Not good at all.

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"No-one would have believed in the early years of the twenty-first century, that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own. That as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they observed and studied.

With infinite complacency men went to and fro about the globe, confident of their empire over this world.

Yet, across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely drew their plans against us." -War of the Worlds movie

Nothing to reminds us humans (or Earthlings on any parallel Earth), how infinite small we are in the grand ocean of stars that is the cosmos.
And that there might be more advanced, dark, sinister minds are out there, considering us nothing but something they can use, or at worse; discard.

Nods.

Ha! Always loved Shonuff's art, this is a good piece, makes me interested in this Cikyla, are you writing stories or anything for this?

I really want to write stories with Cikyla.
The original versions which you can also find on my page which I have imagined as a paranormal investigator (though perhaps this is to much like the Hellboy and BPRD comics I enjoy reading) and this version of her which inspired me to come up with a Star Wars esque universe in which I put some of other loose science fiction ideas I have been walking around with for quite some time.

Some of these ideas were made up for fan fiction for Star Wars or Star Trek, or even Homeworld, and some other sci fi universes I can not immediately recall. The mysterious and long gone Obetreen (think the engineers from Alien before Prometheus combined with the mindset of HP Lovecraft; mysterious non human non sympathetic intelligences), the Six Empires (advanced civilizations that have transcended beyond mortal limits and have now retreated from the general galactic scene), the collapsed Kikiroy Empire (this one influenced a lot of the current civilizations in my universe) and the recently defeated Alexandri Empire.

Former Crown Prince Hakeem of Alexandri is the leader of the resistance against Cikyla and the rest of the warlords that roam the galaxy (Xerveus, Zarneth) and basically the symbol of freedom for all those who claim to hold that concept high and want to fight for it. (but interesting enough seem to do little about the corruption and power abuse of those governments that are 'fairly' elected. Not much point in trying to liberate hive minds or artificial intelligence hierarchies)
The crown prince has quite some traits in his favor; he is good looking, well spoken, generally open minded, brave, and loyal to his followers. And he is quite a ladies man too.
Unfortunate for the people following him, Hakeem is not much interested in freeing all conquered worlds and setting them loose, especially the ones that were one part of the Alexandri Empire. Hakeem believes in 'Enlightened Despotism', feeling that worlds and species were better off under the leadership of his family and people than the chaos and anarchy of self rule.
So he is quite a bit of a hypocrite in the end.


Anyway before I rambled off so much, I would love to do stories with my characters. But the problem is realizing them.
I really want to make comics with these characters but I can neither draw very well myself (see scraps) nor do I have they money to hire an artist.
I could do a crowd funding I guess but I can not offer any incentive to any donors, not a custom made sketch, or a button, or any other reward. Plus I am a complete nobody.

So far I have written an outline for a story with Cikyla (and another OC I want to have drawn one of these days) in which they have to investigate a mystery in the South West of the US (in some parallel Earth of course) and I have made a script for two characters I have adopted that I also want to have turned into a comic.

But I don't know if these ideas are any good, plus I think some editing and perhaps changes might be necessary.
What I also find frustrating is that I realize how limited my own English knowledge is when I read an English comic or book, coming across verbs, definitions, articles (as in grammar usage) and so on that I have never heard off before and which I feel I should know before I write an actual story.

Feel your pain there. I have had a lot of similar ideas over the years. I used to draw a LOT (never got to Shonuff's caliber or anything tho) never got around to learning Photoshop. I had a few OCs but I generally found myself being better at universe and culture creation. I also come from a family of engineers so I have tons of old concept mecha and spaceships that never went anywhere. Been trying to upload many of the old pics to my Deviant Art (http://dog42a.deviantart.com/) but even though I don't really draw anymore I still want to do at least one of my big stories in a comic at some point, got a cool sort-of alternate history one I still wanna do. See any ships or mecha you wanna adopt for your stories just ask and I'll let you know if I don't plan to use it, got a bunch of unused and I'd rather not let some of them go to waste ya'know.

These days I do more models and radio controlled hobbies (rockets, airplanes, tanks, and even submarines), most of my custom models are related to my stories too. If drawing isn't your strength, you ever try models? I've been experimenting with figures lately, a few custom GI Joes, next is some Sonic the Hedgehog figures, trying to broaden my skills. I now have a working 3D printer so I'm trying to see if I can use it to print some parts as clay sculpting was never one of my strengths. Guess I'll have to learn some real CAD or 3D rendering soon.

Really would have liked to have responded to you days ago but unfortunate I had an Math test that was part of a school intake test that required priority. I also had some other things I had to attend to first.


