Jess Cate

Samantha Ellis wrote an excellent book called How to Be a Heroine: Or, What I’ve Learned from Reading Too Much, and in it she talks about how her experience growing up reading books with female lead characters shaped, and reshaped her idea of self, and the ideal of femininity that she aspired to as a child. I picked up Ellis’ book from the library, drawn in by the title. I grew up reading the same books as she, such as Charlottes Web, and Anne of Green Gables. I have spent the last week really considering all the female characters I am seeing on television shows, and in comics I am reading, now and how they would have inspired, or failed to inspire me as a young person. I have concluded that it is more likely the latter in most circumstances.

The one thing that has been at the forefront of my mind when developing the characters in Heart of Millyera, was that I wanted my heroines to inspire, to be complex, and to be multifaceted. This weeks page introduces Celeste, a sweet, and sensitive botanist. Celeste is a very different personality to Ida, who is more driven, ambitious, and adventurous than her friend. I hope that, as the story of Millyera unfolds, that both these women will stand out as inspiring heroines in their own ways.

And so it goes up with minutes to spare! Life really kicked me in the health and time shins immediately after we launched the comic with a variety of fun (Trip to New Zealand!) and not so fun (Back injury!) events that made it hard to make as much progress as I wanted.

This page really kicked me in the butt too, I’m pretty new to detailed backgrounds and landscapes and I threw the colours out and started them again half way through because they were so dull and lifeless. Although I think it could still be better I’m ultimately glad I did. 🙂

Tune in next month to find out more about this mysterious watery location!

– Jana

Here we leave you on a cliff… hanging. Right now you must be wondering what has just happened. Don’t panic, the answers are coming in the next instalment.

See you next time!

As soon as I read the script for panel one, I knew how I wanted to draw it. It’s probably my favourite panel of the comic so far. Conversely, panel four was an absolute pain in the butt and I’m still not entirely happy with it. There is a concept though that I’ve taken from the web design world (my day job) to try and keep me on track. ‘Done is better than perfect’.

Jess and I have been working on these pages for almost a year now and I put a lot of pressure on myself to make the right design decisions in these first 6 pages. We will hopefully be working on and with these characters for the next couple of years at least so I really wanted to make sure I was happy with the character designs.

Gil’s came together pretty easily but I drew 3 pages of Ida before deciding that her outfit just didn’t work and decided to go back through and redraw her again. I have already developed a love/hate relationship with her forward slanting top hat and the perspective challenges it creates, but in the end it was the right thing to do. 🙂

– Jana

Ida chases the mysterious figure until she finds a door is flung closed, and locked, in her face. From behind the door comes a hideous growling.

Gilbert Clock, Ida’s friends and fellow student is pleading with his friend via the portable radio device (which he invented)!

Despite the terrifying sounds that are being issued from behind that door, framed in its window is the innocent-eyed face of a small, green-haired nymph. What could possibly be so terrifying about her?

Ida is revealed! But who is the mysterious figure?!

Ida went through quite the costume design process, I can easily and have burn many hours researching other amazing steampunk artists and historical references. Much of the world of Heart of Millyera world will be visually influenced by 1900s Australia. A lovely friend who works there introduced me to the State Library of South Australia Digital collection and their Flickr Account which is an absolute amazing gold mine of reference and interesting history!

Welcome. Our story begins in the dead of night, as Ida Blaker sprints through the darkened halls of Flora Cove University. Who is she chasing after? Why are they fleeing from her? The answers, I assure you, are to be found on future pages of Heart of Millyera.

I hope you enjoy the very first glimpses of our webcomic. Please join us for our next instalment.

To stay up to date don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list, or Like us on all the social medias!