One-way-ticket adventure to Mars 🌌
Stumbling through the Australian bush is one thing, but doing so on Mars in this sci-fi monster romance is quite another!
Hi spiky charmer,
Once during a day out – a walk in the local Australian bush when I was a teen – my parents and I were tracking along the dirt pathway that wove back and forth down a hill. When I noticed that between each length of path was a short stretch of wilderness, and bored of walking along the straight and narrow, I decided to take a 'shortcut' through the shrubbery.
Now that's a real bush-walk!
It was all well-and-good... until the path that wove back... did not weave forth. After 20 dry shrubs and 15 rocks, the blood rose in my cheeks. Oh shit. Where am I??
In a sobbing fluster, I scrambled back up. Was that the rock I just passed? Yes. And that gnarly branch? I definitely stepped over that.
The ending is happy; I found the original path and jogged down it faithfully to rejoin my parents. Silly, silly.
Someone like me goes on an adventure but only when it's safe enough. That's not the case for Flores, the main character of my current work-in-progress comic.
Flores (she/they) was always the explorative sort. She could not sit still in class and relished in sports and camping trips. When she heard that the successful Mars colony was looking to expand, signing up was a no-brainer.
Unlike my doubling-back through the bush, though, there was no return ticket for them. Not much energy or rocket fuel to work with after a battle...
But they're making the most of it. Or trying, anyway.
A hint of history
I started writing this comic around January this year. But to say the story and its characters are that young is only mildly inaccurate.
Take a look at this.
Humble origins in 2006
Mcfreaking MSPaint! I was drawing with a mouse too. Haven't kept up that magical discipline. (I respect anyone who does.)
She started off as "Ferinnja", which I didn't know at the time was a real Spanish masculine name (heh, oops). Although, in hindsight, I'm pretty sure it was an enneagram of my own name but to spare myself the embarrassment of admitting it was a self-insert I designed her to look different. HaAHAhA.
An attempt to refresh the design in 2011
Not anymore. Flores still has a name from latin origin and is much more inspired by a friend's character: Lance from a vampire tabletop roleplaying game I played in (the author doesn't have an online presence to link to, unfortunately). You'll find more about that too later~
Look how chill they both are!
And unlike oddly-named Ferinnja, who was exposed to sewer goop, the same stuff that created zombies (apparently??), and gave her totally thematically appropriate cat ears, a tail and blue fire (wow)... Flores is a down-to-earth soldier just making do with all the stress and violence surrounding them.
Not a big leap at all.
But the concept certainly is: it's 16 years old. You can imagine how excited I am (and the teen inside me), to give this a fresh lick of paint. Some stories are best told when we're ready for them!
> What's a book, series or film you've enjoyed that either was a decade in the making, or revived after so long?
Also, have a Merry Christmas! Since this newsletter is so fresh, I have nothing special up my sleeve. So y'all better stick around for a whole year when I most likely will. 😉
ciao until January,
Jennifer
Forward a friend this email who would dare go on a Mars trip!