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Creature probably causes a lot of questions, so here is the place to answer them.
However, I can not answer all your questions because that would spoil
the comic. I will answer all that are relevant to the story at present, however.
And answer all other questions as they apply to the story.
Webmaster Questions
Comic Questions
Personal Questions
Webmaster Questions
Q- So where've you been?
If you have noticed, the comic died right around April 2011. That had been the first update in over a year, and then the last. Truthfully,
life goes on and since I undertook this idea of putting up a web comic, my life has completely changed. I started this thing as a 21 year old
college student that had no clue what I was going to do with my life. I'm now a thirty something married mother of two(as of this writing) and
I'm not really the spastic young adult I was in my youth. Creature unfortunately took a back seat to life. But he lingers in the recesses of my
brain and I am not about to let him die yet. At the very least, I want the website to be in a position where people can still come and visit even
if I am not making updates.
Q- How often do you post new comics?
A- When I first started this comic, it was quite frequently, several times a week. As life progressed, they spread out. Now, I'm going to shoot
on doing one once a month, until I get to a satisfactory stopping point for me where the comic has closure. I may make this goal, I may exceed it,
I may fail miserably. We shall see.
Q- I think I've seen storylines similar to this before. Have you copied them
from somewhere?
A- er, where? I did come up with this idea largely on my own, but considering
there are over 6 billion people in the world, I’m sure I have an idea that is similar to
somebody else’s, who has their work published even. There are various series out there about dimension jumping, Sliders, Doctor Who, etc,
but I'll be honest, I don't really watch those shows, though I hear Doctor Who is fantastic. If any of my stories appear
to be copying somebody else's idea, this is totally
unintentional. I will admit, however, that some of the worlds they visit will be
based on existing fictional worlds, but if so, I will try to comment on it somewhere. Meanwhile, i try to keep my worlds original.
See my disclaimer. I got to keep my bases covered!
Q- How do you advertise for this webcomic?
A- I don't. Mostly word of mouth. I'm going to seek on using Facebook and Twitter, and the resources available through Comic Genesis, but largely
I just do it. I had a pretty decent following at one time. I think they disappeared when I did.
Q- How long do you plan on writing this comic?
A- If I had continued it the way I had started it, it would have taken me a good twenty years to complete it. Unfortunately, I really don't see that
happening so I will probably try to bring closure to it in some fashion, and perhaps write the ending so my readers can see where I was going with
it. At this point, it is very much up in the air. It does have an ending though, if you can call it that.
Q- What program do you use to color your comics?
A- If you look closely at the comic as you read it, you'll notice it goes through a metamorphosis in regards to quality. That's becuase when I
started this, I had zero experience with Computer Illustration. I also had crummy software. The very fist was MGI Photosuite, which is awful.
Then I got Paint Shop Pro, which was better. NOw I use Photoshop, which I love. However I've had to teach myself to use the above
programs completely, I have no formal training on them. Therefore, this comic has become my excuse to learn the above programs. Mainly
Photoshop. Yay.
Of course, when I first started, I was using colored pencils and markers before I learned how to color properly. Yay.
Q-Can I link to your comic?
A- Please do. My primary advertisement is word of mouth.
Q-Will you put a link to my site?
A- I kind of stopped linking to anything in particular. It doesn't really seem like banners are the way to go anymore. More than anything,
social networking has taken over in regards to word of mouth. That, and I don't really follow webcomics anymore either. But if you want to show me something,
feel free to give me the link and if I like what I see, I might give you a shout out. However, at the moment, my comic is not giving people lots
of hits.
Q-Can I give you input on your site?
A- Yes, I am very open to input, constructive criticism, and definitely praise (who doesn't love praise?) Please refrain from telling me to update more.
I'll do the best that I can.
Q- Do you accept fan art?
A- Of course, who doesn't love fanart? I do, I consider it the highest form of flattery.
Q- Do you do guest strips?
A- Part one - Do I accept gueststrips to Creature? I have in the past, however seeing as I'm trying to streamline the comic to end it, and guest strips
can be disruptive to the flow of the story line, I am not taking any guest strips at present, unless you wish to do an entire world, then we can
talk about it. Sorry, I can't pay you. If I do ask for guest strips in the future, more info can be found here.
Part two - Not presently. I just don't have the time.
Q- Do you have a forum to discuss the comic?
A- I did at one time. It was attached to my personal home page, which I ended up getting rid of, and unfortunately I lost the content of that forum.
Forums are not really used as much anymore anyway. I'm looking at more current forms of Social Networking and seeing what works best in the format
of a comic.
