It’s been a long road. Paved with obstacles, writers’ block, financial depression, soul sucking part time jobs, babies, continental separation, complete renovations of our internal thought process. Honorable mention goes to mental exhaustion, artist/writer delays, and last but not least…second guessing ourselves.

As well as evil wizards, murderous pirates, mythological Viking Gods, super-human Nazis, planet devouring intergalactic squid clouds—wait… We’re confusing reality with summer blockbusters again…but not allowing them to affect us too much.

The point is, it’s been an infuriatingly awesome journey in getting our QWIXOTIC Webcomic, from an idle thought to a fully formed, comic story. However, that journey was merely a precursor of what’s to come. In a way, our battle to overcome the monolith that is breaking out into the world of comics with the QWIXOTIC Webcomic Series, mirrors the struggles of our lead Qwynn and her companions throughout the story arch. We hope to promote a sense of urgency towards awareness of the times we live in… The entire planet runs on a non renewable resource. Governments need to look at the bigger picture, beyond the grey region of profit, beyond the greed that fuels their lust for more.

QWIXOTIC depicts the possible effects of the petroleum wars that plague our current societies in an alternate, very possible future. The need for incursive technology, and of course corruption, will all be present in this story of resistance, a rising up against the machine, with fists in the air. QWIXOTIC is written for the people, take from it what you will… but be sure to give us all your feedback.

 Thus far the prequel to our story has been documented for you on this Blog. The last five years have been a warm up, up until now, everything has been what was seen in the first film of the LOTR Trilogy. The crucial to critical and commercial success, sequel of the franchise begins now on the official QWIXOTIC Website!

2012 will be the year of QWIXOTIC. The QWIXOTIC Webcomic Website is here!! From now on, all Blog posts and updates will be featured in the “Blog” section of this website. Be sure to subscribe to this site and become infected with QWIXOTIC as each Webcomic page releases, as well as any and all updates.

Tune in next week as the first ever Issue of the QWIXOTIC Webcomic debuts on our official website!

QWIXOTIC’s issues will be a little different than everyone’s used to with the Webcomic format. We will have multiple issues of 5-6 pages each. Every week will feature a new page of an Issue. Each issue will feature a self-contained story arc, which will tie into the other issues over the long run. Every issue will be archived for easy viewing from the above navigation bar.

We would like to officially welcome each and every one of you… into the world of QWIXOTIC! Let this new year, be QWIXOTIC!

In 5 days… All will be revealed…QWIXOTIC for the masses!

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SO what does QWIXOTIC really mean?

Last time I gave you the dictionary definition, now lets’s talk about what it means to this co-creator… a retrospective on our most peculiar of journeys.

I have to keep saying the date outloud to remind myself that it has thus far been half a decade since “Writer meets Director”. That training class brought together two creative minds that thought alike, but fed off one another at the same time…our age difference was seamlessly bridged. I had tried this formula in the past but never succeeded…I found persons interested in exploring a writing project easily, but never ones with enough conviction to follow through…including myself at times.

How do you begin?

I never read the manual on that one, but thinking back on it now its clear what the trigger was…The first initiative will always be the desire to stop talking and just “do”…At the risk of sounding like a running shoe advertisement, its the simplest place from where to start if any of you are thinking about perusing something similar.

Where do you go from there?

Throughout our time of loathing as cell phone client care representatives -and yes, I must profess, that it was most certainly a time of dread!- , amidst the fury of being pressured to sell a product we didn’t believe in, came the idea of fast food culture decimating an already obese population in North America, in the not too distant future…some kind of bizarre world deeply rooted in the past, beyond the last war for petroleum nations and languages died out, governments crumbled…and yes, the ever present shortage of gasoline.

How do you create a world from an idea and populate it?

Taking a page from our call centre’s management handbook back in the day: How does one motivate a team or group? The answer is you cannot motivate a team, you have to motivate the individuals on that team…So we set aside our newly born world and were main character bound going forward. lol. Our 15 minute brainstorming power sessions have become famous in our own minds, these were the seeds of what was to come…or maybe they were just small air bubbles in a glass piece caused by defective firing! Who is to say?

