Hopefully this F.A.Q. will sort out any burning questions you may have about the project. More in-depth information about the Locust universe can be found in the other sections of the Information page. If you have any questions to add to this list, please drop me a line.

Q: What is Locust about?

A: In a nutshell, Locust is a gripping sci-fi drama.
Set in a dystopia earth some 2000 years in the future, a fanatical religious empire is attempting to cleanse the world of opposition and bring about an age of divine enlightenment. Opposing them, a race of highly evolved militant-hunters struggle to survive and prevent the global genocide. The story of Locust follows one such hunter trying to rebuild his broken life, left shattered by the effects of a heated racial war.
More details can be found in the other sections of the Information page.

Q: Are the characters in Locust based off anyone in real life?

A: Most of the main characters in Locust are based off little bits of my own personality and act mainly as embodiments for my thoughts (which I think is true for most authors). Over the years, they have developed and evolved as they bounced around in my head, each developing their own unique traits and histories that tied them to the rest of the Locust universe.
Aesthetically, my characters are based off many things. Gabriel originally took a lot of design ideas from bad anime characters (as is still obvious by his crazy-ass hair). Lexi is a conglomeration of various girls I’ve been attracted to. Other characters have their appearances based loosely on friends of mine, people I thought looked cool, people I thought looked stupid, and other random influences (I’ve been told that Cain looked a lot like me before I cut my hair).

Q: What’s with the ‘power’ symbol?                

A: The first thing people say when they see when they see the Caelestian Icon (the little circular thing that’s stuck places. namely on big dudes foreheads) in my comic is “Hey! It’s the power symbol!” And yes, it does indeed look very similar to the famed computer “power on” button. This was unintentional, and is simply a result of bad design on my part. The original icon (as can be seen in the early pages of Chapter: 00) was a partial ring with a dot in the center. Coincidentally, it looked a bit like a boob. So I elongated it and made it more pointy. Now it looks like the power symbol. Which is better then looking like a nipple.

Q: What’s with the elf ears?

A: The Durus are a race of evolved humans, adapted for a life of harsh desert warfare. As such, they gots’ big ears to hear stuff good and radiate excess body heat. More importantly, it makes them look cool and easily recognizable.

Q: Why does the art style change so much from issue to issue?

A: Over the last four years, I’ve become a considerably better artist. The change in Locust’s artistic styles represents the improvements I’ve made, and there will undoubtedly be many more as I learn and evolve new techniques.

Q: How long have you been making Locust?

A: I started when I was 15, back in 2002. I had no idea what I was doing when it came to making a comic, so I stumbled through about 20 pages trying to find an effective style and work process. Then I scrapped what I had (actually, they died in a massive hardrive crash) and restarted with a style I was comfortable with (along with major revisions to the storyline). So far I’ve completed three issues and am well into the fourth.

Q: How did you come up with the concept?

A: I’m an avid cynical atheist, so it wasn’t too hard to think up a bleak future where humanity screws itself over with religious warfare. Most of the issues and concepts in Locust are my interpretations of the world and my opinions of certain aspects of life. Racial genocide, zealous religious cleaning, and horrible acts against humanity have all happened before in history, so getting real-world inspiration is never hard. I also have a strong interest in military history, which helps in coming up new ideas.

Q: Do you have the whole storyline planned out?

A: No, but I have fairly hefty chunks of it floating around in my brain. Pieces of the story are constantly changing as I come up with better ways to portray them. I usually start scripting each issue just before I start it, and rewrites occur right down to the time I drop dialogue into the text bubbles.

Q: How long will the completed story be?

A: Locust is a massive undertaking, and will likely take me several years/decades/lifetimes to complete. The first ‘Act’ of Locust will be about 12 or 13 chapters. I plan of having 3 or 4 acts following it to complete the storyline. After that, I may start new storylines with other characters in the same universe.

Q: How long does it take you to complete a page?

A: My current work process is pretty quick once I prepare my resources and actually sit down to work on it (which is another story completely). A four to six panel page will usually take me three or four hours from start to finish over the period of a few days.

Q: Why is it taking so long for new pages to be updated then?

A: Two reasons: First, I’m currently a full time art student, so I’ve got mountains of assignments to do for school. I also work on several other side projects alongside locust, and I’ve only got so much free time to divide up. Second, and more importantly, I’m a lazy, lazy person. Maybe one of these days I’ll get my ass in gear, but until then, updates will come as I finish them.