do do dodo do do do oh my! Another comic-related post! I am such a time-waster(?)!

At any rate - this is another post related to my comic, which I have now renamed NIR. Since the idea's inception, the name has been changed twice - it was originally called NIN, but since Nin was supposed to be the name of land in which the story is situated, its inhabitants would be called 'Ninnians' - which didn't, ah, sound especially complimentary. It might have sounded all right on a sort of comedic/whimsical note, but in the end it was just too ridiculous for the story. So, I then changed it to NIVEN, which again brought up the question of what the inhabitants of Niven would be called. Nivenians? Nivenites? Nivvies? Nothing sounded good. This, in addition to the fact that I had in fact thought up the title when I was watching The Pink Panther (which featured an actor named David Niven), moved me to change it again: this time, to NIR.

I'll probably change the name again before this is all over, but for now I am satisfied.

At any rate - the lovely four-armed lady you see above is named Rue. She is the co-protagonist of my comic, and hails from the land of Krogoa, the island covered in thick forest and home to a race of big-eyed, four-armed, dark-skinned people known as (what else) the Krogoans. And no, this isn't 'anime-style' - those eyes are big for a reason. I wanted her race to be reminiscent of spiders, as that is an angle that has been rarely approached - most people go for the furry, cute mammals to mix with their made-up races in their fantasy stories. I thought spiders are generally a more useful sort of creature to emulate in the forest - they're quick, they're sensitive, they have a ton of legs, and they generally live a long time (in terms of spider years, anyway). I don't know how well I succeeded in that regard, but goodness knows I tried. I was originally going to give them more eyes, but having that coupled with the four arms was just a little too freaky, so I just enlarged the eyes a bit. The fun thing about it is that it doesn't really enhance their vision at all - they can see in the dark a little better than a regular human being can, but not by much. They can't hear too well either. They get around by sensing vibrations - again, much like a spider does.

In this particular sketch, Rue came out a little thinnner than I want her to be - her build is supposed to be broad and muscular. Ah, well. I like this sketch anyway.

This whole deal was to give a little background information on the character - her species and whatnot. Story notes are forthcoming - I'll probably post some storyboards sometime in the future. Yay! I'm actually getting somewhere! Hurray for productivity!