First comic! Biking reminds me of flying...

[frameacloud]

This is the first page of my comic about therianthropes and otherkin, Theri There, from September 4, 2005.

Image description:
In this comic, a person is riding a bicycle into the wind, surrounded by images of a joyful dragon. The text says:
"Biking reminds me of flying
My wings are enveloped
By the freeing wind."
End description.

Original notes: "This is the kind of simple pleasure that makes us who we are. Thanks to a couple of dragons: to Kistaro Windrider, for the analogy comparing the experience of bike riding to flying, and permission to use this idea for a strip; and to Baxil, who helped edit my writing so that it wouldn't sound like haiku by Yoda. Thanks also to all my friends for their overwhelming approval and support... You've helped this comic come to be. You all rock! :) "

[Edit 2017-04-03: Link updated to hosting on Tapas.]
[Edit 2023-09-04: Description, local images, and links added.]

Comments

[kistaro]

++desktopWallpaper;

I would call this project off to an awesome start. *grin*

Of course, for ideas: something that's almost entirely unlike what happened to me yesterday, but based on it. What actually happened was the electronic door lock jammed one way: it wouldn't let people out, although it was fine at letting us in the building. Handle-twisting and shoving gave way to a body check strong enough to force the mechanism. (Bad security; I shouldn't have been able to do that so easily.) Insert, in the process, quite a bit of hissing, snarling, and a final aggressive roar as I pushed myself off the railing of the staircase behind me to increase the velocity as I hit the door shoulder-first, forcing it open.

Now let's change the situation slightly. Frustrated dragon, slipping further and further into hissing, snarling, growling, and other appropriately inhuman sounds (people are just used to my creating them by now), beating the shit out of a door that refuses to open. Two dorm-mates or apartment-mates or class-mates or otherwise locked-building-mates come by, scan an ID card through the completely ignored scan plate, and walk out the now-open door, a little weirded out by the creature in question (who doesn't really need to be a dragon, almost any sufficiently feral creature would do well in context) but otherwise calm, who is now very embarassed and feeling very small and stupid from completely overlooking the unlocking mechanism. What I figure would suit the situation well is the subsequent drawings revealing less and less human, with the third-to-last panel depicting only a furious beast clawing at the imprisoning door- the second to last panel (or set of small panels) depicting said door being properly unlocked, and the last one? Back to whatever rendering was used in the original panel, with appropriate levels of awkward embarassment.

It seems to be the appropriate level of exaggeration. Hey, I got strange looks from Ben and James (my ACM teammates) after snarling at the computer...

[frameacloud]

I may not go quite that far with the hissing and violent clawing, since one of my primary goals with Theri There is to convince people that therianthropes are sane and functional. ;) But I may use some similar slapstick, yes.

A battering ram? Why, lift the porticullis, lads!

Hmm. Remind me to go back in the usenet archives of alt.lifestyle.furry, because there was a stunningly perfect slapstick-spirituality anecdote posted around May 2000. By a lynx, if I remember correctly. Something about accidentally hissing at a street preacher. I need to find out who it was who posted that, and if they're still around, get their permission to make a comic out of it. I'm not even sure where I should go to look back that far in the archives... anyone know?