What kind of a name is Qwynn?

We know for certain that the world of Comics is riddled with gorgeous female and male bodies, perfect figures who encapsulate the very essence of endowments, ability, super strength, mutations etc. Characters who can really wear a good leotard and get away with it. We took it to the opposite extreme. Qwynn is the unassuming lead…the spectre at times, the pauper at other times, the anti-host, the victim, the outcome. She is the cause of both Co-Creators figuratively bashing their heads against walls crying: ” how do you write as a woman!!!”

Will it be expensive?

It most certainly will…investors in the form of PUBLISHERS are most welcome!! Unless money is not object, moonlighting will be the only way to finance you project. Both myself and Shah live the dual life of day/night job…the night job actually spilling into weekends since its the only available time to create…our system just happens to be even more complicated since we are doing it on opposite sides of the planet…thank you BBM, emails and cheap long distance arrangements. I just realized I shamelessly plugged Blackberry on that one, it happens to be my primary tool, I spend what seems like half my time on busses commuting to work…so if you are mobile, TAKE advantage of it!

Is there strength in numbers?

Two writers and no Artist didn’t seem to work. Through a great connection We found Vince Sunico and the Spent Pencils crew. Our newly found Artist Community has brought life to our words and ideas. Together with the internet and the many other forms of social media, our ensemble cast will be at your fingertips as of January 2012, bringing you what we hope is the long awaited debut of our artistic creativity.

QWIXOTIC for the masses!

Something wicked this way comes.

When Gui and I started talking about doing a comic book, we were very unaware of the Industry. Sure we read the graphic novels, kept up with what’s going on with the whole DC Vs. Marvel thing, not to mention the awesome creator-owned titles that are all the rage now. However, we didn’t know how difficult it was to ‘break into the industry’. We had a lot of preconceived misunderstanding of how things work. In our, almost child-like thought process, we figured that if we came up with a good enough story, wrote a good enough script, submitted it to enough of the ‘Big’ publishers… then boom! We’re comic writers!! Unfortunately… that’s really NOT good enough.

Obviously it takes a helluva lot more than that, as we realized. It’s been almost 5 years since, and we’ve transformed from being eager with the bright eyes, to  having more of a wise and realistic squint. The ideas have evolved, our mindset has changed and even the format itself has been reinvented. Self publishing a print comic book is expensive folks. Especially for guys who aren’t doing this for a living… yea we’ve got day jobs. We’re like Day Jobbers by day, and Comic Writers by night! Almost like Superheroes! But realistically, majority of everyone trying to or actually having a comic story out there does the same.

We’re all here to follow a passion, tell a story, follow our dreams and all that good stuff. No one decides to write comics for the big bucks (If you have big bucks you’re willing to invest… please contact me ) but more for the fulfilment of their own artistic creativity and urges. Yes, we get urges. I’ve said too much…

Eventually we found an amazing artist, in the form of Vince Sunico from Spent Pencils. Vince is awesome, simply put. His enlistment was able to chug our project along slowly, but steadily. We’ve gone almost 5 years now from discussing QWIXOTIC during smoke breaks at a job we hated (those breaks lasted hours sometimes) to seeing pencils of pages being completed, approving panel changes for further issues and designing character sketches. In the next few weeks, it’ll be marketing, website launch and finally… after YEARS of siezuring out ideas and concepts… we get to see QWIXOTIC revealed to the masses.

This Blog was created with the thought that we will share every progress of the QWIXOTIC Webcomic in stages for the public. We posted every significant and insignificant thing we did, or planned to do on this Blog, in the hopes that how far we’ve come since inception to launch… might be helpful to others toying with the idea of making a comic book themselves. I don’t know how successful we’ve been, however it was a great ride.

Well that sounded climactic. However we’ve actually just begun. Over the next month, we will be finalizing the website. Completing more issues by some amazing guest artists from the Spent Pencils crew. Not to mention… finally, the official launch and release of Issue # 1 of the QWIXOTIC Webcomic! *squeal*

I’m not going to thank everyone that’s been here through out, or name names of people who have supported us during all the craziness. It just seems a li’l generic for us. But you know how you are. If not, then you’re shit outta luck. I joke, you know I love you all. *mad hugs*

I shall be out of the country for 10 days or so, on unrelated business that has nothing to do with me moonlighting as a Superhero… at all. Come back to the blog next week to get the other perspective of our journey from my often missed, and the actual writer by nature in our two man Co-Creator duo, Guillermo Girolmini himself.

