Adam doesn't talk does he?

Not much! He tends to be more of the strong quiet type. He's carrying the weight of surviving the ruins differently to Emma, who got caught up in Revenants by causing shit out in civilian life.

Big shoes

Exactly! Look at those heckin' hooves!

Trying to make Todd jealous 🤔

She just knows how to push everyone's buttons!

I wanted to chime in to say that, while I'm regrettably don't have the eyes
to spare on backtracking through your story all the way to the root,
so I only have a superficial understanding of what it is all about,
but I have grown very fond of Revenants – at least
of the latter pages of it that I've seen since I started
following your work.

At first, I was apprehensive about giving this story much attention,
because of some bad experiences with furry artists who feature guns,
uniforms and military themes, as some of them have turned out
to be dangerously conservative, but eventually I realized
that the idea here is far from glorifying war and militarism,
and the tragedy of formalized murder is given its due
acknowledgement and reverence, placing you artwork
in the exceptional category of
"Has Guns, But The Author Is *Not* A Crazed Survivalist",
alongside Hladilnick and mushroomsoup65 .
Damning you with faint praise, perhaps,
but it's an honest record of my
conquest of martial prejudice
in your case.

The visual side of this story is beautiful in so many ways.
The style for presenting characters is very handsome,
obviously, and although the animal people here
are delightfully drawn, there is a very refreshing
discipline in keeping everyone clothed, and
making them act with their facial expressions
and body language, rather than flaunting their
furry bodily exoticism.

The sets and props for the story are likewise
gorgeously detailed, and that includes
the homey interiors, the streetside architecture,
the lighting, the clothes, the furniture, the guns...
Everything confirms this world's authenticity,
and I admire this dedication and polish.

The main draw, however, is the deep and insightful rendering
of the characters' psyche, especially as revealed through
interactions. The esprit-de-corps and the shared
traumatic and high stress experiences is the strongest suit
of the military genre, and your creation certainly knows
where to stick your shovel. The pathos and weight
of the scenes involve deadly confrontations in them
are palpable, and as gut-wrenching as they must be.

Regarding the latest developments, I loved watching that gradual
ice-breaking between Todd and Emma after their harsh fight so much!
The tension during the elevator scene, and the cryoblast
during the earlier cheery exchange between Todd and Max,
and the rest of the team, with Emma seething
in the background, was a masterpiece of short-distance
character drama, and it was done so effortlessly
and naturally by you!

Thank you for tagging everyone so diligently, by the way!
I was convinced that Todd was a German shepherd
and Emma was a gemsbok for a good time
before I bothered to check the species.
Very commendable to represent
all those rare creature types and breeds!

Oh, and I notice you have a listing on TopWebComics!
I've been praying at the altar of Out-of-Placers on that site every day,
and I'll get on praying on yours, as well.

Wow, thank you so much for the thoughtful comment, I greatly appreciate that you took the time to work through all that for me! I’ve accidentally ended up responding in essay form 😅

Sometimes creating online in a vacuum can be a little isolating. I always appreciate every returning commenter who comes around to each page and lets me know they're still here and reading. But a comment this in-depth is a rare gem that can really cement the fact that I'm achieving what I want with this story. So, thank you!

And yeah, rooting around in the back catalogue can be a bit tricky in digital comics, so no sweat there! I'm hoping one day people will take the time to start from the beginning again. I have a very solid arc planned through this comic. Once I wrap it up, I want people to be able to read it again and spot the breadcrumbs I was laying out all along.

Oh I 100% understand. I actually worry that people see the militaristic slant of the comic and write it off without trying. Gun culture is super conservative and a haven for all the worst opinions people have. And it's hard not to have some of the stink waft by when you're in that space.
And to a degree, that's kinda what my comic railing against. I'm trying to be a bit more subtle in my messaging, but my story takes on weird macho militarism and “warrior culture”. As well as a little questioning of patriotism and duty.

I shoot guns for fun and do regular amateur competitive shooting because I enjoy the challenge and the gear. But sometimes you meet THE WORST of people at the range. Especially in Post Apartheid South Africa. I enjoy the hobby, but man, people who wrap themselves up in guns as a personality are awful people.