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Comic Questions
Q- Where did you come up with this idea?
A- See the link to my page entitled 'history'. That page
should answer this question sufficiently.
Q- What's with the corny name?
Ok, once upon a time, in the fall of '96, I had an assignment in a high school class called Fantasy Art to make a comic strip. You're reading it.
I named it Creature, keeper of the Vortron, Dimension Gateway. It just so happened to be very long. I didn't think very much
about it at the time, but since this comic has a sort of shaky tradition backing it up, I kept the name. I like it.
Q- What is Creature?
A-Creature is a creature, obviously, which is where I derived his name. He
is a creation I created for a High School Art assignment (see
history).
That is basically where he came from in regards to entering the
world, and why he looks so strange.
He is part of a species of character known as the Ardrendolpaxe (if it sounds like I jumbled a lot of random letters together to get that word, that's
exactly what I did at the time) which is an androgynous shapeshifting beast with wings. I've taken to calling them Ardies. They sometimes refer to themselves
as Dogs (because this is a common form that they take), and Creature also refers to himself as a 'Dog' from time to time and is confused when other people actually use the term dog to describe an actual
dog.
Q-Ardrendolpaxe?
Ok, so I made a side comic titled "The Layer" that was basically about these guys and explained them. I've written quite a bit about them outside
of this comic and their species is central to this comic. I have alluded to them a little in flash backs. They are a mix between canine, reptile and goat.
With wings. They are a complicated race of beings that live in a strict caste system outside the prying eyes of the world around them, and are strict enforcers
of their laws and rules. Breeding is complicated, they are androgynous (shape shifters) and don't particularly like to do it, a good descriptor is they are an
non-sexual group of beings, which makes you wonder how they survived all this time? Well, that's why they have rules.
That is a key plot point to the story. Just, for your information, if I ever manage to get to that point.
Q- What is the Vortron?
A- The Vortron is a gateway betwee time, Dimensions and worlds. The Vortron is what this comic is about. Creature happens to be the guardian
of the Vortron.
The vortron also appears to be a sentient being.
That is an important plot to the comic.
Q- What is a Guardian? Why did they choose Creature?
A- The Vortron works in a variety of manners. One of which is only one person can technically use it at a time. As long as somebody else is
in the Vortron, nobody can access it. Isn't that special? Why Creature was chosen is basically what the comic is really all about.
Q- What is Splash? What position does she hold?
A- Splash is a species of winged Unicorn called a Jalnyan Unicorn, a shape shifting species of unicorn that can take the form of a dark skinned woman
with jade green eyes. She is Companion to Creature in the Vortron.
Basically, her role is to protect him and ensure he is safe.
Makes you wonder who's protecting Creature from Splash, as they don't always get along.
Q- Why is Splash a Unicorn? And what's with her wings?
A- Because I am a horse nut, and I wanted an equine in my comic when I first created it, and so I created Splash (which I always thought was kind
of a cool name for a horse). Ironically enough, she appears to despise horses and gets very angry if you call her a horse. I also like dragons
and basically the best way to combine a dragon with a horse was to make a horse, throw a set of dragon wings on them, and then put a horn on its head
and call it an obscure breed of Unicorn. Then I gave her a hell of a back story. Maybe one day I can flesh Splash out, I've only hinted at her past
so far.
Q- What is the plot to this web comic?
A- Guarding powerful gateways to other worlds is very boring business. Since you
have access to all these worlds, why not visit them? Of course, part and partial to
the fact that you are guarding them is to keep people like you out! However,
Creature and Splash forget that small detail. Frequently.
Another main plot point is why Creature and Splash are there to begin with. Why were they chosen when they don't particularly appear to be up
to the job. And it doesn't help when the vortron has a tendency to wipe their brains clean every so often.
Q- What are the rules that apply to the Vortron?
A- There are three basic types of characters in the Vortron. Guardians, Visitors and Intruders. Creature and Splash are Guardians.
Visitors are there at the invitation of a guardian. Intruders are those who seek to use the Vortron's power for their own selfish desires and are
prevented from entering by the guardians. Different
rules apply to different types of characters.
Q- Why is Creature and Splash Guardian? They don't seem entirely capable of the
job.
A- This is part of the plot in and of itself. How were they chosen? They aren't entirely sure why they
were given this position and are trying to find out for themselves. So far, it is alluded to in a series of flashbacks.
Q- What exactly is written in the ancient text? It doesn’t seem to tell us
very much.
