Desvitio

My goal for 2019 was to finish my comic prologue for David’s Gate and an Owl corps book, but I didn’t meet either of these goals.

First of all I just want to talk about comics for a little bit, particularly shounen.

The shounen genre of comics had always been my favourite genre for the wacky and fun premises it managed to get me invested in when I was new to manga. Despite the fun I’ve had reading the genre, as I’ve grown, it’s become harder and harder to suspend my disbelief for crazy powers and plots that seemingly pop up without rhyme or reason.

I began to find that the shounen I stayed very fond of were those with structured spiritual systems for superpowers (Hunter x Hunter [Nen], Magi [Rukh], and even Naruto [Chakra] come to mind). I also loved having something that would let me in a little bit on how the world I was getting invested in worked, like a set of rules I would be able to go back to if things got too complicated. I still had my cravings for cool and wacky fun, but I think my value for intention, research, and writing levelled up beyond some of the initial stories that got me into the genre.

This craving for cool ideas that touched on aspects of spirituality in a way that still made coherent sense within a large ecosystem is part of what drew me into writing and creating. It gave me a goal, to fill a gap I saw in my favourite genre, with themes, powers, stories, and characters I desired to explore, knowing that they could only be taken seriously if the crazy world they were made in allowed for it.

This brings me to back my own work.

For the past few years I had been developing a structure for the powers in my setting, and it was largely based on my interests in ancient mythologies, theology, cosmogony, psychology, and general engineering, but I had no way to visualise them under one umbrella for the sake of intuitive coherence. I studied a bunch, and last year I thought I had something I could build on, but as it turns out, theory and reality are two different things. My attempts at realising these Ideas (aesthetic dreams -> intelligible representation in this case) kept resulting in dissatisfaction, failure, and a great sense of self loathing. I just found myself drowning in a sea of chaotic ideas for the larger part of 2019, it made me unable to commit to anything, in fear that I might create something that fell into that category of unstructured shounen comics I couldn’t suspend disbelief for, and as a result, not fully enjoy.

I couldn’t afford to stop creating however, so I shifted my focus towards Owl Corps content. 

The Owl Corps play an important role in my setting, but at this time in my mind, it was largely a self indulgent distraction from the headache of trying to figure out the fundamental rules of my setting. Throughout the time I spent on Owl Corps content, I always called into question my purpose for this shift in focus from something so vital to my comics’ creation, but since I kept finding myself back here, I decided I had to make sure I put in my best efforts, even if at the time the Owl Corps shouldn’t have been my priority.

Don’t misunderstand, I love all my Owl Corps characters, and I don’t regret the time I spent working on them, as I still plan to going into 2020. I just wish I knew how to express what I was struggling with a lot better.

Thankfully for me, I had a bit of a breakthrough in my latest addition to the Owl Corps. 

5V-Eta and Grischa the Harriot.

I had a few goals in mind that lead to Grischas’ visual design. Yes of course my self indulgence wanted it to compliment 5Vs’ big bum, but my other aim was to build her a single seater on-road vehicle with hovering capabilities for fast off-road travel. It took me 3 months of studying, and numerous online videos/lectures on engineering and electricity to finally understand how I could practically (or believably) make it work. 

What I didn’t anticipate was for the studying I did on Grischa to turn the cogs in my brain, and give me the practical insight I was missing in my struggle to unify my settings’ cosmology. I could finally make sense of my scattered jigsaw puzzle of ideas, and it was all thanks to my devotion in creating a functional vehicle for 5Vs’ fat arse. Unbelievable. Embarrassing.

Maybe I sound a little crazy, who knows. I’ll just sum up my feelings and takeaways from recent developments. 

My visual output in 2019 has been quite dismal, hardly inspiring for the grant I won in 2018. The grant has been invaluable, especially for the time it has given me to be able to just sit down, study, and think. I have a much stronger grasp of everything I’m trying to make, and while my setting is a very ambitious one, I finally have the tools and knowledge to move flexibly and create intuitively within it without having to worry about breaking my own rules, because I found new understanding.

I guess the main costs throughout all this has been, a lot of time, lack of content, broken deadlines, and failed expectations. For these things I’m truly sorry, but I’m also happy about what I can create from here.

Meet 5V and her partner in crime, Grischa!

5V is a special Owl Corps unit, whose job as Lead Maintenance Officer allows her to visit cool places and meet lots of interesting people!

Most of her duties fall into Security Patrol, Data Management, and the guidance of small teams of maintenance workers in regions that have a partnership with the Owl Corps, unfortunately she also has a bad habit of scurrying off on impromptu explorations outside designated areas for her own personal research.

Designing the Harriot is probably the most challenging design task I’ve given myself, but I’m happy with the result and I hope to do some exploring with this pair in 2020, it’s a good opportunity to work on that bestiary/herbiary I talked about like 2 years ago.

A series of paintings I did for DAVIDS GATE.

I’m always wondering how best to introduce my characters, these events take place many years before the David’s Gate timeline, just like my prologue, so I felt urged to try and paint them out. 

The Owl Corps line-up so far

Thanks!

> Webtoons Link <

I would have linked you to my tumblr comic site, but the page order somehow got randomised due to all the page flagging and I can’t seem to fix it on my end, is this happening for anyone else with a tumblr hosted comic?

It’s Fixed (Thanks @K25fF)

Lily I presume? Yes! I still have a lot of ideas involving her and the rest of the girls.

https://twitter.com/Desvitio

Really sucks to see a lot of mutuals getting nuked or leaving.

SOFT 

David’s Gate Prologue, Final Part 3

Comic update!

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about David’s Gate, sorry for keeping you guys in the dark for so long! You might already have heard, but It won the 2018 Creators for creators grant. \o/

I’ve also had some questions about my inspiration for the comic. I answer that and talk more about Terravitio, plans for the Owl Corps, and several other things in this interview with CBR

About DG’s Prologue

The first 2 parts together are 39 pages long, and part 3 will be equally as long. The Prologue as a whole will be ~80 pages. I’m planning to revise many of the pages I’ve already done, so you might see some differences once the Prologue is complete.

I won’t be posting pages weekly like I did before, this last half of the prologue is something I want to be read all at once, so I’ll be working towards that into the early late part of next year.

I hope you look forward to it, much of the prologue might not make a lot of sense until we get further into DG, but I hope we can get there.  

There’s a lot of work left to be done. I’m still thinking about streaming, and I’ll try and squeeze in some Owl Corps stuff here and there if I can clear my weekly comic schedule.

THANK YOUUU!

Hey. Sorry for my radio silence, I’ve been doing a lot of studying for David’s gate, which I’ll have an update on pretty soon. I kinda wish I could enjoy making more easily consumable content so I don’t have to stay silent for so long, and find time to collab with other people, and make more art friends etc...I might make a discord or something. 

Owl Corps: Parumpasser

Mundane Shenanigans I