Chapter 1: Page 13
This week, Quinlan shows off his acrobatic tree-leaping skills as he takes the shortcut back home to Terria.
Every once in a while, Rachel or I will receive a question that takes on numerous forms, but generally means the same thing: “Why did you pick animals for your comic world?” Well, the answer partly has to do with scenes like this – Quinlan, as a squirrel character, can perform massive leaps and zip through the treetops of the Western Deep with inherent skill and readers will be able to accept that without any explanation. Squirrels leap through trees – we know this as fact – so when Quinlan does it, it seems natural.
If Quinlan was, say, a human, then him making that large leap and being able to fly through the trees as he does in this page might seem strange. Unnatural, even! This sort of mental shortcutting is one reason why we went with animal characters – we want them to be able to perform cool things without them seeming unnatural. We want our world by default to be filled with cool creatures doing cool things, so Tamian can launch themselves through trees, Lutren can do the same underwater, the Canid are burly berserkers with razor-sharp teeth and a killer instinct, etc.
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Another reason we picked animal characters was because of the range of expressions we can give them. Humans and their fantastical counterparts (dwarves, elves, and the like) generally have normal-looking faces that act in ways we’re familiar with. You can give them larger eyes to emote with, or more exaggerated eyebrows, any number of things, but eventually you wind up exaggerating them beyond the point of believability and they seem too cartoonish. By using animal characters, you can bring body language more into the picture – so an angry Canid may not just grit his teeth and narrow his eyes, but the fur on the nape of his neck may bristle, or he may hunch over a bit to look more like a feral beast. When humans try this, it can come off as silly, but when an animal does it, it’s perfectly natural, giving Rachel a lot more room to experiment with fun expressions for all of our characters.
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Though of course, individual characters are the most important in the end, regardless of species. What sort of story would this be if they all reacted the same to any given event? Here’s an experiment Rachel did not too long ago – using a set of prompts to explore how Quinlan and Dakkan emote differently.
Here’s another answer you can give when asked about your preference for using animal instead of human characters: By engaging in the the kind of fantasy which (I believe) can best be brought across by using non-humans, you are essentially creating Fables Raised to the Next Level®. Meaning, you can explore very human foibles and dilemmas on an allegoric level, as the classic animal fables of old did, but you can also indulge in straight-ahead adventure and action in the fashion of modern comics, movies and literature as well. And when it’s done right, it can be a lot of fun! That’s one of the things that led me to become such a huge Redwall fan and, more to the point, to start writing Redwall fics of my own which raised the dramatic bar on what BJ gave us in his novels. There’s no reason, in my mind, why stories featuring anthropomorphic animals can’t be just as gripping and involving as anything featuring human characters – plus, with anthros, you can often establish an empathy that strikes more directly at the heart, since the readers stop thinking about all the ways the character is different from them and embrace the inhabitants of your story on a more universal level. Using human characters can clutter things up because we’re all *TOO* similar, and then we dwell on the little things that divide us. Using animal characters frees you from that, and lets the reader more easily and fully enter the world you’ve created.
Or maybe I just think that way because I’m such a massive AnthroFan. But whatever – keep up the good work!
I had a feeling this page was coming. somehow i just KNEW you were gonna make Quin hop about in the trees. It’s awesome though! Great Job!
Boing! Boing! Now I wonder if he’ll remember his uniform.
probably, but only because he was told not to forget it….just hope he doesn’t fall out of a tree!
*insert jumping noise from Super Mario Bros.*
*ploink! ploink!*
And so we finally get to see Quinlan do some squirrely stuff! We didn’t get to see him hit his head on the branch after all (pfeh!) but we do get to see him display his impressive skills in treejumping acrobatics. My favourite panel is the third one, where he lands on a branch with his hands/forepaws – it makes him look the most animal-like out of the four of them. Good thing he wore that loose-fitting tunic – I doubt Janik would be able to jump around in the trees like that in her dress.
It was also a great dissertation on why you chose to use animals for this comic. Personally though, I often get surprised when people ask why – do you need any excuse other than “because I love animals”? But yeah, some other reasons might be needed. Being able to have them do more extraordinary feats than humans are capable of and being able to use exaggerated facial expressions without it looking silly are very good reasons for having your characters be animals. I also liked Highwing’s explanation of it being easier to relate to and emphasize with such characters and using them as a kind of fable for human behaviour and flaws. (Great seeing you here, btw, ol’ Featherbag! I don’t remember if this is your first comment, but it’s great seeing you nonetheless!)
And… goodness me, I totally hadn’t noticed that emotion prompt before! How could I have missed it? Well, good thing I discovered it now at least, because it looks awesome! All of the emotes are lovely and often hilarious, especially the “Love” one (I think we know who Quin would feel for, but whom is the ladylove Dakkan is going nuts for? Maybe time will tell…)