Providing Some Background

When working on sketches for some buffer pages for my comic (Tails of Lanschilandia), some thoughts occurred to me while drawing panel backgrounds. I've heard from someone recently that they don't draw them as often as I do, and I've noticed of myself that I often add them as an afterthought and focus on the more important elements first. So why have them at all, and what level of attention do they deserve? "Expressive", abstract backgrounds can be used to affect the mood of the panel or story. But is there ever any need for "real" backgrounds of actual places? What do they add to a comic, in this humble author's opinion?

Backgrounds set the scene. They make the comic's world feel more complete - or rather, actually present. For without them, what world is there other than a blank void? Backgrounds can also provide context. Where are the characters? What might they be able to do there, where might other elements come into play? And in the almost words of Cotton-Eye Joe, where did they come from, where do they go? Backgrounds give the impression that things are happening outside of the panel; what leaves the panel goes somewhere, and what enters it comes from somewhere. It's not just there because it has to be, for the limited time it has to be. Everything exists within a setting and can move to other locations within that setting to interact in and with. Even the basic implication of a room lets one assume so much more: the characters are most likely inside a building and able to move around within its boundaries, interact with elements in other rooms and also leave the building. They don't wander a featureless plane, and when a character isn't present, they may be in another room or somewhere outside the house, pursuing their own activities, not inexplicably absent from reality because they aren't needed.

Does this mean that backgrounds need a great deal of attention? Absolutely not, I would say. From my experience, panel backgrounds are something that I - as a reader - pick up subconsciously and retrieve information from about general location and an impression of the setting. They are not something I analyse or gaze upon in awe (unless the particular panel deliberately invokes awe-inspiring scenery over actual action - which is also fine now and then, most obviously for establishing shots). My focus will be elsewhere: on the characters, their actions, their speech. Backgrounds add to the comic, as stated above, but under normal conditions, they are not the comic. They should be there and convey that information, but there is no mandatory reason to go beyond that in most situations as the vast majority of readers most likely won't go beyond picking up the basic information unless what's happening in the foreground cannot hold their attention (in which case there's a bigger problem at hand that's harder to fix than by polishing backgrounds). Here's an example from a story by the late Carl Barks that I love to cite on this topic:

Clicky link to image hosted on Comic Book Resources

Let's look at the panel backgrounds here. Do they convey information? Very much so - the characters are interacting inside a room, mayhap an office, and it's in a building within a city, as the window illustrates. It sets the scene and provides a context for an approximate location within the setting - anyone with experience should be able to tell that the characters are inside Scrooge's money bin, information that can be retrieved even from these few basic details and lines in the background.

As stated, however, the panel backgrounds are extremely basic. A few straight lines outline a room (which consists of plain surfaces devoid of texture in the line work); there are money bags to clarify the location, as these are recurring motives in Scrooge's office (and in association with him in general); the window provides a view of Duckburg; the telephone is there because it's being used. Apart from a lone picture on the wall, the background is suspiciously lacking in details, and it's also inconsistent: Where's the picture outside of panel 2? Where did the window go in panel 4? Why does the telephone table change size? In panel 3, there is no background at all (apart from the gradient added by the colourist).

Is the reader going to be bothered by any of this? The answer, for the majority of readers, is most certainly "no"; there is too much important action going on in the foreground for anyone to question the absence of texture on the carpet. Without deliberately focusing on the background details, their lack is hardly noticeable when reading the story, and neither are the inconsistencies. Many comics I have read are ridden with them if one is specifically on the lookout for them; the reason no one cares is that they tell interesting stories and convey the important aspects well, which the reader is going to pay more attention to than whether or not the tree in panel 5 has disappeared by panel 7.

So, in closing, should a comic utilise panel backgrounds? Most definitely, at least enough to convey the information touched upon above. Should a lot of time be spent on them? It's hardly necessary, I would say. An entertaining story, even with only the basic implications of a setting for it to take place in, is worth so much more, and when working on a schedule, time can be precious.

