I am not sure I can accurately identify the religion on the bottom right, with the weeping man prostrated before the TV depicting the fall of the World Trade Center. I can peg the others as (clockwise) Wicca/Paganism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Ancient Egyptian.
Thanks, Dave! Yes, I put in quite a lot of time looking at pics online and studying bits of the religion, like what Ganesha’s arms and accessories mean and what is usually on that deity. I tried to accurately represent each depicted section of religion and didn’t wanna seem like I half-baked the job and didn’t respect those who do believe and follow them.
Well, if you want the religions depicted to mean something, it might be something like this: The references I used were the actual and current Pope at the top which represents strict order, opposite to the bottom which is a representation of paganism and/or witchcraft and/or druidic symbolism representing freedom and natural order/chaos, etc. Ganesha and Horus do not represent an opposite to anything but rather similarities in that they are on the outside anyway a combination of both human and animal in likeness. Bottom left is the Laughing or Happy Buddha, representing a very giving nature and acceptance of the bad and turning it to good and non-violence etc. That, in retrospect, should have been opposite the crying Hasidic Jew which was representing the pain and suffering caused by non-acceptance and the resultant violence.
I do not agree or disagree with anything the religions themselves say or I have them representing. I like to display opposing forces because they actually depend and rely on each other. I guess that’s what the overall meaning of being one is that David mentions. Not that all the religions are really connected but that by being apart, they strengthen their unity. Eh. I mean, if you WANTED meaning to it. It’s all just symbolism. I purposefully don’t express any personal views in the strip pertaining to religion or government. I’m still debating whether I should take Humpty’s blunt away! I do not approve of pot. But I will not put the effort to rid the world of it either. I got better things to do, like try and improve the strip and waylay controversial stuff like this LOL.
Man I knew you put a lot of thought into Shards, but that is some epic visual-element planning! I like!
I know what you mean about second-guessing stuff like Humpty’s blunt. I wrote with a little touch of “South Park” humor on some early Selkie strips that I started to regret when people talked to me about reading it with their kids or younger siblings.
That’s some of the best compliments I’ve received:) Thanks so much! Also, in the next strip, look for a special cameo from a certain periwinkle-skinned fish-lover;)
See TB’s explanation right below this. Also adding to it, we don’t express any personal religious views in this comic. It is only a portrayal of what David sees and feels. Again, we knew this might trigger strong emotions. I might have mentioned before but I’ll say this again that one of the big reasons we chose David is because he appears in several various religious texts from different cultures and religions. We didn’t necessarily mean to incorporate religious aspects into Shards but felt we might be neglecting part of the “story character” realm if we did not include the legendary as well as the mythical. This is actually an incredibly important plot aspect of Shards which will come up at a much later time.
The star is merely a symbolic representation of what David was feeling and seeing after receiving his shard’s power. It is not meant to indicate that David is a member of every religion/culture, nor is it intended to insult or place one religion over another. What Jade has done is depicted several different identifiable religious moments in hopes of allowing people to identify religions by sight or action.
Jade did quite a bit of research into the visual representation of some of the more “popular” religions of the world. By popular of course I mean religions that have a substantial amount of members.
Once again this is not meant to offend, attack, or indicate the validity of one religion over the other. This is meant as a tool to introduce one of our heroes into our story setting. We knew that this character could cause intense feelings to arise in some people when we portrayed him in our story, but due to the fact that he is one of the most famous characters in the world we felt he should be represented here.
We hope people understand our efforts with this character, and don’t read our visualizations of his participation in our story as an attack.
Yeah. I wanted to show a sort of Shards origin of the star of David during this change in his actual storyline due to the Israeli flag being in his room at Headquarters so I made the shard briefly change shape to that of the six-pointed star. The shard morphed into that shape because the person who found it is David and that is something he can relate to as an icon which will surround him later. No, I don’t insinuate that the shard gave David the idea of the six-pointed star. No, TB has told me explicitly that we do not deal in time travel. Heheh.
Aside from the Velvy prologue, I think I like this one best. You did a lot of detail on the star; I especially like the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Very cool.
Very nice, I also like the hieroglyphics. Bonus points for having them facing the same direction. To know which way to read them follow the direction they are facing. In this case left-to-right. A lot of times artists will mix the up. If memory serves, the left-to-right would be most common in tombs as the afterlife was the mirror image of this one. It has been a while since I did anything with them, even using Budge.
Good job on keeping things so religiously neutral, you guys. I like how you’re dealing with the topic and the charachter so far. ;) I also really like the non-standardness of the 6-point star you have. They seem to integrate better than your standard crossed-triangles star would.
Thanks, Beedoo!:) Yeah, I see what you mean with the star. I like the wheel design more than the two conjoined triangles. I am a round symmetry person as opposed to a pointy symmetry person and it shows in my art without me even noticing!
Loading ...
Yay another prologue!
I’m so glad you like them! There are two more left after finishing with David and Velvy. So much to do!
