Back when I was still in my animation school, right after finishing my second year, I was playing around with some styles. I sketched a wasteland warrior girl which would become the basis for Kyara and the world she lived in. Pretty much then and there I knew I had to make this my next school project, which I then did. The next year, during my master's, I felt this itching urge, like I made the mistake of using Trespasser as my 3rd year project, when it had so much more potential.
Some years later, when the company I worked for went bankrupt and I felt creatively unmotivated. I dug up the old Trespasser ideas and started working on it again, to get my old passion for the craft back. And before I knew it I was working on the comic we now know today.
The hardest part was honestly writing and commiting to the romantic subplot. It was always something I toyed with in the early days of development, but I never felt comfortable writing and executing it. I only really pursued it after I met my now ex-girlfriend. it made me feel more comfortable with writing such a storyline and now I cannot imagine the story without it.
When I first started out it was the action! I love(d) writing these cool epic setpieces and have Kyara fight and think her way to victory. These days I find myself more drawn to the calmer moments, where I'm doing more in dept character work.
Yes. Personality-wise a lot of the characters are imbued with a part of my own personality. You are your own best reference afterall, so it happens even without thiking. Weirdly enough I have had people say that Kyara looks like me haha.
I have also based some characters on others. The Administrator for example, who appears briefely in Chapter 01, is based on Donald Trump. Another character, the Buntha Bear (who we meet in Chapter 02) is partually inspired by my own father, his physical appearance specifically.
In early development I toyed with a lot more grandiose scifi plot lines. At one point I was even considering doing a time travel plot haha. Another change I made relates to the Citadel. In my original drafts and explorations, the Citadel was a different city, far away from Kyara's home town, Oasis. I would have the plot eventually advance to that city, with Kyara going rogue, kinda losing herself a bit. But all that became too bloated and overly complex. So I trimmed it down and simplified it to the setting it is today.
New Question:
"Knowing what you know now, and the experience you have today, what do you wish you had done differently in your story?"
My answer:
I would have reworked the big fight scene in Chapter 01. It's too long and bloated imo, taking up 30-40 ish pages. As a trade, I would have added a bit of action to the Chapter 01 scene featuring the Buntha Raiders.