Author Archive: Jande Rowe
Writer/Artist for "Aedre's Firefly" graphic novel webcomic and "Wheeler's Orbits", Science-fantasy webcomic
Day# 18 Agnes McBeale
#18 Agnes McBeale for Aedre's Firefly by Jande Rowe
The Bitchy Sister
#18 – Agnes McBeale is one year younger than her sister, (#17)Paula but seems so much older–not to mention more irritable and just plain bitchy. With sparse red hair curly hair and being scrawny and tall she is the polar opposite of Paula. Compared to Paula’s flawless skin, Agnes is covered from head to toe in a mass of freckles that she loathes. She confides in no one, keeping herself to herself as much as possible. She has no real friends either, but doesn’t want them, clearing them off with her acid tongue.
The whole of Agnes’ energies is focused entirely on getting through school and away from that cramped, crowded, nasty house, and her so-called “family”. She practically spits when she uses that word. Her grades are very high, but no-one where she lives cares. Except Paula who is jealous of them.
Sometimes, when she deigns to walk to school with Paula and Paula’s dogsbody, Aedre, she spends the whole trip saying cutting things to both girls.
She confides in no one, keeping herself to herself as much as possible. So know one knows what causes her to lash out at everyone around her. One day people will know. But not for awhile yet.
Day# 17 Paula McBeale
#17 Paula McBeale for Aedre's Firefly by Jande Rowe
Daddy’s Little Princess
Paula McBeale and her sister (#18)Agnes live across the road from Aedre’s new house on Hook Rd. They live in a tiny one-bedroom house that is far too small for four people. To Aedre’s view, they are disgorged from the house every school morning, and swallowed up again right after school as if they don’t exist at any other time.
Paula is secretive and constantly feels deprived, since she get no allowance and has to beg for everything she feels she needs. She finds an outlet for her feelings of resentment about this by stealing small things from school, from stores, from her friends, though in the latter case she calls it “borrowing”. Her favourite thing to steal when she can get it, however, is money. No one finds out about this habit of hers for many years.
She is an excellent actress. After all she’s been acting for Daddy since she was a baby. Sometimes the things he makes her act for him make her uncomfortable but at least she has his undivided attention for periods of time. Daddy is an avid photographer, but he never shows his photos to anyone but Paula, keeping them locked away in a box under her bed, and he says its “our secret game, Princess”. So she is cautioned never to tell anyone about the secret game or Daddy won’t be able to play with her anymore.
She takes to hanging out with Aedre on the way to and from school because she feels that Aedre is so pathetic it makes her look good, and besides, sometimes she can steal stuff from her and she never seems to realise the only person who could have stolen it was Paula. Paula holds Aedre in contempt while pretending to be her friend.
But then, Aedre is conditioned to think that everything bad that happens is her fault, and so if something goes missing then she must have lost it somehow. This suits Paula just fine. Daddy’s little Princess knows how to get on in the world.
Day# 16 Thomas “Weeks” Kelsey
#16 Thomas "Weeks" Kelsey, for Aedre's Firefly by Jande Rowe
Thomas J. Kelsey, dubbed “Weeks”, short for “Wee Kelsey”, which was what most of the other kids called him from the first day he attended Maple Public School. Snarky remarks during his first recess period about his diminutive size –about two thirds the height of the shortest of his peers– soon gave way to awe when he aptly demonstrated not only his aptitude and skill at most sports, but his well honed sportsmanship as well. He could take joke and a pounding on the sports field better than most boys twice his physical stature. He was built heavy for his height, yet he was agile, too.
He did well in his academic studies, got along well with other boys, and excelled on the sportsfield. The one thing he’s have no truck with was girls, and he held strong opinions as to their place in sports, mostly negative. Where girls were concerned he was implacable. If a girl wanted to play on his team, he would stare at them without a sound until they fled. Unless of course they fled to a teacher who forced him to comply, which he did readily, but gave no quarter to the girl, so that finally she had to give up in defeat.
Aedre, of course, didn’t know this until she smashed into his prejudice head-on. She had asked the recess teacher if she could play soccer, and he had agreed she could. Fully confident of himself and his view of the world, Weeks bested her simply by being himself. No hard feelings on his part. That’s just the way the world works. She never had a chance to even see the ball. She may as well have been invisible. For Aedre, who had hopes and dreams of a different world than the lost and lonely one in which she found herself, it was just another entry carved into her psyche on the very long list of grievances that would push her to the very edge of either going mad, or giving up completely.