I booted a "Rhodesian" from my Discord very quickly a bit back. And he wormed his way in because my characters wield R1 rifles from time to time, a South African FN FAL clone. Rhodies idolise the fucking rifle. If he vocalised some terrible opinions that got him banned, I would have hoped he'd have seen this comic wasn't for him or his politics. Or maybe he'd have learned something, who knows.

I think being a bit immersed in the culture I can comment on it as someone who disagrees with a lot of the politics, and I'm hoping that shows a little bit in Revenants. If I get hate for being “woke” I’ve achieved my goal. I want people to question and think about the use of guns and military activity in this.

I'm glad you're enjoying the style too! I really enjoy the mechanics of furry characters. I love the idea that a species can be a conscious shorthand to depict personality. So much so I wrote a postgraduate dissertation about it like, 10+ years ago 😅 But as you say, there’s a lot of room for expression too. I enjoy the extra tools I have in ears and tails to hammer home what a character is feeling, even if they aren’t 100% sure about it themselves.

I joke that my characters live in the same space as HelloKitty 😂 I remember her creator was like “HelloKitty is not a cat, she is a little girl” and in my world, that’s kinda the same. Aside from one jab with the park ranger, no-one ever acknowledges their “animal-ness”. But their behaviour is affirmed by their species, and how they sometimes contradict that.

I get that furry has a very erotic side and I'd be lying if I denied enjoying that, but I think there's a middle ground between explicitly for adults and sanitised Disney characters. I enjoy both, but I want to do something that borrows from the subculture as well as more poppy portrayals of "funny animals". An inspiration I found a little way into discovering the fandom was Blacksad, and that's been a HUGE inspiration, especially as someone who collects Franco-Belgian comics whenever I visit family in Belgium.

I’m also glad you like the environments. They are definitely the hardest parts for me, and I really want them to tell as much story as the character design, wardrobe, and dialogue. Plus I think in a post John Wick world, depicting guns accurately is seen as cool and interesting, so I want to tap into that 😅

But I am extra glad that my script is landing for you. I want these characters to properly wrestle with what they are doing and why, and how this insane situation they’ve found themselves in, and how it came to be. Like, they ARE in an insane situation, they need to figure out why that’s a thing for them to be doing, and figure out how to cope.

Although I often worry about how little “action” is in this action/adventure comic. But I want what action there is to be impactful. I want the violence to be “realistic”. Sudden, unpredictable, dangerous and ultimately, life changing. No one walks away from a violent encounter unscathed. And these characters need to reflect that. Glorifying war and killing for me, as someone who likes guns, is absurd. And you can have media where the hero wipes out hoards of baddies without moral scruples because that can be fun (John Wick is one of my favourite movies!), but that’s not real life. So my “goodies” are not that kind of hero.

And yeah, sometimes I can be a litttttle subtle with interpersonal stuff, because people rarely walk up to each other and tell them the full truth about how they feel. So my characters do the same. These relationships are slow burns that take several chapters so fully come to light. And it isn’t always delivered in dialogue, which can be tricky!

Oh yeah, I took a second to get the hang of tagging the comic, but Postybirb actually has such useful tools aside from scheduling. Now I have a tag group for each recurring character I can just drop in when they are on page.
But I also like using more “naturalistic” animals, and ones that maybe feature a little less in the fandom. Like, I love a good design that’s bright and saturated, but I want my characters to be a little more grounded. Partly because I think that will have broader appeal outside the fandom, but mostly because a digitgrade rainbow wolf hybrid with wings doesn’t work in this story 😅

As for TopWebComics, I need to get better at managing that sort of page, they really fall down the priority list after my host pages and patreon, so thank you for your efforts there!

Thank you again so much for the kind words!

I appreciate a good essay very much, and I'm in a habit of typing them up, myself!
Thank you for being willing to elaborate so candidly and meticulously
on your creative process and your values!

Where guns are concerned, I feel hesitant to bring up my own interest in them
because of that conservative baggage, and because it is an interest
that inherently requires a measure of sober restraint and discretion.
Guns are made to kill, and there is no sugarcoating or lionizing it,
at least in real life. The history and engineering genius, the culture around
those implements can be fascinating, but it's not something you flaunt around.
In fiction, however, there is a way to enjoy the exaggerated mythos
of certain guns, like the stopping power hierarchy of pistol and revolver cartridges:

a .38 Special is stopped by a leather jacket
a 9mm is lethal only in full-magazine quantities
a .45 ACP is a sledgehammer hit that drops anyone
a .357 S&Wagnum does the same, but also goes through a wall
a .44 Remmagnum takes your head clean off and derails trains
a .454 Casullagnum sinks battleships
and a .500 S&Wagnum blows up the planet if it hits the ground.

