Mini Comics @ Gaia Online

For each of these Mini Comics, my script was handed over to one of Gaia Online's extremely talented artists and brought to life on the site. Most of the story for the events took place in the form of user participation and NPC interaction. These comics acted as bookends for the fun and would serve to either launch or close the event.

Gaia Online users know that the blonde doofus in the tracksuit is, of course, Liam. Whether or not Liam is in love with Sam is one of Gaia's best mysteries.

The following comic was used to introduce Lake Kindred, a game within the Gaia Online world itself. I had a large hand in developing the lore and narrative surrounding the event, and tying it into the massive existing canon of both Gaia Online proper and zOMG!, Gaia's beloved MMORPG. The premise for the introduction of the battle monster collecting story ended up being based on my pitch and penned by me. We revitalized some underused-yet-popular kid characters, sent them far out of the main canon story maps and ongoing plotlines in the form of a spooky summer camp, and let the fun unfold! This comic and the event it was paired to actually tied up over a month's worth of dropped hints and easter eggs. Comic 1 of 3 was from Kanoko, the camp counselor's perspective.

Comic 2 of 3 was from Peyo's perspective. Gaia Online users knew him as a young, shy boy who only seemed to interact with his mother and his pet duck Piyo (named after himself). His gentle nature and positive attitude made him the perfect protagonist for our story, so we finally let him age up to 10, let him join the Wing Scouts (an already established group on Gaia) and sent him on his journey! My favorite part of this change is that I successfully (and accidentally) pitched for regular duck Piyo to have an anime-esque henshin transformation into a Kin monster with a massive ahoge feather and a super powerful mouth blast by making a joke in the meeting. It's the little victories in life, friends.

Comic 3 of 3 for the Lake Kindred launch event wrapped up the first arc. Gaia Online users had been playing Lake Kindred and collecting Kin monsters for nearly a month. Through the game and associated interactions with NPCs, Gaia players had learned that the "tree" from the first comic was actually known as Sycamorte, a powerful Kin! It became an ongoing joke on the community that players were going way too "beast mode" on poor Sycamorte and its Stagony minions, so we played off that for the comic's end.

Prior to the comic below being released, Gaia Online users spent 2 weeks fending off the Halloween Spirit Jack's slightly eviler clone, the ruthless ShadowJack, using their Kin battle monsters. Lucky for the gang, Jack loves Halloween, and he hates imposters.

In 2015, the Bunny Rangers set their sights on Gaia after receiving a distress signal from their long-lost brother, who they launched into space in the hopes of confirming that their home planet was safe to return to after being ravaged by invaders. Diedrich, the bunny-like creature known as a Grunny (known to be a legendarily enigmatic figure in Gaia Online lore, whose catchphrase is "Did you know!") is not who they're looking for. But he's close enough. This kicked off Gaia Online's 2015 Easter Event, in which they had to take down the Bunny mecha with fun minigame attacks while convincing each of the Rangers (played by me!) that they were not on their own home world.

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