Weeks didn’t know anything about Aedre of course, except what the other boys told him, that she was a cootie-bag and a witch besides, but whether or not he believed them didn’t matter. She was a girl and girls had no value in Week’s world.
Day# 15 ReldoRurr
#15 ReldoRurr for Wheeler's Orbits by Jande Rowe
It Ain’t Easy Being Tween
ReldoRurr is an Adnirovjyna youngling, eldest offspring of (#12)Thaddeursus, and therefore a source of great embarrassment to his parent. At the age of dissent, rebellion, and world-weary long-suffering of elders, his passionate nature has more than once brought him before the council whom he refers to as those old fligmarrons* (*a grumpy indecisive animal so set in its ways that it will often run right into an obvious trap rather than deviate from its normal routine–needless to say, they are now a protected species on the planet Adnirovjyn).
Although his father has more sympathy for the age ReldoRurr is going through than the cub may realise, he is still an Adnirovjyna, and therefore feels the censure of his kind deeply. Thus it is his way of trying to keep ReldoRurr out of the way of others that he often gives him the task of collecting (far afield) the small tubers that sprout from the (#14)Sqorthk animal variants.
These can be plucked from the Sqorthk just after the rainy season as they pull themselves ponderously along but this has proven to have a traumatic effect on them, and so usually the younglings are sent to gather the ones that have matured and fallen off to the ground where, if they are not scooped up will root there and grow into the Sqorthk plants far from the villages. Much more convenient to have them growing under controlled conditions in pots within the villages proper. And much better for all concerned if the wilder younglings are kept busy at a useful tiring task far from the village.
Unfortunately, ReldoRurr finds this kind of work beneath him, even though he enjoys it, sensing that no matter how useful it is to his people, they really are trying to get rid of him, because in his own mind, he is right about them when he keeps calling them on their “Griiftakk’s Invisible Sceptre” policies** (** a fairy tale told to Adnirovjyni children about a ruler of their people who was sold by a pair of scoundrels from the south, a non-existant magical sceptre that only the most wisest rulers could see). His resentment came to fruition when he reported the existence of an alien invasion from outer space and was given extra duties as a “curb to youthful imaginings”.
Fortunately for ReldoRurr, his pater did accept his story, mostly from the excitement and passion with which it was delivered ((shudder)), and after the fiasco with the council, went with his cub to see with his own eyes those very strange beings, whom he later learned called themselves Wee’hlir and Hie-ke, and hailed from the stars themselves, although actually from an earth-like planet in Andromeda. It was inevitable perhaps that ReldoRurr developed a strong case of hero-worship for the hairless ones, well one of them, for the consequences of that were long remembered.
And so it was that ReldoRurr was the first person ever to lay eyes upon the magnificence that was the space entrepreneurial partnership known as Wheeler’s Orbits and the beginning of a tale so strange it is told to the children of Adnirovjyn to this very day.
~~~
Well I’ve finally reached the half-way point and what a fun ride it’s been so far! Meeting some wonderful artists and storytellers, as well as challenging myself to keep innovating and trying different styles of art, have been the highlights for me during this Challenge. I’m psyched to get the next fifteen Characters out there, as each one contributes much more than one can imagine to the ongoing stories for both Wheeler’s Orbits and Aedre’s Firefly, not to mention a few new story ideas as well.
I hope everyone else is enjoying this Challenge and the fruits of all our labours as much as I am.
Day# 14 Sqorthk, Animal Phase
a Sqorthk in animal stage for Wheeler's Orbits, by Jande Rowe
Tastes Like Chicken!
Adnirovjyna Sqorthk, Animal Phase: During the rainy season the shell becomes leathery, then soft and peels off to reveal the third phase of this fascinating creature: it is now an animal, capable of pulling itself along the ground in a kind of inch-worm motion, digging its front fin-arms into the soil an hauling itself forward, then stopping to let its long back legs catch up. then it hunches its back and repeats this activity until it is far from the plant of its origin. That is, if carnivorous predators don’t eat it first.
The animal-Squorth gives off a honey-like odour from it’s pebbly skin that carnivores find strangely attractive, and many have learned that the meat under that skin is deliciously sweet and satisfying (As Wheeler soon learns). In the animal stage the Sqorthk is easy prey. It cannot move quickly and has no natural defenses.