And then there are all those design philosophy feuds, like
the blowback-recoil-gas-electrical action pros-and-conning,
weird hybrid things like the .300 Blackout sub/supersonic platforms,
the crazy things people stuff into shotgun shells,
the assault rifle/battle rifle feud that features the FN FAL versions
you mentioned, the endless AR-15 vs AK-47 grudge match,
and it's all fun and games...
until the next civilian massacre, the next batch of hospital shots
of the people injured and killed by those ingenious tools.

And none of that comic book/shooter gun romanticism applies
to guns in the real life:
a rifle is a rifle, a gunshot is a gunshot, and most guns
are designed with the ease of mass-production,
cost-benefit balance, and reliability in mind,
eschewing all that engineering brilliance and quirkiness.

It's really a hobby that only suited for reclusive chat groups
of veterans, hunters and gamers, and for the range.

I am very grateful to you for being one of a highly skilled creators
reclaiming the some of that field of interest from the people
who really, really shouldn't be allowed anywhere near guns.

* * *

As for the animal people characters, there is a lot of added markers
that they bring to the normal human storytelling even when used with subtlety.

In realistic, Earth-based settings, someone's animal type can hint
at their country of origin, their culture; it can enhance or comedically subvert
their physique (a huge bull, a huge mouse), it can do unlimited alchemical
changes with the apparent gender, personality, professions...

Besides the simple visual variety and habitat hints of a given animal,
there is also the ecological implications of having predatory and prey
animal people interacting together, and that can result in additional
complexity of their perceived social dynamics.

BoJack Horseman is a good relatively recent example
of the animal personhood being used simultaneously
very lightly (it's all but ignored for serious plot points and main characters),
and very strongly (the endless visual jokes of animal characters doing animal things in the background).

One of the biggest difficulties of creating a furry setting
is to have all those animal people, but also have them
be aware and receptive of all the animal behaviors
and ecological relationships, so the horse furry person
must be able to recognize all the ideas, jokes and memes
around the concept of the horse-as-a-domesticated-animal.
Naturally, it's a hellish task to manage, and most stories
with animal people are understandably fairly inconsistent.

The research stage for your dissertation must have been
an amazing flurry of zoological, sociological and art theory forays...

As for the sexual aspect, there have been a lot of attempts
from the mainstream media to portray the appreciation
for furry characters as a kink, a fetish, something inherently
sexual, and that's largely not true – the furry community
is a free art community, and all free art communities
eventually get swamped in pornography, that's just
the way people are, and the mainstream media itself
is likewise flooded by sexual themes and innuendo.

However, there is a grain of truth to that furry characters
lend themselves better to the more sensual and erotic
interactions, on the account of the physical openness
that comes from the way people perceive animals.
I would never imagine of stroking another adult
behind their ear without first spending half a year of preliminary
mutual acquaintanceship and switching off all the intimacy firewalls,
by earning the other person's trust, but with a wild animal or someone's pet?
It's fully socially accepted, and has this aura of wholesome innocence to it.

Because animals share so many behavior patters with humans,
but are also perceived as fundamentally inferior and subordinate,
exempt from the rules of decency and tact, and understood to lack agency,
a person with animal characteristics invites the same half-magnanimous,
half-condescending attitude towards them, even if it's buried deep
in the subconscious. Oh, and many animals are just much more
beautiful than most people, and by the merit of their difference alone
are intriguing and fascinating, giving the furries even more appeal.
The ear and tail body language you mentioned also enhances
those characters' ability to emote immeasurably.

But in your story, animal people are people first.

The animal aspect highlights their personalities very effectively, though:

Todd is a Malinois, who have the reputation of incredible athletic ability,
and as working dogs, they have a bushelful of admirable social traits
that they are associated with. But dogs are super-conformists,
surrendering much of their agency to their handlers,
and from what I've seen, Todd struggles with breaking out
from that safely normal outlook, and empathizing with people
whose experiences fall outside of what is familiar to him.
A bit of a white boy at the ghetto party.

