comics

I’m sorry to announce that the The Shaded Areas web comic has been discontinued. You can still flip through the old content here but as of now there are no plans to continue or resume creation. Thank you to those of you who had read and supported my cause. I just don’t have the time to dedicate to it at the moment.

Note to all: The characters shown below, as well as any character you see in this comic, are based on real people in concept. However, as soon as I brought them over from reality to my little comic world each character took on lives of their own and are no longer bound by their real life counter parts. So if you happen to know, or think you know, anyone who a character is based on… understand that the characters actions are at my whims and at this point almost never reflect the behaviors of the actual people. If you are one of the actual people… don’t bother getting mad at me for making your character do something that you think shines poorly on you. I know you’re not like that. It was just funnier my way.

“I think that you think that I am what I think that I am not.”

Grypes

Solitary in nature, Grypes has an uniquely up-beat cynicism and complete disregard for emotions in favor of logic all tied directly to his intense self awareness. He responds to most everything in a very Zen-ish fashion by going with his initial gut responses usually towards a minor iconoclastic effect. While he’d never claim it, he knows he’s a bit of a trouble maker and tends to take very risky chances to test his abilities to get through a rough spot. Despite being sardonic and antagonistic he also tends to go out of his way to be helpful and is always making himself available to give advice to the other characters he’s interacting with, for a modest fee. He’s mastered a form a psychological judo allowing him to disarm most anyone trying to challenge him and spends a lot of time watching movies which directly effects his dialog.

“I saw it coming… I just didn’t know I didn’t want it.”

Pix

Much more in touch with the dynamic social structure around her, Pix tends to be involved in more drama then she would like. She tends to come across as caustic, bitchy or evil because of her unflinching honesty. It’s not evil though. She’s just too thoughtful to waste anyones time, including her own, by walking on egg shells. She has a very playful sense of humor and a very dark sided perspective of amusement though can easily be distracted by cute objects. She has a strong creative streak but due to a touch of laziness and being distracted by her own mischief she tends to feel unfulfilled since she doesn’t engage her creative side as much as she knows she should. Easily flipping between good and bad moods she can be a bit unpredictable to most of the others. She also has a strong tendency towards precognition though for someone who can’t follow her own advice it isn’t as useful to her as it could be.

“Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude… Check out this thing I just got.”

Kraft

As the technophile of the group, Kraft has got a love and understanding of technology that’s almost sickening. However he’s also got an attachment to role playing games and comics that could be done without. Constantly giving over his fate and faculties to victimization at the whims of rolling dice he can flip flop quickly between being totally in the zone and completely at a loss. He has an impulsive tendency to buy or build new gadgets and an even stronger tendency to start projects and then abandon them when the next new idea comes up. Following this up with certain aspects of OCD the only thing he loves more than using his atheistic logic to diffuse the religious logic of others is making a better character spread sheet for the fifth time that week. Despite all these traits which would expectantly isolate him from the group he tends to win over his friends with playful pranks and a social butterfly approach to groups.

“If stupid is as stupid does, not doing promotes intelligence.”

Sai

The highly intelligent Sai is the bookworm of the group. She tends to have more data at her finger tips but lacks certain social fundamentals that make her feel more self conscious then she really needs to be. While always having the right advice for others in a technical sense people tend to dismiss her input and when she gets stuck in a situation she tends to blank out. Prone to anxiety attacks when put under pressure she can sometimes self compress her stress to the point of emotional collapse. However she always pulls through and has a loyalty to those she feels bounded to that is quite noble though sometimes misdirected. Keeping busy with a teaching job, crafts and internet communication are staples to her sanity.

“I’m obviously too attractive to be dealing with this shit.”

Que

Being attractive and knowing it can be a curse in and of itself. Having low self esteem and constantly looking for validation by seeking approval of your looks is just trouble. Que has an amazing ability to break people without trying and being so focused on her own superiority based on her visage keeps her from connecting enough with the little people to care. Convinced she’s going to be famous one day without bothering to do a shred of work towards helping this expectation along all of her time is instead spent either primping, demoralizing some poor schmo or crying into a bottle about no one loving her.

“See these sparkles. Not everyone has those.”

Leaf

The musically talented Leaf somehow draws all of the ladies eyes and attention to himself but still somehow has a fluctuating sense of self confidence. The sparkles around him seem to be the source of the draw. Though after sex the sparkles die for a spell. He’s the soft spoken non-confrontational guy who is so easy going and laid back it surprises you when he gets things done. Looking for a bit more reassurance than he should and trying not to abuse the fact that he can get girls to bend over backwards for him with a grin he spends a lot of his energy trying not to let his humanity work against him. He tends to be very flaky however and has a tendency not to consider the needs of others.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Dazey

Affectionate of meditating and deep philosophical topics she tends to play as to be dimmer than normal. However sometimes it’s hard to determine which one is the act. She has a bit of a drinking problem and is prone to being videotaped in inopportune scenarios. She’s also the house bleeding heart with her vegetarian impositions and save the world attitude. Known to burst into tears at a blink and has an amazing ability to flip out on people for no rational reason and somehow convince them they actually did something wrong.