Edit2: Apparently a lot of people are having trouble with the poll, sorry guys, I don’t know what’s wrong with it.

<—–Just use the one in the sidebar to the left. Thanks!

Edit3: Thanks for all the votes guys! Here’s how it’s gonna work.

I am going to draw this comic, right now I plan to do a few pages and then open up for donations on the first page. The second option, where everyone gets the comic was way more poplar but I also have to take into account that most people voted that because they want the comic but don’t want to spend any money. I even got a formspring message asking, well telling really, me not to charge to read the comic.

So I decided to do a combination of both: people that donate at least $1 will get a high-res copy of the current page, people that don’t donate will get to read the web-resolution archive, those pages will go up on the site and deviantart once the pool hits a multiple of $100. When the comic is finished there will probably be a book if there is enough interest in one.

Also some plot things to anticipate questions:
-It’s using the Worst Idea versions of the characters, mostly for copyright reasons, but also because their backstory is a little more relevant in that comic.
-Both Gabry and Liam will get last names in the story.
-Robert (Red Engineer) will be in it. His role is pretty important.
-I’ll try to slip in other CV characters if I can.
-Charlotte from these comic strips will also appear at some point, because I needed a therapist and hey, she’s a therapist.
-I’m calling the comic Sin Pararse for right now, not sure if the title will stick or not.

A sketch for a very kind donator. It’s not a very complicated drawing, but I think it came out pretty cute.

A random sketch from a couple of days ago. Nicole doesn’t really look like herself when I draw her with makeup and a dress. Or a skirt rather, the top half of the outfit is more based on men’s dress clothes.

More random sketches.
Left: TWIYEH! Versions of Jordi and Jeremy. Jordi works at the ABC store with Nicole. He’s not gonna have his tanlines or scars anymore (sorry). He’s still scared of fire (and by extension, Nicole). Jeremy’s changed a lot, to the point where his hair is a different color (almost white as opposed to the yellowier color he’s got in CV), but I want most of his stuff to be a surprise. They’ll show up in chapter two.

Right Top: Ellis and Nick from Left 4 Dead 2. I’ve realized that of all the characters Nick is the hardest for me to caricature, probably because I play as him and consequently see him less during gameplay. Incidentally I like this pairing but find most of the art/fic for it disappointing. They tend to seem a bit out of character in my opinion and that throws me off. I need lots of Nick and Ellis interacting like they do in game before I can buy them in any kind of romantic or sexual relationship.

Right bottom: Caine and Ian from TWIYEH! I don’t know what Caine is saying, but Ian is annoyed. This is a summary of the majority of their friendship.

Another re-imagining of a Rift character for TWIYEH!  I colored her lips and eyes because… it seemed odd not to.

Aurora  was a minor character in Rift and I had a lot more stuff written for her than showed up in the comic. Her basic concept was that she was a fantastically talented singer, adored by millions, but she had no friends or family and as a result was very isolated and lonely despite her fame.  Her TWIYEH! version is fairly similar, though not as rich and famous as the Rift version was intended to be.  She’ll appear in the second or third storyline depending on what order I decide to do them.

Another sketch so soon? What is this madness?

I finally switched my scanner over from my old iMac to the PC I’m using currently, and it seems to have trouble picking up my pencil lines now. It’s a bit bothersome.

Anyway some loose drawings of the TWIYEH! versions of Gabry and Liam, I’m thinking their outfits need some accessories or something. The stick Liam’s holding is a cane, before anyone asks.

Also before anyone asks: I’m aware it looks like Gabry’s about to grab Liam’s butt. That wasn’t necessarily intentional, but I won’t say it’s not in character.

Every time I go to update this sketchblog I’m like “I need to update this more” and then I don’t for a while. Bug me more about this sort of thing guys.

Anyway some old school Fleischer-y  type cartoon versions of the main heroes in TWIYEH! The scanner added that line down the middle. Not sure what’s up with that, I hope my scanner doesn’t plan on making a habit of it.

I haven’t posted a sketch here in a while, so here’s a few.

Top left, Nicole in her underwear for no discernible reason, plus Nummy Muffin.

Right, Cynthia’s work uniform.  She’s a waitress at a gimmicky restaurant where all the servers are cute animal girls.  She’s not too fond of most of the clientèle.

Bottom left, tiny Ian and Caine, just to fill up space.

I decided to give Nicole and Ian a pet. At first I was thinking a cat, but I thought a stupidly small dog would be funnier. I think he’s some kind of pomeranian mix.

Right now his name is a toss up between Nummy Muffin Coocolbutter and Ozymandias.  I’m not sure on the coloration yet.

I had about a third of a post about fandoms typed up  for a while now, but this thought just occurred to me. So I’m writing this instead.

If you happened to come here from another source, let me explain. I draw a fairly successful Team Fortress 2 fancomic called Cuanta Vida. It has a couple of homosexual relationships in it. Lately I’ve noticed a lot of people, even people that like it and therefore ought to know the difference calling CV and anything like it ‘yaoi’.  Apparently anything gay=yaoi.

This irritates me because the term implies a lot of other things about the comic that are false.  For example if I say “hey check out this yaoi comic” what sort of mental image does it bring up?

You imagine Japanese male/male porn, don’t you? I know I do.  I also imagine a very particular type of porn, something reminiscent of a romance novel. i.e. the story could not exist without the romantic and/or sexual aspects, and the characters are often (not always, but often) very effeminate. I’ve seen many a yaoi manga where one or both of the protagonists could easily be mistaken for a woman.

Admittedly I like slash, I like gay porn, I like some yaoi too. I’d go to a gay musical called Gay and enjoy the hell out of it. This is not a secret, nor should it be surprising.   But I get irritated when I see things called yaoi when they’re not, not just when they’re mine, and especially during an attempt to promote that thing.

Say you’re trying to suggest something like CV to someone who’s not a yaoi fan. I know of several straight men who read and enjoy it, so I know it’s not impossible. Maybe they give it a chance, but not because you warned them of  ’yaoi’, they’d be reading it despite that. Say they don’t read it, probably because they think it’s gay porn, they’d be dismissing it due to a false impression. (I have some issue with the idea that a homosexual relationship in a story requires a warning in the first place, but that’s a different issue.)

Say you’re recommending it to someone  who does like yaoi. Maybe they read it and like it, but they’d be enjoying it hopefully for the story and not for the nonexistent porn. Or they expect porn and then are disappointed when there isn’t any.

Can someone explain to me why people do this? It bugs me. Words have meaning and though yaoi or slash or homo-erotic might mean the same thing by written definition they have  connotations that imply very different things. It’s subtle but important distinction.