Rotsterarsil – The Wheel

Rotsterarsil? What does that mean? How do you pronounce it?

It's ROETS - ter - ARR - sil, emphasis on penultimate syllable. You won't run into the word for a few more issues, but it basically means the Wheel. Henceforward, I will probably just refer to my comic as the Wheel for short, and you are welcome to do so also.

Is this a children's comic?

It is an all-ages comic. It is not, however, a children's comic. Issue 1.1 is just a backstory, and I thought it did a good job introducing some of the concepts, so I opened there. With small children. That you will never see again.

It Reminds Me Of That TV Show [X]...?

The story is heavily influenced by a lot of science fiction and fantasy (it's been rolling around my head for 25+ years, so it's acquired a lot of baggage). If you are thinking of one of these fictional stories, yes, that was where I got it:

• Farscape
• Doctor Who (classic series)
• Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci books
• Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (the Marquis de Carabas)

Similarities with the new Doctor Who tend to be due to similar conclusions drawn from classic Doctor Who trends. And I love Whedon, but the Firefly character resemblances are simply coincidence. They really were stolen from Farscape.

The short dream which started this whole twisting tale came when I was reading JRR Tolkien in 1985ish, so, yes, I'm sure I got the term White Council from that. Although I hadn't realized that until quite recently. However, unlike my other stories, this one is really only about 1% dream. So if it sucks, you can't blame my subconscious mind. It wanted me to write something else. :P

Teisni

A bright but directionless college student who has dabbled in history, martial arts, and trapeze. Her cheery disposition is downright annoying and her secrets aren't up for discussion.

Aian

A crazy wizard on the run from the White Council. Also, he has some language issues.

Spina

One of the White Council's main figures, Spina is cold and determined in her defense of Council goals and ideals.

Finnar Ban

A cocky and defiant wizard trained by the White Council who has since gone rogue. Though never named, Finnar's backstory is told in issue 1.1. He will be popping up again in Chapter 3 or 4 and causing trouble for the other three characters.

My real name is Emily Ivie. MLEIV is an abbreviation I acquired when I was a kid (M-L-E I-V). I could have gone with the palindrome EIVIE, but, meh, I liked mleiv more.

Despite being passionate about art from childhood, I have no real training in art (no more than a couple art classes in high school and college). There are almost no artists in my family line, and so there wasn't a lot of encouragement to pursue it. My family is full of writers, though: I grew up surrounded by books, with sisters who wrote nonstop and who loved fantasy as much as I did. I never won any ribbons for art at my high school, but I have a box full of medals from all the literary prizes! (Which should tell you how important it is to be the best writer in your high school: i.e., NOT AT ALL. :P ) All my brothers and my dad work with computers, so I picked that up too, and those skills have proved easier to sell to the real world, even if the work is somewhat less satisfying to my creative mind.

This is my second comic book. The first one was The Locked Maze.

Influences

My artistic influences include Mucha, Disney, Brian Froud, Michael Whelan, Trina Schart Hyman, Mercer Mayer (Sleeping Beauty), Edward Gorey, and all the webcomics I have been reading of late. My literary influences can be found here.

Tools

I work on a very old ModBook (a slate-style modified Apple MacBook that has a tablet added behind the screen to mimic the behavior of a Wacom Cintiq) and I use Adobe Photoshop to draw and Adobe Illustrator to letter and lay out panels. At some point I mean to add a tutorial on deviantArt about this, but the basics are that in order to draw on such a bitty screen, one has to become a painter, not a sketch artist. I draw in very rough shapes and then narrow in on the details over time, slowly dropping my brush size and increasing my opacity (and deleting older layers as I go), until I reach a cleanly inked page. Then I go back up to a big brush and low opacity and add the color in using the same process.

Locations

I currently live in Seattle, WA.

You can also connect with me on:

• deviantArt
• twitter
• FaceBook
• mleiv.com