Edenworldsaga: A post mortem

*Edenworldsaga.com will be disappearing at the end of the month and I thought I should make a little knod here in remembrance of the good old days when I first started the Odessy of Lyron Jotun and his mashina brothers in the world of Ignaz.

In 2006 I started a comic that would run for just over 5 years and contain at least 400 pages of content. Edenworld was a fantasy story that I could use as an outlet to tell others about my fetish passion for machines. It was a place I cut my teeth on sequential pencil drawing, as well as a small forum for witch I could communicate with other comic artists and cross pollinate our stories ideas onto. I really LOVED this fucking comic. I had a tight schedule where I would sit down at my security desk and make sure the line art was done before shift was over, only to take it home and make sure the post production grey-tons where done by 2 or 3am each night. I was able to get 3-5 pages done in  a week despite some criticism that the contrast on half of the material was so bad you had to strain the hell out of your eyes to tell what was going on. Like Atoll lab today, I was able to enlist special help from a couple key individuals (Vermifuge, Jason Lanum for editing), the latter of witch I ended up meeting unironically from the good old days of FC in san Jose. I was very influenced by my love and lust for gundam/ super robot taisen style as evidenced by my original characters included in the sample gallery. The story was always headed in the direction that favored a human x machine narrative and that’s really the single most prominent thing about me that hasn’t changed in over 17 years. I just didn’t expect that Id end up quitting following the job site being outbid, and the massive spike of depression that would follow where I quit drawing almost permanently.  I learned much of what I know about telling a visual story through those formative years between 2006 and 2011 when I still had time to bang these suckers out.  I thought it would never end, and I feel so sorry for the people who invested their time to get to know the rich cast of characters and lore of that world. I figured I didn’t deserve to make another comic, But if I did, I would keep the scope of the thing fairly small.. no big Space epic, nothing that needs 500 pages to tell its intricate back story. Maybe you can see the similarities between the above pages and the Atoll lab comic?

One thing Ive realized about Edenworld vs. Atoll lab is that Edenworld was not very inclusive of men (male humanity). Female humans whom were rare and almost extinct part of humans where “saved” by a race of giant robot men who treated them better then their own kind did. Thinking on it, I was much more misanthropic of people years ago, and had  I managed to continue Edenworld today, would have to face some major retcons to throw my fellow guy fans a bone. What I do now is far more inclusive of men, and women.. even if its mostly about the machines. I like it.

Its years later, and I am back to my old shenanigans with new story concepts and new characters. Will I finish Atoll lab before next year? Who knows really, but at least there is no competition between what I do now and some higher-purpose artwork trying to find a job in an industry I would be too flighty for. I encourage everyone to tell their story, no matter how bad they may think they are at drawing. This right here is a testament to the idea that repetition can and will in fact make you a better artist in whatever aspect of art you enjoy if you just keep at it for long enough.

It’s time to put Edenworld to rest. If any of you would like to see it you can find it at www.edenworldsaga.com before the Jan 30th.

Very big special thanks to Vermifuge for his help on this site and the development of the old site as well.