A Blast From The Past

Today at the Twisted Studio homepage, we uploaded the beginnings of our image gallery. Many thanks once again to Dave Rocha for making this possible. To kick off the gallery, I wanted to show some pictures from the original series which correspond with where the story is at right now. As a team we've been putting alot of work into ironing out the story and flushing out the characters, the end result I believe is evident in the new pages being posted, but also the amazing support material being released in conjunction. Ofcourse, in order to truly appreciate where we are today, we must completely understand where we were before. Below I've taken a few moments to give my thoughts on the older images released today, and how they relate to the story now.

The Decimation of The Amicable Plains
In The Underground: TOS, The Amicable Plains were completely annihilated by the Hive. Doesn't sound too different does it? In the original storyline, there was literally an armada of bees and wasps laying seige to the Ladybug home. Baron Tarq himself was present. Given the pitifully defenseless nature of the Ladybugs, this did not make sense. So in the present story we've taken the opportunity to introduce the Shock Troops, and bring the 'battle' to a more appropriately personal level.

Cyrus Meets Gretta
In issue #0 (Unearthed), Cyrus is visited in a dream by the mystical Silkmoth, Gretta. It's an eerie and ethereal sequence in which Cyrus is released from his captive bonds. In the original series, Cyrus is visited in 'person' by Gretta and she instructs him most directly to travel to Coryn. The biggest problem I found when reviewing this section of the story/artwork was the relative size of Gretta when compared to Cyrus. Gretta should be a giant compared to a ladybug! In order to emphasize this, and her mystical nature we use a dream sequence which was originally used in issue #3 of the original series, but this time we also made Gretta speak in a more whimsical, and mysterious way.

Cyrus Versus The Hive Scout
As if having his home destroyed, and being left for dead wasn't enough for a ladybug! After dusting himself off and heading out for Coryn, Cyrus is attacked by a patrolling Hive Scout. The scout battered Cyrus around a bit before being taken out by Styx and the Zealots Elite. Kind of an bland entrance for our heroes. This time around we planned a monster size enemy for the Elite to lock mandibles with! Enter the Mole Cricket! In issue #0 (Harvest), Cyrus found himself in a Mole Cricket egg chamber before being rescued by our valiant ants.

Cyrus Meets The Elite
In the original series, Cyrus didn't pass out infront of our heroes like he does in the present story. In fact he kind of bickers with them, even sticks his finger in Lor's face! Looking at the big picture, and what our plans are for Cyrus we really couldn't have him being so self-confidant and full of bravado so early in the story. So we've made him a little more wimpy, and less secure in himself. I think we're going to have plenty of opportunity for some comic relief, and a much more satisfying journey for our unlikely hero.

Well that's it for today's history lesson! I hope you`ve enjoyed it. Be sure to keep checking back for more insights into the creative world of The Underground! And be sure to check out the Twisted Studio homepage for the latest content and updates!
www.twistedstudio.ca

The Power of a "Like"

So we just finished our first official calendar month over at www.twistedstudio.ca, and the results have been staggering. When we first looked into Wordpress, and I agreed to start releasing The Underground as a webcomic, I just thought that this would be a one site answer for all of my buggy rantings, inspirations, and images. Well, with the highly appreciated help of my good friends Chris Walker, and Dave Rocha it has turned into so much more! We are actually developing a consistent internet following, and our reach is expanding. We can track our views, our referrals, and more!
It's becoming a project in itself to maintain the site, but one which I feel we are handling admirably.
For over a year now, we've been trying to find some sort of system or routine to bring new exciting content to fans, and would-be readers. Many of these plans have fallen apart, due to insufficient planning, inconsistent maintenance, and less man power. Wordpress has given us a great tool to reach our potential audience, Chris and I sat down and discussed our visions and plans, and decided it necessary to bring in another body to help. Enter Dave. The three of us have fell rather comfortably into a great work ethic, and schedule, and have been able to pool our ideas and efforts in a much more efficient way.
And that's where we are now. Over a 1000 unique views in one month's time, and we're far from slowing down. From here our intention continues to be reacher a larger audience, and getting The Underground into the right person's hands to bring us to our next level of success. So what can you do? Well if you are an Underground enthusiast, it's easier than you may think. We are constantly updating our Facebook posts, and Twitter...tweets...to reflect the happenings of our new mega-site. Everytime someone shares our post, likes our comments, or retweets our...tweets, our site views jump by 20 to 30! Awesome and easy. Everytime someone does this it cycles the information into the new news, and brings it to the attention of a completely different audience than we would have reached on our own. So what do you say? You wanna like us? Comment on us? Or retweet us? Believe me, we can't wait to hear from you.