The history
The hell?
WALK is a sprite comic. I can't draw well enough to make sure characters look the same all the time, and quite frankly I don't have the time or the space.
Well how come...
All right. My friend Terra started a comic called Sprite Show. She used FF (Final Fantasy) sprites because she had the same predicament as I did. I liked the comic (still do, when it updates...) and after a while I tried to do a fan comic. Then another of Terra's friends started to do a serial fan-comic... and after being inspired by the granddaddy of sprite comics, Bob and George, I had an idea! This idea became Walkabout. I used Terra's FF-style SS sprites... and then threw in Capcom's Zero because sexual ambiguity is always fun.
and...?
Pretty soon, I was getting a tad bored with just the SS characters. I wasn't really sure of what some of the characters I were using/wanted to use were really like (as some, like Pen and Kelvin, hadn't been introduced yet, and others weren't developed), and I wanted to bring in some friends. I'd made an MM (Mega Man) style sprite of me (err... Pen. whatever...), and I proceeded to make some more for some others. I wasn't really very good at it - recolours were about the tip of my talent. Pen's hair was really hard to do, even though it was pretty basic.
So, Walkabout soon deviated away from its original SS-fan comic status. I didn't really mind... but there were quickly becoming too many characters to deal with as I tried to introduce various plots.
what then?
Year 11 ended. I started Walkabout just before term 4 of year 10 started. First year anniversary was pretty cool. Finishing the school year was awesome. The summer was great.
Realising that next year, I would be in year 12, was not. I didn't think I'd be able to handle doing the comic (upset at, perhaps, the lack of depth Walkabout had, I tried to create a serious sprite comic. It died. I couldn't keep up the pace). So I ended the comic. I killed all of the characters off. I sent all my friends home. I got rid of my alternate personalities. I told everyone, in no uncertain terms, that Walkabout had ended and it would never, ever come back.
but...
My mind wandered. I was yearning for sprites. Yearning. My creative side was aching for a suitable outlet. I write... but for quite a while it's been more planning than actual writing. I draw occasionally... but not very often.
I started spriting again. I experimented with some dollz... but it wasn't the same. So, I turned to Mega Man again. ...And I made a sprite. Of me. Not PenChaft, my red-headed alter ego... but Penny. Me. And you know something? I wasn't that bad. So I made more sprites.
and finally...
I started WALK. I couldn't very well go back on my promise to never restart/continue Walkabout... so I made WALK. The title was different, the sprites were different, the sprites were real... but no one believed me. Bastards.
and even more finally...
As year 12 drew to a close, and I realised that I would no longer be seeing my friends every single weekday... well... creativity stalled. My friends spawned most of the jokes for WALK, and without them around, there were no more jokes, and it was hard to make comics. I stalled. Updates were missed, comics were late... So I decided to stop. I didn't even finish the comic up, just left it hanging there as it was.
where are you now?
My first year of university has just finished. I had little time to sprite, let alone make a comic. Ideas have been toyed with, but I can't see anymore sprite comics in the works. I'd like to focus on my writing.
The comic Walkabout
Sprites
The sprites in Walkabout come from several sources - The FF sprites are Terra's recoloured or edited sprites, from Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V, mainly. The MM are recolours and edits that I did, from MegaMan 7 and MegaMan Vs Bass, mainly, and a few from the MegaMan X games.
Characters
All the main FF-sprite characters are from Terra's comic. Most of the MM-sprite characters are based on my friends, a few from my imaginary story characters.
The comic WALK
Sprites
The sprites in WALK are all my edits from Roll, from Mega Man 7. Roll's proportions (her arms and legs especially) are better suited to humans than Mega Man's.
Characters
The majority are my friends, not just based from them, but actually them. Irian and The Stranger are elves of my own imagining.
The author
Is currently enrolled at university, and although I still read a few sprite comics, I won't be making anymore.
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