>Feel your pain there. I have had a lot of similar ideas over the years. I used to draw a LOT (never got to Shonuff's caliber or anything tho) never got around to learning Photoshop.

I still really wish to become somewhat good at drawing traditionally and in Photoshop one day (I have a little experience of it from my previous school course) as the only alternative would be that I make such a great income I can order commissions monthly or even weekly and I doubt that that will ever happen.
Sorry to sound so greedy but I so much wish to see my ideas being visually recreated.


>I had a few OCs but I generally found myself being better at universe and culture creation.

I am a bit mixed on this point. I have ideas for several OCs but I am always in doubt if they are balanced well enough to come out as realistic and as people others will also like and not just me.
I occasionally dabble at creating universes and cultures but I do feel one should have some of a degree of understanding/experience with real life history, society, and culture in order to make fictional ones that come over as somewhat plausible.
Understanding these little things that make history or the human heart move is what makes the difference between something two dimensional and something that pulls the reader's strings so to speak.


>If drawing isn't your strength, you ever try models?

When I was younger I made some models like an Apache helicopter, a plane, Star Trek starships, several fighter aircraft but I have never been much of a star at it. For one I am terrible at painting them or putting the translucent decals on them.
Those last things were always annoying as they so easily tended to mess up.


I honestly wish to become a writer and an artist (and a game designer), not for the sake of fame and fortune but do something in life that not only earns me an income, but also just makes me plain happy or satisfied in general.
Not to wake up in the morning with the first though "Ugh, I have to go to that stupid job of mine, again!"
I am not sure how long I would be able to do that without becoming desensitized or plain angry/aggressive at some point because I am so sick and tired of it.

I seem to have made some progress in my drawing over the years, but it is a slow path with often lots of mistakes and feelings of wasting time without getting results.

I have been out of school for several years, so I am familiar with the "Ugh, I have to go to that stupid job of mine, again!" feeling. Currently between jobs looking for one I wont completely hate getting out of bed for.

You mentioned game design, I sometimes think of going that way with my stories, with some of the "click together" game makers these days it would not be too hard to create an RTS for my 'elves from a parallel dimension invade' story. That would require few drawings and would offer a nice level of immersion. If you get the right game maker program you can even sell your product if you want. I haven't found a game maker that satisfied me yet.

As for creating realistic characters? I like to think I've gotten pretty good at it, my trick is that after you assign your basic characteristics and personality ("Cikyla is a space skunk who is conquering the universe", type A personality?) fill out with a few things (fanatic/zealot, narcissist?) then ignore all fiction as a source material. How would this person react to the last thing you saw on the news, to a car crash, bumping into someone, if they are hungry? It might help to imagine them following you around for the day and making comments from the peanut gallery. If they are a fanatic or something that is not practical for that, then check the news, what did ISIS do today, how did that wacko who shot up that church justify themselves? Don't take the news's reason though, look as what they think they are doing it for.

As an example, one of my long standing OCs and the only "super hero" I came up with is a 1200 year old, sort-of shape-shifting, dragon demigod. But beyond that he is a VERY normal guy. He exists in the real world, so there are no real super villains, he can't be everywhere and so generally can only stops small crime in his area and has only "saved the world" maybe 2 or 3 times the last 70 years, then hangs out with his friends. He's 1200 years old so he is wise and even temped, has a wife, and is generally well adjusted, hence, not the main character! He has very little conflict to solve and thus serves as the catalyst for his college student friend. The stories revolve around how she deals with suddenly having a secret friend who is a demigod, with all the baggage that entails, and how a real person would react and then adapt to such a thing. Mostly she deals with things like how do you eat out when your friend effectively Superman and how do you deal with the strangely normal affections of a visiting space alien.

I guess it is easiest to remember that Hitler and Bin Laden are probably the closest thing to real super villains and they were little more than super jerks, so a real person just needs a reason (can be small reasons) and the personal logic for their actions. It sounds like Cikyla may not have had an epic origin story, maybe she got into local politics, got sick of the corruption, chance or an opportunity from someone allowed her to do something about it which put her in a higher position where she saw the corruption on a larger scale and did something about it again and it snowballed from there. A totalitarian regime may have been the only reasonable option at the time, maybe she secretly feels bad about that or doesn't believe the people are ready and plans to set them up for a future democracy when they learn not to be dicks to each other. Maybe she just believes she is right and why can't they all see it? No one ever believes what they are doing is evil so you just need to come up with a logic for them (how ever twisted it may be) and let that logic dictate how they react to any situation.

...Also keep in mind that people do change a lot so the logic may have to too.