Emma is a springbok with a broken horn, and her attitude
reflects that of a herbivore who has been through some serious
violence and trauma. She is tense, reserved, solemn,
and needs a very special situation to lower her guard,
as well as put her painful memories at ease.

I'm sure most of the other characters in Revenants
are subtly connected to the cultural connotations
of their animal bodies, even if no one ever
draws attention to their furriness.

* * *

And as for the choice of animals to make into characters
that would be both interesting and grounded in reality,
you couldn't have chosen a better source continent
than Africa, even if that choice was informed by
your own living situation! The antelopes alone
present a majestic spread of shapes and behaviors,
to say nothing of the unique megafauna
and the big and biggish cats.

Again, I'm a huge fan of bringing in unusual creatures
to the public eye, as it's important venue
for for learning and appreciating the world
beyond the wolf-fox-deer staples
of Northern popular zoology.

And it was a pleasant revelation to learn
that this story is being developed
by an actual academician!

Your reply, and a quick skittering exploration
of your journals on my part
have also solidified
my view of you
as a good person.

May everything come your way!

Sorry for the delay, I wanted to give your response the time it needed to get a proper reply together 😅 As you say, I like to talk through my process!

Definitely, I’ve always been fascinated by the engineering and mechanics of firearms, but alongside any mechanical device of any interesting design. Engines, tools, I was that kid who was REALLY into trains and then space travel on a mechanical level 😅
Even though as you say, the primary intention of firearm engineering is to kill. I appreciate that these days I get to shoot competition though, and will probably never need to use my firearms in anger. But there is great satisfaction in getting proficient with such a complex piece of machinery.

But that baggage of them being so tightly aligned with conservative right wing values will always be there. It’s why I’ve really come to appreciate groups like The Socialist Rifle Association and Yellow Peril Tactical.

Love a good movie trope around guns 😂 I still love my one shot kill Magnum from Half Life!

I think it was Tactical Girlfriend or similar mentioning something like, “can you really appreciate the opinion of a firearm owner who doesn’t at the very least shoot some kind of sport?”. It’s all well and good to armchair debate about AR vs AK or 1911 vs. Glock. But when I borrowed a CZ at a competition once I KNEW it was the pistol I wanted for competition, because my very fun but very expensive 1911 in .45 wasn’t cutting it for me. I immediately shot better with the 9mm compact pistol. And you learn that in competition, or at the very least, concerted and focused practice.

I’ve long held the opinion that South African gun laws are good, if poorly managed. Unlike the States, you end up on a national registry with all your serial numbers. You have to do competency training before you can purchase a firearm and you have to renew self defence licenses every 5 years. I have ten years on my licenses as a dedicated sports-person, and that’s easy to achieve if you put in a tiny bit of effort. The availability of firearms in the States is a recipe for trouble, and I think the second amendment has been stretched so thin as to be rendered meaningless at this point. Guns NEED to be hard to access, you NEED to prove yourself competent to own a tool capable of dealing death and harm so easily.

***

I’m less interested in animal people to reflect race to be honest. I find that’s a slippery slope into stereotyping. A lot of me likes the idea that Scott McCloud posits in Understanding Comics. A character with a “simple” design lets the reader pour themselves into them. See themselves in the character. My cast is always going to be hampered by the fact that they were written in the relatively narrow perspective of my own lived experience as a cis white dude. I can read other peoples work and do research, but ultimately my characters are born of my own world view. But “funny animals” are more fluid than human characters in my opinion. If someone has a reading of a character being a different race/gender to what I envisioned in my perspective, but it doesn’t break the story, let them have that reading! I’d like to think people with different lived experiences than me can see themselves in my cast simply through the act of not having used humans with defined skin tones. I think there’s powerful connection to be had through animal characters.

Similarly, I feel like the predator/prey dynamics in Beastars and Zootopia muddy the metaphor too much. There’s interesting things there, but I think it adds a layer of complexity that you don’t really need in a society as complicated as ours already is. I prefer using it as a personality thing. Emma is a herbivore in a room full of predators. You think she’s going to have a worse time of it but she’s actually the most adept person in the room aside from maybe Max. Todd is a Belgian Malinois, a breed basically made for military service. But he’s questioning his role more than anyone else, while feeling most compelled to help through this strange situation. As you say, there’s value in juxtaposition.

