Eldritch: Halloween 030

So, in short… Seamus doesn’t age.  And he can jump through time… but only forward.  Oh, and he doesn’t pick when, but at least he can feel it coming on.  That kind of sucks. 

Time travel is tricky, and it’s way too easy to abuse it.  If he had absolute control over time, he could go back in time and ‘save’ faith from being bitten… but that would create a time paradox.  By forcing Seamus to only go forward, it allows me to play with time travel, but not in a way that can alter the consistency of the story.  It also makes him somewhat of a tragic character.  In this way, he’s a bit different from the initial incarnation I had of him.

When I first started coming up with Seamus as a character back around 2006, he was simply what I called the style of writing I used when writing my italicized descriptions for several of my pieces.  Unlike in Eldritch, he had no real family, because his main love was books. I playfully said he was from Neverwhen… that is, he resides in no time or place in particular, and can pop up anywhere and anywhen.  Well, for the aforementioned reasons, that wasn’t going to work for Eldritch.  It’d make it way too easy to make him a power character, and frankly, I know I’m not talented enough to handle a super-complex time travel story with a character that isn’t even the main one.

However, where it counts… Seamus is pretty much the same.  He loves science and myth and magic… he loves researching and of course… talking to others about it.  A Lot.  Besides, you can’t blame a guy for cramming as much information as he can into a conversation, since he never knows if he might accidentally leave or not.

Anyway… on to the next page.  Woo~

Eldritch: Halloween 023

Psst.  You guys are getting it half an hour earlier than Deviantart. XD

So, it’s the full moon!  Hooray!

So… while January may be called Wolf-month and have the Wolf Moon, February is particularly good for lycanthropy.  Apparently, lycanthropy is particularly troublesome to men (and women, I presume) during the month of February.  You can find mention of this in A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture by Charlotte Otten, The Werewolf in Lore and Legend by Montague Summers, and The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring-Gould… and probably a couple of others. 

Forgive me, I’d write more… but life is super busy, and well, it’s the full moon.  I have stuff to do. ;p

Eldritch: Halloween 021

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Happy Year of the Dragon everyone!Buuut, back to the comic… Nope, they’re not zombies! But they used to be vampiiiires!

So… the origin of this is.. well, kind of dumb.  While, for this particular bit I wish I could point to some folklore (aside from Barber, Vampires, Burial and Death, p. 197.  Where it's stated that vampires need blood to sustain their body’s exixtance.) The truth is, this has little to do with the initial idea.  You see, when I was a wee little thing, my dad had an Intellivision.  We had a few games, like Shark-Shark, Utopia, and Frogger.  But, one of the games we had was Dracula.  In the game, some of the people you bit turned different colors and, according to my dad, became ghouls.  Now, I knew a little about vampires at that time… that if you were bitten by a vampire then you became one.  Ghouls were a new concept for me, so, in my tiny little girl brain, I just kind of figured they were kind of like baby vampires and would be real vampires if they ate someone.

For Eldritch, however, I took that idea and inversed it. Because, well.. honestly, being a vampire would be far less appealing if you had to start out as a nasty ikky ghoul, right? Right. That and… I mean really, what would happen if a vampire didn’t feed? Becoming a rotting corpse/ghoul/zombie makes sense to me.

So… yeah. Blame the Intellivision for this one folks. More talk about the undead next week.

Eldritch: Halloween 020

Well, Faith, I don’t think this is a guy in a mask…  There’s a lot I wanna say, but I think It’d be best to leave it till next week’s update.

Eldritch: Halloween 015

Well, folks, I can’t exactly say I can take full credit for the erm… unique costume idea. It’s inspired by a friend of mine, and, well, let’s just say I’m glad that I’ve always worn a costume to her Halloween party.  As they say… write what you know.

Well, folks, in spite of the comic’s current theme, the Winter Holiday Season is in full swing here, and that’s keeping me quite busy. So flipping busy.  Put up the tree, been to a party, been to a Christmas wedding, wrapped all the gifts up, sent stuff off, watched Charlie Brown… and yet, I’ve been having a devil of a time getting into it though.  Maybe I should just consider it as Hogswatch, or, better yet, Snoggletog season.  I think I like that better.

Oh! Also, if you happen to have clear skies tonight, you may wanna pop outside and look at the geminids!

Gah… gotta get working on the next page.  Catch ya later!

Eldritch: Lessons 039

Aaaand, the chapter ends right where it started, geographically speaking.