>I have been out of school for several years, so I am familiar with the "Ugh, I have to go to that stupid job of mine, again!" feeling. Currently between jobs looking for one I wont completely hate getting out of bed for.

I may have sounded very arrogant about that, if so I apologize. But finding some kind of happiness has been something that has been a lot on my mind lately, especially after ten years which I in general would not call a very happy period (loss of a parent, loss of home, my previous school course failing, partly my fault and partly not).

I do hope you find something that will make you happy, that is I guess most of us can hope for to achieve in life.


>If you get the right game maker program you can even sell your product if you want. I haven't found a game maker that satisfied me yet.

In the past I have often talked with a friend of mine of making out very own game. A sort of Elite/Starlancer meets Deus Ex/Fallout New Vegas in which the player is a freelance adventurer or mercenary who travels around several star systems, doing missions and quests while perhaps pursuing a quest of their own.


> ("Cikyla is a space skunk who is conquering the universe", type A personality?) fill out with a few things (fanatic/zealot, narcissist?)

Normally I have Cikyla in mind as a somewhat cocky and slightly selfish (but not in a bad way) paranormal investigator who works for a research organization that studies matters regarding the paranormal, supernatural, and extra terrestrial.
She has a lot of bravado but when it comes to it sometimes a small heart. Still she is the type of person who doesn't just let someone step over her. She doesn't get mad, she gets even.


Warlord Cikyla, well she is the result of my own anger, sadness, disappointment and frustrations. Feeling powerless when facing the powerful.
Warlord Cikyla is the type of person who does not accept how the world runs when she thinks it could go better. Who takes fate that is not in her favor and makes it into something that is in her favor, even if she has to step onto others in order to do so.
It is more than just her fleets and armed forces, it is her sheer that drives her, her refusal to accept reality as it is now, forcefully changing into something that fits her vision. To show the universe that when it pushes, she pushes back and with such force to make clear that it is really unwise to push her in the first place.

She is kind of the result me reading about real world dictators or people with power and influence who use it irresponsible of for their own gain. It made me think "What if these people one day faced an individual of such strength, such power and influence who is as much above these individuals as they are above regular people. And who treats them in the same way as they treat others, or perhaps because this individual honestly doesn't care about their thoughts, feelings, dreams and hopes, greatest fears, and so on. An individual who only sees these people as something at best she can use, or in worst case scenario simply eliminates because they stand in the way or are just stepped on as she passes through."

If she never cared about others, I do not know. But I do know that she does not care any more.
If warlord Cikyla had to concern herself about everyone else's feelings, needs, desires, and so on she believes she would get nowhere.
In a way she feels she treats everyone around her as the universe treats all the living things in it, with disinterest and no compassion or feeling in general. There is no anger or grudge against any species or individual in particular, at best annoyance when someone seeks to get in her way.

Take ISIS for example, if warlord Cikyla knew of them she would honestly not care about them as long as they did not get in the way. Just another collective of individuals who are driven by some religious truth or self made up cause that drives them to take land and resources from others and apparently serves as some kind of justification of their actions instead of just admitting that they just want land, power, money, and to hurt people.
Now if they would get in her way things would take a whole different turn, if ISIS actually managed to form an obstacle to the warlord's plans, or even an actual threat, their termination would be swift and efficient.
There would be no ground war or any prolonged conflict, her fleets would simply take orbit above ISIS territory and start firing their fusion guns and drop atomics until nothing would be left alive.

I really have not thought of an origin story for warlord Cikyla yet, but she is definitely driven by a will to change things, feeling that weaknesses that lead to corruption and exuberant self interest only work detrimental on the long run to every society or civilization in the universe. If there is no cooperation, no unity amongst beings to work towards greater goals, to reach for heights perceived to be impossible, than she will make them cooperate, she will make them behave.

Oh man I honestly hope you don't think I am insane for posting the following, but it is a quote I would image the warlord saying when asked why she does what she does.

“And as I stood on top of creation, I gazed down and saw it was flawed and broken.
If there is a deity or deities then they must surely be fools and incompetent and not worthy to rule and be worshiped.
But from this, purpose was born, and an iron will to resolve.
I will fix creation, I will make it work, I will make you all behave, or I will send you all screaming into the fires of perdition.”

– Cikyla the warlord

Hmm, no I didn't think you were being arrogant. In fact some of what you mentioned has happened to me over the past decade too. While hard and time consuming I know it has made me a much stronger and more compassionate person, I hope you can or will be able to say the same. All I can really say is that if you have not already, don't shy away from those things and share them whenever you can, otherwise it will rot you from the inside.

