Ace of Spades, 2010
A good ol' Ace Gallagher for your trouble.
Guardian's Choice, August 2010
Ahh Eric and Che'la......... Story time!
I started going down a weird tangent for one of the books in the series. Ironically it was the book I never got to in the first round of writing because Doctor Who and Sapphyre derailed me, so I never wrote anything other than basic plot ideas and random out of context drawings - like this one!
The short version is Mioko, after the birth of Maewyn and almost losing his life saving Raeya after childbirth, is strangely drawn to the U'dien islands. He "runs away" and asks Eric, a fisherman, to bring him to the islands so he can try to find out his connection to them. Their boat capsizes in a storm and Mioko ends up washed up on another island where he meets an old man who has a similar past, but Eric ends up in the hidden village of these ...well, fish people.
Eric's arrival fulfills some sort of prophecy by appearing, but he soon finds out that it means he has to procreate with one of the fish people to produce an heir who will do... something good for these people, but Eric, understandabily, freaks out. He doesn't know how to leave, so in a very "Road to El Dorado" plot, he basically gains the trust of Che'la, who also wants to leave the islands, and plays along until they can try to escape. But then, of course, playing along means the two of them inadvertently fall in love...
Meanwhile, Mioko learns from the old man that he was born from the union of a human and a fish person, and the old man knew because he was there (because he was born the same way, but never escaped until he helped an infant Mioko escape... or something otherwise interesting and linked). Soon, Eric and Che'la escape and reunite with them--only for Che'la to fund out out she's pregnant (somehow very obvious for fish people?) and they realize that the cycle has started again.
I have liked Che'la's design, but it's another one of those they probably need clothes kind of thing lol - and the fact she's not fully human but hooking up with a human, and then that would make Mioko also not fully human, and that seems weird. Sorry, Eric and Che'la.
As you know I have since figured out a less weird way to connect Mioko to the islands with the Fae of U'dien calling to him and him escaping with the gem that keeps him alive.
Guardian's Descendant, December 2010
One more of Eric so he gets a little more screen time. They had clothes for him apparently! Also I guess he was an archer. He may still show up as a side charater somewhere; not sure.
Father and Son, January 2011
And a Tier and Ace (and Ignarathos) for fun too!
Cornered, January 2011
I had figured out that the streboris was going to be part of the story in the revised book 2 (where Ace and Dorian get trapped in Phoenix's crater and come across his pet bird dragon), so this was more figuring out what it was going to look like. I had a dream with it and tried to visualize it as best as I could. I've since played with the idea of it being more secretary bird-like, but still having some luminescent qualities.
What's funny is I remember exactly where I was when I drew this - on the floor in my grandma's front room lol. We were visiting her for Christmas/new years.
Oh this one's fun and also not happening anymore! lol
Since I still wasn't sure where Ace of Spades/Tale of Ace Gallagher was going next, I played with an idea where somehow, they destroy the Sword of Ignarathos, but a shard breaks off in the process and lodges in Ace's back (or something). He has no idea (...somehow lol) and before he knows why, he starts transforming into a dracleon himself. So this is sad confused Ace as a dragon kitty.
Once I knew the sword was going to be one of the main parts of the story and got some insight on where I was going, this idea was scrapped. But I still have one sad confused Ace dragon kitty drawing.
These were going to be all the characters featured in "the next story" I never got to; it was going to include the Eric/Che'la/Mioko subplot and a Phoenix dying sub plot. That may be a fun story too....
Giselle (a past Ace girlfriend) finds Ace again after many years - only to discover he is about to get married to Athena. She gets jealous, somehow finds out The Phoenix can time-travel, so she attempts to control where his crystal goes and inadvertently brings herself, Phoenix (who is still wearing the crystal), and Vance (who was trying to stop her) back to the moment Ace meets Athena.
Vance manages to intercept her and tells her the horrors of messing with time, and Phoenix realizes Vance recognizes the gravity of time travel, and finally Giselle agrees and they go back home. Unfortunately, Phoenix is down to his last strength and passes his power and position on to......... Vance. There was no Gallagher connection to the Phoenix yet, though Ace suggests taking the role first before Vance recognizes he'd be the best to take it - but then that makes Ed mad and that part is the same as it is now.
Also James is there! lol... He was SO new when I drew this, and basically got immediately swept into the Gemini Archives that I don't know what he was going to be doing in this story.
Some sketches of Dawn's felavis, Gitanna. She's cute and fun but I'm not sure if I'm keeping her in the final story...
In 2006, Wildcard happened! Finally a use for the random instrument choices lol. While I did write them into forming a band in the first draft of book 1, I removed it because it just seemed weird. Mioko still has his flute, and Ace still plays guitar, but forming a whole band is no longer happening canonically.
