Swallow Pines
Comic Roadmap
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is "One-shot" sometimes called "Untitled/Untitled Project", and Act 3 titled as "Untitled Comic"
It's a silly joke. I couldn't come up with the name for my first book early in development so I titled it as Untitled Project until I had something ready. I wanted to preserve that joke with the comic, so instead of giving it a name I titled it Untitled Comic.
What is the current direction of Swallow Pines, after "One-shot"?
In the short story, I explored a little bit of Freudian Castration and the idea of the Vagina Dentata. When drawing the front cover for the Untitled Comic I was also inspired by Freud's "Civilization and it's Discontents" when he connected fire to Phallic concepts. If I write another story, I'll likely explore another idea tangent to Freud or Jacques Lacan.
There are two threads I want to pull on eventually. I do want to explore the day of the Halloween Party where Stacy castrates Brock. That, and I want to write a scene in the college eventually- picking up where the pilot story left off.
What inspired you to write the characters of Swallow Pines?
For the majority of the characters, I wanted to write designs that would be based on tropes so that it would be easy to draw characters that look different from one another. As a unconscious habit, I tend to draw very similar looking characters (Or in the worst case, when I try to draw the same character they end up having entirely different faces.)
To this degree, it was fun working on the designs. Spencer is French, and while this mostly shows up in dialog- I tried to make his eyes coffee or baguette colored. Elaine is a lion, and she is inspired by the 'Bourgeois', so she evokes Lion / British themes. Stacy is a nerd, so she evokes braces imagery as well as large glasses. I tried to depict Brock as misogynistic/male centered, and so, to evoke that his chin appears to be 'ball' like.
Will there be a printed edition of Swallow Pines: One-shot?
I'm waiting until I've finished all the exclusive content. The scope was either, publish my first book in 2025, or publish the 'complete' book in 2026. So I went with a mixed approach, since it'd be easier to upload to standard version to multiple markets.
There are two elements that are missing. The completed Untitled Comic, and a recipe for the meal Spencer makes in Act 2. Optionally, I might also work on a few stickers. Once that is done, I'll work on a printed edition.