Well guys! I cut it close this week (Crazy stuff happened, sorry about the derp!faces.) but somehow, we’ve all made it through a third chapter! Next week I will upload the cover to the new chapter, and two weeks from now, the storyline resumes! Thank you guys so much for sticking with me the past few years. I mean… while preproduction started long before the first page, Eldritch started in early 2009. Where did the time go, guys?

And since we made it this far, that means that it’s… actually time for me to start looking into getting this self-published somehow. Egads, that means I have even more research to do. *Collapses* Don’t worry though… I’ll still be keeping this stuff up here, if I get it self-published. Though… there will be some extra content that won’t appear here.

Well guys catch you all next week!

Eldritch: Lessons 038

I honestly don’t know who I feel more sorry for, Faith, or Jay.

You know, Jay is one of a few characters that took over the jobs of characters that never made it to final development. There were several characters that I wanted to include, but, well… Their roles could be handled just as well, or better by other characters. Jay was at one point going to have another worker back in the storage room named Colin… but, I found that paying more attention to one character rather than two worked better for development. So, the two got merged into one.

In fact, until very, very late in development, I’d planned on having a harpy named Bobby be a main character. I liked him a lot, but, much as I tried, he wasn’t going to work, especially when Maggie and Todd could perform the same roles he did. So, he got demoted. Maybe someday when I’m rich (Like that’ll ever happen) and don’t have to do things like worry about supporting myself, I’ll make a spin-off comic about him XD

Bah… I should go to bed soon. I have to be up to go to work in five and a half hours… and then after that, I need to hit the library again. Then after that, I'll check to see if I have my Pottermore letter yet and work on next week's comic. My life is so exciting 9.9

Also... today I’m gonna talk about the importance of sticking to your script.

I have a LOT of this all worked out, and ironed and ready to be comiced. Some of it I have highlighted, so I know what will be important later, and what I can cut. You wouldn’t believe how much stuff I’ve cut out; and a couple of pages have been mashed together. However, aside from those two things, I have one big rule: Stick to the script, and don't change it.

I totally broke that rule and got caught. I had a consistency error (OMGOSH). I altered the name of Jay’s and Ranger Dick’s dog, from Kristi to Spot because I thought it sounded like a human got attacked at first. But I didn’t change the name later in the script. Thankfully, folks (as always) were happy to tell me when I'm wrong and caught me on it pretty quickly. Oops.  I suppose I'm only human... if only I could get Gaoth to schnooker people into thinking I didn't make a mistake, like he did Jay's dad ;D

Lesson re-learned? Yes.

What can I say?  I suppose that if they can mention Tonks’ and Lupin’s baby in the HP movies when they never really show her preggers, I suppose I can mess up now and again.
Okay.  Running on three hours of sleep.  Gonna go collapse now.

Eldritch: Lessons 037

So, thankfully, Todd is okay.

*Chuckles* Recently, while talking with a friend after work, they asked why my Bzou was named after the fox from The Fox and the Hound. Now… he isn’t intended to be so. But he is named for the same reason.

Todd means “fox”… Which may initially seem to be an odd name for a wolf. However, in this case, the name isn’t intended to refer directly to the animal, but rather, the colloquial uses of the word in regards to a person. He’s a “fox” in that he’s touch on the sly side, sneaking a peek when Faith is stripping down, trying to impress her by speaking French… “Fox” can also refer to a good-looking individual, which Todd considers himself to be. Furthermore, what does a fox pursue? Vixens. And Faith has been a bit of a vixen from his perspective. So, anyway, in case anyone else was wondering, that is how the horndog got his name.

Also, randomly… since for some reason I just wasn’t feeling werewolfy this week, you can thank music for keeping me focused while making this page, particularly Mowgli’s “How to Be a Werewolf.”

Eldritch: Lessons 036

Well. That’s cutting it close.

Maggie is a quick shapeshifter, which is why most of her shifts are near-instantanious, and there's no midpoints shown. Here though, the scene occurs in such a short amount of time, I could sneak one in.

Other than that... not much to say about the page this week… So, I’m going to discuss folklore and science in relation to Faith’s character design. I’m doing it mostly because someone over on DA asked a really good question, which, in short was “Since Faith’s fangs aren’t oversized while in wolf form, is she not able to infect others with lycanthropy in her wolf shape?” I do not mean this to be an invitation for all questions, because there is a LOT I cannot discuss yet. However, this particular subject is not something I have Seamus explaining in the next few chapters of script, so I'm going to address it here, because it might get cut in final editing. (I often write far more than I need). This is a rare exception.