In the animal stage it neither eats nor drinks, its main purpose seems apparently to be to move itself as far as possible from the parent plant so to drop its developing tubers to begin the cycle again. In this regard the Sqorthk has allies in the native peoples as they will protect them from predators, often keeping them as pets, and regularly harvesting their tubers for planting once the rainy season has passed.
Since the Adnirovjyna have a strong taboo against eating the Sqorthk during their animal stage, would it be any wonder that Wheeler’s appetites could bring them to the very brink of interplanetary war? Or at least, very bad feelings?
Day# 13 a Sqorthk: plant stage.
#13 a Sqorthk, by Jande Rowe
Adnirovjyni Sqorthk, Vegetable Phase: a vine-like animal that spends part of its life-cycle as a plant, used as a food source for the dominant sentient bear-like species known simply as (#12) Adnirovjyna.
During the vegetative stage, each vine becomes translucent and produces pebbled protrubances that can grow to be quite large. In the early stages these can be broken off and used as vegetables either cooked or raw, which contain starches, cellulose, vitamins and minerals conducive to the good nature and health of the indigenous sentient race of Adnirovjyn. It is a favourite item to be combined with other Adnirovjyni flora to produce a delicious frothy alcoholic beverage well loved by the native peoples which they call Frooshk.
Once the protuberances grow beyond a certain size they lose their translucence and by their own weight droop toward the ground. Here they remain inert for a period of weeks developing a hard knobbly shell –a cocoon of sorts you might say, which protects them from predators to a certain extent, though some have been known to find ingenious ways of cracking them open. It is within this shell that the plant-Sqorthk undergoes the unique transformation from plant to animal.
Next up #14 a Sqorthk in animal phase.
Enjoy!
Day# 12 – Thaddeursus
#12 Thaddeursus, for Wheeler'e Orbits by Jande Rowe
Ah, Thaddeursus! Do bears walk in the woods? He doesn’t know because he really isn’t a bear, you see. He’s an Adnirovjyna from one of the Inner Galaxies, known on Terra One as Cassiopeia, but by the indigenous sentients, as Adnirovjyn. One would normally expect to see fulsome Greek goddesses and other females cavorting on the planet Adnirovjyn in the constellation of Cassiopeia, but no. Perversely, peaceful squat furry bear-like humanoids evolved there instead.
Peaceful being the key description of these beings, they will do almost anything to keep things tranquil, and therefore are high strung and nervous most of the time, worrying about whether their actions or the actions of others are going to disturb anyone’s peace.
Thaddeursus, who prefers to be called Thadd, in case it upsets anyone to have to pronounce his full name, is typical of his species with one exception: he was the unfortunate victim of an accident that changed not only his own life and lifestyle, but those of many of his acquaintances in the small village of Cleoptas Woods, as well. This of course does nothing to reduce the agitation he normally feels. In fact it somewhat increases it. But the whole thing is so inherently fascinating that he can’t help himself.
Of course, since all Adnirovjyna have to restrain their overweening curiosity in order to maintain a civilized society, he grew up knowing that it is very wrong to spy on others even if they have very little fur, are tall and thin and strangely coloured. After all, they have two arms, two legs, walk upright and use tools and language (if mostly unintelligible), as well as drink frothy amber liquids and eat highly spiced foods like any normal sentient being. One of them is almost the same shape as an Adnirovjyna, though the other’s shape resembles the more vine-like Sqorthk (a food animal that spends part of its life cycle as a vegetable, during which it is harvested by the Adnirovjyna, who are predominantly vegetarian, but, you know, accidents happen!)
Adnirovjyna tend to be modest, retiring people to whom privacy is paramount, which also increases the tensions caused by their native curiosity. So when Thadd suddenly became somewhat famous by being the first to contact an alien race (though truth be told, they had contacted him by landing their rustbucket of a ship-shuttle in his dreak-pond!) he was since embarrased constantly by the recurrence of the breaking of the twin taboos of notoriety and overzealous curiosity. It was enough to give him a slight twitch.
But to his shame, his own curiosity was in full roar. These beings did the strangest things, drawing the eyes and ears of all to them, almost as if they relished the attention. But they did have interesting items to trade and that was what had given Thadd all this uncomfortable fame. Oh well, he thought, I guess I shall simply have to grin and bear it until they leave again and things can go back to normal.
But, will they? One whirlwind visit from Wheeler and Ikey could change a whole stable sentient species forever, doncha think?
