AUGH! Comic stuff-ness help, please!

[Blue Blur]

Well, I'm here again, unlurking myself because really need some help here. You see, my comic has run itself into the ground. (Well, I ran it there, but nevertheless.)

Anyway, I've been trying to get things together to restart it without the suckiness, and I'm having a bit of trouble with one thing. See, when the comic first started, I could not draw humans worth beans, but I wanted so bad to begin, so I went and made the characters furries. Alright, big deal, right?

So I kept improving and finally felt that I could draw humans efficiently. So I switched. Alright, that's fine... except now I have a few people who are confused, and some who aren't confused and still want the furries back. And thus I had the great idea. What if I just had humans and furries together, as one species. See, the idea would be that humans would have, in the backstory/history of the comic, splice their genes with animals. (Come on, you know someone would do it.) and then it began to spread as it became more and more normal to people.

So now I have this great solution! I can have furries and humans! Oh wait... a problem, since we can't go without those!

I gave the idea to a few people who read the comic, who knew nothing of furries, and were actually just "normal" people. Not any close, goofy friends, or even close friends. Just people in my classes that I knew. And do you know what?! The first stinkin' thing to pop into their heads is how the two would be sleeping together and they felt instantly uncomfortable. So now several think I should do just humans, others think I should do just furries, and a very small minority don't even want to read the comic because it made them think too much about stuff. A basic stalemate. I dunno what to do, so I come here to ask for help. I frankly just want to have people read it for the story and the characters, not how they are drawn, but there is a big dilemma here. Can I get some advice on this?

Oh yes, examples of the two. (Both are a bit outdated, style-wise. I'm improving myself fast.)

Before: http://triggerpoint.comicgenesis.com/d/20061021.html

After: http://triggerpoint.comicgenesis.com/d/20070325.html

[Rooster]

Do whatever you're comfortable or happy with dude...it's your comic.

But, if you want some sort of premise as to why there are furs and humans, should you go down that road, then make up an elaborate backstory for it.

That's what I did for my new project, where the world is inhabited with humans and lupines (anthro canines) after the Lupine race is created to save humanity from a plague then get drafted to go fight WW3.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/Wh ... eSkies.jpg

Basically, yours is a Sci-fi comic, like mine will be, and sci-fi things can do one thing very well...and that's make impossible situations seem relativly normal. As long as you explain it, people buy it...they'll say it's "a bit unrealistic" at worst, but then just point them to the plot of any episode of the X-files

Also, don't worry about people going "eew, they're all gonna be having sex"...just make it into a metaphore for racism like I'm gonna do

[Blue Blur]

Ah, yes, I'm looking forward to your new comic/graphic novel, by the way.

My friend, who was the only person who really knows the full depth of the story, said the same thing about racism at the same time as I thought it. (And made a KKK clone for furries at the same time... ) I suppose I'm just really undecisive.

[CameronCN]

Well, you know, parallel universes were invented for really indecisive storytellers. All you have to do is switch back and forth between furries and humans and explain that its the exact same thing happening in two different dimensions. Then you can draw two versions of the exact same characters! I know it sounds goofy, but it would make a fun gimmick. Like in Arthur, King of Time and Space where the exact same story is unfolding, but we keep switching time periods and seeing the different ways off doing the exact same thing. Experimental. Interesting. Unique. Indecisive.

[Muninn]

Can furries and humans even have sex in your comic or was that what people you talked to assumed?

[Blue Blur]

Well, yes, but that's not supposed to be the point.

So here's a bit more detail to chew on. In the comic, there is a rather basic timeline. (Actually, it's very detailed, but I'm not copying that thing over to this Razz )

Anyway, it goes:

Modern day
WWIII
Post WWIII dark age
Comic's time

Basically, around one hundred years from now, we get into a nice big nuclear war, and Earth is ravaged. However, before that, several companies had already figured out how to splice human genes with animals, preserving all capabilities and making it just a cosmetic change. However, when the post-war apacolypse comes, people are packed into tiny little communities, where the humans and furries would be mixed so much that it'd be impssible for them not to interbreed, which was happening anyway due to it becoming so casual.

The thing is, I want them to seem like just normal people, but I've seen evidence that my readers would feel that it just isn't right. I've considered comparing it to interracial relationships of today, since that's what it is.

[Rooster]

Well, you could have them act all normal for most of the time, and just throw a friendly (or not depending on context) references to their species. Like, "well maybe that's how a feline would do it" or something.

Just like "furs", people all work together really normally, but we are also a race of many different creeds, colours, nationalities. I would have thought another race would just be "one more in the mix" so to speak.

[CameronCN]

Modern day
WWIII
Post WWIII dark age
Comic's time

That means the comic will be happening about the same time as Star Trek...

[Blue Blur]

Just like "furs", people all work together really normally, but we are also a race of many different creeds, colours, nationalities. I would have thought another race would just be "one more in the mix" so to speak.

That's EXACTLY the spirit of the idea.

Oh yes, this IS nearly in Star Trek's era... at least close to the later years. The very beginning takes place in 3563. That's the date of the incident that starts the big old war that the comic is based in. However, due to the fact that WWIII took out a ton of the world's resources and the dark ages took so long to finish, as well as the fact that the radiation cleanup was being delayed by lots of problems, you'll find that the technology isn't all that much more advanced than Star Trek. No teleportation, though. Played WAY too much Doom for me to put that in.

By the way, people no longer are allowed to splice their genes. It interferes with what are called the 451 laws, so I suppose that would make it even more normal to be around furs. My friend also had a name for them that sounded much more appropriate for a normalized furry, but I forgot. Curse this horrid memory!

[Kyler Thatch]

This may or may not turn out to be off-topic, but I couldn't help but notice the number 451. Are these 451 laws, by any chance, related to either "Fahrenheit 451", or the burning point of paper?

[Angstwolf]

My advice would be what some of the others have said; just go for it. I'm not a furry, and the idea doesn't make me uncomfortable. You were probably just talking to very closed-minded people or something. Your target audience will almost certainly be much more open.

I'd check out the beginnings of the comic, but Comic Genesis is down.

[Blue Blur]

This may or may not turn out to be off-topic, but I couldn't help but notice the number 451. Are these 451 laws, by any chance, related to either "Fahrenheit 451", or the burning point of paper?

Oh Emm Gee! Yes it is!

More on the spirit of the book and not the actual subject. They're there to stop a public based on apathy.

[Angstwolf]

I love Fahrenheit 451.

[Blue Blur]

It's in my top two favorite books. The other is Starship Troopers. How... interesting that I should write such a comic, hm?

And to add on to what you said before, Javs:

I'm not a furry either. At least, not in a very extreme sense. But I'm also incredibly open-minded, so I have to make sure what I'm doing isn't just wierd and confusing beyond measure.

[Angstwolf]

But I'm also incredibly open-minded, so I have to make sure what I'm doing isn't just wierd and confusing beyond measure.

Well in that case, I'd say it's not weird and confusing beyond measure. I'm sure it'd be confusing at first, before the backstory is fully explained, but that's to be expected. Of course it's weird, but it isn't weird beyond measure. It's science fiction. It's supposed to be weird.