In the mean time, leave your comments, thoughts, ideas and anything else your heart desires below. Do it now!

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Leading up to this, we’ve seen the first and second sketches of Guru by artist extraordinaire Vince Sunico of Spent Pencils. Now, we’ve combined both the styles and imagery from those sketches and established a basic and standard look for Guru that we’ll see him as most of the time. ( Foreshadowing )

Yes, it’s not as badass as the 2nd sketch, (there’s a reason for that) but a character can’t always look like he’s kicking ass. OK, Wolverine doesn’t count. This sketch captures Guru in all his glory. He’s physically imposing while still being simple and subtle. As the Sikh Yoda of the QWIXOTIC Universe, this look suits him.

Let me know what you all think of this progression of Guru from the 1st sketch all the way to now, in the comments below. Love it? Hate it? Hungry? Anything!

More to come from The QWIXOTIC Webcomic, a lot more in the next few weeks as we approach the launch date. So stay tuned!!

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he's huge!!

As I said last week, the only thing missing from the 1st Concept Sketch of Guru, was his physically intimidating presence. Vince took that feedback and has Guru make up for it in spades! I mean Guru looks badass! Which is exactly what we wanted. His bulk, and the modification of his clothing to suit the more South Asian styles. Obviously this is something he’ll don when he requires to… enter the fray, so to speak.

The above sketch shows us the other, rarer side of Guru that won’t be featured… too much… (in the beginning of the series) but it is a side that we will get to see at point. I mean sure, he’s the wise and aged, wisdom spouting former warrior, but at point point… everyone comes out of retirement.;)

Stay tuned for the final Concept Sketch of Guru from the QWIXOTIC Webcomic Series. Next week I bring you the revised and more subtle version of Guru that we will see initially, based off of this design. In the meantime let me know in the comments below just how bad-ass this Guru looks. ‘Cuz, he does!

Till then… marvel at the bulging pectorals of Guruji!

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Now, we’ve spoken about Guru a few times over the last couple of weeks. He was even a late addition into the Qwixotic Posters during FanEXPO’11. It was kind of a spoiler, however, the whole purpose of this Blog has been to document and record the progress of our Qwixotic Webcomic.

So, with that in mind, in the next few weeks we’ll get to see the art evolution of the character of Guru, with notes from me and Gui to Vince and how he came about. But before that, check out the first ever concept sketch of Guru from QWIXOTIC Webcomic, by Vince Sunico of Spent Pencils!!

I know what you’re all thinking. ‘This isn’t the bad ass Sikh Yoda we were promised!! Rip off!!’ But rememeber this was the FIRST concept sketch. And looking back, he actually looks does look a lot like Yoda in this interpretation than the final product. However, Gui and I wanted Guru to be a strong character. Not just in his impact to the story, but his principles, ideals, etc. This first sketch works for ALL of that. However, we also wanted Guru to be a physically strong character. That’s the only downside to this sketch.

We wanted Guru to look deceptively big. He’s always going to be dressed in traditional South Asian clothes, so there’s not much of his body that we’ll see. However we’ve got plans with Guru where he makes a compromise, that’ll see him in… the other kinds of situations that comics are famous for. *wink* No, not slapstick comedy. *facepalm*

Let us know what you think of this initial sketch, in the comments section below. See if you can guess the next step that Vince came up with to make Guru have a strong physical presence in the Qwixotic Universe.

‘Till next week… QWIXOTICANS Ho!!

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The beginnings of Telepathic powers? Can Vince predict the future? Let’s ponder all this while looking at the latest sketch of Nab from the QWIXOTIC Webcomic by Vince Sunico of Spent Pencils.

sketch book a liscious!

This sketch is perfect, as it’s very superficial changes like I mentioned in that last post. The clothing’s been changed to reflect the desolate times that QWIXOTIC is set in. It’s simpler, more in keeping with Nab’s personality and character.

