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In the forests of Montore in 1985, there was a very large eruption of a never before seen fungi(Katkum mushroom). The spores have affected certain humans as children, slowing their growth, altering their physique and DNA. These children are referred to as Hakum.
A group of humans touched by this phenomenon now spend all their time in the Taiga, sabotaging projects that threaten it under the name The Solomon's Devils. In this comic, the Taiga is a term used to refer to untouched wilderness.
Content
Hakum is drawn and shaded by hand with pencils. I scan the pages(see using a scanner under linux) and process them in Gimp. I made a font(tutorial) based on my handwriting, named Katkum, specifically for this comic.
On Worldbuilding
It is not easy to flesh out stories. It is a fun, and highly iterative process. Nothing is set in stone, drawing out bits of the comic does not mean the story will remain the same. It is a way of playing with the characters, to get to know them and to further develop the world. This is what this comic is for me, drawing them out in various non-sequential situations is a way to discover a workable story. Keep this in mind while browsing this page.
"Tolkien, for all his vaunted designs, only got to The Good Stuff when he was IN it, really working the text of the novels. He could not worldbuild his way into a workable story; he had to muddle and discover and revise, just like the rest of us." [Source].
What is monkeywrenching?
"Monkeywrenching" is based on the US idiom "to throw a monkey wrench into..." which means to sabotage something. The term was coined by Edward Abbey (from the book The Monkeywrench Gang) and its come to mean, besides sabotage and damage to machines, any sabotage, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems.
Characters
Above is an image featuring the Solomon's Devils in the early days of the group, with the founding members all present: Yeni, Seir, Kaddali, Dae, Ananuk and Hakazi.
Below is the more recent version of the gang, a few years later. From left to right: Seir, Dae, Sy, Kaddali, Kim, Yeni, Ananuk, Hakazi and Ikkard. Seir isn't actually part of the Solo Devs anymore at this point, he works with them loosely, but I thought I'd throw him in anyway to show how he has changed.
Other characters featured in the comics include Caleb, Jak, Nemerald, Rye, Jen, and Camp.
Comics
I started drawing these comics in 2022, and the process has been ongoing since then. These comics were always inked by hand, but were at first shaded digitally instead of by hand with pencils(easy to tell the difference ^^). As mentioned above, the development process for this project is a bit haphazard, but I am enjoying filling the blanks. I understand that the non-sequential aspect may be confusing to readers ^^, the style varies between sequences as I am filling in the blanks and improving.
Note that some of the comics may contain swearing, sex, and violence (each page is prefaced with this same warning, but with more detail).
Read the comic [Complete, 6/6 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 8/8 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 4/4 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 11/11 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 1/1 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 4/4 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 1/1 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 7/7 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 21/21 pages]
Read the comic [Complete 7/7 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 8/8 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 3/3 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 9/9 pages]
Read the comic [Complete, 5/5 pages]
Comic Archives
I made a bunch of other comics using these same characters, but some require a bit of adaptation(others aren't reusable) to fit with some of the new story ideas I have...