The Rotling

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Sam Wyx wakes up beaten and bloody in a deep dark hole and it gets worse from there. She is without her memory, without her family, without a thing to eat, and without a clue what to do. She also talks really funny.

Wandering alone with endless questions in a post-apocalyptic landscape, Sam is forced to make sense of the destruction around her as well as the wreckage within. Her shattered memory gives her glimpses of her life before but they are accompanied by crushing pains in her head which bring her to her knees and sometimes lower. She remembers her dear Grammy who taught her how to make soup, but Grammy is nowhere to be found and she has nothing with which to make any soup.

In late 2011 I discovered that I could take pictures in virtual reality. I’d been playing in a game sim called The Wastelands where I developed a role play character named Sam Wyx. She was a scrambled young waif who had many adventures both internal and external, and I kept a character photo blog of her daily cognitive dissonance. Based on those blog posts some friends suggested that I make a comic book with Sam. So, I did.

I tried to keep it simple and I learned as a went. I guess something in me had to tell this story. It certainly wasn’t about making money or even about being read, it was just about letting Sam out of the dark and giving her time to grow. She ran with it for seven issues and I had an amazing time exploring the process of making comic books in virtual spaces. I know Sam is a steep hill to climb as a reader and I accept that, but this is her story the way I had to tell it. I hope it's clear that I loved every minute of making this series. Sam saved my life and I’m so very grateful to her.

Technical mumbo jumbo: I use the Firestorm viewer and a MacBook Pro to create hi-rez screenshots of 3D models and sets. I process them in Photoshop and paste pages together in ComicLife3. Sometimes I build poses in DAZ3. In-world I use the LumiPro lighting HUD and the AnyPose avatar poser in addition to whatever animations I can scavenge.

 

 

Sam can at times be found doing her do in The Wastelands, come visit her!