This will most likely be the final concept sketch of Nab, until he gets his own issue, where we’ll see some fully colorized and action shots of him from the issue itself. Till then you’ll have to appease yourself with these concept sketches.

Stay tuned next week for the first concept sketches of Guru! Yea, that’s right, QWIXOTIC’s own Sikh Yoda. Well kinda…

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For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been massively brainstorming with a very talented Web Designer to create the QWIXOTIC Website. Yesterday we finally got to see a basic live preview of the site online. Both Gui and I were stunned speechless (there might’ve been tears) in our individual corners of the world. It’s a basic layout so far, however it was HUGE for us, to see the culmination of  almost 5 years of work taking shape in front of us.

OK. I’m done with the feelings fest. Honestly though, our Designer is awesome. And as lucky (I believe our wicked personalities play a part in it too) as we are to get an awesome Artist on board like Vince Sunico of Spent Pencils, we’ve been just as lucky to get this person as the official Website Designer from Spiroline Studios for QWIXOTIC.

Check out her portfolio here:

www.spirolinestudios.com

Web on friend, web on!

Stay tuned next week for the continuation of sketches by Vince Sunico from the QWIXOTIC Webcomic!!

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The road to giving life to our creations in visual form from our QWIXOTIC Webcomic has been a relatively easygoing one. One of the main reasons for this is our artist, Vince Sunico from Spent Pencils.

It’s been creepily uncanny how Vince is able to take Gui’s and mine thoughts and perfectly reflect them through his pencils. There have even been times where Gui and I have discussed something completely on our own, during our usual random rants of… well, everything! And we completely forget to mention to Vince any of those nuances months later. However, when he comes back with a sketch of something… it’s BANG ON! I mean somehow he even added the thing that he couldn’t possibly have known we were thinking about. Unless he’s stalking us.

The phrase ‘great minds, think alike’ really applies with our partnership with Vince. However, all that being said, there are still times when tweaks have to be made to the artwork. If sharing thoughts always worked out perfectly, then we’d all be psychically linked and the relationship between Writer and Artist in any comic project would be AWESOME. Sure, there’d be no such thing as privacy in the world anymore, but I think that’s a small sacrifice considering how much time it’d save during brainstorming sessions!

Couple of weeks ago I showed you all a first sketch of Nab that Vince did for us. It was great, but didn’t suit the character profile that we have for Nab. So in keeping with that, here is Vince’s revised sketch of the innocent boy of QWIXOTIC, Nab!

we're almost there...

This suits Nab’s image a lot better. He’s an idealistic boy, who’s growing up in a world of pure anarchy and experiences the brutality first hand. There might be a few more superficial tweaks to his look, mostly clothing, by the time you guys get to see him in his debut Issue. Oh yea, Nab’s got an issue all to his own!

Also, you might be wondering… ‘issues, in a webcomic?!’ That’s right!! We got ‘em. How?! Well you’ll have to wait until QWIXOTIC officially launches in 2012!

Feel free to compare this revised sketch of Nab against the original sketch and let me know your thoughts. Which you like better and so on. Go on. I wanna hear from you. Just starting typin…

Till next week…

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However there are some, who have just left the world behind and found a little corner to make their own peaceful home. There are some, like the Guru.

Guru is a man with principles. He was an idealistic man who lived by the warrior code of Sikhism. Like many in the world of QWIXOTIC, he suffered a great loss. He severed all ties to the world, wanted nothing to do with the affairs of society and placed himself in exile. However, one link remains. Guru trained Humayra in the martial arts of his culture. He taught her how to fight, and reluctantly, passed on his own ideals to her existing high morals.

Now she seeks his advise during a time of crisis. And Guru has to choose. A time is coming when he will have to decide if his principles allow him to sit idly by and do nothing as a group of young and honorable girls go fight for a cause that affects them all? Or will he disgrace the memory of a loved one by breaking a promise to never again shed blood?

The time is now. And we will see the reawakening of a long dormant man, who has more to pass on to the young characters of QWIXOTIC, than anyone else.

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