I thought I’d write a post about my new manga series, Legend of the Ztarr. If there’s anything that I like to talk about more than Trek, Star Wars, and science, it’s my LotZ manga. It also happens to be the thing I get to talk about the least. The end of 2007 was the year that I finally started writting the script for the series, and in 2008 I did character designs, storyboards, and finally the first chapter, which can be read online at www.legendoftheztarr.com.
Legend of the Ztarr is the story of a young girl named Adora Ztarr who lives on a peaceful little planet called Teri with her adopted aunt, uncle, and cousin. Her father, the Great Kalen Ztarr, was killed in the battle to overthrow The Emperor of the Known Universe. The series begins when two off-worlders, still loyal to the House of Ztarr, come to take Adora away from her homeworld, so that she can replace her father in the prophecy which fortells that he will destroy the Emperor.
The sword of Ztarr but once shall slay and end The Holy Emperor’s rein.” – The Third Prophecy of Jillian
I really enjoy creating Legend of the Ztarr; I think because, like most of my creations, it’s a story that I want to read. I’m not concentrated on creating something for a specific target audience and deciding what kind of characters and plotlines that audience will like. These are characters that I love and their adventures tell a story that I want to hear. And it’s my favourite kind of story: swords & sandals in outerspace!
My DeviantART account has a few sketches from the series I’ve uploaded. I recently updated the theme of its website (though the drawing of the blonde man on the far right needs to be replaced as soon as I finish colouring Myren). I’m working on storyboards for the second chapter, so it won’t be complete for a while yet. Also, I’m organizing a proposal for the series to pitch to manga publishers; I don’t think I want to go down the indy path like I did for Secrets of Sorcerers (not that SoS hasn’t done really well, it’s simply too much for lil artist brain me to keep track of inventory and invoices).
So tell everyone about Legend of the Ztarr and check out my youtube channel as well for a little video of me talking about LotZ (and the audio version my friend requested of me).
