My Sylvan Weed

My Sylvan Weed ~ Comic (2009) The nature of a weed is to supplant the tree, but with so ugly a purpose, why does it flower so beautifully? Jasper is a nature spirit who can relate to humans, yes, but it's Garret's humanity that sets them apart. Two conflicting paths have crossed, and with dangers derived from the very existence in each other's worlds, will good-intentioned hearts support or destroy a balance that neither may fully understand?

Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities?

Yes, I have but it’s usually pretty limited because it’s so hard to write. This is largely because I’m fortunate enough to be healthy myself, and my friends are as well. As a result, I have little experience in dealing with disabilities and therefore don’t trust myself to write it effectively.

I have one character who lost his leg in an accident when he was very young. By the time the story opens he’s already largely healed from the trauma and learned how to live with his condition, so the story doesn’t actually focus much on that aspect of his life. I chose to give him this condition for metaphorical reasons rather than drama.

As for mental disability, one character of mine is a blatant sociopath. However, he’s only affected by this in the beginning of the story, since the turning point is that due to supernatural reasons he’s given a conscience, and thus the rest of the story is about him dealing with the horrible things he’s done to others in the past, their reactions to that, and his mission for self-redemption.

Other than that, I haven’t really dabbled too much in disabilities. I’ve toyed with addiction before, mostly side characters who are alcoholics or have the desire to quit smoking or are dependent on some medication. Recently after reading Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I’ve become interested in asperger syndrome, but I don’t know if a character will come out of it yet.

Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.

Pets almost always don’t play a prominent roll in my stories. In my experience, they tend to get in the way. If a character of mine has a pet, I forget that it’s there half-way through the story and then have to figure out what the heck is going on with it later. A lot of my stories involve travel of some kind, so a pet generally gets in the way of a character’s ability to follow routs I want to take.

The exception to this is when the pet plays a story role. For example, Garret from My Sylvan Weed has a pissy black cat that he doesn’t get along with. Later on in the story, the reason for this interaction is discovered and eventually rectified. The relationship between Garret and the cat is a basic reflection of other relationships going on in the story. These are the kind of things I like.

MSW: Chapter 1, 010

MSW: Chapter 1, 009

MSW: Chapter 1, 008

MSW: Chapter 1, 007

MSW: Chapter 1, 006

MSW: Chapter 1, 005

MSW: Chapter 1, 004

MSW: Chapter 1, 003

MSW: Chapter 1, 002

MSW: Chapter 1, 001

My Sylvan Weed Characters

So! My Sylvan Weed Characters. Here's Garret and Jasper:

Garret (2008)

Jasper (2008)

Hmm. I'm startin' to feel like I need to get some recent drawings of these guys. Hehe, I'll get to it.

Misc MSW Stuffs

Here's some miscellaneous pictures done for My Sylvan Weed. Mostly just some character exploration things done last year when I was plotting out the idea. Some of this is total crap now that I look back on it, but I guess that just comes with the territory of learning. I'll post it up anyway just for archival and entertainment value. It's not like anyone actually views this stuff anyway. ~_^