Day# 11 – Ahayre Revulzane, Wyrm-Wizard
#11 Ahayre Revulzane, Wyrm-Wizard by Jande Rowe
Ahayre Revulzane was once a human wizard. Well… as human as any young wizard in his first thousand years of existance could be. And like most young wizards he was vain, arrogant, and decidedly enamoured of exciting brilliant clashing jiving jostling colours. So much so that he spent many of the latter decades perfecting the emotional abrasiveness of this art and then pouring this painful mix into all his spells and potions.
One final thing younger wizards love to do is what they call wooveewoo, which to a wizard is a strangely shortened form of “wizard versus wizard”, somewhat akin to what on the mortal plane was called peeveepee, fairly remotely you understand. One versus one, two versus two, all the way up to full combat armies that raided each other’s domains, for loot (usually gaudily coloured silk and baubles, as well as spells and potions).
This particular aspect of wizardry had somewhat passed Revulzane by, as he had his nose firmly in his own special delights, but one day it occurred to him that it might be time to show off his lovely brilliantly coloured self, as well as his less subtle spells to receive his due in admiration from the other wizards who were sure not only to envy him, but would bow to him in humiliation. Oh! Delicious! He would simply adore to splash round his lovely colours and in doing so climb to the top of the WooVeeWoo lists. He almost drooled at the imagined loot he would win.
But, there is an old wizards proverb that cautions the younglings to “not count their loot before the first spell has cast”. Of course no young wizard worth his mana would listen to an old fogey like that! And like the rest of those who would throw caution to the wind spirits, Wizard and mortal alike, one simply ends up learning the hard way. As Ahayre Revulzane did, the night he flew his conjured bird of paradise to the jousting grounds and challenged the lot to a Revulzane vs Them All, duel.
He did quite well too, did our Revulzane, out of five matches he was only down two, with two to go, but there had been a lot of grumbling about the garish-looking spells he used. In consequence, Revulzane grew angry and embittered. ( You realise of course that these WooVeeWoos could last half a century or more per match. And the other wizards were just getting plain sick and tired of the clashes and jives of colour with which Revulzane inevitably brandished his wands or cast his spells. It put them off their tea.) But it was when one, whom he saw as entirely beneath him, made up a new spell on the spot which turned all of the challenging wizard’s spells to greyscale that Revulzane “lost it”, as the vulgar mortals say. Never had the greatest of the young wizards, or so he thought himself, been so insulted!
Immediately and without thought, he conjured a gigantic green Wyrm who breathed rainbows at his antagonist, and melted him to a puddle of multicoloured inks.
There was a gasp of horror from the remaining WooVeeWoo-ers, and then a brooding silence fell upon them all. No one was more horrified than Ahayre Revulzane, for he knew he had broken not only a cardinal rule of WooVeeWoo, but also the code of wizardry itself. He was actually remorseful, which was not usually one of his characteristics, so that when the WC (Wizard’s Council) passed judgment upon him for his heinous impulsive act, he was allowed to keep some of his spells and the mana with which to cast them, but he was not only banished from Wizard Lair, but was made to reconjure the green Wyrm and was locked up inside it.
At first, he despaired. But then he found that he rather enjoyed being a dragon who breathed rainbows and who could at a whim cast spells at the mortals on the plane to which he had been banished. Pretty, colourful, agonisingly rapturously gaudy spells usually in the form of orbs that he could toss from a distance. He was only sorry that he hadn’t taken more thought when reducing that annoying wizard to inkspots (they’d managed to reconstitute him, but he would always carry multicoloured scars). If only he’d given it a pair of magnificent wings, then he would be a true Dragon instead of this inferior Wyrm form. Still, he could use his magic to lift him and to fly, though it left less for the spell casting. Really, he was sorry he’d lost his temper but this… this was living!
Day# 10 Mad Maggot
#10 Mad Maggot for Aedre's Firefly by Jande Rowe
Mad Maggot! That’s what everyone calls him. The stories about him elicit responses from sympathy, to disgust, to outrage. He is crazy, but no one can catch him. The kids at school say he steals babies in the night and eats them for breakfast. But no-one believes that, or it would have been news on the television and he would be hunted down and arrested, instead of being left alone to rummage through people’s garbage.
