad at hiding her feelings, so I thought it would be interesting to write her trying to get a reaction out of him, which she does by flirting with him a little bit, which she'd never done before. This has actually inspired further chapters. She's going to keep trying to tease him into blushing or reacting, throughout this book.

Is it insecurity on her part? Maybe. But it's certainly interesting to read/watch lol.

20 days later

Another fun fact of "A Spoonful of Sugar" it's the only chapter title in the book that is a reference anything in media

15 days later

For some reason I have like 4-5 tied chapters so-

"Musical Chairs" is me roasting my own music tastes from two different perspectives lol. Kattar loves rock especially pop punk and metal. Alicia can't stand the singing style or the screaming.

Alicia loves crooners and retro music. I like this a little less than rock, but I really like Michael Buble and I had a whole "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" phase.

People are really clicking on my "Okayu" chapter from "Every Day is Beautiful With You" (chapter 13) and I have no idea why lol. Maybe because it's a foreign word and it's not obvious what it's about? Anyway. I was inspired to write it, because I felt a bit tummy sick that day and was remembering how my mom used to make okayu for me. Okayu is a Japanese dish that is basically rice gruel, softened rice with water. It can be pounded a bit to make it even mushier, but mostly it's just boiled down so much that it's very soft and easy to eat, and there's a lot of water to replenish a spent body that's been sick. So, I wrote one of my characters being tummy sick like me, and his boyfriend is so very worried about him. He can't cook, but he wants to make okayu for him. He gets nostalgic, thinking about his grandma who used to make it when he was a child. Of course he fails unimaginably, and it gets really adorable. The one who's sick discovers the mess and laughs, saying they'll just order out and the boyfriend is cutely sad about this dish fail, so instead of him taking care of the one who's sick, the one who's sick takes care of him. I hope people liked it, lol. I hope it was worth the click. It certainly made me feel better to write it. I like imagining a nice boyfriend who wants to take care of me (T -T)

So every cat in my series is a real life cat I know. The main character is a cat that actually came off of my moms boyfriends ranch and was given to two friends of mine so the first episode is actually pretty close to the real story.

Monkey is actually my cat who was part Mainecoon and was a big boy who always got in fights outside.

Hold-the-phone who is by far the fan favorite was designed probably 8 years ago while I was doodling. He actually used to be part of my first comic series ever which was the blue ghost where he was the blue ghosts secretary. The blue ghost was never published although I have a few pages lying around, I just couldn’t let his character go to waste.

I remember is his debut it was a side kick interview for blue ghosts hero agency and the guy said his power was invincibility.. hold the phone decided to test it out by shooting him in the head right before he heard the rest of what the guy was saying, “criticism” yeah invincibility to criticism lol.

Chapter two is my most popular some how, but I understand why it was definitely the leap from the back story to the antics we are seeing now. I honestly designed it with a lot of measurements even in the paneling that represent concepts numerically that parallel the story. You also see a GameCube reference and lots of foreshadowing to later events.

ahh, I think I write a lot of stories based on daydreams too, when you just want to imagine the sort of sweet things you'd like yourself

@jadendouglas

yikes, invincibility to criticism isn't about to save you now

26 days later

Fun fact: I didn't fully know what the dress in chapter one of "Damsel in the Red Dress" looked like when I wrote it. I developed more on that later.


Chapter one of Rigamarole "Aite" is inspired by the Greek goddess of foolish and ruinous impulse "Aite." I use this to represent the decisions the MCs are making from the very start of the story.

(this is free for everyone to read on my Patreon

21 days later

I only have one chapter out rn, so the most popular chapter is chapter one. The inspiration...um, I kind of just wanted to do a crossover between the male leads of both my novels on Tapas, so I had to try to figure out where exactly they would run into each other, and what sort of interaction they would have. A grocery store made a lot of sense, and the nature of both characters just naturally led to the interaction they ended up happening. It's technically not canon, but could very much so actually happen because both "Damsel in the Red Dress" and "A Dozen Morning Glories" take around the same time in the Baltimore Maryland area. they are separate stories but in the same world. Basically, Alicia isn't in Essence's story, but she's still famous even in "A Dozen Morning Glories." There will probably be a couple of easter eggs.