See? Adorable lol. From an artistic/character design lens, I was still not quite there with different body types. Everybody's just super skinny at a different height, heh. It was still only 2006 tho.
And in 2007 they had matching shirts?? Absolutely adorable lol. Side note I forgot I designed their logo and it's actually still really dang awesome. You can't really see the whole thing but it's a spade on one side and a guitar on the other and "strings" between. Snazzy.
Modern Crusaiders, December 2008
Angel of the Odd, September 2006
It's the knights! The jousting tournament story is one of my favorites, and it really ends up being a pivotal moment for a lot of characters now, so that's cool. Ace tries really hard... and looks so out of place lol.
Before Ace Gallagher, I was starting to work on a story about Tier Dralcon and his quest to find (and learn the truth behind) the Sword of Ignarathos. I got as far as a chapter and a half before Ace showed up in the Elemental Guardians and I decided I wanted to write about him instead ... but Tier hung around and his story became the prequel/the plot device still in use today! This was probably drawn in 2003.
Speaking of Ace... this is NOT him lol. This is an early version of Bengal, and my goodness, he may have helped inspire Ace. I actually don't remember him ever looking this Ace-y at any point. He later dropped the headband and ended up with shaggy black hair instead. I forgot he was initially an archer (apparently also so was Tier).
Some Tier expression/pose sketches. He's such a baby here lol - though he is only 15. He finds the sword and goes through all the curse stuff, finally losing his life at 17 (which is why Ace starts having problems with the curse when he showed up in ToAG - he's 17 too...). He barely gets a chance to grow that iconic goatee... heh.
Proof I had good handwriting at one point :D I had written out whatever I originally wrote for Tier in my notebook with the drawings.
HERE HE IS! Knee and elbow pads and weird gloves and all, lol. I just realised he doesn't have a headband though! I guess he steals it from Bengal 😂 Anyway he was just supposed to be a random side character in the Elemental Guardians fanfic and he literally took over, so I'm grateful to him in any form haha.
Another early drawing, he now has his signature headband. He does loose the fancy boots and the spiky hair in the (then) final design. Still a wirey little kid tho!
And then we had THE TRIO! Despite Mioko being around longer than everybody in this article, he hadn't made the jump over yet. I originally paired Ace with Athena and Dorian, a blue-haired warrior that I'm not sure had any sort of backstory or reason why he had blue hair. The date on the back was 2004, so I was in my final months of high school here (eep, lol I told you some of this stuff was old and somewhat embarrassing haha). But at least Ace has officially lost the knee and shoulder pads.
By 2005, Mioko and Raeya join the crew (and Allan haha). I was not good at different body shapes or skin tones, so everyone looks the same. In my brain, Raeya was always much paler and Dorian more tan, but I was not yet at a point to convey it well. Still, this picture brought back some memories as the first official group shot.
Before I really knew what was going on in Ace's story, I made these little "character cards" and I kinda laughed. Ace's power is mind-reading? Wow, lol. I'm glad I opted for him to just be a normal kid (...well, you know, "normal" lol)
....So Athena was originally based on the Jill character from the Elemental Guardians. Jill could initially turn into fire-type Pokemon, and later controlled fire when I dropped the Pokemon part and focused on the elements only. It's fun because, as I know I've mentioned before, Gemini ended up taking back the fire control powers and is a "Jill character" so that whole arc came back full circle - and I'm glad Athena ended up becoming her own person after all.
Look at me trying to make Dorian all warrior-y with his pose :D Other than drawing him more stocky these days, he really hasn't changed all that much.
Mioko has also changed very little, even since his days in the Elemental Guardians. How he gets his powers has changed over the years. But I'm noticing I don't remember assigning most of the instruments listed here. When I wrote my little "Wildcard" stories Mioko was not the drummer, so I'm not sure where I came up with these at this point.
Raeya's stayed pretty consistent as well. She's always been a shapeshifter, too. I had some thing with the scars on her face signalling a family lineage or something weird but I've cut that out.
Before I got too far in Ace's story, I somehow got the idea to merge his backstory with Tier and Bengal's story. The first book called "Ace of Spades" was actually going to be mostly about Tier and Bengal meeing a young Ace already on the streets begging and gambling (and stealing) because his mom sorta kinda disowns him to focus on her 'profession.' Due to the curse's scar (and his history with Aurora) Tier knows Ace is his son and finally reveals this to the previously-fatherless kid towards the end of the story. The climax is the 2 adults being sent to kill a dragon for bounty with Ace in tow, and Tier ends up defeating the dragon to protect Ace, but the curse finally takes his life before Ace is able to have any time with his dad.