Yes, Faith can infect someone with lycanthropy in the wolf form. The point of the form is to, well... move and look like a wolf. Besides, if something as tiny as a snake's fang can inject enough venom to kill someone, something the size of a wolf's fang can infect someone with lycanthropy.

If werewolves maintained their snagglefangs in the wolf form, in times past, they'd have been easier to identify and kill (for example, some folklore states that a wolf without a tail is likely to be a werewolf), so the ones that looked more lupine in their wolf forms were slightly more likely to survive and pass on traits. This became even more likely as time passed, and the wolf became protected in many places. Not all “Grahll” werewolves lack snagglefangs while in wolf form, but it is more common.

This is also why Faith doesn’t have much in the way of folkloric means of identifying a werewolf while in human form… like a ring finger that is longer than the middle finger, or hair on the palms of her hands, or eyebrows that meet in the middle. She does, however, occasionally display a trait or two that would have gotten her caught (were they not temporary for her), but are fairly minor. A few folks noticed back in Layline that now and again she had longer nails (a lycanthropic trait) or eyeshine. The eyeshine is how I interpret the glaring, twinkling, or blazing of eyes that werewolves of varying kinds are occasionally described as having at points.

However, there is less emphasis on ‘camouflage’ in the werewolf form. It isn’t very… well, subtle. Thus, it is an advantage to have drastically oversized fangs, so the likelihood of a werewolf catching someone with a fang is increased, thus rising the chances of passing on the lycanthropic traits to those who stumble across them.

… I think about this stuff a lot. And research a lot. Woo.

Please read:
The Werewolf in Lore and Legend --Montague Summers
The Book of Werewolves --Sabine Baring-Gould
A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture --Charlotte Otten
Werewolves (Around the world) --Elliot O’Donnell

Eldritch: Lessons 035

Hooray wolfness!

As you all know, I spend a lot of time reading about werewolf folklore. God, you should see my copy of Montague Summer’s book… it has post it notes everywhere and highlighting and labled tabs and… well, actually, a lot of by books a re like that O.o Anyway, I am fascinated by the sheer amount of diversity when it comes to the different details in folklore, and even in the appearance of werewolves themselves.

In some tales, the lycanthrope takes on the perfect visage of a wolf. In others, they become monsterous wolves… sometimes they have tails, others, they don’t (in fact, lacking a tail is sometimes said to be a sure sign of a werewolf) and in yet more stories, they appear as hybrids. There’s even a couple really wonderful woodcuts depicting hybrid werewolves. I love how there’s enough folklore to support just about any style of werewolf that people like… even down to more humanoid versions, because, well, some of the folks who were tried as werewolves were just lunatics in wolfskins. :3

One of my favorite werewolf descriptions comes from Elliot O’Donnell’s 1912 publication: “A thing with a woman’s breast, a woman’s hair, long and curly, but the face and feet were those of a wolf; whilst the hands, white and slender, were armed with long, glittering nails, cruelly sharp…”

And... I don't really have a whole lot to say about the page this week.  And I'm tired from staying up all night to do the pottermore thing.

Also, I really appreciate the kind comments last week, though I’m sorry I’m not able to produce this more often for you all to enjoy.

In addition, I do apologize about the lack of larger image last week.  Sometimes blogger doesn’t work the way I want it to.  The larger version is accessible through the “Eldritch Lessons” page.

Anyway... it's late and I'm braindead.  So, I'm totally going to bed now.  ♥ you guys!

Eldritch: Lessons 034

I don't really have a whole lot to say about the page this week.

However, as it turns out, the next full moon coincides with the Persied meteor shower… which, if you’re looking for meteors, is a bad thing because the extra light hides the meteors. (But makes a full moon prettier?)  If you happen to be a werewolf, well... then that sucks; you'll be too busy being wolfy to look at all. ;3 However, if you want to catch sight of some meteors this summer, odds are, this weekend is your best bet.  The Delta-Aquarids are going to be streaking on through as the first Persieds are gearing up, and, it’s the new moon to boot, so there won’t be as much light pollution.

 Happy night-romping!

Eldritch: Lessons 033

Guys.  Guuuyyyys.  I stood in line next to a guy who looked EXACTLY like Lupin at the Harry Potter opening (OMG it was so good).  And I know, the pink werewolf looks pretty silly, but I still think that’s just a result of taking the wolfsbane potion regularly.  If he’d been unmedicated for a while, he’d totally look like the werewolf from An American Werewolf in London. Just sayin.’

