Comic
Back in December of 2003, I started thinking about a webcomic that would bring together two of my favorite storytelling genres: modern fantasy/horror and crazy-friends-living-together-and-having-wacky-adventures. I started playing with the idea of a bunch of mythological beings living in that white Bavarian castle, the one whose name I could never remember. Castle Whatsitsname.
After doing a bit of research, I realized that to tell that story, I would have to continue doing research, and I'd rather spend my time drawing and writing. I kept the name Castle Whatsitsname and re-settled the comic in a fictional town in upstate New York. Months and then years went by, and though I hadn't drawn a single strip, the characters and their history grew in my head. I've made hundreds of sketches and written pages and pages of background notes, and six years later, I'm finally starting to turn it into a comic. My family and friends have heard me talking about this story for years, and I feel it's time to elaborate a bit more.
What's this story about?
On one level, Castle Whatsitsname is about a gang of strange creatures and one human living together in a small castle at the gateway to another world, where magic runs wild like a toddler on espresso. On another level, it's about death and spirituality and the mystic realms that exist beyond our mortal perceptions. I'm shooting for a combination of weird dark humor and meaningful storytelling, but if I fail, I should at least be able to entertain my fellow geeks with catgirls, werewolves, and talking rats.
The comic begins when the Undertaker, the keeper of the Castle and father-figure to its denizens, dies suddenly, and a human wanders unknowingly into their midst...
Alyssa Dawes
Castle Whatsitsname's token human is cynical, sarcastic, and a die-hard geek. An aspiring veterinarian and theatre techie, Alyssa Dawes leaves college and her career plans behind after a serious accident and seeks solitude in the Adirondacks. Instead, she finds the Castle and a world full of gods, demons, werewolves, dragons, elves, and magic. In other words, it's a fangirl's a dream come true! Underneath her jaded shell, Alyssa's thrilled about her new friends and the opportunity to run as far as possible from a life she hated. Now if only things worked the way she expected from reading fantasy novels...
Cheshire
A Siberian husky mother, a werewolf father, and a wild magic storm present during Cheshire's birth resulted in some...unusual traits. Her werewolf kin refused to acknowledge the "half-breed hermaphrodite mutt," but the Undertaker raised Cheshire without worrying about her gender identity. Since undergoing his first Change, Cheshire has become quite comfortable with human form and rather enjoys human pastimes like cooking and dancing. Usually the soft-spoken omega, Chesh never expected to become a leader, but she's been the Undertaker's right-hand wolf for years, and she's managing better than she thought she would at keeping the Castle from falling apart.
Dzeriel
Dzeriel used to be an angel. He didn't mean to Fall, but Earth just had so much cool stuff, he couldn't resist! He tumbled halfway down the path to demonhood before he realized he wasn't cut out to be an angel or a demon. So now he's just an intern. The Undertaker needed someone to help modernize the Castle, and Dzeriel's love of human technology made him the perfect candidate. When he's not working on the computer, Dez lives for music.
And for those of you who are curious, any resemblance between Dzeriel and a certain friend of mine is ENTIRELY coincidental. They are nothing alike. Dzeriel is a Mac user.
Ferkus
Ferkus is a lazy, lecherous slob of a dingbat who came to the Castle as an egg in the glove compartment of the Undertaker's hearse. He can drive anything with wheels, find the right tool for any occasion, and fix anything that's not a computer - when he can be persuaded to get out of his hammock. Ferkus thrives on sleep, junk food, and the pursuit of women by way of bad innuendo. If he worshipped any god, it would be the God of Bacon.
Jadinn
How do you handle guard duty shifts for a portal to the spirit realms? By creating a statue that comes to life only when something passes through the portal. Jadinn is a Guardian, a living construct who needs no sleep, no food, and no breaks from her watch. The blood of a mother dragon imbues Jadinn and her ilk with a fierce protective instinct that extends to the portal and those who care for it. Jadinn is only about 150 years old but she displays more emotion than many of her older counterparts.
Narumi
Narumi shows up around the same time as Alyssa, in the company of a certain Greek god with a colorful reputation. When he takes off, she sticks around, though no one is really sure why. Her cool, collected sensuality conceals her ulterior motives well - when the rats aren't around to distract her and shatter her feline dignity.
So when does the comic come out?
Hopefully, next year. Plenty of people say "I wanna do a webcomic," bang out a few characters, draw a couple of strips, and throw a website together in a month. That works for some cartoonists, but I'm the plodding, methodical type who needs to plan everything. Rather than set a concrete timeline (which is hard between my two other jobs and helping my husband start his own business this summer), I need to hit some milestones before I publish the comic:
- Draw model sheets for each character, and get to know them backwards and forwards
- Create a distinctive environment and feel for the Castle, the spirit world, weapons, creatures, etc.
- Practice storyboards and quick comic sketches until I feel comfortable drawing the characters interacting
- Write/refine the first few months' worth of scripts
- Draw comics until I'm confident I can produce one a week without killing myself
Once I get those steps down, I'll create a new website and put the strip up. Until that happy day, stay tuned to my Sketchblog to watch Castle Whatsitsname evolve.