Rae of Darkness FAQ v2.0

• Why? Why are you doing this?
  Because I love/hate you all.  Take your pick.

• Why did you choose to do the furry/anthropomorphic style?
  I was actually thinking more along the line of the fable, wherein the species of a character reflects his/her personality, and can be otherwise symbolic.  I.E.: Rae as the "lone wolf", who can be loyal and fierce, but in his nature craves social interaction despite his personal dislike for the society which he encounters.

  • So you're a furry then?
    I don't consider myself "furry", but I suppose that writing a strip whose cast is entirely "anthropomorphic", I meet the qualifications thereof.  Common perception of "furries" is that they are all into all manner of odd, deviant behaviour - much of which I would say is "not my cup of tea".  I appreciate other strips/artwork, I like werewolves... it makes for interesting fantasy.  That's all I would call it though, fantasy, and nothing more.  I don't design/wear "fursuits", I have no desire to attend a "furry" convention... I rarely even discuss it, outside of strip-related artwork concerns.  It's not really my thing.  A fine diversion here and there, now and again, but it's not something I take even remotely seriously.

• Where do you base much of the material on?
  Some of it comes from conversations with online friends.  Some simply from my own twisted sense of humour.  I pass the most entertaining of those onto "my crew" to see which work best, and it goes from there to the artist.

• Can we expect a lot of parodies in this comic?
  As many as I can think of.  Satire is my favourite form of humour.

• Why is it called "Rae of Darkness"?
  I had two things in my mind at the time, the first was the phrase "ray of light", and the second was a non-existent device in a Dr. Seuss book, the "flash-dark".  With a brilliant application of absurd irony, I came up with "ray of darkness", and decided to incorporate the main character's name into the title.  I like formal names and European spellings thereof, and so, taking 'Raemonde' into that, the title becomes "Rae of Darkness".  

• When do you update?
  In theory, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Originally Sundays as well, but I'm cutting back on those to make room for my "secret" side-project, Section-8.

• What is the process in making the comic?
  I'm not entirely sure, due to the copious amounts of alcohol involved before, during, and afterward.  My best guess though, is that it's something along the following:

  • Immediately after drinking, I write out a batch of scripts for the upcoming strips.

  • These are mailed out to "the crew" and whomever the artist at the time is.

  • Much swearing, insults, and threats of violence are bandied about.

  • The artist renders strip artwork which has absolutely no relation to what I originally wrote - which is in every case a blessing, as what I write is usually nonsensical, worthless tripe in the first place.

  • I take this artwork and toss it into a dark corner of my room, where it sits and molders for a month or two whilst I whine and cry about the unfairness of the world and waste my time playing video games or some other nonsense.

  • Eventually, I feel like inflicting my pain right back at the world, and I scan in the artwork and use my lack of any professional training to then colour and render last-minute dialogue upon the strip.

  • Lastly, I hack away at some meaningless verbal ego-stroking and call it "news", and post the whole sickly mess to the website.

I am going to let Jason answer these next few questions (because he wrote them).

• Where did you get that wonderful artist, and is he single? 

• What kind of stuff does your artist do other than this comic? 

• Is your artist going to be doing anything else we can see such as comic books etc. ? 

• If not can you supply us with a list of editors and companies, so we can cause them bodily harm?

• Who really asks FAQs?
  The list so far has been compiled almost entirely from a thread in our wonderful (if not quite exactly lively) forum.  At the very least then, our forumites do.  More questions will be added to this list as they are asked.