Or close to it, anyway. I came across an old written document that described all the characters, towns, and ideas to my Evo project, and it dates back to December 2002 while the oldest artwork i could find dated to March of 2003. No worries on Chronological Details, but the project is close to five years in the making (while no progress has been completed to launch another comic). That's pretty awesome, though somewhat sad at the same time, since all I have is the pilot comic up for show.
But that's okay in the end. I hope to complete something amazing. At least amazing to me!
Anihoo, since tons of changes have been made to the stories of this series, I'm re-writing the outline document right now, under the advice of my pal Frankie/Chicobo329. I'm not reading the old one because I want to compare the two and I think some of my old ideas are stupid, anyway! All I know is that the 2002 premise of the story was FIRST about Azu being followed by a magician prince (Deres) reincarnated into a small boy, and the 2003 premise was about Azu and Prince Deres (as a teenager) being caught up in a war of magicks and the evolution of such powers. From the summer of 2005 onward, It was simplified to just follow the odd couple as Deres was sent on a scavenger hunt for spellcasting equipment (under the direction of an ex-pirate) and Azu follows him to leave the simplistic tribal life for something more. I was stumped from there for years. That's about it.
There were some ideas from the earliest incarnation that included a normal inn that attracted many NOT-NORMAL customers, a hero-wannabee that visited there, and a pie-delivery girl
Anihoo, here's some of that old 2003 artwork.
That in the lower left is the kid Deres I mentioned. People did like him a lot, so in later adaptations of my progress, I decided to throw in some childhood/flashback stories! I still plan to!
For early versions of Azu in this story, she actually WASN'T a tribal. There's actually a bit of an explanation for that which'll happen soon!
Some of you remember this guy, right? Early Maurey sketch (formally "Mauriku" but it sounds too Japanese). Unlike Azu and Deres who underwent many changes, He today is still the same guy. A normal guy with no supernatural abilities who tinkers with small electronics. Back in the day, though, he had a tiny flying turtle mech that always followed him and done his work for him. This was based on a random scientist character I created back in 2001.
Maurey works at an inn that attracts wierdos and he delivers pies. More on him personally will come soon!
Oh boy! Azu!
The comic was started at LEAST four times before the true pilot got officialized. None of the previous story attempts made it past page 4.
Here's an attempt that had more of a major focus on the ex-pirate and his sister-assistant-who's-not-really-a-pirate in a flashback. He still has major importance to the story, and he has quite a background. In present day, he's a sorceror's apprentice. How and why, it'll come soon.
One of the last few pages I've made public. I really love the coloring style and the texture, but I could only pull it off in Painter 5 and with their lack of layers and inability to use the color picker on wet watercolors, it became too much work for me to fork out more pages all by myself.
Also, this next chapter of the comic has to bridge my old ideas from the pilot (which originally wasn't intended for the series in the first place but became a local hit) into the ideas I have for the rest of the series- and new designs.
And that's where I've been since summer. :)
Azu changed a lot over the years. But she was around before the EvoRelution project was even thought of- as an anthro bird-type thing for a Kirby Fancomic.
Her very first drawing was at an oekaki. My skills were very sad on the Oekaki. Still are.
The Azu in the old comic was much different. She was a lot more intelligent on everything there is to know- except food!
And a new tablet from my mother.
I'm happy that I don't have to rely on anymore pen-mashing to swap colors and pen sizes. I'm also greatly amused that in Banjo-Kazooie, everytime I go into the Mad Monster Mansion bathroom, an epic Stop-n-Swop fanfare ensues. I paid little attention to the hack spoilers back in the day, so this came as a total surprise. And given I spent four hours in gameplay looking for the four missing notes in MMM that the Bottles Bonus challenge took away, I made more than ten trips into that bathroom. Fanfare after Fanfare after Fanfare even with the egg long gone. All that's there is a happy toilet. Maybe I'm too easilly amused!
