-
All responses Most smiled responses
-
I feel a little embarrassed admitting this... but I don't know what it says either. It's actually a brush that I downloaded a while back and turned into a pattern. I didn't want something too distracting in the background and the plain white I had initially planned to use didn't look right. So, I threw the light handwriting pattern down with a bit of cloud filter.
It's just a texture to represent various notes he's written over the years, not meant to be read. Sorry. -
I haven't answered a question in a while because I haven't received any. I can't answer questions if I don't get any. So, why not ask me a question? Come on, you know you want to.
-
Hey there, Darc here. Hmm... well, I'd probably have to say the business side of things. While I find what goes into running and maintaining the business interesting, it's not something I'm very versed in. Marketing is especially difficult for me to figure out. I often feel stalled because I can see what needs to be done to help promote the comic and expand the business, but I have to be careful to minimize risks and keep the finances in mind.
On top of that, while many webcomic creators would like to do their comic full-time and make an income off of it, they don't seem very supportive when they run across someone who's attempting to do so. Getting the vibe that your fellow webcomic creators see you as a money-grubbing jerk is pretty depressing when you get down to it. I love CN:H. And, because I love CN:H, I would like to be able to keep it going. Nothing wrong with that, as far as I can tell.
So yes, I'd have to go with dealing with the business side. -
Hi Jon, Matt here.
Generally speaking, magic systems in fiction are... Well, complex. Mythology and folklore doesn't put rules or limits on magic, at least not in a way that makes storytelling easy.
Much of the magical system we've built is based on a combination of logic and common sense. We didn't want the magic to be a huge centerpiece of the stories (Otherwise Max and Ruby would be spellslingers), so we downplayed the overall importance of magic to the characters.
Things like the Fey were taken from folklore, as the rules regarding the Faeries (See Issue 12) are found in one form or another in everything from Brother's Grimm to Victorian era Faerie Tales to Irish Myth to Shakespeare.
The major problem with creating a magic system is to make sure that whatever you want to put in later doesn't break the system (and consequently the reader's ability to suspend disbelief). Hunter's system was constructed mostly by taking the major pieces we wanted, seeing what needed to be done to accommodate those parts, and then setting some very basic ground rules. By keeping it flexible, we've been able to adapt to new things (Such as general rules for demons and angels, werewolves, and lots of other things) -
Hrm. Well, in both Kevin and Kell and Suburban Jungle the main characters are animals. In Hunter, while the characters are animals, they're also more like toons. They don't act like animals (as opposed to either of the other comics) and beyond a minor reference of a character's species as an extremely loose allegory to race and social class (see the Astorian xenophobia. Where hounds are considered the most noble of species... Or the werewolf outbreak, where hounds were the most vulnerable.) the concept of species is mostly ignored.
So to answer the question. All pairings will produce viable offspring. With the "species" of the child being either that of the mother or father. -
Mercy MacKenzie is a working class succubus who happens to live next to Max and Ruby.
Mercy's interest in Max is nothing really personal (or it's entirely personal, depending on how you look at it.) She, like most of her kind, feed on mortal's energy, through physical contact. Essentially succubi (and many other creatures) feed off of the magic that mortals create by existing. This most often doesn't hurt the mortal, tho if taken too far can be detrimental or even fatal.
Mercy does not need to feed through sex, tho due to her nature, she's a very physical and affectionate person (a trait shared with other succubi and incubi) As for why she's interested in Max? Proximity plays a good part of it, and Mercy's not typically rejected by single men. Max has kept clear of Mercy's affections for personal reasons (not because of her demonic nature) Fortunately for Max, he's easily replaced in her interests by a parade of other men and women that pass in and out of her life.
Despite her demonic heritage, Mercy is a sweet woman who only wants to find her true love. Unfortunately, in her mind, her true love is every man - and more than a few women - who crosses her path. -
Hi Jon,
Since we're pulling from actual Brito-celtic mythology, there is no Autumn or Vernal courts. Technically, the two courts are Seelie and Unseelie, which roughly translates to "Warm" and "Cold" fey (Actually, it translates to "happy/lucky/good" and "bad/unholy/unlucky" but warm vs cold is another approximation that commonly crops up). Although neither subgroup were particularly good to have around, people generally regarded the Seelie courts (Summer) to be beneficial if treated with proper respect, and the Unseelie (Winter) to be dangerous no matter what.
