Fan Comics

Hi there!

I'm not sure if you've all been following my Twitter, or website, but I've been posting some fan comics on my blog in the past year, and thought I should mention about it here too, in case you missed the news.

Why comics?

Well, I've made it a rule not to write on weekends, to avoid burning out completely. But I can't well just sit still either and do nothing, so I try to practice drawing instead. It's very relaxing when done in moderation and helps my mind rest, while also improving the crucial visual side of my main works.

But the thing is, I'm really bad at drawing just random pictures, pin-ups, and poses. I need some context for my pictures, a story, so I typically end up drawing comics. Comics offer the benefit of repetition, the key to improvement, making you draw the same characters multiple times from different angles, and they give a platform to try out various things you normally might not think about.

So yeah, that's the reason why I did these pieces.

Most of my comic projects go nowhere, and aren't even expected to, but somehow, I got these two to a presentable state. And I felt I should post them, just to show what kind of stuff I do besides writing isekai web novels. And also, as evidence that I'm not only playing video games all the time lol

The common element in these stories is yuri, of course. The girls love aesthetic that is stubbornly present in basically everything I do. It doesn't look like I can ever do anything else, forgive me.

Since they are fan works, based on existing IPs, I won't post them here on Patreon, but made them freely available on my website. Trying to profit off fan content is...well, unethical, to say the least. Yes, many artists make big bucks exclusively on fan art here, and I'm not telling you to stop supporting such creators, if you are. I don't want to join that war on either side.

Anyway. The first comic I posted earlier in the winter was based on the video game Tales of Vesperia, featuring Princess Estellise and the mage prodigy Rita. Their suggestive in-game interactions ignited the creative spark in me, and I rushed this short story out without much thinking.

You can read it here:

https://ngeki.wordpress.com/comics/vesperia/  

The second comic, posted only today, is also based on a video game, Final Fantasy XIV, and stars a custom player character and Ryne, the young Oracle of Light from the Shadowbringers expansion. 

Rather than my own self-insert character, the concept for the protagonist was simply a genderbent version of the hero featured in the official trailers. But what the hell am I making excuses for? Nobody will believe me anyway!

You can read it here:

https://ngeki.wordpress.com/comics/ffxiv/

I started working on this one before the Eden raid series launched in the game. In this surprisingly yuri-ffic side content, Ryne got paired off with a new character—a development which the fanbase accepted with open arms.

When I found out, I began to doubt if I should even finish this comic. Even if it's only fan fiction, you kind of want to make it seem "plausible" in a sense. Or maybe that's just me? 

But then I thought, I did it for practice to begin with, and not to reach a huge audience, so what does it matter! I'd put too many hours into it to bury it in the X files. And here we are.

In addition to drawing, this comic gave me a good excuse to practice 3D-modeling.

I recreated the player character's room in Crystarium entirely in 3D, based on a handful of in-game screenshots. As far as I know, you can't visit the room freely, but it's only shown in certain cutscenes throughout the main story, so there weren't a lot of references available.

That took some effort, but I learned a lot in the process!

Hopefully this experience will help make my official future projects that much more fabulous.

But, that's about all for now. 

Hope you like the comics. If you haven't played the games, you can still look at the pictures, I guess. If you haven't played the games and hate my art too, I'm sorry for wasting your time like this lol

Next time, some original content.

Until then, stay safe and enjoy the summer!