Comics Newsletter: March 2017

Hey there, folks. Did you think we had been captured by unscrupulous ninjas? If you thought that - you were correct. It's been roughly 13 months since our last newsletter and we are semi-sorta back w/an abbreviated newsletter.

This month, we are proud to feature one of our excellent admin and her newest webcomic series. Many of you will know her from her work as the writer and illustrator of The Pirate Balthasar. That series has been ongoing for 6 years and reached up to 1000+ subscribers on platforms like Smack Jeeves and 4000+ on Taptastic. Her character design, framing and content are amaze-balls. She has a way of handling her storylines that draw audiences in and then reward them with action and warmth that very few artists and writers are capable of.

She is none other than Deda Daniels aka Dedasaur and we are darn lucky to have her new work front and center. Let's see what the heck she is up to now.

The Mark Of Cain

Italian born Deda Daniels published her first comic at the young age of 11 in a local Singapore magazine. She pursued her BFA in Animation from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in the US. After which she moved on to work in the animation industry, product design and digital marketing until 2006 on projects for Disney, Hasbro, Mattel, Pixar and Nickelodeon. In 2010, she went back to her first love and started creating webcomics such as The Pirate Balthasar, The Flower and the Nose and the upcoming The Mark of Cain.

Deda has been living in Singapore for the past seven years where she works at the School of Interactive and Digital Media, at the Nanyang Polytechnic, teaching Storyboarding, Story, Comic and Illustration and Visual Development. We can imagine how fortunate her students are having a such a talented and well-traveled instructor!

Her new series is called The Mark of Cain. It's a brand new series, for us, from Deda but it actually began life as a concept in the 1990's. It’s an urban fantasy that moves quickly into an historical/mythological adventure type of a story which questions the reality of history and its many possible versions. The timeline is not traditional. It unfolds in a non-linear way as it follows an unusual hero who is trapped within an series of story arcs with ensuing genre-bender and trope twists.

The story is told from the point of view of a “guardian angel” figure who travels alongside an immortal, Cain (yes, the biblical one) as he turns historical facts into legends and legends into historical facts.

At the same time we see Cain, in modern days, telling the very same story to his wife but from a slightly different perspective as the girl’s inquisitive questions will reveal facts and truth of Cain’s life that were not noticed or penned down by his “angelic” custodian.

Are our identities something foisted on us or is it something unchangeable - given to us at birth? Cain may wonder the same thing here.

The comic is in it's second chapter and is currently releasing on Tapastic, and with a slight delay on Deviant Art. The Mark of Cain was initially released in the 90’s in the form of a novel (in Italian only) and has undergone many changes in its structure and themes. What she learned on Balthasar in terms of panel framing, character design and story arc are now solid skills unfolding in Cain.

As far as the story goes Deda plans to have Cain crossing paths with many historical figures and will contribute to the creation of many legends (Wandering Jew, Sword in the Stone, Alexander’s Gate, etc), but most of all he will cross path many times with love and the firm conviction that there is only one person waiting for him at the end of his journey.

Deda's unmistakable charm is all over this new series in a big way. Her characters each possess a clear emotional presence.

This is Dedasaur 4th webseries following The Pirate Balthasar (2010-2016) which is currently on hiatus and is expected to release new stories by the end of 2017, The Pirate’s Wife (a spin off of The Pirate Balthasar – completed), and The Flower and The Nose, currently releasing every Wednesday on Tapastic and Deviant art.

This new series is just gearing up at Taptastic. I strong encourage each of you to read through her work on this book. Dig up more of her Pirate Balthasar series which illustrates the process of her getting her creative ducks in a row from volume one to volume nine. Her work is a great example of careful development towards a successful and fun webcomic.

That's all for the newsletter this month. Thanks to Deda and everyone here for contributing your work and your stories to our group.