[David C. Matthews]

I got my "contributor's copies" of the TPB a couple of weeks ago from Steve. I hadn't mentioned it here at Amaz0ns because there aren't any muscle-women in it, and thus (I thought) outside of the subject matter to which this forum is devoted.

Anyway, as noted, Lorelei: Building the Perfect Beast Vol. 1 collects the six issues of the original series, together with a never-before-published prologue illustrated by Kevin Tuma. This brings the reader almost halfway through the origin story (which Steve had originally slated to run for fourteen(!) issues). Steve now wants to complete the origin in one more (I hope) TPB; he and I haven't talked about my coming back as artist, and I'm not sure I want to: taking on a "pro" job right now would cut drastically into the time I have to do my own projects, and I'm not sure the monetary returns will make that worthwhile. (I certainly won't be able to quit my job to concentrate on Lorelei!)

You can read more about my participation in the Lorelei project here, and about Lorelei herself at the Starwarp Concepts website (which, unfortunately, hasn't been updated with info about the TPB yet). I have to presume that the book is available from comics shops (although they'd probably have to special-order it).

One humorous note: the volume features a Foreward by one Charles de Lint. About my artwork, he writes: "I have to admit that I wasn't  completely enamored with the somewhat exploitative "good girl" art – artist David C. Matthews shows great promise, but too often his women seem to be posing for a pin-up, and please, couldn't we cut back a little on the size of their breasts? All those poor women are going to have so much back trouble from having to carry around all that weight…." (ellipses in original) Amusing because I wasn't consciously drawing huge gazongas on these characters (this pic of Lorelei shows pretty much the size of most of the breasts I drew). If Mr. de Lint thought these women were "well-endowed", heh heh heh, he hasn't seen anything yet!!

[David C. Matthews]

Nice!

My only minor complaint, there seems to be some texture warping along the right side of the bed. It looks like it has been smudged upwards.

Very perceptive. It was smudged upwards… trying to even out the edge of the bedspread, making a complete botch of it, and saying "the hell with it; who's going to notice?" Now I know who… 😆

UPDATE: OMG, this is my 200th posting!

[David C. Matthews]

I just finished Page 8!

(Eegore, you were right about the splash page 😆 )

[David C. Matthews]

Thanks for the link! That is a nice Power Girl… probably my favorite Yatz drawing yet! (Wish the comics version had long hair like that…)

Yatz is also quite the caricaturist, as well. (although I'm not sure what's going on in some of those illustrations, since I can't read Hebrew).

(And I gotta mention the She-Hulk and Wonder Woman pic… there's a "crossover" I'm sure a lot of us would like to see! 👿 )

Good, good stuff!

[David C. Matthews]

so let's say he made an amalgam we might call "dcmanga" if the author doesn't find this to pretentious 😀

"DCManga"… I think I like it!! (It'd make a great publishing-house name, except for the confusion with DC Comics…)

[David C. Matthews]

Just my two cent's worth…

It is legitimate to want to know a little about the storyline and setting of a series for the purpose of suggesting names. For example, if the time period is medieval (or a fantasy equivalent thereof) you can't get away with names like Tiffany or Ashley. I remember several years ago browsing through the fantasy/science fiction section of a Waldenbooks (before Barnes & Noble became such a big name) and encountering a fantasy-adventure series written by (if I remember correctly) Graham Diamond (surely a nom de plume if ever one existed!). The setting and plot descriptions on the covers sounded pretty interesting, but ultimately I just couldn't accept  a Tolkienesque fantasy-adventure with a main character named "Princess Stacy"!

However… I wouldn't try to invest the character's names with too much meaning, or else you get hokey names like "Dirk Daring" or "Troy Tempest". ("This character's name means 'Blood' in [invented language], because she revels in fierce and gory fighting!" "Oh really? Her parents named her 'Blood' because they knew she was going to grow up to be a lawless barbarian?")

Naming characters is one of my biggest challenges, even though most of my series are set in the present day! I have one "fantasy-adventure" character name that I'm proud of: Velshen'narith, the "High Priestess" in a concept of the same name that I created over a year  and a half ago. Creating the names of the country she lived in, the other civilization that would be the "villains" of the piece, etc., though, were very difficult, and looking abck over the material I'm still not happy with any of the names except for Velshen'narith. (And even "High Priestess" is set in the present day: Velshen'narith is awaked out of a relic from a civilization that was destroyed, Atlantis-like, several thousand years ago.)

Meh, I'm rambling.

[David C. Matthews]

I'm not familiar with him/her… but after all the comments I've read here, I'm dying' to see some of his/her art! (Maybe I can pick up some pointers…)

[David C. Matthews]

She is cute!!

Welcome to Amaz0ns, Yatz! I think you'll find a very appreciative audience here (especially since a lot of us are fellow refugees from the Wreck Shop boards).

Good work! Wait, I should make that official:

[David C. Matthews]

Regrettably, I can't get DCM's blog from here… must be that Great Firewall in action. 🙁

So I'm glad for the tip-off.

Oh, and DCM, nice work as always.

Great Maker! It never occurred to me that there'd be places where my blog would get banned. (I'm assuming you can still access the main site, right?)

Is anyone else having this problem (a government or other "official entity" preventing access to either the main site or the blog)?

[David C. Matthews]

I'm very gratified by all the support, but don't be too hard on Androxi. I'll be the first to admit my attempts to do a "manga/anime" style aren't as sucessful as I'd like to be in its "authenticity" (by which I mean, "does this look like it was actually drawn by a Japanese manga-ka?")

But as Kulli points out, it is my style, and it does seem to be unique. And I am happy that so many readers like it. And I realize not everyone's going to enjoy it; so as the words of the old song goes, "you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself."

(And Androxi said he/she did like my other comics, so that's a good thing!!)

[Author]

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