Huh? I have a blog?

Oh, right! There was something like that. I haven't been updating this in a while, but I should probably get into the habit again.

So, what's been happening since I last posted? Not much, really. My comic has been trailing along and had its first print edition released while my Fantasy writing that I mainly started this blog about has been slowing down to a crawl and my life has had all the ups and downs of watching paint dry and wondering if mayhap you should have used a different colour.

So what will I be talking about? I'm not really sure yet, but I'm hoping to be doing enough interesting things to at least keep the blog on life support for now. There's a short story collection about Vellisia from Ssalia and the Dragons of Avienot in the works as well as a few potentially neat developments related to my comic, and I've been fleshing out Pelsatia's home on the web a little as well, so there may be things to report, or not.

If you have stumbled upon this for the first time, please do check out my older posts about writing, as I feel I managed to put some helpful bits together back then. The ramblings about my individual comic pages that I used to post here will largely be going on my Patreon in the future once I actually have a patron who will read them.

Goblins Can't Dance, But They Can Print Paperbacks

he called back into his mind all the wondrous things he had read about the world; about kobolds and snakes, knights and beasts, dragons and cities made of gold. He recalled the adventures of the young wizard Agrathoth; Thanathin the Silent; Mirebeth the Dragontamer; Alena of Phingog Mor; Sir Thethin, who saved the children of Griphendia from the ravages of war... All these heroes and heroines of legends were goblins, just like he. They all had accomplished things that he could accomplish as well. Maybe, one day, someone would read about Pondorath of Thobog as well.

Belated surprise! Exciting news! Gophirith of the Mountains is out in print form, a tiny bit prior to the ebook, as I have hinted at in the past! It's on Lulu here! Yes, it's finally out! (Pre-orderers of the eBook will still need to wait a bit - sorry about that!) If you don't know what it is yet (though if you have been following my postings here and elsewhere, you should), here's the book's info page on Pelsatia's home! I'm happy with how it turned out, which is very rare for me, and I'm really excited to finally have this published.

I made my first one-piece book cover for this; if it prints right, which I do hope it will, it should look really neat with the custom spine and all. The illustrations are all in here as well, though they're in greyscale as the costs of printing on-demand in full colour are astronomical! It was a pain to format, and golly, am I glad it's finally out!

Well, what are you waiting for? ;3 Check it out on Lulu, there's a reading sample! If you have a Goodreads account, you will also be able to add it there now :3

Gobblin' and Goblins

A happy (late) Thanksgiving to anyone who celebrates it, and a happy late November to the rest! A lot of things have been happening in Pelsatia and outside it, as those who follow my Twitter account probably already know. There's pre-orders and games and all kinds of fun things! Well, maybe not all kinds, but there certainly is a game and pre-orders.

Gophirith of the Mountains is now on Barnes & Noble and on Apple's iTunes/iBooks for preordering in EPUB format; all that's missing is Kobo, but I have no hopes that they will list it any time soon, so these will likely have to do until the launch. Said launch is still going to happen on the 12th of December for the eBook, though as Lulu has been making their holiday hsipping deadlines fairly clear lately, I am strongly considering releasing the paperback a couple days earlier so people can still profit from that (people who pre-ordered the eBook will likely still have it earlier due to instant downloads vs. mail delivery times, and the paperback also will have greyscale illustrations to make it more affordable to print). I'm personally can't wait for the launch, though I may be a tiny bit biased here.

“what other strange things do you think we’ll find?”
Pon shrugged. “Let’s wait and see”, he replied. “The greatest wonders often lose their charm if you know about them ahead of time.”

So, what's that game I have been talking about? Well, it's the vaguely hyped-up super-secret surprise following the start of the preorders! Gophirith's Mirrors is a freeware game I made, which is remotely Tetris-like and even more remotely related to Gophirith of the Mountains (the author still approves of it). My tester also assured me that it's fun and unique, so mayhap you should check it out (and share it with people! People like free stuff!).