I almost wish I could go back and rework my dissertation at this point, in 2012 there was far less popular media actually exploring the mechanics of animal characters than there are now!

***

Yeah, as I said before, using less common animals helps the comic stand out to a degree, but is also just fun? I enjoy the challenge of trying to avoid the same animals everyone else is using in mainstream and furry media.

But thanks again for these wonderful comments! I greatly appreciate it!

No delay is unjustified for a reply of this magnitude and thoroughness!
And I am a notorious slug when it comes to replying, myself, so I couldn't judge.

Thank you for sharing some more of your history with the firearms!
It's unfortunate how the ammunition market stifles the options
for firing all those venerable relics, funneling everyone
towards the Luger singularity. Number 9... Number 9...
CZ's have a great reputation, though! Is yours a 75?

As for gun control laws, the system you have described
seems more sensible than the U.S. free-for-all, to be sure.
I like the idea with the repeated competency training
licenses that need to be renewed. Background checks
can be very unreliable, but if someone can follow
those complex protocols, that is a proof of some sanity.

Maybe we can work towards something of a non-conservative
gun owners' union, where the gun control is enforced
by the community of proficient licensed operators.
Those groups you mention seem like a good start!

Half-Life's revolver was something, alright.
Its in-game antithesis was the ridiculous MP5SD/grenade launcher combo...

For the animal character coding, I fully agree that a story
that focuses on matters of realistically applicable
social conflicts, the significance of the species
should be reduced and linked to personalities,
as you have done for your story.

I also concur that the ecological roles are more often than not mishandled,
as there really is no real life analogue to a minority multi-species group
that is ostracized for... having a different diet? for practicing cannibalism?
for having practiced it in the past? Neither racism nor sexism work that way.
Predator-prey dynamics are only really useful in erotica as extra coding
for desiring someone carnally and for being so desired.

Then again, fiction is the home for many mildly toxic cultural themes,
like the Race Essentialism Lite that the fantasy genres are rife with.
It's really cool to imagine that there are people
who are culturally and genetically committed
to being huge angry warriors, or posh scholars,
or lithe outdoorsmen, or genius craftsmen, or winged nomads...
But back in the real life, there really isn't much difference
between types of people, as humanity's one primary trait
is adaptability – linguistic, cultural, governmental or economic.

And hey, you shouldn't be too down on yourself for being a vanilla man!
You seem to be clever and curious and thoughtful enough
to compensate for that. And anyway, there is no undoing
the legacy of colonization and white supremacy
by the few people willing to challenge it
self-flagellating themselves into inaction.

I believe a default white dude attempting and failing to write
about the Black transfemme sex worker scene in the U.S.
is better than doing nothing, as it at least invites
corrective conversation.

We always need to question ourselves
if our hesitance to engage with other cultures
is due to being sensitive to the feelings of the audiences
from that culture, or is it due to obsessing over our image as "the good ally".

But then, there is also the issue of some research being too darn difficult.
Like you said, lived experience does put us in boxes, and exploring
someone else's box can take months and years
before someone can "write what they know"
about the interior of that new box.

And I must apologize for my assumptions about Todd's character!
I'm going by the last dozen pages or so, and I really
shouldn't be making any judgments about
the characters' inner workings.

I really enjoyed my 1911! I did eventually start reloading .45 to keep shooting it, but it was a real parts-bin gun. Almost nothing matched on it. The plan was to do it up and make it a decent competition gun, but I never had the budget for it. So the CZ was just the easier and cheaper option to keep competing. I got the P07 Duty, the original Gen 1 model before they dropped the “Duty” naming on it. I’m very much enjoy shooting it. But maybe when budget allows I’ll upgrade to a model that can take a red dot.

Yeah, again, I think there’s value in our local firearms laws, they’re just in dire need of a group more equipped than the South African Police Service to do all the admin.
Must admit I do often consider getting my licences and a course or two under my belt in order to do Range Officer and Instructor type work. But make my services available to people who aren’t comfortable around the average firearms enthusiast. Mainly women and members of the queer community. The only downside is they still have to deal with the police to do any licensing they'd need to do and the cops are not the most accepting people around.