Also, man guys, it’s been a crazy week here.  My work kept changing my schedule around on me, (They changed it twice just today.  Twice.) which makes it hard to set aside time to sit down and color the comic.  Thus, I just finished the comic an hour ago O.o  I’m gonna go reward myself with some watermelon and some ponies, before I get up again in… oh look.  Five and a half hours.  Joy.

Eldritch: Lessons 032

Dear Blogger:  Please allow me to reply to comments with my google account.  Otherwise I'll have to reply to folks in the comments section... like this: Eeee, glad to see people read my little ramblings XD

Stars, you're completely correct... I'm so glad to hear I was able to do it properly!

Fouquin: I'm doing much, much better,t hank you.  And no worries, hon.  You comment when you can, and I'm terribly grateful for it.

Aroo!

Now back to your regularly scheduled commentary:

I’ll be honest with you guys… I didn’t think I’d make it here, to the page I'd done initially as a teaser this soon. I suspected life would interfere and make it so I’d miss updates more often… and somehow, I’ve managed to keep this coming out reasonably steadily for some time. Who’d have thought?

Also, there’s a slight change in scripting here… the stuff up top was initially going to be on the previous page. But as time wore on, the more clunky I found that. So, when finalizing the script for this chapter, those text boxes got scooted onto this page. Personally, I think it makes it all flow better.

Either way guys… it’s been years since I did the initial teaser. I’ve learned a lot and will continue to do so over the years of material I have planned yet to come.

In addition, well folks, if you hadn’t guessed by the snitch on her bookshelf, or the Harry Potter fanfic comment back in Layline, Faith is a Harry Potter fan.  So, fi faith were here, do you know what she’d be doing? Counting the hours till Friday, that’s what.  I have my midnight ticket in my wallet, which is good.  This is because the theater I’ll be going to, which will be having fourteen different theaters showing it, is completely sold out.

In addition, folks, Friday is the full moon.  Lots of thinkers in the past, such as Pliny, discussed the moon’s influence over human behavior (thus, where we got the term, lunacy) based upon its influence on the tides.  Of course, back then, they didn’t understand gravity as we do now, so they made the erroneous assumption that the moon affected water specifically as opposed to well... everything.  But you know, despite that, I think there’ll be a lot of tears flowing by the end of it.  I know that if I cry, I’ll be blaming the tears on the full moon’s effect on the tides, and I’d have to be crazy to wear my school robes in July.

Eldritch: Lessons 031

So, that aside… Oh god guys, I’ve been so sick when I made this. Like… man, you guys don’t even want to know. And on top of that, oh man, this page just fought me the whole while. But, here it is. Noting too folkloric here, I’m afraid... but I will say I suck at drawigng graying orange hair in the dark.

In addition… I had an unpleasant interaction with someone recently.  The person involved was likely trying to con me, and ended up offending me pretty bad.  However, things like this force me to look around and realize just how good I have it. I mean, if this little trivial item is the big thing making me upset… that means I have it pretty darn good (well, having been super sick aside).

And most importantly: at the end of the day, it reminds me that I’m SO lucky to have all of you guys. While I don’t always agree with everyone here, or we frustrate one another (I’m sure some of you are so tired of “We’ll just have to wait and see”), I don’t really have to worry about you folks being insincere, or just hoping to use me for your own ends, or calling me unpleasant things, or turning into werewolves and mauling me in the night. Okay, maybe some of you I need to worry about regarding that last one…

I even get to know some of you just a wee little bit, because I see you week after week. You guys compliment me with your comments, your +faves, and your +watches. Some of you guys even donate, and it always just blows my mind that folks can be so kind and generous. Sometimes you guys even read my silly artist’s comments (Which, if you read them this week, and you want to comment, please add in a little howl so I know you read this). *Chuckles*
You know, there are few things as exciting, or as humbling, as a kind comment from a peer. And I do mean peers, since that’s what you guys are, even if you can’t draw, or color, or write; that’s because everyone is creative, and does creative things, be it singing in the shower or gardening or what-have-you.

I am so blessed that you folks have swung by my little corner of the internet.
Thank you.

Eldritch: Lessons 030

Oh. Snap.

I mean honestly guys, you know I can’t have a chapter without some sort of conflict, right?

Just a little disclaimer here: DO NOT PLAY TAG WITH YOUR TONGUE. In fact, for the most part, don’t do anything Todd does. Seamus is a much better role model, mmmmkay? Mmkay. I’m glad we had this talk.