As for Warlord Cikyla being born out of feelings of powerlessness? That's fine, nothing wrong with that. I know people talk about self insertion and Mary Sues but thats secretly what they all want (where do you think Superman came from?) That superhero/dragon/demigod (Drake) I mentioned? Originally made to encompass the traits I most desired in myself, he's wise, not upset by the crap of life, always maintains a proper perspective, and still has the strength to fix the things that would normally be impossible. He's also tempered by making mistakes that actually hurt like myself, embodying the idea that no mater how I try I wont be perfect but that's okay, I can still be a "super hero".

I don't know where you are in dealing with things but stories and such are often a nice outlet. It is a little easier to write a coherent story for a character that is in the place you just were, like almost all of my stories make much more sense now. I remember coming up with something VERY similar to Warlord Cikyla several years ago for about the same reasons, she's more fleshed out now and I still keep that character on the shelf for later.

As for Warlord Cikyla, don't be afraid to go back and change her original opinions or motivations , stories and characters like this can be cathartic. I know some of mine helped me look at my life from a different perspective. If it helps you may even want to give her actively changing opinions or motivations, mirroring your own personal development. That also makes for a much more immersive character if you ever do anything with it.

Also, an "origin story" is not as important as everyone seems to think, think about a real person or even yourself. Do you really have some epic "origin story" that dictates who you are now? Of course not, no one does, it's all the little things over a life that builds a person, so don't sweat Cikyla's origin. For example, Drake's origin? He was a spoiled brat who's bullshit finally cost him the things and relationships that he didn't realize he truly cared about until it was too late, studied in some monasteries for a few centuries and came out to do some good with his life. That's it. No real rivals, single traumatic event, wizened elder or any of that crap. He had some hard times and finally said man this sucks, I guess I'll try to be a better person. That's how real people become better. It also makes him a much more believable and relatable character, I mean how many people can really relate to where Captain America or Wolverine or Superman are coming from?

>As for Warlord Cikyla being born out of feelings of powerlessness? That's fine, nothing wrong with that. I know people talk about self insertion and Mary Sues but thats secretly what they all want (where do you think Superman came from?) That superhero/dragon/demigod (Drake) I mentioned? Originally made to encompass the traits I most desired in myself, he's wise, not upset by the crap of life, always maintains a proper perspective, and still has the strength to fix the things that would normally be impossible. He's also tempered by making mistakes that actually hurt like myself, embodying the idea that no mater how I try I wont be perfect but that's okay, I can still be a "super hero".

In general I am not in favor of Mary Sues or Gary Stu's as it can give any reader or watcher the idea that the creator has an inflated opinion of him or herself. But I guess in the context of a drawing or comics/stories made for one self it can be excused.
But I really would not recommend if it you want to write stories/comics you wish to sell in order to make an income as an audience has only so much patience with it.

But like with your character I have also been making up OCs that embody certain traits of me or skills and traits I wish I would have.
Probably mostly because I can then understand them and their feelings, wishes, dreams, hopes, fears, and so on.


>As for Warlord Cikyla, don't be afraid to go back and change her original opinions or motivations , stories and characters like this can be cathartic. I know some of mine helped me look at my life from a different perspective. If it helps you may even want to give her actively changing opinions or motivations, mirroring your own personal development. That also makes for a much more immersive character if you ever do anything with it.

Again that is something you do have to be careful with. Occasionally it can not hurt but if you overdo it you get a sort of 'talking head/pundit' type of situation in which you don't only tell your opinion, but may give the idea that you know better than others and that people should listen to everything you say.
It is something you have to handle with constraint and moderation.
I like political cartoons for example but occasionally an artist can become obnoxious when he handles a sort of 'holier than thou' attitude.

I am not happy with the world and occasionally am thinking what a character like Warlord Cikyla would change but I am not going to say that I know so much better than others. To be honest I feel somewhat stupid or unknowing because I don't understand various fields of science and knowledge such as socio economics and so on. So for me to say what should be different could sound arrogant or self serving.


Perhaps one day I come up with an origin story for regular Cikyla or Warlord Cikyla when I feel the time is right.

Ah, I didn't mean to condone "self-insertion" as it were. Just that a character with similar traits or traits you desire is fine (ie: if you can in some way relate to a character, they will be easier to write) "All things in moderation" after all. Drake was never a main character anyway, just the Yoda and reoccurring plot device to a college fuck-up.

Besides, characters (like Drake and I'm sure Cikyla) evolve anyway. Any character that started as a fairly simple embodiment of some kind of frustration will no doubt become much more if we keep them around.

I for one welcome our new skunk overlords

Heh, trust me, it is not going to be all fuzzy and cute

Anyway glad you like this drawing.