Just a WIP for another cover concept. Most notable for me finally figuring out what I wanted Ayame's team's name to be.

Most of the following wall-o-text will probably only be interesting to those who at least know a little about what the hell my comic is about. For the majority of you, enjoy the purty pic-a-tures, for the rest, here's a window into my mind on some parts of the comic...


I was trying to think of two words, an adjective and a noun, that would be very representative of both Ayame's ethos as well as Suggestion (her not yet drawn here arm doodad). This jumped into my head, and I can't think of it being anything else now...

My only worry is that this will draw even MORE comparisons with Ghost in the Shell, which is both flattering AND frustrating. While I definitely see where people connect the two, they're not really the same style of stories:
The area of strongest similarity comes from my love of tech stuff. The comic is chock full of various crazy tech that while sometimes unrealistic and fantastical is somewhere inspired/influence/rooted in real world designs.
Secondly, Ayame runs dangerously close to The Major's (Whatever her name is, I've only partially seen the movies and the show. : / ) behavior in many key scenes I've developed. When I write I find it helpful if I ask myself questions: "What is this person's character? Why would they/wouldn't they do something? How do they commit themselves to actions/how do they follow through?" And while in key moments, Ayame and The Majors actions are the same (Gung-ho, ready to cast yourself into the fray with a steely eye, no fear, and no worries about your personal outcome) they derive from two distinct reasons. The Major is a robot (right? Like I said, not that familiar) and programmed to follow her orders, while Ayame commits to decisions to the point of evincing possible mental/emotional issues.
Ayame's not a robot, though, she's a real person (In the context of this fiction of course.) with real thoughts and feelings and flaws. For most of the comic she's in a very unstable, unpredictable, and dangerous situation. She's scared, she's stressed, she's often injured and tired. Her ability to perform amazing feats of rising above, of pushing through pain, of facing overwhelming odds isn't because it doesn't affect her, it's because she has remarkable wills and strong ethics. Maybe she achieves BECAUSE of fear. She fears for her friends, for her way of life. She fears failing. Leading up to the events of this comic, "failure" is an alien concept to her, I'm sure it's like an icy hand gripping her heart when she first finds her abilities aren't enough.


mmm... anywho, that's alot of character rambling.

I'm a total ADD head, so while I like deep, nuanced stories, I can't take the amount of dialogue in GitS. I'm sure it's like candy for some people, I don't -fault- it's verbosity, but it's not for me. I am of the belief that a stories presentation doesn't have to shackle it's depth. I think a story can be as paced, as verbose as GitS and still be shallow and pointless, conversely I think a story can be as rich and deep as GitS and still be faster, lighter. That's the only parallel I want to exist between that story and mine.

Think of Ayame as "Ghost in the Shell: for dummies".