I made decisions in the last year or so to move ahead on a completely different project as I approach the end of my normal career. Although I had some movement towards restoring some of the comics to a fuller state of voice and music, and the tools are substantially better (Rave was going to be my choice). Downshift to PG-13? In another brainstorming set of months, I considered rebuilding DarkBrain content to be PG-13 and remove all R and X stuff completely, to allow it to surface as a general discussion point instead of a niche effort. The amount of work was pretty substantial and I wondered if you can ever really re-invent something so charged in one direction? 3d animation or AI art? Another brainstorming set of months, I worked on potentially moving into 3d animation as well, rebuilding the content as more of an animated movie approach. This also would pivot me away from custom art, which was very expensive to do. I also pondered using AI to do art. So, I did explore a lot of options. All of them had a very different “soul” than the original DarkBrain, which wasn’t clicking. A moment caught in time All in all, I decided my creativity is better served on a new effort. Something targeted properly for this phase of my life and allowing me to dig into my strengths. So, this is the wrap on DarkBrain. I’ll keep the site up as long as I can, and I’m proud the work – even though it is very much a moment caught in time. -Andrew Zar, signing off
ContinueEnvoy 82: Plotlining from the end backwards
This blog digs into the history of how Envoy 82 was created. This is a MASSIVE SPOILER blog post, and if you have not read the series, please do so first. It is free and quite fun, grab it here: https://darkbraincomics.com/envoy82.htm I began Envoy 82 well into DarkBrain’s run, so I had a few years of producing comics under my belt. I had hired in great talent while making those comics and I wanted to implement what I had learned so far. Nathan Reese had been editing many of my series and his insights were quite powerful. One of the biggies was to start with the ending, then work backward and ensure that everything in the story drove to the ending.
ContinueMuch of DarkBrainComics restored!
I was able to take a big bite out of restoring content to DarkBrainComics.com. Twelve series were put up with a total of 2,200+ pages of free content and over 5 hours of free video! It really feels like the old DarkBrain is getting the celebration I wanted it to have and to make content available to anyone. Titles restored: Mirror/Mirror, Church of One/Two, Columbia’s Underbelly, Locked Out, Envoy 82, Grace Comes Home, God Play, Too Important, Zeopatra, Pissy Pussy, Sexy Sundays with Pissy Pussy, Haunting Ivy, and The Butcher. I also put up The Vat, but that one is in bad shape technically, still, it is such an emotional title for me that I wanted it up there too.
ContinueMaking DarkBrainComics free
As a first step in my new direction for DarkBrain, I want to celebrate the work that we completed in the project so far. As such, I am going to open up a significant portion of our comics to be completely free. I will be updating darkbraincomics.com as this rolls out, and not duplicating posts here on darkbrain.com. This site I intend to be more of a blog and to focus on my next project.
ContinueResurfacing? Rejecting integration
Looks like time to poke my head out and see what I want DarkBrain to be or become… One thing that I have decided – it is about “integration.” This is a term I heard in a career workshop when I discussed my comic projects (which I was clearly passionate about) vs my normal career (which I did not speak of in anywhere near the same passion). The suggestion was to try to integrate my passion into my career.
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