Well, I still can't properly end a blog post. So, um, toodeloo?

Sample is Here, Pre-orders Almost

It's my birthday, and because I have nothing better to do on my birthday, I got the pre-orders done for Gophirith of the Mountains! Well, sort of. As of posting this, it can't actually be pre-ordered yet, but it has been added to Smashwords and is going to pop up on various retailer sites over time once it gets approved for Smashwords's "Premium Catalogue" and (EDIT: Turns out it got approved while I was writing this! Yay!) shipped out (at a dollar less than the final price will be! *hint, hint*). And golly, am I glad this is done! Now I can almost sleep again. Here's the Smashwords listing - free sample in select boxes!*

You get a sample, and you get a sample. Everybody gets a sample!

This will be out (in ebook and hopefully print form) on the 12th of December, in time for the holidays. This book isn't quite as long as my previous one, but I like how it turned out (which is rare), and I hope you will, too! It's also my first attempt at including illustrations in a book (apart from that Ssalia scribble on the title page of Ssalia and the Dragons of Avienot), and they're in full colour. There's a bit of poetry in there as well, like my last book, but I don't want to spoil too much before it's even out.

Perhaps, one day, his tale would make its way far into the outside world[...].

*All boxes have been selected.

News from Pelsatia

Hm, what's this again? A blog? Oh yeah, there was something about that...

I have been working a whole lot on my Fantasy book lately, Gophirith of the Mountains. I decided to go ahead and try giving this book some illustrations, even though I got no feedback on the idea when I posted it on the blog, so that's where most of my time is currently going. I already miss writing the actual text, as illustrating it is a lot more tiring than typing it up. Yes, yes, 'tis quite sad, the things I do to sell a book.

I recall stating on my website that I would be posting updates here, so here's an update: Gophirith of the Mountains now has its own page on the Pelsatia home with some information about the actual story, as well as information on where and how to pre-order it (hint: as of writing this, you can't, but this will change in the near future). It also has a shrunken version of this book illustration sneak peek here, with fancy transparent edges and what-have-you. Oh, and share buttons! Let's not forget those. Everyone loves share buttons.

Huh, what's that? A link the page? Oh right, take this:

Highly clickable link to the info page! (More clickable than links with only-sorta-above-average clickability)

Enjoy whatever there is to enjoy as of now, but be ready for exciting things in the not-at-all-distant future, coming to a neglected blog near you.

Write My Book for Me: Name & Concept Generators

Just kidding about the title! Names are an important part of fiction; even without considering their meaning, they define what the narrative, your characters and your readers will have to refer to people, places and concepts by. Care should generally be exercised when picking them, especially when drawing from real world languages or cultures, but for those times where you desperately need a name for someone or something and just can't get your creative juices flowing, there's a great amount of generators available online for even the most niche-based names; a lot of them can even provide general ideas for the characters and places these names will be applied to! They sadly might not always be able to do your job for you, but they certainly can provide inspiration.

Below, I have compiled a short selection of generator sites I have found on the internet over the years, with a focus on generating names, especially for Fantasy. Each entry starts with a link, followed by a description of the kinds of notable generators that can be found on the site and things to be aware of; the text in italics below each description sums up the basic types of generators, again with a focus on names. (Please note that I'm not affiliated with any of these. They belong to the respective creators, and although I haven't personally encountered problems with them as of posting this, they should be used at your own risk.)

• Seventh Sanctum
  
  Probably one of the most elaborate sites for generators; this has a huge amount of them, though not all of them generate names. Generators can be viewed by category, or you can have the site pick one at random (which doesn't serve much of a purpose, but allows a quick look at the general idea behind them and might bring up a generator you hadn't noticed on the site before). Don't be fooled by the "Names" category; while this is where the character name generators and a few others are, many generators in the other categories also create names. Others will generate descriptions, suggestions or other bits of text intended as a source of inspiration instead.
  