He makes silly trashy ornaments from things he finds in the garbage, too. paper and tinfoil pendents on greasy string. He tries to sell them to other people on the streets of small town Maple, Ontario, too. But no one wants to buy, because they stink of whence they came. He never begs. Never. But when he offers his creative excesses while cursing and swearing loudly and waving his arms around frantically, then hugging himself and crying, people will sometimes drop coins into his filth-blacked hands. He is a very large man, but sometimes he seems so small and pathetic you want to cry at the sorrows of the world right along with him.
Now and then he simply disappears for a month or so, and when he shows up again, he has usually had a hair cut and lost his beard, but it’s growing back in already, and he may have on a different, slightly cleaner overcoat, but he usually tears the sleeves off those within a week. He is more to be pitied than despised. Yet there are always those who go out of their way to further torture the tortured. Everyone knows that you should never push him too far. He carries a stick in his pocket that bears a sharpened end and larger blunt one. Once when the kids had him circled down by the tracks at the back of the football field down the hill behind the school, bear-baiting him, he pulled that nasty weapon out in a rage and brandishing it, began chasing them. He scared the hell out of them and they never went that far with him again. But they ran so fast they didn’t see him stop and fall to his knees, tears of rage and self-pity carving tracks in the grime on his weathered face. they didn’t hear his anguished lonely howl…
As Aedre continues her Escape to Freedom, she meets many strange and wonderful creatures. This one may be one of the strangest, and most certainly is one of the most dangerous. But Aedre has lived with danger all her life and has survived this far. Always before though, there were others around who could bear witness if the punishments and harassments of her family got out of hand. This time there was no-one else, just Aedre and the madman, everyone reviled and called Mad Maggot. Somehow, being drawn near this creature, Aedre could see that in some ways they had much in common, both being chosen as one to be reviled. It is this meeting that makes Aedre wonder if she is being made to take the place of this despised and crazy thing that was once as human as she. Could there be another fate? If Aedre was to seek it out, could another, possibly better, more humane fate be hers? Stay tuned to Aedre’s long journey of discovery in Aedre’s Firefly, the online graphic novel (updates Wednesday morning at the stroke of midnight).
Day# 09 Flodd and Flara for Wheeler’s Orbits
#09 Flodd & Flara for Wheeler's Orbits by Jande Rowe
When Wheeler’s Orbits made landfall on Faranurus IV with a cargo hold full of Denebrian, they thought it was unusual that there was no bustling spaceport; not even a sign of any kind of technology at all. Ikey thought they should check the computer and the starmaps to see if they were in the right place, but as usual Wheeler just opened the airlock and went out to see what was happening.
“They probably just have really good camouflage, Ikey. You worry too much!” and he was gone. Ikey donned space-suit, set the computer to figure out what went wrong, and doggedly followed Wheeler. This was definitely NOT dry, arid Faranurus IV! This place was a swamp. Of course it might have changed in the last year, but he doubted it very much.
The first thing he saw that moved was moving away from him. It looked like a giant lopped off banana with arms, but no legs. It kind of floated along a few inches above the ground when it wasn’t reaching up with its long yellow arms to swing itself from the low hanging branches from tree to tree. It was a colourful world, and in spite of himself, Ikey felt himself relaxing. That of course put him even more on guard. He’d seen some weird things in space, but never before a piece of fruit with arms. Then it turned around and started back toward him. It had eyes! and the arms had hands with opposable thumbs! He wondered if it had sharp pointy teeth and decided for the better part of valour.
Through the portal of the airlock he could see them gathering, apparently curious about this huge thing that had landed in their forest. They even more reminded him of bananas since they were in a multitude of shades from bright green to deep yellow, and some even had the brown and black spots you find on the very ripe ones. He shook his head. Leave it to Wheeler to run off on his own on a strange world.
He left his suit on and went in to the computer. The data screen showed the deviation in course due to an input error of one digit. He knew who to blame for that, too. He sighed. Well, they weren’t too far off course. If he could grab Wheeler they could be on Faranurus IV within a week.
He looked back at the airlock window, and was startled to see yellow-green faces, shaped a little like earth monkeys, jostling to peer in at him.
=========
” Come Flara, come with papa to see what the skies have brought this time.” He gazed fondly at his third daughter, so green and yet wasn’t that a tinge of the yellow of maturity creeping into her skin. It made him sad that soon she would be fully mature and golden and leaving him for her chosen mate. But he would enjoy her companionship while he could, at least until his next change and he could bear more fruit himself, though then he would be a her self.
