I thought I’d smite two birds with one stone. I wanted to increase the amount I draw (I unfortunately spend more time writing gags and emails and colouring than putting pencil to paper) and also draw some of the fun characters from other webcomics.

Recently Scott Kurts of PVP got sick and he asked the webcomic community to fill in with guest strips. Scott and Ramon both did strips that got the high five! Mine ended up on the fan-art facebook page instead of on the main page, but whatever. It was fun to do. I chose to work with some of the sub-PVP characters that show up from time to time. Binwin just appears when Kurts has some D&D humour to get off his chest (or armoire). This is what got me started on drawing other people’s characters. (Click on images to see them larger)

I can’t mention fantasy webcomics without The Order of the Stick. It’s a really solid comic with well defined characters, lots of gags and minimalistic art that perfectly suits the strip. Although I felt like drawing Elan and Haley in my style I totally think the strip would be worse off it was drawn in a different style. The stick figures are perfect. The strip takes place in the world of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 rules so that the laws that govern the world the characters live in include skill points, spot checks, xp and other abstract concepts as concrete concepts.

I also really dig Tomgeeks: part tomboy, part geek all female webcomic creators. First up is Fey Winds. They art in the comic is fantastic and the characters are really fun. This picture features Larina who has a gem on her head in which ghosts can enter her body and take posession of her (usually for comic relief). I thought it would be funny if the fighter killed a monster who immediately then attacked them again from their ally’s body. Well, not laugh-out-loud funny, but funny in a neat and interesting kind of way like finding a great new use for your Magic the Gathering card.

Then there’s Roza, a strip about a girl who’s cursed with magical blood. She’s travelling across the realm to find out how to end her curse (though I have a suspicion she will learn to embrace her curse rather than hate it). Again, the art is fantastic and the characters are really well developed. All of these Tomgeeks strips are fantastic with their colouring, using computer blended colours but not in the cheesy, over rendered way many North American mainstream comics are. They’re more like classy European bandes dessinées.

Xylia is a story with faeries and magic and secret worlds and all sorts of stuff. My favourite part of the series is the magic portal is a painting which they just turn to face a rock so no one can follow them through it. Mostly, it’s quite dramatic though, almost emo.  This is a confrontation between Charlie and Tychia, who feel both hate and a sort of love for each other. There are other solid Tomgeek strips to check out too but these were just 3 of the ones that inspired me to draw from them.

A while ago I mentioned Skadi on my blog. I really like Katie Rice’s artwork. Add barbarians in the mix and you have a super winning combination. Skadi’s goal in life is to eat part of every beast, including the mystical ones. So I figured this gag would be better suited to her than Christi.