Max T has jokingly (I think) referred to my work as 'the Desingverse', which I suppose is my own sort of universe where my stories exist. Up until now, I didn't think much about the moniker (although I found it flattering), but I've started to realize that I can unify everything I've done in this one milieu - or at least my comics work.
My first comic book was called Seymour, about a fantasy world and a sword-wielding teddy bear who is on a quest. A few months ago, I started sketching Seymour again, and actually created two pages of a comic. I knew he was on a quest in a dark land, and that he was protecting a baby girl. I didn't really know much else. It hit me today; he is an important link in the story of Vesper. She is the princess of the Shadow Realm, but is currently deposed (she and Oberion can get together and complain about it some time). However, she was originally trapped there as an infant, and her subconscious mind created Seymour to protect her and get her out, into the mortal realm. He is still there, waiting for her return. He cannot leave the Shadow Realm (he is part of it), but he's still there fighting the good fight. He's met Doc Stalwart a few times.
I already fit the Army Ants in. They were a backup feature in the golden age stories, and have appeared in dream machine sequences in his present adventures.
Teaching Ted was a comic strip I did about a teacher named Ted Zeitgeist who is trying to make his way through his first few years of teaching. However, Ted has a side hobby - he is the world's biggest collector of Doc Stalwart merchandise, and he is publishing a book about Doc Stalwart, taking a scholarly approach to documenting and analyzing Doc's adventures. He is 'me' in the world where Doc Stalwart comics are being published. I almost think that he is the one writing the prose adaptations, not me... if that makes any sense. So his comic strip has actually happened to him in the world where Doc Stalwart comics are being published (but where superheroes and Doc Stalwart are entirely fictional). The Stalwart Age is the world's most popular RPG in that world (as it should be in this one, but I digress...).
Yes! It's all coming together! Long live the Desingverse! (And yes, I've referred to your wok with that descriptor many times) :)
ReplyDeleteI always thought of it as sort of tongue in cheek. But not so much anymore...
DeleteThis is so cool - and so much fun. I love the way you're developing the game, the fictional comic, the fictional world in which the comic is published in, the fictional world within the comic. It's just brilliant! It reminds me a tad of what Cynthia Celeste Miller was doing in Omlevex (which is a very cool project), but further developed and with even more layers. I'd collect full-on Desingverse comics, if I had the opportunity, and I would LOVE to see a Doc Stalwart animated series (done in your signature stile, which is as cool, fun, and charming as cool, fun, and charming get)!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness that is a lot of compliments! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Delete