Here are some questions people have emailed me in the past. If you have any questions about Skin Deep feel free to email me! kory at korybingaman dot com!
Are we ever going to see Michelle again? Did you abandon those characters and her story?
This is a question I get ALL THE TIME and I hate it the most! So many people seem to think that I have completely dropped everything that happened in the Orientations story arc and will never visit it again! Not true! Michelle’s story will resume after Exchanges is over. Remember: Orientations took two years to tell! Exchanges is only a year and a half old, and it’s more complicated than Orientations!
It might help to think of Orientations and Exchanges as sister story arcs. Orientations introduces Michelle, the last of a race thought extinct, pursued by creatures thought also to be extinct for unknown mysterious reasons. Even in a world full of secret monster people, her story is unusual and unique. Exchanges, on the other hand, deals (mostly) with the every day goings on of mythical society, and how “normal” individuals interact on a daily basis. Even though Anthony is going through a similar unique experience as Michelle, the way his turning is being handled is more “typical” than Michelle’s ever was. Both story arcs are meant to show different aspects of the same world, and knowing what the status quo from Exchanges is helps show how unusual Michelle’s story from Orientations is.
Orientations and Exchanges are the two main “introductory” storylines, and after they are finished shorter stories dealing with characters from both storylines will follow, including Michelle’s story.
Constantly being asked if I “forgot” or “abandoned” Michelle’s story makes me feel like you guys have no faith in me! Have faith! I have a plan and know where this stuff is going!
How did you make your pages? Are they watercolor?
The first few issues of Orientation were drawn and inked by hand and colored in Adobe Photoshop, but now the whole thing is done 100% in Photoshop. I put up a tutorial on deviantART that shows the basic way I go about coloring, and I have a series of YouTube videos chronicling how I make a comic page!
Drawing Skin Deep: Sketching
Drawing Skin Deep: Inking
Drawing Skin Deep: Coloring
I’ve got a great Skin Deep fancharacter, will you put it in your comic?
Great! I love hearing that my comic has influenced others! However, I do not normally put characters made by others into my comic. I’d much rather see you make your own characters for your own stories! Those are the most rewarding!
But there are a lot of fancharacters in your comic already!
Actually no! The characters that were not created by me were created either by Sfé Monster or Sheana Molloy. Both are good friends of mine and helped me considerably during the planning stages of Skin Deep, and ended up contributing characters to the comic as well as advice and ideas. I don’t consider those characters “fancharacters” at all!
I just read about a great mythical creature that you should put in your comic…
I love hearing about new mythical creatures! However, I’ve got a quadrillion characters as it is, so the odds of me putting a new character into the comic at this point is slim.
I’ve got a great idea for a Skin Deep story!
That’s great! However, I’ve got lots and lots of story planned for Skin Deep already, so please don’t tell them to me. I’d be much happier if you used that idea in a story of your own.
Why haven’t you put my fanart up yet?
I did a really terrible job of saving my fanart in a logical manner at the beginning of the comic, and I’m only just now saving it in a way that makes it easy for me to remember who gave it to me and when. I’m trying to put it all up as fast as I can, but if you’ve sent me a piece of fanart and I haven’t put it up yet, you can actually submit it yourself and skip my lazy butt altogether!
Can I make a fancomic based off the world of Skin Deep?
I would much rather see you make your OWN comic! It’s much more rewarding than making one up from Skin Deep. Besides, Skin Deep is still very young and there are tons of “rules” that govern the Skin Deep world that I haven’t had a chance to explain yet, so there’s a very good chance that if you try to make a fancomic, all your hard work could be rendered instantly “wrong” at any moment if all your characters/situations/everything end up being impossible in the Skin Deep world.
I do not own the concept of mythical creatures, they belong to everyone! If you really want to make a comic featuring mythical creatures you certainly do not have to use Skin Deep as a platform for that. However, if you simply 100% MUST use the Skin Deep world, please give credit and a link back to the site. Also, I would very much appreciate it if you did not sell your Skin Deep comic or make money off of it in any way. I hope you understand!
How do Medallions work?
The short answer is “Magic” and don’t think about it too hard. Medallions cast a complex illusionary spell on the wearer to make them look like a human. There are different medallions for each species of mythical creature, and each can only cast one spell at a time (so no sharing medallions). They don’t work on humans. I think that might answer all the questions I was asked about Medallions, hah.
Why haven’t I seen trolls/dwarves/elves/hobbits/giants/etc in the comic? Will they show up later?
I never say never, but most likely no, they won’t ever have a big roll in Skin Deep. Those guys get enough attention in fantasy stories, and frankly I find them pretty boring. I am much more interested in obscure mythical critters, and it’s much more fun to draw monster people rather than humans with bits of weird things stuck to their faces. Hah hah!