Things had often dropped from the sky that didn’t seem to belong here. Most often they fell near the great lake, and then, before his people could satisfy their natural curiosity, they flew away like Singbirds, often straight up into the sky until they were specks that could be seen no more. That was always a disappointment to Flodd. Maybe this time, there would be a chance to touch and taste the thing that fell from the sky.
Flara skipped along in front of him, skimming the ground, still a bit wobbly with that skill, and reaching up for hand holds on the Twanda trees, not to mention gorging herself on their clusters of fruit. He was an indulgent parent though, and prefered to let all his offspring learn through their own experience, though there was something quicker and more delightful with this one, so that he tended to be more protective of her.
He could see through the trees that others of his kind were gathering, streaming in the direction of the new fallen thing. This made Flodd happy. He loved gatherings, and he loved exploring, and he loved bringing his curiosity to bear on new things. Especially when the sun was warming his Frolldots and he had energy to burn.
Suddenly, he cried out in alarm, “Stop!” and pulled Flara to him and behind him. A strange animal had burst out of the undergrowth, splashing muddy sand all around him. It was tall and thin and was strangely coloured. It had twice the appendages than normal and actually put two of them on the ground and in the water of the swamp. That appeared to be its mode of locomotion, although it was a lurching one. Flodd had never seen its like. Is this what had fallen? It seemed too small and at the same time too big. It stopped now, swaying and seemed to be speaking to him, but the sounds were very low pitched and growling, akin to the sound of a Froctali in a fallen tree.
====
“Where the heck am I and what the heck are you?” Wheeler said to the yellow being standing stock still and staring at him bemused. “I’m lost.”
Day# 08 the POISON PENN
#08 the Poison Penn by Jande Rowe
My first ever Super-hero-type Villain. :`)
Jhorn’l Ag’Penn hails from a religious colony of Grythf’ah‘s (Worshippers of Agh) on a nondescript planet circling a small red giant in the sparser areas near the Rim of the Galaxy.
Like most religious fanatics, the beliefs of the Grythf’ah brook no quarter with any other religious practices. Sure in their divine arrogance, they send out their most devout acolytes to bring word to the heathens (that’s the rest of us).
Jhorn’l is no slouch when it comes to converting the unenlightened. At some point he became convinced that he was doing Agh’s work; he was Agh’s Right Hand in this world to help others to the next. And of course what better way than to first test them, then when, er… if they fail, show them the error of their ways with a little fear of Agh, and a little Holy Poison to help them on their way into the Light of Agh’s Truth.
When did that happen? Oh, perhaps around the time Jhorn’l found a derelict ship full of humanity’s bones, and many useful artifacts, including some Golden Age comics from DC and Marvel. Of course he couldn’t read them, but being the vain and contemptuous being he was, he delighted in the idea of Spandex to match his particularly bright and beautiful green skin.
‘Twas then that he hit upon his Master Plan to weed out the Unworthy, and deliver the Holy Message of his Holyness, Agh! At this point he underwent Grimstolaet, changing himself from the inside out and donning his new Spandex, took upon himself the Holy Name of Poison Penn, the Right Hand of Agh.
All over the Galactic Rim he sped enticing the weak to evil, putting the fear of Agh into all those who succumbed with poison pen letters, then blackmailing them in the name of the Holy Church of Agh, (in order to defray costs), and finally when they refuse to repent, descending on them in a poisonous cloud and stabbing them to death with his poison-tipped spear-pen, while chanting the one thousand four hundred and fifty-three names of Agh.
Of course sooner or later he would run into our Dysfunctional Duo, Wheeler and Ikey. And so its possible that even Prima will have her hands full trying to rescue Wheeler and Co in order to bring them to Justice, while the Poison Penn is trying his best to bring them to Agh.
Enjoy!
Day# 07 Growl, Rain’s Dog
#07 Growl, (#6) Rain's Dog, by Jande Rowe
And Growl makes three. Rain’s little pet, Growl.  Part this and part that –maybe even Wolf, ya think? Rain found Growl when he was a puppy, wandering at the side of a busy highway, and rescued him from certain death. The two have been together ever since. Rain’s family were alarmed by how huge Growl ended up growing, but were happy to have him in the family. They’ve grown used to him now, but there has always been something strange about Growl, something… almost unearthly.
Luckily the family never resorts to corporal punishment, or their lives may not be worth the cost. Growl is supremely protective of Rain. Nobody, but nobody messes with Rain.
