You have a couple days left to enter the Fashion Design Contest! Deadline is the 25th, which…I guess means I’ll accept stuff on the 25th as well. IDK how deadlines work anymore. Draw quickly and send me things? I’ve gotten a lot more entries than I expected, so I have to plan out those pages to see how much shopping montage I can viably shove in here to determine how many winners there will be. I’m thinking about fifteen? I am not good at logistics. I love all of them, though. I’ll put up the last batch after the contest is over, probably Friday :).
I didn’t realize how grey this page turned out, but it seems to be appropriate. It’s kind of a hopeful page, but it’s not exactly happy either. From Aubrey’s perspective, I think she appreciates the offer of help, and wants to have a bit of hope that it’ll work out, but also kind of assumes she’s screwed. Still, it’s nice to know someone cares.
I swear I set out to write a goofy werewolf story. IDK what happened along the way lol.
Okay, I’d write more, but frankly I have a lot of forest left to color for tomorrow’s page, and it’s making me want to die, so I’m gonna go kick its ass.
I love how Malaya has changed since the beginning and how you see the determination to help Aubrey and the rest in her face in panel five 🙂
About the “goofy werewolf story” part:
You know i dont think somewhere out there is written that a funny story cant have heavy parts in it, ot that if you write a darker story that humor hasn’t a place in there. How you balance it is the key, and mostly it looks fake because people dont know how to work it in. But this is what got me in “how to be a Werewolf” – You have the talent to write a story that looks real (i dont know how to describe it better). I love the way you balance the humorous and darker parts. Like i said in my video, my favorite part is when Malaya burst into the house of Marin, Marisa and Elias and how they handle it and what happens at the end – its just one of the examples that shows what i mean, and also the last pages with Malaya and Aubrey – you didnt go the full villain route, you tried to show that these characters arent just full evil but that there is more behind them. So i wouldnt think so much about it and continue the way you started, because its fantastiv written 🙂
Comedy and drama serve to balance each other. Something that’s pure comedy doesn’t usually work that well over the long-term since it gets stale after a while. Drama is heightened with comedic moments to break the tension. Look at horror movies. The best ones have a comedic undertone that provides relief from the horror and prevents burnout.
Thats what i meant with my long statement – But the problem for many writers is the balance. Sometimes i have the feeling, that they sway to much to one side and the other side is just an afterthought (it feels artificial) or the writers try to hard to combine something. I think the ones where it really works are written in a matter that the two parts never feel like they work against each other but have a natural flow in them (like in real life).
I’m glad you think I’ve got a good balance! I think more than anything, I try to go with what feels natural at any given point. I try not to go too overboard, but I think it’d be hard to write a story about werewolves that didn’t at least make fun of the concept a little lol.
Hmm
HMMMMMM.
Aubrey’s continued attitude toward saving herself keeps getting this song stuck in my head:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc
Also for the cheese: “Don’t give up on me Aubrey. Don’t make the wrong seem right.”
Funny enough. I know the song is called Wonderwall but I still typed in “maybe you’re gonna be the one that saves me.”
And MAl’s attitude puts this one in my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7woW7DmnR0E
This is a much more hardcore music experience than I was expecting when I clicked that link lol. Very neat!
Yeah, I probably should’ve put a warning on that. I keep forgetting that not everyone’s a metalhead. Most of the people I know are in some form or another. Still, it’s one of the better introductions to the genre.
Aw, I love Wonderwall. I know it’s cliche, but I remember when it was still new and amazing XD
I’m almost speechless, not sure if that’s good or bad. Though it helps to make friends if you get their name right so good job for Mal on that one. Though the face in panel 5 seems kind of off to me I don’t know why. Probably because I go more off of tone of voice to determine intent rather than facial expression so it seems odd to me to see that. As for the forest, you could always say it got clear cut when no one was watching :P. But honestly if somethings is difficult it’s usually worth it in the end.
I waffled on the 5th panel expression actually lol. But at the end of the day, I felt like she needed to look rather vehement and that was my best guess :).
And the forest was definitely worth it!
In panel five you can almost hear a growl in her voice from the face she’s making…
For someone who just wanted to be left alone less than a month ago she sure has come a long way. Of course trials by fire have a way of doing that for you.
She’s definitely been through some shit lol. It’s been at least a few months though! I think we’re in the end of April or so by this point. You know, almost 2.5 years of comic-making later lol
Learned helplessness is one heck of a thing.
And Malaya has a pretty deep well of determination that she maybe hadn’t really drawn on before.
There’s soooo much learned helplessness in that creepy house. Malaya’s gonna fight it.
If you want goofy, you need to do this:
A whole page of Elias making himself a gigantic sandwich and watching Scooby-Doo with his werewolf sideburns out.
Would it be Scooby-Doo and the reluctant werewolf?
buahahaha!
I’d have to find a good punchline for that setup, but I know it’s there 😉
If you want to get really obscure, it could be something about how he never knew how much he missed out on growing up in the later seasons.
The reason they switched from sandwiches to Scooby Snacks was because Casey Casum converted to Judaism and refused to voice them eating pork, and Elias is Jewish, isn’t he?
Oh man, I haven’t had time to do any designing! I don’t know if I’ll be able to do any at this point.
It’s gray, but bright, which I think is perfectly apt for the emotion here; things are looking pretty bleak but there’s hope. Even if Aubrey doesn’t necessarily want to get her hopes up.
This is also one of the few pages where I left the background of the page outside the borders mostly white. I think the brightness definitely felt appropriate 🙂
At this rate, she’s gonna have her own breakaway pack before long.
I like the idea of Malaya just collecting werewolves like Pokemon until she’s got a pack 🙂
And what object will she get?
Next page: where the hell is my coffee cup!
It’s the Chekov’s Gun of this comic 🙂
No hard feelings if we die.
Okay, but still let’s try not to die.
Not dying: definitely the better option.
….anyone else feeling a ship coming on? just me? okay…
It’s so beautiful, seeing that first ray of hope in Aubrey’s smile.
okay i’ve just spent the past few hours reading this and not commenting because i didn’t pause for a second (it’s so captivating!) but i just had to take a breather here at this page to say…
wow. this almost made me tear up a little bit? i feel so much for aubrey. right from her introduction you’ve made it clear how emotionally manipulative and abusive her mom is and i have kept holding hope for aubrey to get free of her. and this is the first ray of sunshine on that path and i really hope it works out for her! and all the others. i’m glad they aren’t in denial of their situation, and you’re such an amazing writer with how you convey their feelings and different perspectives on their situation. there’s a lot of complexity in the situation and it all comes through.
just – you’re such a great artist and storyteller! thanks for making this lovely comic 😀
Thank you so much! I’m always glad when people get where I’m coming from with Aubrey, because I really enjoy writing her character. This section puts in play a lot of what the most current pages (Connie’s backstory) are about, so as freaky as those get, I hope you’ll enjoy them when you get there 🙂