as well as kikimora being put up, the new page of hemlock is now up too! i missed drawing lumi, her face is satisfying somehow. i edited this page on my laptop for the first time, i hope it looks alright.
I was wondering if you were going to compile the Hemlock chapters into one (or more) books?. I was thinking of buying the next two chapters (and rebuying the first in the new cover) and this thought made me stop and want to ask before buying! So, are the chapters only going to be available individual or are you going to compile them together after a while?
Anonymoushemlock is only going to be 6 chapters, so when the story is finished i’m planning on doing a fancy, hardcover collected edition, probably through kickstarter, including some little short comics and some other extras. that’s way in the future though, probably not until late 2013 at the earliest.
there will still be paperbacks of each individual chapter. for the people who have already bought the individual chapters i’d like to make a slipcase to put them inside when it’s all done.
photos of me and ponymonster’s table at mcm expo, and the stuff i bought! i had a pretty strict shopping list i had to stick to this time, hopefully next time i can have a big shopping spree in the comic village.
it was a lot quieter for me than it was in october. so good news for international people, there are at least 30 copies of kikimora available! i’m going to be putting them on my etsy in the next week, as soon as i work out how much shipping and everything is, so keep an eye out. i’ll put a note up on my facebook and twitter when they’re up, come follow me if you aren’t already ^^
i’ve been tinkering with my portfolio site http://www.mildtarantula.com/ today. i’m not very good at html or css. it’s not done yet and it’s more for prospective employers than anything, but if anyone has any feedback i’d appreciate it!
I adore your comic! ;-; I hope you countinue creating more and more stories from your delightful brain. If I may ask, how did you come up with all the character's names? :) Were there any special research conducted, or did you just choose what sounded good? The title too! Was that just a reference to Lumi's soups, or is there another secret meaning we have yet to figure out? ;o;
thank you so much! <3 usually i either name my characters after something or somebody, or they’re named in a sort of pattern:
- ulla is named after my swedish grandma. keer is named after the friend of mine i based her face on.
- tristan is named after the song “tristan” by patrick wolf. kolya was called that because it’s a friend of mine’s favourite name.
- i think bjork’s son is called sindri, and i liked the name and it stuck. simo is named after finnish sniper simo häyhä (who was nicknamed “white death”). both sindri and simo’s names begin with si-, so it became a pattern for the three brothers and sisu fit with that.
lumi’s name was harder to choose though, she went through a bunch of names before i settled on one (including “mab” and “midge”). i just called her “the witch” for a while.
as for the title of the story, i like to use one word titles for my comics. hemlock refers to both the soup/poison she uses on sindri, and also because it sounds a little like “wedlock”.
london mcm expo preparations part two:
i just finished wrapping these! i’m not great at wrapping presents but i tried my best XD for anyone that wants to buy all 3 issues of hemlock i put together these little 3-packs. they also have two mini laserjet prints included (not new images though sadly, i haven’t had time).
i’m gonna be at table H12 all three days, come and say hello! :D
a sneak preview of one of the paper dolls from “kikimora”. i gave this one to my friend tessa, who wrote a fairy tale titled “the hat and the hearth” to accompany it. this is one of my favourite dolls.
hemlock has updated early today because i need to pack for MCM expo tomorrow! just one page this week. we’re getting closer to meeting sindri ;D
london mcm expo preparations part one:
so that secret hemlock-related project for university i mentioned a while back - this is what it turned into in the end! a book of paperdolls based on my interpretation of the russian folk character kikimora, with six fairy tales to accompany them by radley bell, james randall, tessa cruse, christina courtenay, lisa grant and steve tanner. kikimora is a character that is part of the hemlock universe, but how she relates to it and where she fits in was left up to each writer (and each of you) to decide or to ignore.
there are only ever going to be 100 of these. depending on demand, 40 to 50 of them will be sold at mcm expo this month. the rest will be sold at my graduation show at the london college of communication, and whatever is left over will be sold on etsy.
getting these printed was a lot of hassle, the covers are foil-stamped and were printed separately to the interiors (it’s really hard to take a good photo of the covers). i wanted to sell them around the same price as hemlock volumes, but because of the fancy covers they are going to be £10 each. each one is signed and numbered.
(edited to add - i’m not expecting to sell all that many at my graduation show, so don’t be sad international people! there will be some sold online!)
