Ezekiel Norton
Switched to Manga Studio 5 this weekend. Now to adjust.
I’m really feeling like I’d rather be doing a chapter-at-a-time comic than a daily comic for Epee. I’m seriously considering switching formats and doing it that way. Since I don’t have any followers yet (not that I’ve advertised at all), I’m probably safe to do this without alienating any fans.
Honestly, it’s probably a bad “business” decision in the sense of making it easy to get and keep fans—though with RSS feeds and things like Comic-Rocket, it shouldn’t be hard for fans to keep informed with that sort of schedule, so in theory it shouldn’t have to—but this is a thing I’m mostly doing for fun anyway. So it makes sense to do it in the way that is most fun to me, I guess.
If anyone who follows me on here or happens to read my post for some reason has opinions on that, feel free to weigh in. But right now I’m leaning toward it and short of a really strong argument against it, I’ll probably do that.
Cartoonist Problems: That feeling when the page you’re working on only has one panel that turned out any good, and it’s one of the best looking panels you’ve done.
It’s a shame the page itself is going to be so forgettable otherwise.
“Sailor Moon isn’t exactly a huge fanbase”
My friend’s pretty misinformed. Reblog/like this if you’re a Sailor Moon fan?
Pretty much anyone who’s made a magical girl show that’s got fighting in it is a Sailor Moon fan. By extension, pretty much anyone who’s a fan of a show like that—your Card Captor Sakuras, or Pretty Cures, or Lyrical Nanohas or Madoka Magicas, owe their fandom to Sailor Moon.
A little bit of the credit goes to Cutey Honey, but Cutey Honey’s not the one that made those creators want to make magical girl stories. You can’t escape Sailor Moon. You can’t escape the comparison to Sailor Moon when you work in the genre, either. Which is why I went ahead and made sure my admission of Sailor Moon influence in Epee was writ large by naming one of the characters “Takeuchi.” You’ve just got to say “Yeah, this story is a descendant of Sailor Moon. Let’s move on and try to do our own thing.”
There’s pretty strong reason to believe that even Buffy the Vampire Slayer is based on Sailor Moon, though I don’t think Joss Whedon ever confirmed or denied it. She’s definitely based on Kitty Pryde of the X-Men, but there’s a very strong “American Sailor Moon” vibe to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the same way there’s a very strong Cowboy Bebop and/or Outlaw Star vibe to Firefly.
(via simplysailormoon)
So as of today, Epee is officially live and updating, once a week on Tuesdays for the time being. Hopefully I can keep this up and make my updates regularly. Wish me luck!
Some works in progress from the comic. Been tweaking some stylistic stuff and learning new inking techniques.
An attempt to refine and get more used to that Magical Girl outfit.
Why Allison, you’re looking especially noodly today. Perhaps your creator has been reading too much CLAMP!
I did most of this drawing at my day job. It’s been a day since I finished it and I don’t hate it 100% yet, so that’s got to be a sign of progress, right?
I’ve got to get back in the habit of posting here one of these days.
Here’s Vivi. Flyin’ on wings of light and surrounded by wisps.
I actually made this on my ipad. I’m surprised it turned out as well as it did—a good stylus makes all the difference, I guess.