  Generates: character names, place names (taverns, realms), species names, vehicle/ship names, spell names, concepts and descriptions (characters, creatures, technology, settings, etc.), story ideas and more; these are hard to sum up, so you might want to look at them yourself.
  
• RinkWorks Fantasy Name Generator
  
  A highly customisable name generator. Can put together names from elements in a database or even letter-by-letter based on a specific algorithm, which you can define yourself to suit your needs. Be sure to read the instructions for the "Advanced Interface" on the site; it's very, very useful for generating "meaningless" names and words for your setting that have a specific kind of sound or feel to them and are not based on existing names.
  
  Generates: character names, all-purpose "meaningless" names/words.
  
• Behind the Name
  
  Not primarily about generators, but a compendium of real world given names, with meanings, culture, origin, stats, etc. The "Random Renamer" tool can pick names at random from customisable categories, some of which are not based on real life and provide names for specific kinds of characters (witches, fairies, etc.).
  
  Generates: character names.
  
• Fantasy Name Generators
  
  As it says on the tin, these generate mostly Fantasy names (some are related to MMORPGs; look through the menu at the top or scroll all the way down on the main page for the more general ones), with some generators for places, etc. as well. Names are typically picked/combined from pre-made databases (some aren't combined at all, but simply provide a random selection); some tools generate vaguely scientific-sounding nonsense; be sure to read the description for each generator to find out how the names are made. Be careful about the real life-based names: the site likes to simplify or transcribe special characters (such as umlaute), which can easily falsify the results, and it can also generate extremely uncommon names not in any way traditional to the language they are meant to be from. It's better to use Behind the Name (see above) for real given names instead.
  
  Generates: character names, place names (taverns, towns, countries, castles, planets), ship names, fungus/plant names, mineral names, clan names, scientific names.
  
• Utilities and Generators on Mithril and Mages
  
  These are intended for roleplaying games, but a lot of them are just as useful for writing. The name generators combine distinct elements from databases largely rooted in reality, so results tend to be very convincing. Many categories to choose from for place names; modern character names are U.S.-based and can be picked by how common they are.
  
  Generates: character names, landscape feature names, place names (taverns, towns, streets, buildings, etc.), occupations, as well stuff mostly about tabletop games.
  
• Abulafia
  
  This is a wiki for generator scripts that anyone can (in theory) contribute to; thus, purpose/nature and quality are both highly variable. Some generate names, others descriptions (sometimes very detailed), even others do both. Check out "Name Generators" on the site for the ones that generate a pure list of names. Generators generally provide little information about how names are formed, so exercise some care (you can click "view source" to look at the code).
  
  Generates: character names, place names, ship names, plant names, species names, weapon names, concepts and descriptions and more.
  
• donjon RPG Tools
  
  More generators with a focus on Fantasy and Sci-Fi tabletop RPGs, some of which are handy for general writing. Descriptions/concepts are elaborate, but usually specific to certain RPG systems. The name generators appear to take patterns and elements from a database of related names and mix them up; especially for character names, this most often results in "meaningless" names. Even the "quasi-historical" names still tend to use this mechanic, so they are likely to be foreign-sounding nonsense at best and might even be profanities at worst; be extra cautious when using these, and don't present them as real names from a real language unless you're certain that they work as such.
  
  Generates: character names, place names (taverns, towns, countries, castles, streets, etc.), concepts and descriptions, stuff for tabletop games.

It should go without saying, but keep in mind that the results of these generators are random; even if they are picked from a database of real and historical names, they may be unfitting for the context you require them for. There's no shame in taking inspiration from a random name or even taking it straight from the generator, but you should always do the research before you use it, especially for real world-based names.

Of course, at the end of the day, the best names in fiction are still those that have had some thought put into them, so keep that creativity running; just be careful it doesn't get away.