A- The ancient text is a tome that explains various aspects of the 'home world', written in a language that only Creature can read.
It doesn’t really seem to tell them much either. The ancient text comes
from their home world, and as the title states, is ancient. However, it doesn't
look
ancient in the vortron, (it is, after all, a time portal, and everything that resides
in it is in a perfect state, which would make you think that I would have drawn it differently
but I didn't so there) I’ll dwelve more
into the ancient text at a later date, and what exactly resides within those
pages. It becomes a fairly intregal part of the story at a later date.
Q- What's the deal with Todd?
A- Creature and Splash decided to leave the Vortron one day and they ran into Todd in the process.
Only to find that they have supposedly met him before, or he has met them before, or something of that nature that quite frankly confuses all
three of them. Turns out, they never meet in sequence Todd is an element of the story that will become very important in the future.
Todd later gets quite wrapped up in their mess, I would love to share with you that particular story line, and maybe one day I will, but it is largely
through him they learn about the vortron. He becomes sort of a confidant to Creature and Splash in a lot of ways, and though Creature and Todd often
butt heads, he is the first person they want to turn to whenever they run into a problem in the Vortron.
Q- What's with the Artwork? I notice it changes from time to time.
A- When I first started this comic, I thought it would be very nifty to make each individual world unique. Hah. Now I just say I got better
at drawing the comic as it progressed. However, each world is supposed to have it's own unique style, or something of that nature. I did well at this at first,
but it got old pretty fast and became to time consuming.
Q- What's this webcomic's rating?
A- I'm not sure, but it should rate between PG and PG-13,
because I'm giving myself a lot of leeway concerning what kind of issues I want to
explore. I guess this is a good way as any. Although it might not be apparent, this
comic has a lot of flexibility. At times, it may get very dark in nature. If I wanted to get really into the meat of the comic, it could easily go
R.
Q- What genre of comic is this?
A- What does it look like? Elements of Science fiction, definitely fantasy, Furry Characters, a little bit of action, very light romance
(but nothing to schmoozy), drama and suspense, I guess it's got a little bit of everything. Though first and foremost, it is a comic.
I'll do my damnedest to keep it funny.
Q- Where did you come up with the names of some of your characters?
A- Creature's easy, because he's a flippin' creature! (there is a story behind his name,
however, that will likely come into being later) Splash, like all unicorns (at least her species) is named after an object of nature,
and I always wanted a horse named Splash, just because I thought it was a cool name.
Todd came to me because it's a common name that just came to me, I don't know why.
That's how I get my names.
Other times, with real unique names, I just randomly put letters together until a
phonetic name comes out of it.
That's how I got Risawn, a character in one of my stories.
In fact, you might (heavy emphasis on might) get to meet her some day.
Q- One word. Ockie. What is the deal with him? I mean, what is his purpose?
A- Ockie explains the role of the Visitor very well. And he also introduces Splash's obsession with 'cute' things.
Q- I've noticed one of your characters, Patch, has simularities to a very famous online webcomic character.
Is Patch a tribute to him, or just a flippen rip-off!
A- When I created this comic, I had never read Sluggy Freelance and had never heard about Bun-Bun. I mean, homicidal rabbits are pretty funny!
Considering Rabbits are generally very docile creatures, a pistol packing rabbit just sounds funny to me. So I made one up.
And he looks a lot like Bun-bun off of sluggy freelance! I promise, Patch has a background story,
and a reason for why he is the way he is.
The comic might make this comparison later down the road. The simularities between these two characters was completely unintentional.
Q- I've come to find that you have a lot of simular elements between worlds. Why is that?
A- actually, if you haven't noticed, I have several themes that generally go through the different
worlds. One is Creature and his use of the word "aack". Another is names. Later on down
the road, you'll find that Creature's patch around his left eye is a reoccuring theme, in that
it's always colored, except for those hasty comics I do that are done in pencil and i have
to get one up and have two seconds to draw it. These are generally detours. There are more
simularities. In fact, I've noticed that there are simularities between my stories as well.
Usually some reoccuring themes that show up within them. I'm not so sure those same ones will
show up here.
Oh, did I mention boredom was a reoccuring theme as well?
Q- Are your characters based on anybody that you know?
A- Uh, yes, actually. Most of my characters are based off of a side of me actually. This could be a good thing and a bad thing,
becuase if they are all based off of me, then they would all start to look remarkably similar (and sometimes do). However, no character is a 100% depiction
of myself, unless you count myself. I don't base characters off of people I know because that would feel wierd. I'd rather not go there.
