January/2008: I can't exactly
recall when, but early on this year an old lady came into the
shop where I worked. She showed me a birthday card she was giving
to her granddaughter, and she told me a poem that she had wrote
which she intended to put with it. I told her it reminded me
of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky." To my surprise she
began reciting it. I thought about how my generation relates
so much to Alice in Wonderland, and despite the book being over
100 years old, it really shocked me to hear the almost psychedelic,
surreal poem coming from her lips. I imagined her as a little
girl, some 80 years ago and I realized that the poem was just
as fresh today as it had been back then. Around the same time
this happened I was thinking about Rock music, and although
I know that it has changed back and forward over the years,
I came to the conclusion that in the end it all meant the same
thing. A rock song from 1955 had the same spirit and energy
as a rock song from 2008. Rock’n’roll, no matter
where, when or how, is about youth and energy, and that spirit
can be with you no matter how old you are. Anyseed was designed
to represent youth and Rock'n'Roll.
Febuary/2008:
Finally, through my least favorite month of the year, I decided
to start working on the new comic book. I went back to an old
concept I had, about a vampire girl who thinks drinking blood
is gross, and thought I would attach the concept of Rock'n'Roll
to her. I needed a look that was as cute as a Care Bear, but
with the attitude of Sonic the Hedgehog. She needed to be simple,
complex and iconic, so I looked to the biggest cartoon icon
in history and based her features and colours on Mickey Mouse.
March/2008: To come up with
the initial treatment, I analized storytelling concepts from
some of my favourite films, novels, ect. Jim Henson's "Labyrinth"
and "Fraggle Rock," Jeff Smith's "Bone,"
Tim Burton's "Beetle Juice," J.K Rowling's "Harry
Potter," and Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland"
to name a few of the more prominent ones. I sat on the sofa
and told my wife, Tasha, everything I liked about them and how
I could use similar storytelling methods and concepts to tell
Annyseed's story. I think it took about half an hour to come
up with the story's main backbone. But it's been open all year
to change, whenever other ideas come into my head.
April/2008: By
April, I was doing character concept art. I had decided on a
style that I wanted to refine for the finished artwork and was
putting it to practice, as I came up with the characters. I
wanted the Annyseed world to be real, something a reader could
jump in and walk around. So I decided to make 3D models of the
locations in the story for personal reference. That way, the
Annyseed universe would have a tangeble quality, like the "Simpsons"
as appose to say "Ren and Stimpy," which has a more
surreal, constantly changing environment.
May/2008: Little did I know
that a number of things were about to happen that would hold
the Annyseed project back for a few months. A stack of commissions
came in, 23 pieces of artwork to be exact. At the same time,
we moved house, and Tasha was made redundant, leading me to
get a full time job. There wasn't a free moment to even relax
over summer, let alone continue working on Annyseed.
September/2008: Finally, all
the commissions were done, and I could get back to work on Annyseed.
I pressed on with some black and white paintings of some of
the main locations in the story. (These paintings are to become
features in the map section of the Annyseed Website.) I began
to write a first draft of the script, usually using train journeys
to and from my day job to think scenes through and jot them
down.
October/2008: This month started
in the worst way, my wife, Tasha, suffered from spontaneous
pneumothorax (a collapsed lung), which kept her in hospital
for three weeks. It's hard to work when the person you love
is away in hospital. I watched a hell of a lot of Degrassi High
in between visiting hours. Somehow, watching their problems
seemed to ease my own. Unfortunately, getting the first page
done for Halloween was not possible, but I set a new goal for
Christmas.
November/2008: I painted, I
drew, and finalised the script for the prologue.
December/2008: On 23rd of December
I posted the first page of the Annyseed prologue on the website
DeviantArt http://crystalfishltd.deviantart.com/
January/2009: It's the first
of January, as I write this entry. Today, I've launched the
Annyseed section on my website. Despite doing a series of monster
paintings this month to bulk up my portfolio, I shall be working
vigorously on Annyseed. That's if my rumbling, old hard drive
holds out. Happy New year!
February/2009: Yep the hard
drive died, but was wiped clean and reborn, (no work lost.)
The Annyseed prologue was completed and we took a holiday in
my hometown.
March/2009: Up went the Annyseed
You Tube Channel, http://www.youtube.com/TheAnnyseedChannel.
I also spent this month refining the script and eventually released
the first page of the main story, "the Blood of Another."
June/2009: I decided that it
was time I looked further than DeviantArt to look for an audience,
so I listed Annyseed on two of the most renowned webcomic listing
sites I could find, http://www.thewebcomiclist.com
& http://topwebcomics.com.
I was overjoyed that Anny shot into the top 100 of both sites.
I can only hope it stays there. :S
July/2009: I've always wanted
Annyseed to be a weekly thing, and tried my best to bring a
fresh page out every seven days, but by the time I got to the
10th page of Annyseed I started to feel the strains of trying
to do that along side a full time job. I was using up about
90% of my free time to produce the pages and they still weren't
coming out weekly. So, I asked my original readers on DeviantArt
which they would prefer:- 1: Every fortnight, colour or 2: Weekly,
black and white. I was surprised to find the votes quite close
but colour came out on top. But then I had to ask my wife and
myself which would be best. We both thought black and white,
which covered 50% of the overall vote. So as of July and onwards
Annyseed has become a weekly black & white (& red,)
webcomic.
Oct/2009: As I'm happy with
the new black and white style and it has proved more popular
among Annyseeds readers, I will be going back to do pages 4
to 10 in the same style. More detail in the background more
simple tones on the characters.