However the mythology came out, the Seelie Fey were only just, kind and good when they were being treated with extreme reverence. They were often called the Lords and Ladies (the Gentry, the Good Folk, the Fair Folk) for similar reasons. When crossed, they were just as bad, if not worse, than their cold cousins.
It's best to think of the two courts as farmers and hunters. The Winter fey will kill mortals as fast as look at them, but they don't pretend kindness by building them a barn and letting them get fat on hay and corn.
As for something a little more neutral, the Supporters will be seeing that in the next few issues, when we approach the Goblin Market. -
Hmm... well, first of all, I'd make sure all our bills are paid off in full. Then, I'd like to purchase a large house with a lot of ground and offer room to fellow artist friends. Most artists work alone and have a hard time meeting their bills and keeping their confidence up. A home where we can all offer support to each other sounds like a grand idea. After that, I'd like to expand RCSI Publishing. A lot of our problem at the moment is that we're unable to grow due to finances. We're not comfortable taking a big risk and not being able to recover from it if things don't work out. So, we take things slow and cautiously instead.
Unfortunately, I don't play the lottery - I'm pretty unlucky as far as gambling goes - so the chances of money not being an object are really low. *smile* -
Hey there! Thanks, I'm glad the CBRs are working out well. They're a lot easier to store compared to the print single issues. Those have taken over half of the only closet in the house. *laughs*
I'd like both the young prince and Moraine to be a bit more, well, human for lack of a better word. Even though they're not bouncing around in the middle of the action, they're still both important characters in the series. One of my goals is to start bringing more of the prince's personality out as we go along. Max is a good foil for this, since he actually likes kids and the prince sees Max as someone he looks up to.
The prince is a little hard for me to write, since I'm rarely around children these days. Moraine herself is a lot easier to handle. -
Moraine rarely does magic. The main reason is that she just doesn't need to. She's perfectly capable of taking care of things without the use of magic. The other reason is that she doesn't want to alarm anyone. As the prince said, Moraine's worried about people - agents especially - becoming uneasy if they find out just what she can do. Moraine has a LOT of power magically.
Does she know what she's done? Yes, she does. The two instances you mentioned were by a young Moraine who was frightened/upset and new to her abilities. The current Moraine is a lot older (over sixty years have passed by, after all) and she's been perfecting her abilities on her own. She fully intended to heal Max's knee.
As to why she was willing to let Max know she can do magic... she has her reasons. Which, we'll find out at a later date. ;D -
Hi there!
Agents typically don't go horsing around (ha, I kill me) too often. It's not a skill that's common among them. So when an agent does need to use a horse, it's typically somewhat comedic unless they've been riding for a while.
That said, there isn't an actual stables set aside for the Agency's use. When a horse is needed they either borrow one from the Royal Mews, or raid the Metropolitan Police Mounted Division's stables (usually with a lot of protest from Scotland Yard)
That said, there's not a lot of choice of horses, and not often a lot of time for them to form a partnership.
Max grew up on the family farm, and the McConnor's have been breeding high quality horseflesh for the nobility for a few generations now. Max learned to ride almost at the same time as he learned to walk, although his time at school kept him out of the saddle, he's still capable of holding his seat and riding well, despite being out of practice.
His niece, Samantha, is a much better rider than Max, with a lot more recent experience in the saddle. Then again, practice makes perfect, I'd hate to see how Sammy drives compared to her uncle. Actually, that's a bad example, Max is a nut behind the wheel. -
asked by Brighttail
(Just a quick note... this question refers to events currently showing up on the Supporters area of the site. In fact, all the questions currently waiting in the queue do. So, if you're not a Supporter and are confused by this question, that's why.)
Yes, they are. The fey realm changes people over time, making them unable to return to the regular world. The quickest way of bringing about this change is by eating fey food - this makes the change instantaneous. But, if you stay in the fey realm for too long, the magic of it seeps into you and makes it hard for you to remain in the regular world for long. Basically, you get sick and die. It's not fun.
(I should probably point out that there are many versions of how the fey work. This is just the one we've decided to follow for the CN:H world. Other stories may use a different version.)
There are a number of agents stuck in the fey realm, some because of things like what happened to Agent Nyx, others by their own choice. -
asked by chrispco
Oh yes, quite often. I'm not sure exactly what will happen in the future. I'm still trying to learn just how to put together a comic, so hopefully the comic will slowly get better with time.