Q-One date. October 12, 2002. Need I say more?
A- This comic was done on the spur of the moment when I realized that some people didn't know
as much about the comic as I did. In that, they kept getting Snow mixed up with Creature. I felt
it necessary to clear this up early on, so I put it in comic form. I think this comic is funny
as hell, but that's probably because I'm the only one that gets it. All of these characters
are interrelated in some way or another, as confusing as that may be. Just to put it frankly,
the purpose of this comic was to clarify that Snow, Magic, Creature and Splash were seperate
people.
Q- That said, what about Night?
Night brings about a very important sub-plot in regards to Magic.
He's a minor character but has a strong connection to several different characters
within the comic. His mother and father and how they met are key to it, and his father is alluded to in the story.
And he was part raised by Magic, as was told
here.
Q- What's the story with Magic?
A- Magic is one of the primary characters out of a story I wrote. He is also the third
oldest character that is reoccuring in this story. I also have come to notice that he
is extremely popular with the readers. He is narrating the story for Snow, however
Snow interrupts quite freqently, asking him personal questions about his past. He often
answers her, begrudgingly. Quite frankly, Magic would like to keep things in the past. He has a dark past and he is trying to over come it, seeking
redemption, and being in the vortron with Snow is part of his redemption.
Q- Um, what's the comic about the fish hater all about?????
A- There are three characters within this comic that will become relatively important later on down the road. Eyrich, Sabor and Myra.
Two of them reappeared in September of 2003. Some people got the gist of what the September comic was all about,
this one was just a quick introduction to those characters. I had planned on introducing them more often, and I will have to bring
them into the story one or two more times before they become full fledged main characters, at which point their presence will definitely
be explained more in full.
Q- What is the classifacation of your dragons in this story?
My dragons are mine. They aren't based off of any particular breed or species, such as DnD dragons (with golds, silvers, reds and greens)
or whatever. Both dragons presented, though similar in several ways, are respective to their native worlds and follow rules that are general
amongst dragons (such as breath weapons, etc) but other then that they are unique to their respective worlds.
One of the ways pyrothian dragons differ from hardazian dragons is color. Pyrothian dragons are all unique in appearance, no two dragons
are exactly alike (take the little meeting of Kyrs with his fellow dragons). Hardazian dragons are all earthy colors, greens, tans and such
(and therefore are not as interesting), and brothers often look very similar to one another, I guess genetics take play. Both are neutral
in a lot of aspects in regards to alignment, not entirely good or not entirely evil. They are sentient creatures, capable of abstract thought,
my dragons aren't giant dumb reptiles. Both utilzye flight, both are capable of magic, and both are shape shifters, (though it will be a rare day when you see a Pyrothian Dragon take a form other then his own!) Hardazian Dragons, meanwhile, are known to spy, and as is obvious, will quite often take forms that are not their natural. Some Dragons, Dyontor for instance, are such fluent shape shifters that they can take appearances and look like a specific person.
Oh, and both are damn proud to be dragons! There are other issues with my dragons, but several of those issues are important to the comic, and their respective characters.
Q- I was a bit irked that Creature, Splash and Jarome were talking German. Usually when a Dutch-person is called a German they get... annoyed.
A- This was an issue that I failed to address within the comic and brought to my attention by somebody who actually WAS Dutch
(I do hope I didn't offend them!)
Jarome took German in high school. In an
earlier part of the story that has not yet been
portrayed in the comic, Todd's friends found out that
Creature and Splash are linguists. The only
requirement is that they hear the language before hand
and they instantly become fluent in it, and in fact,
will start speaking in that language until they hear
another. This, needless to say, amazes Todd's
Friends, especially considering that Creature seems to
be such a klutz.
And now they vow to stump Creature and Splash by
finding a language they can't speak. It annoys them
that Creature and Splash seem to refuse to speak a
language until they hear it.
I used German as the first language they speak because
I took it in high school, and as such, I can use it
with some semblance of correctness. I will have to
use Dutch in a future comic, which will not be for
some time, I may have to borrow the skills of some of
my bilingual friends to help me in this endeavour.
Can't Creature and Splash both speak a bunch of languages? Why can't Splash understand what Creature is writing down or the Ancient Text and why can't Creature understand Myra's journal but Splash can?
Ok, so this is a question that ties with Creature and Splash above. Yes Creature and Splash can understand and become fluent in a language of
a world they are visiting once they hear it. There is one exception to this. Languages based off the homeworld. Of which the tongue of the
Ancient Text and the writings in Myra's journal originate, sort of. Creature and Splash understand their respective tounges. But I'll get
into that at a later date.
