A Bit of Context
As implied, I've tried many times in the past to make a comic, and I never followed through even if I really believed in my terrible idea. Over the years I'd actually come to dislike comics, but it was because of my own issues. Busy, cluttered pages with too much text and too little formatting make it hard with my particular brand of dyslexia. On top of that, it's just hard to do. I'm not really a writer or editor, I'm new to panel layout and I dislike inking because of RSI issues - you get the idea.
I have characters I like, though, and I want to show them interacting with each other and tell a bit of their stories. It seemed logical to give it (making a comic) another shot, even if just for my own enjoyment. Now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, I understand the importance of just doing something and getting it done so you can prove to yourself you can do it. There's a lot of psychological power to that, and at least for me, it builds confidence for future projects.
I figured I'd take any old idea or set of characters and just write/draw about them whether I think its a 'good' idea or not, and it probably isn't. The point is to have fun and take away the pressure of it having to be perfect - it can just be. I'm not a comic artist and have no such experience in creating and finishing them, but I am an artist and I think thats good enough.
Setting
I like sports anime and manga, and of course I like baseball - a lot! I got obsessed with Ace of The Diamond (ダイヤの) during the pandemic while spending literal hours everyday teaching myself how to throw a goddamn baseball just so I could join local leagues. This comic will be similar to that but I'm hoping to not go too heavy handed on the baseball aspect and have plenty of story/interaction outside the sport, like Heated Rivalry. It will also be very gay, lol. Somewhere in those two extremes of sports manga -> sports themed story about gay people is where I'm hoping to be.
I'm also playing around with taking total creative liberty when it comes to how I depict MLB and the minor leagues. This story takes place in a fictional USA, so while the sport itself will remain unchanged, how It's organized will be different! As well as how it is percieved, socially. All genders will be allowed, there will be more oportunities for injured/disabled players - that kind of thing! The story won't focus on those topics, but that's the kind of space it will exist in. That said, I am partial to men/masc characters so, that is a whole lot of what you'll see haha.
The Pitch
This isn't like, an actual pitch, I hate trying to write those, but here is the gist:
The story centers around Fagan, a hyena with a bold attitude and cocky demeanor who's having trouble progressing in the league due to his abrasive behavior and lack of respect for authority. He's unaware of how his actions are affecting others - his best friend Ramón, his team, and childhood friend, Durango, who he totally ditched when his own ego got too big. Fagan is desperate to make it to majors because he thinks it's all he has, and the only thing he's good at, but baseball is a team sport. Which means the actual 'working as a team' thing is pretty important.
I have plans for a project page - the button is already there, but I'm still deciding how I want to lay it out! Once I do, I'll create a devlog over there for the comic so y'all can follow it's progress (and read it, of course). For now, here's a little screenshot of the pages I've started working on and a glimpse into my current 'process' I guess? Again, I don't know what I'm doing, and that's the beauty of it. Once these 5 are done I'll batch post 'em.
The Characters
I've posted about these guys on bluesky, but if you only follow me on neocities, here they are. These are just some of the main ones I've finalized designs for, more are on the way! Durango's OG design was done by stancy and Gianni's design was bought from a user on twitter who I unfortunately haven't found again yet after deleting and moving to bluesky, just know I didn't design him!