I don't expect much will change within the next year. We'll have the Volume II trade out, which will be nice. I've some ideas for new things to try for the readers - fun stuff like give-aways and such. I'd also like to increase the update schedule if the RCSI Pub workload and my health permits. In five years, at the current pace of two pages a week (around four issues a year) we'll be in Issue 34 or so, probably somewhere in the "Phases" storyline and about halfway through the series. Which, should be exciting.
I'd love to do something like Max and Ruby statues or dolls, but I'm going to be realistic and say that probably won't happen. The cost of doing those - not to mention storing them - is pretty high. But, we'll come up with something. Maybe RCSI raid jackets? *grin*
But mostly, I'm just hoping I can keep the comic entertaining for our readers and keep improving bit by bit. -
1) Assuming they're still agent/assistant it would definitely be a conflict of interest on their parts. However, it seems silly for her to move out because of that.
2) Most assistantships last 1-2 years. Sometimes shorter (like Nero, who's assistantship lasted 3 months), others are longer.
3) Sassy does live with Bullet, but when she marries, she'll be moving into a new place with her husband. Agents and assistants don't have to live together, it's just a convenience when a call happens in the middle of the night. Nero, for example, lives out near Cambridge and commutes in every day. (He had the same address during his time as an assistant) -
Yes, she does. Her right foot is the same red as her hair and tail tip. Unfortunately, due to her wearing shoes, it doesn't get shown too often. Her tail tip and red foot are the only markings she has.
Max, meanwhile has a white, vaguely heart-shaped patch on the left side of his butt. He's very self-conscious of that. -
asked by kheetor84
Well, the thing is, in a long-form series like Hunter, character development occurs over the course of many many issues. Little tidbits pop up as side-effects in any single issue, and contribute to the development of the character as a whole.
Trying to force a lot of development into a single issue will quickly make that issue feel like it's getting heavy, unless you're able to work it into a much bigger plot. (Examples, Issue 8 and 9 of Code Name: Hunter are both very much focusing on Max and Ruby respectively, but since they're heavily tied into both future and past plots, they don't feel as if they're overwrought on the character development)
Generally speaking, the best method is Show, Don't Tell for anything in a story. If you want to have a lot of character development, drag the readers along for the ride. It'll make for a better story. -
Hi, Jon. Darc here. Influenced the drawing of the comic... well, I've been reading a lot more comic books over the last few years than I used to. I was really into comics - mostly the indies - in the mid nineties, but recently I've been reading more Batman and Wonder Woman, as well as anything I can find from the 40's to the 70's. I've also been reading up on a number of the old school creators, people like Alex Toth and Milton Caniff. I love the new artist we have working now (I can't wait for the Amanda Conner art book to come out), but the old guys did so much with just pencil and ink. It's pretty inspiring. Whether any of this is rubbing off on me, I don't know. But hopefully I'm picking up some tips on pacing at least.
I'm also trying to pick up what I can from animation (I love the Disney 'Art of' books) as well as fashion design. Since I can't go to art college, I'm trying to learn from what I read and see. It's a much slower process and I often make mistakes, but hopefully people will at least be somewhat understanding about the occasional off-model panels. -
Ruby drives a Honda Hornet. I tried getting it as close as I could to the actual motorcycle, but machines aren't really my strong suit. *laughs*
-
It depends on my mood at the time and what I need to get done. If I'm trying to draw a page that includes some action or different poses, I like to have that "Batman: The Animated Series" show on. (Hey, what can I say, I like Bruce Timm's work.) If I'm feeling a little down or stressed, I prefer something funny running, like "Daria" or "Ed, Edd, 'n Eddy". But usually, it's either music or forensic shows.
-
Traditionally, stories tell us that the Fey Folk are affected by Cold Iron. Other metals don't have any affect, even steel has a muted effect on them. Pure iron works the best.
Now, there are other things that affect Faeries. Rowan berries, wood from an ash tree, running water, and the sound of church bells were all deterrents to the Fey.
-
Loading...
Darc Sowers’s Bio
I'm a former librarian with her MLS who, in 2007, decided to leave librarianship to create comics. In my spare time I wrangle a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and an over-sized cat. Life's good.