Drawn in Manga Studio Ex4, then Photoshopped a bit. I added Rain so that you could see how big Growl is. Rain’s attitude has changed slightly from his debut picture. If I had Growl as a friend, mine would too. ;`)
Someday the three of them, Sarah Sorry (#5), Rain Reeves (#6), and Growl, will have some interesting urban adventures together.
Enjoy!
Day#06 Rain Reeves
#06 Rain Reeves by Jande Rowe
Rain Reeves is best friends with his next-door neighbour, (#05) Sarah Sorry. His favourite colour is pink, he hates sports, enjoys playing with dolls and doll houses, loves reading books, computers, and animals, and wants to grow up to cure cancer.
His parents think he will become an interior designer, but they love him and encourage him to be himself. Sometimes he can be opinionated, and friends and family use the phrase “Right as Rain” with a wink, when he verges on the pompous.
They don’t worry too much about the possibility that his apparent effeminate ways could bring the bullies down on him, since he has a great protector in the more aggressively active Sarah Sorry –and of course his little pet dog, Growl (#07)
I’m not that happy with the way this one turned out. Created in Manga Studio Ex4 White background made transparent in Gimp2, and Coloured in Photoshop. I was thinking of making a “statement” about gender issues with these guys, perhaps a childrens book aimed at parents –lol– but at the moment I’m not excited about the idea. Maybe later.
Day#05 Sarah Sorry
#05 Sarah Sorry by Jande Rowe
Well, she’s in trouble again. Not surprising. If she isn’t getting into a scrape once an hour or so, her family would think the world had come to an end. She doesn’t mean to cause trouble, she just rushes into things, and she’s always repentant afterwards (well mostly!). That’s why they all call her Sarah Sorry.
It’s her insatiable curiosity, overactive imagination, and abundant physical energy that help her into (and sometimes out of ) trouble –especially in a world where all three attributes are frowned on and particularly in girls.
Boys are often encouraged to be loud and rambunctious. Her two older brothers certainly are, but Sarah must “behave”, “be quiet”, “sit still”, “stop fidgeting”. This repression makes her clumsy and nervous. It drives her crazy! She wants to play ball, go fishing, climb trees, build tree houses, chase cats and squirrels, and when she grows up she wants to be a fireman! Fire Engine Red is her favourite colour.
Her best friend, Rain, doesn’t want to be a fireman. His favourite colour is pink, he hates sports, and when he grows up he wants to be a scientist and discover the cure for cancer. Sarah thinks that would be nice, but that rushing into burning houses and saving people is a much more noble profession.
Maybe, by the time Sarah grows up, girls can be anything they want. And so can boys.
This Character has no particular place in any of my stories or comics. I was teaching myself to use Manga Studio EX4 this morning and she popped out. Perhaps she and Rain have stories of their own to tell.
Day# 04 Haywire
#04 Haywire for Wheeler's Orbits by Jande Rowe
#04 – Haywire: Born of an accident of the most unusual circumstances you can imagine, and yet in a wide universe, not so entirely unimaginable.
No one knows the exact circumstances. If we knew that we would reproduce them and create more of these… uh… creatures. Or maybe not.
Something to do with a universal G-class Explorer Colony Ship with the latest in Bio-AI cpu carrying out Top Secret Lab experiments just as a Wormhole appeared next to the sun that was going nova at the other end of the wormhole, while the cook was making pastrami for 24,000, and the crew was about to mutiny.
It all came together, –well, actually it all blew apart first, then came together again in a set of wires and conduits, circuits, diodes and motherlodes and AI gating nodes, and more wire and more… well, you get the picture. Thus. Haywire was born.
His best parlour trick is disguising himself as a wire sculpture or a coathanger. He overhears the most interesting things that way. His best non-parlour trick is interfacing with any other type of computational device. Why he even fixed Wheeler’s Toaster at least once before it broke down again into its normal bi-polar state of burn the toast or leave it frozen solid.
How he manged to drift into Wheeler’s Orbits however, is another story for another time. (Besides which, I’ll have to ask Wheeler and Ikey. ;`)
Enjoy!
Day #03: Prima
#03 Prima, by Jande Rowe
Name: Donna “Prima” Diego Gallantra of mixed Earth and Callaxi heritage.
Age: indeterminate, due to the rejuvinating drug Rezon.
Prima is a new character for my space misadventure comic “Wheeler’s Orbits”. In her own way Prima is a kind of Super Hero, using her natural Pout Power and Tantrumics, to get the best of anyone who crosses her or gets between her and the object(s) of her desire. And if that doesn’t work, Cold Shoulder, or a jolt from her Ray Wand will do, not to mention various articles of Shil’nk Weapon Jewelery that she inherited from the Callaxian side of the family.
