Exploring Earthsong with Lady Yates
by Shannon Fay
It was strange enough for Willow waking up on an unfamiliar world with no knowledge of who she was. But when she gets drawn into a battle between sentient planets, things get a lot more complicated for everyone.
Luckily, you don't have to travel to a faraway planet to learn more about Earthsong. With volume one coming out in June, Gomanga.com interviewed creator Crystal Yates (aka Lady Yates) to get the inside look at the world of Earthsong.
First off, how did you first come up with the story for Earthsong?
CY: To be honest, I started with the characters. I had been designing all sorts of characters based on ancient mythology and legends for a long while before I even started to consider doing a comic of my own. When I finally decided that I was serious about creating a comic, I had to work out how to put all these characters together. Over the course of my last year in university I mulled it over - it was an escape from the stress of school and served as a creative outlet. It turned out to be far more conceptually based than I ever thought it would - I ended up creating a unique universe with its own set of rules; soulstones, augment stones, planetary manifests, remnants, time travel, elements, and so on. The plotline developed alongside the conceptual basis as I determined how to fit the characters into the world of Earthsong.
I think it's really interesting how the characters are loosely based off mythological creatures. Do you have a favorite character to draw? Is there anyone you find difficult to draw?
CY: Right now my favorite character to draw is Skogul - I redesigned her for the published edition of the comic and now she's got these great spots all over, crazy wild hair, fun expressions, and the wings, while a lot of work, are fun to colour. I don't find any of the characters difficult to draw per se... but Tengu is quite a pain to process. Drawing and coloring her at her actual size is a chore so I usually do her at "full" size and then shrink her down to the appropriate height - so I have to put a lot of work into an character that usually ends up as just a blip on the page.
You're redrawing the comic from the beginning of the story for its publication this summer. Why did you decide to start over?
CY: I think all anyone has to do to see why I want to start over is to look at my early pages... ouch. So bad. Definitely not professional quality by anyone's standards. When I started the comic I was teaching myself Photoshop, didn't have my wacom tablet, and hadn't drawn anything in the past four years. I was seriously out of practice in pretty much every respect and it shows all too well. I also didn't have a set script before I started the comic either. I mean, I knew where the story was going and all, but the dialog was being written page by page and this made for some pretty shoddy character development and panels crowded with speech bubbles.
When I started Earthsong, it was a hobby - I took it seriously in that I was dedicated to it, but it was still just a hobby. Now that it's my job, I want it to be the best it can be. And the original version? Far from the best it could be - I would never dream of submitting those pages to be published in a million years.
How did you come to work with Seven Seas?
CY: I was very lucky in many respects to that. An industry insider (can't say who!) happened to browse by my comic online and liked it. So I got an email from him saying that he enjoyed my comic and asked if I wouldn't mind if he showed it around to some different publishers. As if I'd say no! A few months went by and then in the fall last year I was contacted by Jason DeAngelis, president of Seven Seas... and the rest is history... with a little bit of future in there too as Earthsong is yet to be released in print ^_~
Have you changed the story much for the redux version? Just from reading the latest update (Richard's first appearance) it seems like some characters will have bigger roles than last time.
CY: The story per se hasn't changed much - that is to say that the plotline is basically the same, but the character development is far more pronounced and I've altered a few of the concepts so that they make more sense or fit better into the plot. One of the best (and sometimes worst) things about having an active and involved forum is that in essence I've got about 100 or so "editors" just itching to have their say or to point out the slightest error. When I first got the publishing contract I actually started a thread called "plotholes" where I wanted them to point out things that didn't quite make sense to them the first time around or that simply needed better explanations. I've taken a great deal of those suggestions and implemented them into the redux.
As for some characters having bigger roles... to this I'd have to say yes and no...because I'm looking at the comic and story progression in terms of an entire volume now instead of a single page I can give the characters more "screen time." The first time around I was concerned with progressing the story as fast as I could because people were having to wait half a week to turn the page and get more of it - such is the life of an online comic reader! This resulted in pages where the text overwhelmed the art and the characters were bypassed in favor of plot. With the redux version I can relax and let the characters shine through without worrying about the reader being upset that they're going to be looking at a "filler" page for the next 3-4 days.
Will the story collected in the graphic novel get past the point you got to in the previous version of Earthsong? Before you rebooted everything the story was at a cliffhanger, and I'm really eager to see what happens next.
CY: I'm afraid not... the first volume will get to the end of Genesis and that's it. Genesis itself has been heavily altered though - so it won't be like watching the same movie twice. This time around we'll actually get to see the planetary council, cutting down on the amount of monologuing Earthsong has to do.
But don't worry, when I complete the pages for the first volume of the published version, I WILL be going back to the Revelation storyline and picking up where I left off. I'm just as eager as everyone else to get the storyline back on track. I'll keep posting Redux pages as well though... I might make a few changes to my update schedule to accommodate this, but that's something I'll be deciding later.
Are there any plans to include the guest comics in the graphic novel?
CY: I am actually planning to include a few of my favorite fan arts in the graphic novel... some of which are the guest comics. Unfortunately though, a few of the really good ones refer to characters and events that won't come about in this volume! I guess I'll have to save them for the next one ^_~
Can you tell us what other extras might be in the book?
CY: I'm planning to include a glossary of all the terms unique to Earthsong (soulstone, manifest stone, etc) just so that the readers can have something easy to refer to, some fun facts about the characters and the comic itself, some of my early drawings of the characters, a mini character gallery, specs for Nanashi's bracers, and probably some fun puzzles and quizzes too. I'll undoubtedly come up with a few more ideas to include, but that's all I've got for now!
You took a summer animation course at Sheridan College. Did studying animation influence your art style?
CY: Well, the course I took was a week-long crash course. I did learn a lot from it - more than I've learned from any other art schooling experience I've ever had actually (when I say I'm a self-taught artist I mean it) - but I don't know if I could honestly say that it influenced my art style. Mind you, I am a pretty big cartoon nut, so I've been "studying" animation on my own ever since I was a kid. I would definitely say that my style is cartoony and it suits me just fine.
Since you started Earthsong, is there anything you've learned that you'd like to share with aspiring comic creators? Maybe something you wish you knew when you were starting out?
CY: I get asked that question so often that it's got its own little section in the FAQ. Here's a selection of the things I wish I had known before I started Earthsong:
Have a complete script done before you start.
- I sincerely wish that I had done this before I started. It would have saved me from all sort of problems with plot and character development. You'll find yourself scrambling if you don't have your story planned out in DETAIL ahead of time. The worst feeling in the webcomic world is when you get a great idea for a scene that you've already completed and would have worked so much better - plan ahead and avoid this feeling.
Make sure you have a substantial buffer of completed pages before you put your comic online
- It will allow you to take a break if you really need one or if something unexpected comes up - which it invariably will. Let me tell you... I wish I had a buffer.
There are many of theories and debates about Earthsong's plot going on in your forums, and part of the fun while reading the series is trying to guess what will happen next. Can you give us some hints about future story developments?
CY: I can tell you about some characters that will make cameo appearances (one of the great things about Earthsong's plot is that I can zap a character in at any point I like!). I plan on including a centaur, a few of the Egyptian gods, a griffin, a unicorn, and others... but that's all you're getting out of me ^_~
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