Oh man, you’re reminding me of Jonathan Ferguson's great video on that MP5 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHtcq3rC7OI

I think when animals are used for a race allegory, it either gets a bit muddy like in Zootopia, or it gets too essentialist, tying race to traits. So better to just avoid it I think 😅 But there’s no denying the strength in using regional animals to depict and AREA, so I like using my higher proportion of African animals in the cast as a signifier of my “South Africa with the serial numbers filed off” setting. But no-ones race is tied up in the animals, I want them open to interpretation. But the idea of food rarely comes up as a trait because it has no bearing on the story nor characters.

Oh yeah, not really being down on myself, but definitely thinking that I’d have approached a few things differently in the script if I’d started it later. If only to add a few more layers to characters that could have benefited from it. It’s not a train smash, but it would be fun to talk to people with other lived experiences to keep some cast from feeling too background.

And no way, assumptions and interpretations are what I want to foster! I’m working with the arc of twenty chapters held in my head at all times. I often forget what information my readers are working with at times, because I know where breadcrumbs now are leading to! So if anything, your opinion is valid in the here and now, but I’m hoping as the cast evolves your opinion evolves.

Thank you for outlining the history of your guns of choice!
1911's design is iconic, even if it's impractical nowadays.
I'm glad your little polymer chemokinetic mass driver serves you well!

Thank you for that video! I've seen a different video which also featured
Jonathan Ferguson explaining that weird firearm phenomenon!

It is supremely admirable of you to be willing to apply yourself
in a way that would help those who need it the most!
You seem to be productive and versatile enough
to be able to bring those ambitions to fruition.

Establishing the area flavor with a certain set of species
is something I've noticed in your work, and it's valid usage
of the characters' furry aspect; it's okay for funny animals
to just be funny animals, and not distract the readers
from the essentially human story.

There are other creators and art projects for the readers
who expect impalas to have their own culture and history
that's separate from that of the kudus and the zebras.

As for hindsight regrets, I'm sure you'll even everything out
by chapter twelve. Long stories like Revenants
are especially enjoyable in that the project's evolution
mirrors that of the author. To a reader, you can be viewed
as one more character in your story, with your own arc.

And thanks for allowing your audience to take away
what they will from your storytelling!

Man I'm a huge fan of Ferguson's videos! Very funny seeing someone so into games and guns have such high quality content.

Yeah, it's very much a dream for now, I'm an idea guy, rollout is tricky! I like self initiated projects because then I can just go and not wait on people, or have them wait on me. So the prospect of doing something for people where they're reliant on me on some way always makes a project more daunting. So the RO/Instructor thing has just sorta sat on the backburner.

I've definitely enjoyed a few interpretations on this site of African animals being almost tribalistic, because it kinda works as a real world analogue for relatively isolationist herds by species. Again, it skews dangerously close to stereotyping, but generally you can tell in most cases here the intention is not to cause harm, so I'm usually less sceptical of the medium.

I see! Well, here's to you assembling all the necessary resources,
material and spiritual, to turn those distant dreams into reality,
eventually!

It's all down to the question of "why are furries furries?" asked of any given story.
If the answer is, "animal features are fun and help with characterization",
that's one meta-genre, and if the answer is a few dozen pages of worldbuilding –
it's another one. Both have their draws and appeal.

As for stereotyping, the histories and cultural features of animal people
can be presented as having gone through the chaotic crucible
similar to what has been going on in the world
since the establishment of global trade routes
(or since even earlier, with all those waves of mass migration).
Nowadays, you can visit a campus in the U.S.
and meet people of Middle Eastern, African,
Indian, Oceanic, Scandinavian and Mexican descent,
and they would all be speaking posh English
and share a wide range of views and ideas.
There are Black Republicans and Black Democrats,
BLM activists and Kanye West.

You can have a wildebeest character who is a hardcore advocate for Pan-Africanism,
and you can have another wildebeest character who sees themself as a Frenchman first.
and a third wildebeest character who is an Islamic activist, and associates herself
with the Muslim ummah over every other identity.

Not nudging you towards anything, just outlining how the species-as-ethnicity approach
can be done without stereotyping. The stereotyping itself can be explored
and confronted in a story like that.

Personally, I don't have a preference, and can enjoy
aesthetics-first and worldbuilding-first
furry fiction, as long as it's done well.

Emma, you dirty bokkie.

She knows how to get under Todd's innocent skin 😂