Told she has potential for great power, Jinaara is taken in by Nicolas Flamel to learn the ways of alchemy. However, after growing up under his tutelage and even coming to see him like a father, she discovers the maniacal end goals of his research and realizes he’s a madman. In an act of desperation, she steals his magnum opus to stop him from taking over the world, planning to hide the Philosopher’s Stone somewhere he’ll never find it. At least, this is what she tells the outcasts and rogues she’s relying on to keep her safe.

Sound like a premise for its own comic? That’s the problem. I don’t plan to do away with any aspects of Jinaara’s backstory, but I need to make sure Zibal and Kano aren’t overshadowed by shining up those two characters. These three are sharing the limelight!

Jinaara’s design has probably changed even less than the others since I first conceptualized her, but I think the changes are significant. The second pair of gloves and the gold accents do a lot to break up parts of her design that lacked detail, in my opinion.

More fun, in my opinion, is her new coat. I thought the hooded poncho thing was cool when I first introduced it, but I eventually realized it turned a great deal of her body into an uninteresting blob on the page, down to her waist and elbows. While it preserves the impression of a mysterious runaway, the coat allows for more poseability, I feel, since it will follow the outline of her pose instead of concealing it.

On the subject of the 3D model…I’m beginning to suspect that a simple doll, unclothed and uncolored, might be more beneficial than these fully-detailed models. They would be faster to make, and allow me to color more independently. If I were better at using Blender, maybe this wouldn’t be the case, but until I get there, it might be wise to downgrade. It's not like the complete models are that great anyway (you can even see the strap of her top clipping through her chest).

It may also be wise to build each body part separately and parent them to individual bones, rather than let the mesh deform to the armature. I’ve noticed that sometimes the limbs twist like bread ties if you rotate parts of the armature too far, and that can be distracting while sketching over it as well.

Hey gang! This is a bit of an unorthodox update -- planned to have Jinaara first -- but this wound up preoccupying me quite a bit and I think it could turn out to be a valuable development.

I recently became very interested in working with Blender, and as I was doing this, I came to realize that I could probably compose and render scenes in Blender and then trace over that render for my comics. I'm aware that some professional artists use this method and in some cases it results in their art turning out stiff and uninteresting, but I'm hoping if I build the assets myself and keep the renders simple enough that I rely on myself to fill in the details, I might be able to avoid this pitfall.

As you can see from this test art here, I'm also not GREAT at modeling characters yet, but I can pretty reasonably fill in the details when it comes to the art.

Kano was actually one of the first models I built, and this practice peace is the one that gave me confidence that this may help me make my comics look better. I'm probably gonna make a new 3D model to go with each of my character sheets.

I think I realized a while ago that I needed to reboot Prince of Vermin. The comic as it is makes passable entertainment, but I feel the nature of the story isn’t suited for Webtoon’s format and pace — even though I still intend to make it available there, of course! The artwork and storytelling quality is no longer up to the vision that has grown in my mind.

The premise began very simply; a man goes hunting for a monster in the woods, only to meet the monster and discover he’s more like the man than he expected. The two would befriend each other and go on adventures that I just made up as I went. I recycled Zibal’s design from another comic, designed the monster who became Kano, and (if my memory serves me correctly) made the first comic completely without a script.

This would’ve worked fine if I had stuck to the silly improvised misadventures, but it only lasted until Zibal and Kano crossed paths with their first adventure.

I’ll go deeper into Jinaara later, but she transformed the narrative immediately. Suddenly there was something to protect — the philosopher’s stone, Jinaara herself — and a dragon to slay in the form of her master, Nicolas Flamel. An adventure of this scale demanded more care than the casual project I had in mind. This is why I need to start from scratch — to tie it all together, to make it look beautiful, and to make sure the story still belongs to the Prince of Vermin.

The relationship between Zibal and Kano will be an important part of compelling the reader. The story should be watertight, but people remember characters first. Zibal is bold, crooked, and flamboyant, while Kano is cautious, morally upstanding, and as subtle as an ogre the size of a small elephant can be. However, a friendship is forged when Zibal fails horribly at trying to kill Kano and the ogre takes pity on him. Zibal winds up feeling indebted to Kano, while Kano has a heterosexual case of the I-can-fix-hims.

Much of the design changes made to Zibal were to freshen up what he started out with. The tunic and scar he acquired in later chapters is there from the get-go, the earrings add to the roguish look, and his half-sword is a little longer. The red cape has been exchanged for a scarf, partly because I didn’t enjoy drawing the cape, and partially because I felt the scarf fit him better. I also realized, pulled over his face, it reminds me of the one worn by The Shadow. Another (better) story about a reformed criminal. I like how The Shadow acts for good while retaining a villainous flair, something for me to keep in mind going forward. Even if Zibal winds up on his best behavior, he doesn’t need to act like it.

Like Zibal, Kano’s initial look and costume design are relatively unchanged from the first run of the comic. It’s basically his original look retouched for some visual interest, which I figured would be cool enough as a presentable character design with room to shake it up. He could get a jacket, wear his hair differently, lose a few pounds, lose a tooth, whatever I decide serves the story.

I think the most interesting change for Kano is his hair. I figured if it were a lot longer than it was, he’d look cooler, and in my admittedly biased opinion I was right.

Thinking on it, I MAY change the style on one of their pants, given that both have that funny looking cuff at the bottom. Maybe give Kano something a little more boot cut.

I don’t have much else to offer at the moment. Next time I’ll come back for more redesigns -- maybe of Jinaara, so I can complete the trio. The general story isn’t plotted out as fully as I would like yet, but I have already begun delving into the rewrite of Chapter 1. Expect that to be bigger and funnier than the version on the webtoon.