CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Idol Moments

Genre: Fantasy/Science-fiction
Target audience: Males (but females may enjoy it also)
Brief description: Luemas returns to his village in bad shape. No-one knows why. Sometime later a traveller from the village returns home with an expensive statue. That's when trouble really begins.

Minimum age: 13

Violence: 6 - One man hit by an arrow (not graphic), a bridge is burnt (not graphic), woman impaled on spike (graphic)
Language: 0 - None
Sexual Content: 0 - None
Nudity (or skimpy outfits): 0 - None
Bad Religion: 3 - An idol is worshipped and magic is implied, a demon tempts someone (all not glamourised or whatever)


My 'Inside the Creative Mind' website idea is going almost nowhere and people have told me they want to see some of my stuff so I'm going to put it up here until my website happens. Here is another one:

My second ever comic. I did this in 2004 for my Research and Development Assesment for my Graphic Design course. It took a very long time. This comic is in colour and is a bit more original then Smugglers Cove. I was influenced by Frank Peretti's Hangman's Curse novel.

Some of the character interaction doesn't feel realistic and I can't draw females for peanuts. Just like my other comic this was a learning process. There are some flaws and the story isn't as good as I had hoped but its good. The comic is set in a fantasy world with a difference. This is a comic version of part of the steampunk novel I'm working on at the moment - Before the Dawn. I've been told by people that it looks like a hybrid of Tintin/anime and The Simpsons but I'm pretty sure its just my newer style. I definetly didn't think about Simpsons when I was doing it - only about anime and Tintin.
Please enjoy and feel free to leave comments.

Tools: Pencil, felt-tip pen, graphics tablet to colour with Photoshop



(Click thumbnail images to get bigger versions)

Last pages:











Link to my other webcomic:
Smugglers Cove webcomic

From what I recall, there wan't any really pretty female characters in Tintin...(unless you think Bianca Castafiore is pretty....^_^;; ). So, I can't penalize you for less than pretty female characters. The more important thing is her personality anyway, and I think I like Luemas's wife.

Overall, I find the story interesting although some parts made me raise my eyebrows such as the giant spider-like creatures and pretty high tech looking enemies. Heh I think I was expected a story in biblical settings especially after getting the idol worshipping theme.

Out of curiosity, who's going to take care of the babies in that shelter?

Well, my story isn't exactly normal. Its steampunk, so it has fantasy and sci-fi elements mixed together. The babies in the shelter will be taken by the attackers and raised underground in mines, some as guards. That's a pretty major part of the novel I'm writing and Dexiz (Luemas' and his wife's son) is the main character in the novel.
Just so you know Bianca was anything but pretty! (lol)

Thanks Mave.

(Do you think the rating I gave it was appropriate? Its hard to know what to rate it).

Bump to fix last posted flag. Carry on.

Interesting stuff. It's obvious you put a lot of effort into this, so well done! The story wasn't too bad, either. I liked the way you used sound effects, too. Your style is quite unique, at least among more modern artists.

My one suggestion is more as a graphic designer than a manga/comic fan. On the title page, I would suggest either spacing out the two words (so they don't run together so much) or picking a different font. It's ok to have 2 letters touching, but when so many of them do like that, it's really confusing to read. Also, for the subtitle, I'd suggest you go with a sans-serif font instead; that's typically what professionals use for a sub-text, and I think it would go a bit better. Just my two cents. ^^

I'll read Smuggler's Cove a little later.

Thanks Ashley! I'm not very subtle in getting my views across am I? (lol). I notice some of the dialogue is quite wooden. How do I avoid that?

Did anyone notice the village priest had three tufts of hair (similar to Tintin's?). Also the barbarians wear very similar clothes to him. I couldn't help myself! (lol)

Sorry it took me so long to reply!
I really like this one -Smuggler's Cove was good, but I have to say I definitely like this one better... perhaps because although I don't read or see a lot of it, I find steampunk a genre that I enjoy immensely.
The characters, the way you introduce Luemas, and of course the steampunk elements are really cool. The colours you've used and your linework are great too, and the overall story has me intrigued. As well as this, I love the way you've designed all the different characters; from Leumas, Tom, and the rest of the good villagers to the sorcerers, babarians and their cool bug mounts. ^_^
It'll be cool to read your book and find out more when you put it out.

Did anyone notice the village priest had three tufts of hair (similar to Tintin's?). Also the barbarians wear very similar clothes to him. I couldn't help myself! (lol)

Actually, no I didn't.

Thanks Photosoph! Yeah, I like weird stuff and steampunk is more interesting than the rehashed Tolkien style fantasy many write these days. I'll send you a copy of the book when its done (could be awhile since I want to do a good job of it).