Thorondor “Ian” Caladharas is the 18 year old heir to one of the first of the Merchant Houses. An intelligent, independent teenager; Ian has a tendency towards irreverence and and frustration. In all honesty, he doesn’t care what his grandfather says he is heir to, he just wants to have a normal life. Or at least as normal a one as possible. (As my skills improved I made some revamps to this characters appearance to reflect aging and such as well. The top picture is how he is currently modeled. )
This is bloody incredible James! I have been looking for years for a 3d comic that is the antithesis of the typical “Poser Comic” And I have here and with DGN as well (figures that you do the art in that one, says alot about you really 😉 ) I love the story, the intricate weaving of the plotlines, the development and enrichment of the characters, hell even the villains aren’t straight up cutout villains. I almost took the week off from work to read this (but I didn’t, considering they would have fired me for it :p ) I really really love this. You rock James. The only downside of archive-binging is that you reach a point where you have to wait for a new page along with everyone else 🙂 keep it up
I’m glad you enjoyed it!!! (and let Jai know how you feel about DGN too 😉 )
Some thoughts:
On DGN:
I got into the DGN stuff when Jai had a massive system crash and pretty much lost the whole thing. I covered for him on a previous instance, and had all of the characters for the comic on a DVD so that I was easily able to pick up things and help him keep things going. Since then, I’ve also upgraded my system so it became really easy to keep helping. On DGN, the story is Jai’s, a lot of what I do is help him correlate stuff. He has all the stuff up in his head and in notes already. I just try to do kick ass artwork and be a walking outline so he can get out exactly what he has in his head the way he wants to see it.
As I’ve also said to Jai privately, my motives are not entirely altruistic. 1. I absolutely hate when webcomics die in the middle of a story and you never find out how it was going to end. It drives me nuts. I lost three of my favorite comics to that kind of thing, and it still irks the living shit out of me years later. DGN was going to get finished. And 2. DGN is kind of my vacation and my test bed for things that I use later on. It’s where I get to have fun with things and just go crazy at times.
On Requiem:
One of the things I wanted to do art-wise was something different. I really wanted there to be things in here that you have never seen before. I wanted expressions to be subtle (instead of that hyper exaggerated shit that comes from people just using face presets.) I wanted people to be actually interacting with their environment….that has also carried over into the stuff I’ve been doing with Jai on DGN
And I wanted there to be a STORY. One of the inspirations for how Requiem is put together is The Wire. I wanted something with a huge scope, and I wanted to be able to bring characters in and out and not be compelled to keep people around just because they appeared in a storyline. And I wanted there to be real people in it. People you actually gave a damn about. And in the middle of it all I also wanted to be able to talk about things that weren’t earth-shaking but are still important. And I think I’ve been lucky enough to pull it off (most of the time)
And then there is my long time interest in archaeology (paired with a love for Lovecraft) I always was fascinated with the idea of civilizations before Sumeria. Civilizations that may well have been as advanced as ours that died out for one reason or another, and left their pieces behind.
At any rate, enough of my rambling. Thank you very much for the kind words about the strip, and let me assure you that this will be going on for quite some time to come (in one incarnation or another). I’m glad you’re reading!
Damn you’re a quick responder! That’s another +1 for your corner of the web 😉 I graduated with a degree in Mathematics and Art History so really this comic is jiving with my love for those things. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of “Atlantis”. That is the “civilization before civilization” The notion of “do-over in human history is an intriguing one, and you’ve played with it well in this one. Good Job!
Thank you! One of the things that I consider myself very lucky to have is a very intelligent bunch of people who read this thing. It makes it great for those times when I reference some physics theory, or base a civilization off of the concept of bicameralism. People actually know what the heck I’m talking about. And it really gives me a lot of freedom to play around with ideas like that.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!!! (and let Jai know how you feel about DGN too 😉 )
Some thoughts:
On DGN:
I got into the DGN stuff when Jai had a massive system crash and pretty much lost the whole thing. I covered for him on a previous instance, and had all of the characters for the comic on a DVD so that I was easily able to pick up things and help him keep things going. Since then, I’ve also upgraded my system so it became really easy to keep helping. On DGN, the story is Jai’s, a lot of what I do is help him correlate stuff. He has all the stuff up in his head and in notes already. I just try to do kick ass artwork and be a walking outline so he can get out exactly what he has in his head the way he wants to see it.
As I’ve also said to Jai privately, my motives are not entirely altruistic. 1. I absolutely hate when webcomics die in the middle of a story and you never find out how it was going to end. It drives me nuts. I lost three of my favorite comics to that kind of thing, and it still irks the living shit out of me years later. DGN was going to get finished. And 2. DGN is kind of my vacation and my test bed for things that I use later on. It’s where I get to have fun with things and just go crazy at times.
On Requiem:
One of the things I wanted to do art-wise was something different. I really wanted there to be things in here that you have never seen before. I wanted expressions to be subtle (instead of that hyper exaggerated shit that comes from people just using face presets.) I wanted people to be actually interacting with their environment….that has also carried over into the stuff I’ve been doing with Jai on DGN
And I wanted there to be a STORY. One of the inspirations for how Requiem is put together is The Wire. I wanted something with a huge scope, and I wanted to be able to bring characters in and out and not be compelled to keep people around just because they appeared in a storyline. And I wanted there to be real people in it. People you actually gave a damn about. And in the middle of it all I also wanted to be able to talk about things that weren’t earth-shaking but are still important. And I think I’ve been lucky enough to pull it off (most of the time)
And then there is my long time interest in archaeology (paired with a love for Lovecraft) I always was fascinated with the idea of civilizations before Sumeria. Civilizations that may well have been as advanced as ours that died out for one reason or another, and left their pieces behind.
At any rate, enough of my rambling. Thank you very much for the kind words about the strip, and let me assure you that this will be going on for quite some time to come (in one incarnation or another). I’m glad you’re reading!
Thank you! One of the things that I consider myself very lucky to have is a very intelligent bunch of people who read this thing. It makes it great for those times when I reference some physics theory, or base a civilization off of the concept of bicameralism. People actually know what the heck I’m talking about. And it really gives me a lot of freedom to play around with ideas like that.