In other news… it is now officially summer! Hooray! I’m looking forward to a lovely new season with lots of good growing food in the garden. A bit of niceness to even out growing amount of frustrations XD

Eldritch: Lessons 029

You know… I was pretty good at tag when I was a kid. Of course, the way we played sometimes, you didn’t just touch someone… you smacked them. Let me tell you, getting socked in the back repeatedly will make as short, fat girl move like lightning.

In other news, life is slowing down a little bit, but things are still crazy busy, in some ways. But good ways… like today, I was able to get some new flowerbeds dug, put down some (were)wolf-print stepping stones, and plant some werewolfy flowers, like marigolds and moonflowers. Also, I recently received a wonderful gift: a copy of Meet the Werewolf which was the first werewolf book I ever read. So, I’ve been lovingly poking through that inbetween researching for The Moonlit Pathway, which has been updated for your listening pleasure. month's twenty minute segment is about Native American Wolf-Creatures and Transformations. 

Eldritch: lessons 027

Oh man, I only had a couple of days to get this done. And it shows. Sorry about that folks, hopefully I haven’t made too many errors.

Aaaaaanyway, I’m gonna keep this pretty short, mostly because there aren’t any folkloric references in here. However, while I think there are only… maybe three people who remember it now, in highschool, had been writing a werewolf story, way back when I was really working out my Grahll werewolves, and Travis and Loren were the main characters. I never finished the story… but my mind often wanders back to them, and because of this, I set Eldritch in the world I started way back then.

In other news, hopefully, my life will be less crazy soon. The art show is finished, and I made enough to buy the expensive supplies for my next monster costume, so I’m all excited. Though, oddly enough, my one little werewolf piece that I did for the show didn’t sell. God, people love their gryphons and dragons though.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and stay frosty!

Eldritch: Lessons

SO! About this page. I finally got to the point n the script where I could use the Sand Squink I’d drawn ages ago, as he was intended to be. If you’re not familiar with sand squinks, they’re half-coyote, half bobcat electric monotremes from Lumberjack folklore. If you find this interesting, you may want to check out Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods by William Cox or The Field Guide to North American Monsters by W. Haden Blackman. In addition, if you’re interested in the generation of music via electric discharge, please check out Tesla Coil musical groups such as Masters of Lightning or Arc Attack

Also, about synaesthesia… I first heard about it when I was a kid. Mom and I were comparing what colors foods taste like, and Dad, bless him, brought up this condition. I’ve heard it crop up now and again, and find it to be a fascinating phenomena. That being said, while I do think of colors or whatnot with certain foods or letters or whatnot, I don’t think I have synaesthesia. Rather, I think my association with colors or sounds or whatnot with alternative stimuli is conditioned, due to the fact that it’s not consistent, and often match up with letter-toys I had as a kid or whatnot. Regardless, since I use colors to help identify characters, and because of the reasons listed in the page, I felt it fit the comic entirely too well.

Also, can’t forget to mention pocket universes/pocket dimensions, as were explained in Alan Guth’s Inflationary Theory.  When I first introduced the Layline, I was kind of surprised that everyone just accepted that this huge club space was in the tiny little porn shop glamour-façade I depicted, especially since I hadn’t yet introduced Seamus to explain everything. I guess the Layline is the epitome of what Guth said himself:   "It's actually safe to create a universe in your basement. It would not displace the universe around it even though it would grow tremendously."  Which is interesting, because I think I've heard stories of houses that were actually bigger on the inside...

And, last but certainly not least, there are a few cameos on this page! The smallest of which is Burweazle, my little troll character, but what’s more important is whom he’s riding upon. The amazing, awesome dragon is Gold Dirt, a character belonging to my friend SageGoat and the handsome hunk of Irishness is Domhnal, Wolfsjal werewolf character. Both characters are used with permission, and goodness, Dom was a character that was supposed to appear in my old, failed webcomic project… it’s about time he appeared in a comic here, headshot or no. … I notice you’re still reading. You know, those icons are there for a reason. What are you still hanging around here for? Go check out the awesomeness that is their galleries!

Eldritch: Lessosn 022

So, now I’ve traded talking heads for blocks of text.  Woo? Woo.  Sometimes I think I really should have written a novel.

Anyway guys, I really should come up with something interesting to say, but I have some other stuff to work on, so I can’t spare a lot of time on yammering.  Therefore, while I go back to arting and listening to Monster Camp I’ll leave you with a plug to something my pal Wolfsjal introduced me to this week Journey Quest Since I hope that people spread the word about my comic, I like to point people to what influences and entertains me, so, consider the word spread and GO WATCH! YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID!