I used to picture the lulls in between my comics as extended break times for my characters and their worlds. Almost like a break in between curtain calls or in between takes. I pictured them sitting in the break rooms of my mind, going out to eat, taking extended talks about nonsense or the latest sale at some store, and begrudgingly move themselves back into makeup, costuming and other places to get back into character for the one or two snapshots a week.

I don't believe this anymore. I believe that the two- and three-dimensional characters I've created continue their lives outside of my sharing it with the Earth world once or twice a week. They have lives, feeling, jobs, deep emotions and thoughts. They conveyed these thoughts through in-world blogs, through RP sessions with the fans, through their own Twitter accounts, through their Facebook accounts, and sometimes, directly to me only.

I feel this to be true for most other creators of webcomics and printed comics. Their characters live and thrive within their own environments. Dynamic and vibrant personalities each possessing a shared shred of their creator(s) and going about on their own in their own accord. Mine are not nameless actors playing the roles of these characters once or twice a week anymore. They are their own beings, and they have their own lives, and it would hurt me to do anything to terminate their existence. They live in the minds of the readers and the fans, in the fan art and my art, in the written and spoken word.

This is primarily why it pains me when people tell me that they can't connect to a character modeled after them, or one that is modeled on another person. Once I take the input, the character itself becomes its own entity. They have background and personality. They are their own being, albeit possibly trapped within my mind and that of the readers'.

So, I only created them and their world initially, but they create the stories. I merely document them once or twice a week.

        

I treat the weekly comics as a snapshot in time. Things happen in those seven days between each snapshot. Sometimes the snapshots are remotely sequential, but most of the time they're not. However, the seven days in between are often filled in by Facebook status updates from Alex, tweets from the fenines or Alex or Adam Rarnar, blog updates from Rarnar Industries or Alex, and random sketches I draw in lieu of working on that week's comic. The forums pull in a lot of the backstory slack as well. Most of what happens in there is canon as well.

So, if people aren't following the many outlets, stuff can be missed. I try to imply what is missed in the comics from time-to-time, but it doesn't always happen.

Here's what you missed yesterday.

Adam's been getting suspicious of Lee and has been keeping a possible plan for him in the works since around that time. Lee has been busy working on his own delusions of grandeur, keeping with the Dark Law ideals of his inherited company.

The Terran branch of the Triune—the governing body for the three-law system—suffered a massive loss as 69 members of its 70 member council perished in a terrorist bombing of the Ascension office building. The 70th member, President Escobedo escaped possible death by being on Mars during the bombing. Much to Lee's dismay, that is.

Although, not one to be hindered, Lee embraced his demonic tendencies and (in homage to Spiderman) disabled the Presidency for a while. The Triune, on the other hand, decided that a certain member of its Dark Law system was abusing their own limitations and took steps to remedy the situation.

Alex and Anubis are scheduled to fight soon for the good of the Terran Solar System. Aside from that, another little conflict has been escalated via a Twitter conversation between Alex and Adam Rarnar last night. Alex voluntarily resigned and Lee was fired. Lee acknowledged his dismissal and proceeded to concentrate on matters of Ascension. Alex changed his Twitter profile to reflect his new position with Ascension.

So, we're gonna drop into this arc as it's picking up steam. After I return from Comic Con.

        

Final image:
Rarnar Last Supper Final

And the video of the six hours it took to create compressed into 15 minutes of footage:

        

Working on some foreshadowing in the comic, and I get to paint it after I digitally color it. The painted one will probably be framed and put up somewhere or sold or something. Depends on how much I like it. Anywho:

Rarnar Last Supper

If I handled this correctly, the characters I want emphasized will be and that should progress the story along quite nicely.

        

Final drawing here: MMA Linkin vs. Anubis

        

Working on promotional material for the upcoming story arcs. I'm also seriously thinking about where I want the overall feel of my webcomic to head. I can't seem to make a funny comic often, so I'm thinking about going the MMA direction. It'd be restricted to Alex and Anubis and anyone else that becomes introduced if only for the fights, but I also don't want to get locked in that direction. I've created many three-dimensional and two-dimensional characters, and I don't want to shelve any of them at all. I also believe that I've created a rich world in the Terran dimension, and I want to explore that world further than the reaches of Emeryville and New York.

And my two biggest upcoming tasks: Anubis vs. Alex MMA fight and the Touhou "Bad Apple" rotoscope animation video. The video has about 7.5 seconds of animation thus far. Out of a total 5 minutes and 34 seconds. It's going to take a while, but I'm still shooting for a final version (or at least a full mockup animation) by June.

The MMA fight has reignited my love for the sport, so I've been heavily immersed in watching bouts lately. Mostly, I'm concentrating on the fighting styles and how they play out in the ring/octagon/cage from the standpoint of a future still action shot. I'm trying to figure out the strengths to Alex's and Anubis' fighting styles, how the fight is going to play out, how long I want it to run, what "camera" placements will be used and when. Also, I'm trying to find real world analogs for Alex and Anubis. I've found at least one for Alex that matches him in aspects of personality (in-fight), build and fighting style: Thiago Alves. I've yet to find someone that I feel would be a good explosive analog for Anubis, but suggestions are welcome.

Obviously the two of them aren't the same weight class, but that doesn't really matter to me given the complex principle of the fight. I'd rather concentrate on the ultimate outcome of the fight, and most of the post-fight has been storyboarded, but I don't know what it happening during the fight yet. And, I'm not giving away outcome at all, but it should be quite interesting.

I've also managed to create a complex backstory to Lee, which isn't really a surprise since all of my characters are extensions of me in some form or another. I'm a little jealous of Alexander, though. I've managed to create quite a sexy, charismatic and likeable masculine gay man. In the same span of one month, Alex amassed more followers on Twitter than I did in the same span. I'm sure he'll surpass me.

        

I've been toying with the idea of a calendar. We are three months into the year, so perhaps it will be a 2011 Calendar instead. Anyway, I've just drawn two versions of the following, one of which answers the question of boxers or briefs for Alexander Wu:



So, yeah. Click on Alex above, and find out if the answer to "Boxers or Briefs" is boxers, briefs or both? I would have drawn one more layer down but I didn't want to be that worked up for the rest of the day. Perhaps some Anubis later to please my furry fans, but not just yet. I have a room to clean and taxes to do. At least two employers have yet to send me my W2s or 1099s.

        

Wrap your noodle around this.

Pennies' mommy is Cubbiepub.

Cubbiepub was created on happenstance by Poke sometime late last year (in-world 2013).

Anubis is by-proxy Pennies' daddy.

Since Pennies can time-travel at will and dimension jump and choose her destinations, she chooses to live in a time about three years before her birth. In a time before her mother's creation even. And Pennies knows she's doing this, but it doesn't seem to concern or faze her and it doesn't seem to alter the timeline at all.

So, what will happen when Pennies reaches that point of her own birth?

        

Stay with me for this one, I'm just tossin' it out there.


Men of Eccentricity Calendar by ~BREWNinja on deviantART

I tossed together the two poses yesterday in contemplation of creating a 2010 calendar. I know we're in February, but there's still ten months left. Anyway, just wondering out loud...what's the appeal here? Should I toy with the idea of drawing out the Men of Eccentricity in sexiness poses for a whole of the year's worth (provided people would actually buy a high quality calendar) or should the theme be just the world of Eccentricity (where Alex and Anubis would be a part but not be the sole influence)?

The former is about six months worth of drawings completed, meaning I have about three of Alex drawings, two of Adam and two of Anubis. The rest would be one of Lee (not half-nakies, but posing with the goggies) and maybe a spread of the boys in business attire or some other sexiness.

The latter would involve including Anubis and Alex as they appear on the cover for some steamy month, and the remaining 11 images would be of the puppies, kitties, fenines, secondary characters, main characters, and possible landscapes of the Eccentricity world.

So, asking for opinion. Which would be more of a motivational buy? More of the sexy boys for a whole year (it helps support a starving artist...literally, I have zero income) or a little bit of everything for a year, or one more idea of just the fenines and the puppies? Something else?

        

Ascension Enterprises by ~BREWNinja on deviantART

There's just something about wearing a suit and having all that Dark Law Systems power, security minions at the ready, and being CEO that's just so much more appealing to Lee than running around as a minion of Gray Law Systems Rarnar Industries.