Q- What is the story behind Tarriel?
Tarriel was part of the third story I began writing, and I wanted to use my own original worlds to portray in the comic. When we are first introduced
to Tarriel, he is a baby dragon. We later meet him in the form of a disgruntled human man. I had actually written the story that is being referenced between
Tarriel and Jasar (who is wearing black when he was previously wearing Blue) before I created this comic. And then I started tying two stories together.
Yes, Tarriel's world is related to another world. I don't think I will ever finish it and it is kind of painful to read now.
What the hell, Todd's friend Derrin along with his girlfriend got warped into Tarriel's world about the same time Creature and Splash visited Todd
in the very first comic when we meet Todd. In fact, it is Creature and Splash entering Todd's world that opens the gateway that warps Derrin and his
girlfriend into that world, where Derrin actually becomes Tarriel.
I really had this all planned out. I might as well just tell you, I don't think that plot point will ever come to be in the comic and it isn't detrimental
to the whole story line. If you want to read the story, let me know. I might actually let you read it. It's kind of weird though.
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Personal Questions
Q- Tell us about yourself.
I started this comic in February of 2002. I was a 21 year old full time college student, army reservist, and I was roommates with my sister and her husband.
She didn't get the whole web comic thing. I don't blame her. This was something I did to get my creative juices flowing and I enjoyed the story telling
process. Unfortunately, being an insecure 21 year old, I think I was also doing it to seek approval and fish for compliments, which quite frankly,
now that I look back, is quite annoying. This little comic started out as a random spontanious thing, then I began fleshing it out. I could tell, once
I got started, that if I wanted to complete this it would take years. I still kept at it.
Eventually, on the side of being a webcomic author, I graduated college with an AA degree, was deployed to Kosovo, went back to school for my Bachelors
(which I have never completed), didn't know what the heck I was going to do with my life, became a drill sergeant in the US Army (True story), got fan art
from one of my soldiers (that was awkward), and finally got married and had a couple of kids.
You would think being a stay at home mom I could find time to work on the comic. So I just took some time to retype the FAQs and my kids
destroyed my house. Yeah, we'll see how well I can do with upkeeping a webcomic.
Oh, and I'm currently living in Japan. Yep, that's pretty awesome.
Q- What insane notion made you want to do a Webcomic?
A- It sounded fun, and it got my creativity all revved up. And I enjoy actually making something with the intent of letting others read it. I will
always have a special place in my heart for Creature. I have this story quite drawn out in my head, and every little character has a backstory.
Q- Are you crazy?
A- Yes. Yes I am. What's more, I was crazy before I became a mom.
Q- What do you do in your spare time?
A- I like to write. A lot. The time I spend writing I could have finished this webcomic, I swear. I have a lot of the stories in this comic written
out elsewhere. Creature, yep, got him covered. Tarriel, I haven't touched that story in years. Todd, I torture that poor guy. Nighthawk, you briefly met
him, after I introduced him in this comic, I thought I would give him a back story and did I ever! So I write a lot, and a few of my stories are not even
related to the comic and probably won't ever be. They aren't particularly good, probably couldn't get them edited well enough to ever get them published, but
maybe someday I'll share them.
Now I'm also a mom to a couple of very busy rug rats. They take up about 80% of my waking hours. I also tend to zone out a lot on Facebook. That website is evil.
Q- Who's your favorite Characters?
Oh, I can't answer that, they are like my children, I can't pick a favorite!
Oh Bullocks. Todd. But not from what you have met of him, he's my favorite because he is a great plot device I use in the comic for what I have later
on down the road. Especially when he becomes a visitor, and yes, Todd is totally going to use the vortron, why in the heck wouldn't I bring him into the vortron?
Another favorite is Star. You have only briefly met my shape shifting Dragon Unicorn who is at odds with himself and is the only one to ever win the heart
of Splash. Did I just give away an important plot point to the comic? Yes I did. Doesn't matter though. I have written quite extensively about Star, he is a complex
complicated character, which makes him fun to write.
Another is Nighthawk. He doesn't really have any part in the story though, he's just a blurp as far as the comic goes and even if I continued it I don't think he'd come back
into play.
Q- Are you available?
A- I'm married. Go away.
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Any other questions you want to ask? I would say email me, but my email is full of spam. Hit me up on Facebook.
All characters and contents © 1996 to Present Kami Erickson Donnelly, aka Risawn.
Creature is hosted on Comic Genesis, a
free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics.
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