History
I have gotten the question “how did you come up with the idea for Unusual Tuesdays?” a lot, as well as accusations that it’s like the BBC TV series “Being Human.” Just for the record I did not copy “Being Human” because that would be impossible. Let me give you the history and making of Unusual Tuesdays. I’m going to put up a short history for now and I will add more once more of the story has unraveled so as not to spoil the plot.
Back in 2004 (woah, yeah, that far back) I was introduced to the artistic side of the internet, including webcomics. Excited and fascinated by the idea that my stories could be published without me going through a publisher I started to write a comic that was based (a little) on my own life. All of my friends at the time identified as some sort of supernatural being, and I found myself surrounded by vampires, werewolves, demons, and so forth. I was their human and happy to be so. I made a comic called “The non-human’s Human” which was about a human girl and all of her supernatural friends… in High School… (hey, I was a high-schooler! Can’t blame me for having a lame story… At least they didn’t sparkle…). The following two pages are the first two pages of that comic. Alex is named "Ann" and Catrina is still named "Catrina"
Frank and Darrick were also in this comic, but as Ted the “cliché” vampire and Stan the “horny” werewolf. Only one of those descriptions stuck. (Fun Fact: Frank’s older brother is now named Stan, and that was unintentional). Their original designs are below.
Unfortunately 6 pages into the actual comic I lost the plot. I had no idea where my story was going, although I sort of liked the characters. I just couldn’t figure out why a werewolf and vampire attended high school…. Go figure.
Then in late 2005 I picked it up again, this time under the name of “Mages Blood” I had lost the original drawings and so I re-drew/renamed my characters. I had, by this time, moved on to college and so had my characters. Ted’s name was changed to Darrick Cullen (I have never read Twilight, Cullen is actually a historical vampire name and thus why I had chosen it… unfortunately so had a sparkly vampire by the name of Edward in the same year. My friend had suggested the name Cullen to me and I had liked it. Once I learned it was Edwards name – in 2009 – I found myself looking for a new name for Darrick.) Stan quickly picked up the name of Frank Buster Williams and Frank Buster Williams it has stayed. They both dramatically changed and look far closer to the Frank and Darrick we know today. Their designs are below. Ann and Catrina looked pretty much the same.
One big difference for Darrick was that he was very tall, He and Frank were almost the same height in Mages Blood. So was my new cast member, a vampire hunter by the name of Chad Hunter. This comic was a lot more serious than The Non-Human’s Human was supposed to be. Here are the first three pages
I got to 9 pages on this one and again had no idea where I was going. I had a larger cast including some characters that have since been cut and other characters that have yet to show up. Instead of Catrina being Ann’s talking cat she was going to be Ann’s new college roommate who would bring Ann into all this drama and trouble. Frank and Darrick were to be just two guys who lived near the college (as I still couldn’t understand why I’d find a vampire and werewolf in a college) and Ann’s college career would quickly fall to the wayside in comparison to the dramatic life that vampires and werewolves lead. But drama was never my thing, I get bored with it. And so Mage’s blood died.
And things were to change once more.
In January of 2007 they came back. Ann got her first name change from Ann Green to Alexandra (Alex) Larson. I drew a picture of her holding Catrina (picture below) and this time she was dressed as a boy. She was not a student at any school, but rather a student of magic. No longer human (as I still identify myself as) she had become the mage of the story.
I just wanted a comic that was funny and light hearted. I missed my only set of vampires and werewolves and wanted to cast them as my new comedic webcomic. Everything Goes was the name as I just wanted to be able to do anything I wanted with the story and characters.
I was successful for the first 50 or so pages then I decided to take on the “Mage’s Blood” story line, which killed Everything Goes. Funny thing is… the “Mage’s Blood” story line seems very similar to the one that the BBC’s TV series is now winding down. So after 80 some-odd pages and a story line that was going nowhere, and a friendship break up that the comic was quite involved in, I quit Everything Goes.
But I missed Alex, Catrina, Darrick, Frank, and Chad, almost as much as I missed my best friend who had helped me along the way. So I picked them up again, this time I wanted to put my all into the drawings and make dynamic and artistic. I wanted to also use a different style, so in 2010 they came back in Unusual Tuesdays. This time I had studied story and story writing. I knew that in all my other versions it had been story that killed my comic and I do not want it to die again. Right now I’m repeating a lot of the first Everything Goes pages with some changes where the story demands it. Now I know where my story is going and how to keep it light hearted during its duration. Long live Unusual Tuesdays!