Hi everyone I have some exciting news!
At long last my Etsy shop, Tinder Button, has gone live with an entire section of Claviger goods.
Right now the Claviger portion has mugs, prints, and print packs. Soon, printed chapters and original pages will be added, and once complete the Claviger GN will be available there.
Thanks for all of your support!
Ronnie
As today is only one “panel” I thought I would show you the roughs to give you something more to look at.
Here it is! After eight years of working on Claviger ,we are knee deep in the Climax.
I am very excited to draw these scenes that have been in my head forever.
I would love to hear some thoughts or predictions on how you think the series will turn out. How exciting!
The spectacular, site-wide, Halloween crossover is in full effect at Girl-A-Matic right now.
Three Claviger GAM-O-WEEN pages went live today starting here.
And be sure to see Pancha Diaz’s ICEHEART pages that came before Claviger.
Tomorrow the awesome KT SHY will continue the next story in her series Shrub Monkeys.
It feels surreal to be posting the first page of the last Claviger chapter. I have been working on the series close to nine years now. The first five years amounted to designs, concepts, a finished script and chapters one through three (in fairness there were two very different versions of chapter one created). The last four, since being part of Girl-a-matic, has moved the story forward at a nice steady pace of one page a week (with maybe four or five exceptions for holidays, computer crashes, and the like).
Close to the end now, with everything coming to a head. Please stick around for the rest of the ride.
On this page Chloe has a sort of flashback reel in which she reminisces on recent events in order to maker her decision whether to leave or stay within Avalon. There have been many other flashbacks in Claviger, about one per chapter.
Most of the flashbacks were created by outside artists in the attempt of separating them from the current storyline. Even in Chloe’s flashbacks on this page we have two panels created by other artist for previous pages. Aaron Delarosa did the first panel, the shot of NYC. The eleventh panel, the shot of Finch Casting a Death wish, was done by Julie Behn, who has also been toning the second half of Chapter 7.
The idea behind the flashbacks was to further flesh out and add back-story to the three main characters in Claviger. Most of the events we see in the flashbacks did pertain to goings on in the main story even if they were not entirely necessary. I do not know if they were always successful. I have received mixed reactions on the flashback sequences. Some people think they are informative and nice break in pace, others find they slow down the story too much. As Claviger winds down, this is the last time in the story there will be any kind of flashback, I thought it was worth mentioning. I do welcome thoughts on the subject.
This Chapter (Chapter 7) was intended to contain a section clarifying the uses and application of the magic in Avalon; It does not. The reason for this was there was simply too much exposition in this chapter. Finch and Pixel explain much of the inner workings of Avalon to Chloe as well as the gender discussions mentioned in the previous post. I thought of adding another few pages that outline how/when the fairies and muses use their magic, but there was just no room.
So, we wait until Chapter 8 for the explanation. Here is a quick cheat sheet though, if you are interested.
The core of magical energy that powers all of Avalon flows in and out of our world and theirs. The fairies have found a way to harness this energy for a few different uses.
The first is as a simple power source similar to electricity. This fuels Avalon and all of their technology. Having access to such power for so much longer than humans is responsible for a good deal of the advanced instruments and machinery seen within Avalon.
The second is elemental magic. Each of the fairies is able to manipulate one of the four elements by controlling the magical sources inherit in each. They do so with varying degrees of success and proficiency. All fairies have access to only one of the elemental magics. For example Finch uses Earth Magic, and Basil Fire magic. The muses have power over all four.
The third and most powerful is wish magic. The ancient contract with the gods that allows every human to have one wish answered when they first plead aloud three times for something. If you have been following Claviger, you know much of the story pivots around Finch’s failure to answer Chloe’s wish. We have learned that much of this scenario was set in place by Lancelot in order to create a Claviger and find away into Avalon. Lancelot himself is the one other wish failed to be granted when the muses refused to give him the sword Excalibur.
Perhaps wish magic is powerful enough that events will shift and change until the wish is granted, even without the help of a Wishkeeper?
Last week I received a comment on a Claviger that read “Cool. I had kinda wondered how Goody Finch changed genders.” This was posted on the page of Finch explaining to Chloe that the Fairies of Avalon are genderless. Gender notions are a bit of an underlying thread in Claviger and this is something I had intended to bring up earlier in the series but there was not a place to do so without it feeling forced.
The idea of a world where there is no gender aside from what the inhabits apply to themselves fascinates me. Would relationships (not necessarily romantic ones) be based much less on preconceived notions? Or would something like class or occupation become that much more important? Avalon being somewhat of utopia implies there aren’t such boundaries. Except of course a slight prejudice against Finch who had once been human.
On the page posted today Chloe learns that Finch had once been a woman. This alters her view of him, even is she would prefer it did not. Should it though? She had no problems when she had found out he had no gender. Now she must decide if a past, but lost, gender identity or assignment would change who he is in her eyes.
Until this point in the story wishes and wish-keeping had been shown in only a positive light. Human nature being what it is, I couldn’t imagine every thing every one had ever wished for would be positive. Sadly.
Finch has obviously seen this kind of thing before. Is Chloe right to be horrified?
I should add also, that the toning and first part of this page were done by Julie behn.
Welcome to the new GAM! Having been a contributor for many years, I am very excited about the re-launch of the site. Look around. Claviger is in excellent company. Do try to check out the new site and the Launch features.
Now that I have this news blog I shall try to make notes or comments on the pages as I update. Please let me know your thoughts as the story moves forward.
Today’s Claviger page (Chapter 7, Page 15) is one of the few that are not drawn by me (Ronnie). Most of the flashback sequences appearing in Claviger are drawn by guest artists. The intention is to separate the look and feel of the flashbacks from the present-day narrative.
However, this page is not an actual flashback. But as the action takes place in a setting removed from the main storyline and is from the point-of-view of a character not familiar to us I still thought it appropriate.
The art was done by Julie Behn creator of Open Late. Thanks Julie!
