Taking Dynamite to Some Things [Sketches Inside]

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As some of you out there may know, I’ve been working behind the scenes developing my angel characters in hopes of pitching a comic in the next year or two (I’m still not confident enough in my skills to render quality work at a fast pace, is one problem.) I’ve also put in alot of research into Abrahamic religious lore, from the Bible to the most obscure Jewish apocrypha, needless to say I’ve gotten alot of ideas. I’ve done alot of world building, I’ve got the history of the characters pretty much solidified. I’ve even got a good idea how I want it to end now, and plenty of ideas for the later story arcs. My goal right now is to write out an entire story linerally so I can then throw things out of chronology, easily show flashbacks, foreshadow, and extend, expand, and elongate plot points as I wish.  Of course I don’t intend to give away the details.

But in all this, I’ve run into a problem. The first story arc. I’ve had a major block in my path in trying to adapt the dynamic of the original short comic to this growing beast of an idea in my mind. Basically I’ve been in a rut.

My good friend anystar was helping me brainstorm one night (as we often do when one of us is trying to come up with something for a story) and the issue of having totally-no-idea-what-to-do to expand the Lucifer/Satan dynamic in the original short came up. I guiltily admitted something I had been thinking about for a long time: changing Satan’s character and role in the story.

The idea of him in the original was sparked by my own thought that if God sends people he considers bad to Hell, and Satan punishes people in Hell, wouldn’t that mean Satan does God’s work? Well a few years later I come to find: Satan DOES do God’s work.

Looking at the Old Testament and Judaism it became clear to me that Satan (or rather Ha-Satan "the satan") was originally an angel under the command of God who would test people’s faith/tempt them into doing evil to see if they’ll resist. I’m not the only one with this idea, either, it’s pretty damn widespread, and well it is how things are in Judaism. But being American you normally only hear the Christian version of things, and that’s definitely what permeates the popular notion of "Satan". Of course it helps to know that where the angel who tests/tempts humans (Iblis) is fallen in Islam, he was still given his job/ability to tempt humans by God (this is not surprising as Islam is a blend of Christianity and Judaism.) Either way, Satan is not the enemy of God but the advesary, the accusor of mankind. And I was thinking of putting him more in this direction.

Upon hearing this anystar told me outright she always thought Satan was a pretty weak character. And that she also saw no reason for him to be in Hell in the first place. This was especially poignant because she knew that I had originally planned that Satan would return to Heaven after the first story arc anyway.

Where it was a relief to hear the change encouraged it struck me that, like an idiot, I’ve been ignoring the basic rules of writing, which I’ve heard best put on ElfQuest.com: "Very few creative efforts are ready for their public debut right out of the box. Ideas sprout, they change and grow, sometimes they get tossed aside in favor of newer ones. The point is, don’t be afraid to apply the pruning shears - or even some dynamite, if that’s what it takes - to something you’ve written or drawn."

Damn straight. So I’m going with this. Satan has been plucked out of hell, doned in new robes (as Heaven has a dresscode, as I like to joke. Don’t worry, he’ll still have tremendously poor fashion sense when on Earth), and is now the Accusing Angel. Same as before he isn’t fallen, and I think this way he still jostles people’s general idea of who and what Satan is, only this time I’ve got a solid basis for it. He’s going to be matured a bit, he’s going to be as or even moreso confrontational than he was in the original short (as much as I love writing gag comics making fun of him being a goody-two-shoes. I plan to somehow work in his annoying straight-edge mannerisms at least a little) and in my new concept sketches I’ve been drawing him a little taller and more lanky. Did I mention I have sketches?

His hair, is different yes. This is something similar to the hairstyle I had him wearing when he was due to return to Heaven (now he’s going to have been there all along). He’ll still have the red bangs on Earth, I dunno about in Heaven. You can see now it’s wavey all around to look balanced (I’ve always had his hair as naturally wavey and he like, straightened his bangs. But it looked awkward didn’t it?) Oh yeah, and again, he still has bad fashion sense.

But this creates a problem. Isn’t he my main character? If I relegate him to a supporting role, who then is my main character?

Of course the main character has emerged right under my own nose without me even noticing. This is what happens when you let stories write themselves to some degree, and it’s not like it hasn’t happened to me before that a character who started out as very minor and incidental found his way up to main character status (I’m looking at you, Terith.)

So who is it? Some of my friends already guessed before I even told them:

Yes I drew that just for this annoucement. I’m a dork.

Yes, Azrael. Damnit. You didn’t even have any dialog in the original! How did this happen? Well it probably happened because I found myself focusing so much on Lucifer and Azrael (you may think Lucifer is the main character, but he’s the central character, which is different. At least I think so.) And because Lucifer and Azrael became my favorite characters, they became many of yours as well (which is why I think few people will cry over the changes.)

Truth be told Azrael is a much more conflicted character, so he’s suitable for a protagonist (of course now he needs an outfit more suited to a protagonist). anystar had made the point that were Satan has his doubts, his convictions are too strong, so he never really grows or changes. Lucifer, also, never changes, y’know it’s that whole Pride thing.

Another point anystar made, which is one many of you have been driving at for a while now, is the idea of introducing human characters into the story. My only reluctance there is the worry that they will overshadow the angel characters (as humans are, naturally, easier to relate to, no matter how "human" I make the angels.) So how to do that, and to what end and capacity, is still pretty vague at this time. Even then I dunno if I’d reveal any human characters on here (aside from, you know, Lilith.)

So why did I need to write a long blog post about this, you may ask? Well for one thing it helped organized my thoughts on the matter! For another I didn’t want to just start drawing my characters radically different and SPRING it on people who have been following my art for a while. And yet another, hey sometimes it helps to see other peoples’ creative processes, as disorganized and random as they can be. And lastly: The all important feedback! It’s always good to have an outside opinion on the direction you’re going with your work. That’s why people have editors. Or in my case a handful of friends to tell you "No, dear, that idea is stupid, please stop right now."

P.S. I’ll be redesigning the characters’ costumes over time, so when I do turnarounds I’ll probably put them, or at least parts of them, up here. I keep straying toward Italian Renaissance religious art in my designs, though.  I can’t help myself! What can I say? Those Catholics have religious fashion down to a science.