I am not sure I can accurately identify the religion on the bottom right, with the weeping man prostrated before the TV depicting the fall of the World Trade Center. I can peg the others as (clockwise) Wicca/Paganism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Ancient Egyptian.
I do also wish to say that the Star’s images show an amazing amount of fine detail!
Thanks, Dave! Yes, I put in quite a lot of time looking at pics online and studying bits of the religion, like what Ganesha’s arms and accessories mean and what is usually on that deity. I tried to accurately represent each depicted section of religion and didn’t wanna seem like I half-baked the job and didn’t respect those who do believe and follow them.
Well, if you want the religions depicted to mean something, it might be something like this: The references I used were the actual and current Pope at the top which represents strict order, opposite to the bottom which is a representation of paganism and/or witchcraft and/or druidic symbolism representing freedom and natural order/chaos, etc. Ganesha and Horus do not represent an opposite to anything but rather similarities in that they are on the outside anyway a combination of both human and animal in likeness. Bottom left is the Laughing or Happy Buddha, representing a very giving nature and acceptance of the bad and turning it to good and non-violence etc. That, in retrospect, should have been opposite the crying Hasidic Jew which was representing the pain and suffering caused by non-acceptance and the resultant violence.
I do not agree or disagree with anything the religions themselves say or I have them representing. I like to display opposing forces because they actually depend and rely on each other. I guess that’s what the overall meaning of being one is that David mentions. Not that all the religions are really connected but that by being apart, they strengthen their unity. Eh. I mean, if you WANTED meaning to it. It’s all just symbolism. I purposefully don’t express any personal views in the strip pertaining to religion or government. I’m still debating whether I should take Humpty’s blunt away! I do not approve of pot. But I will not put the effort to rid the world of it either. I got better things to do, like try and improve the strip and waylay controversial stuff like this LOL.
Man I knew you put a lot of thought into Shards, but that is some epic visual-element planning! I like!
I know what you mean about second-guessing stuff like Humpty’s blunt. I wrote with a little touch of “South Park” humor on some early Selkie strips that I started to regret when people talked to me about reading it with their kids or younger siblings.
That’s some of the best compliments I’ve received:) Thanks so much! Also, in the next strip, look for a special cameo from a certain periwinkle-skinned fish-lover;)
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :D
Woah, errie origin of David. I mean ALL religions on 1 star ?
That is a bit hrd to swallow for me. :(
See TB’s explanation right below this. Also adding to it, we don’t express any personal religious views in this comic. It is only a portrayal of what David sees and feels. Again, we knew this might trigger strong emotions. I might have mentioned before but I’ll say this again that one of the big reasons we chose David is because he appears in several various religious texts from different cultures and religions. We didn’t necessarily mean to incorporate religious aspects into Shards but felt we might be neglecting part of the “story character” realm if we did not include the legendary as well as the mythical. This is actually an incredibly important plot aspect of Shards which will come up at a much later time.
The star is merely a symbolic representation of what David was feeling and seeing after receiving his shard’s power. It is not meant to indicate that David is a member of every religion/culture, nor is it intended to insult or place one religion over another. What Jade has done is depicted several different identifiable religious moments in hopes of allowing people to identify religions by sight or action.
Jade did quite a bit of research into the visual representation of some of the more “popular” religions of the world. By popular of course I mean religions that have a substantial amount of members.
Once again this is not meant to offend, attack, or indicate the validity of one religion over the other. This is meant as a tool to introduce one of our heroes into our story setting. We knew that this character could cause intense feelings to arise in some people when we portrayed him in our story, but due to the fact that he is one of the most famous characters in the world we felt he should be represented here.
We hope people understand our efforts with this character, and don’t read our visualizations of his participation in our story as an attack.
Yeah. I wanted to show a sort of Shards origin of the star of David during this change in his actual storyline due to the Israeli flag being in his room at Headquarters so I made the shard briefly change shape to that of the six-pointed star. The shard morphed into that shape because the person who found it is David and that is something he can relate to as an icon which will surround him later. No, I don’t insinuate that the shard gave David the idea of the six-pointed star. No, TB has told me explicitly that we do not deal in time travel. Heheh.
Aside from the Velvy prologue, I think I like this one best. You did a lot of detail on the star; I especially like the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Very cool.
Very nice, I also like the hieroglyphics. Bonus points for having them facing the same direction. To know which way to read them follow the direction they are facing. In this case left-to-right. A lot of times artists will mix the up. If memory serves, the left-to-right would be most common in tombs as the afterlife was the mirror image of this one. It has been a while since I did anything with them, even using Budge.
Thanks! I do try. Now, I don’t catch everything, and sometimes I get lucky, but I do try:)
Good job on keeping things so religiously neutral, you guys. I like how you’re dealing with the topic and the charachter so far. ;) I also really like the non-standardness of the 6-point star you have. They seem to integrate better than your standard crossed-triangles star would.
Thanks, Beedoo!:) Yeah, I see what you mean with the star. I like the wheel design more than the two conjoined triangles. I am a round symmetry person as opposed to a pointy symmetry person and it shows in my art without me even noticing!
I like pointy things >:)!