After failing as a Ballerina, Cheerleader, and Miss Universe (yearly), the very tall spoiled daughter of Galactic Leader, Araxola Freeblusg Gallantra, Prima took up Sleuthing as a hobby.
She now lives in her own stealth-capable ship (a gift from Daddy to keep her busy) and haunts the aethers chasing down the lower forms of life from all the dark slimy corners of the universe.
She blames her human side for her lack of success rather than her arrogant feelings of entitlement.
Wheeler and Ikey, mostly because of Wheeler’s tendencies to walk straight into the nearest scrape, tend to fall along the edge of that description of sentience, and she often crosses their path. Wheeler says “…like she’s a Black Cat or sumthin –always trouble!”
The attraction goes both ways, with Ikey as intermediary and referee, as we will see in future issues of Wheeler’s Orbits.
Enjoy!
Day 02 GNARL, Tree Spirit
Day#02 GNARL, Tree Spirit
Another Aedre’s Firefly character: GNARL
Gnarl is another of the entities that Aedre meets on her journey. He is young for a tree, but like Aedre, has had to face much suffering: the itch of insect infestations, the painful drilling of the woodpecker and sapsucker, the long dry spells, and more than once, being the tallest on the hill, hit by lightning! But along with Aedre, he is a survivor and more. He has discovered how to send his spirit from tree to tree to see what goes on in the wild world.
His trials and travels have given him much wisdom, though he makes birds nervous (except for woodpeckers and sapsuckers) until they get to know him.
Aedre is a tree-hugger. She loves to feel the rough bark beneath her sensitive fingers; the way it warms to her touch. She can imagine she almost feels a pulse there. She loves the smell of bark and the smell of leaves. Perhaps it was her love of trees that freed Gnarl’s spirit. Perhaps…
Still, aware of her skittishness, Gnarl won’t speak to her until she is ready, but he can still help in invisible ways to make her path smoother than she would make it herself.
Day#01- Angus “Fergie” Fergus
Angus will be showing up during the present arc of Aedre’s Firefly. It was a joy to flesh him out from vague words on a page (“here she meets a squatter”) to a full personality. I think having these sketches done beforehand in the storylines will make the stories themselves much richer as they evolve.
Thanks, Dan, for the lovely template! It really made the process painless. :`)
Now to see what everyone is doing and to finish my “Webcomics: What’s Cooking?” contribution page.
30 Characters Challenger: Jande Rowe
Hello all,
I’m Jande (aka @eccentricOrbits). I’m the wearer-of-all-hats behind Aedre’s Firefly, the graphic novel fantasy about a starved dysfunctional young girl who has been made the town scapegoat. I hadn’t intended it to be a long form graphic novel. Originally it was a simple short story of about fifty panels at the most, but somehow the main character kept on at me to tell the whole story. I don’t script it very far ahead, so I still need more character designs for her story.
I also create Wheeler’s Orbits which is a more humorous comic about a couple of guys trying to get their inherited outer-space haulage company out of the red. That one will soon to debut on my website. Plus, I have a number of novels and short stories (mostly fantasy and science-fantasy) on the back burner waiting their chance to debut. And my husband also has a number of stories that cry out for the graphic novel approach. All of these are going to need more characters.
I’ve been in the webcomics venue since January 1st of this year and so far its been quite a ride. I’m still struggling to set up my web site properly (using Comic Press), and the graphic novel I’ve been posting has gone through a number of format changes, trying to find that balance point between work-a-holism and still having sleep, food, friends, and family.
Life was certainly easier when all I had to do to justify my existence was to make a painting –landscapes and abstracts being my forte. And then I had to go and challenge myself to claim a small corner of the webcomics world, and commit to updating weekly to boot. I have always loved comics. I have been drawing since the age of three. Self-taught, I discovered the rules of perspective late in life. I was almost thirty. But what a transformative discovery that was! Yet there is always more ways to improve my art. I hope to learn more from some of you, and perhaps, you too will learn something from me.
I’m normally a very shy, very private person, so getting involved in all of this is challenging in the extreme for me. But I have been gradually making happy acquaintance with some wonderful creators as well as being able to tell a story that showcases the resilience and the capacity for growth of the individual human spirit.
#30Characters Chatter…