Phew!
This was a fun pic! And I got to draw a Virmir I had not drawn for five years.
Hopefully this will clear up some confusion about some of my characters that look a tad similar.
This is just the "Virmir chain" of characters, or more specifically-- gray foxes with that weird "antennae-hair" thing going on. I could probably extend this thing back 15 years with hundreds of characters and thousands of arrows if I wanted to increase the scope. (Not gonna happen.
)
Some short explanations of the characters. The numbering is a rough ordering I'm pretty sure they were conceived. What appears here is the most current design for each. Some of these had some tweaks to them
1) Kendo Virmir - Dark Age Legends (2006)
My very first fox character was in a story-based forum RP. He wasn't the main focus-- I had several more foxes in there and 20 or so other assorted characters, but he's the start of this particular branch of craziness. (Yes, he is floating.
)
2) Julian Urocyon - Crimson Flag (2007)
There was actually a prototype version of Crimson Flag I attempted to draw back in 2007 that never really took off... because I couldn't really draw back then.
A sort of proto-Julian was to be the villain. Later on in 2008 when I recruited Tod Wills to help with the latest, and current version of Crimson Flag, I pulled Julian from the proto-comic and the rest is history.
3) Kendo Virmir - Metamor Keep (2007)
This is "MK Virmir", or the "grumpy one" from my
Metamor Keep Tales. Do not blame him. He has his reasons.
Though my MK story arc is complete, I love MK Virmir to death and will continue to torture him FOREVER. More recently I threw him into the
Epic Battle universe because I thought it would be funny. However as a sort of recompensation, I let him
destroy Santa. He's shown here as being in both the Metamor Keep section and the "Virmir Gang" section, since I sort of inducted him in as an honorary member to do fun side comics with and such.
MK Virmir is probably the closest I ever came to writing "me" into a story. A lot of his thought patterns are based on my own-- with a few minor but crucial differences. (Basically, the whole anger/irritations/resentment thing.
)
4) Kendo Virmir - Author/Artist/Fursona (2007)
When I started interacting with the Metamor Keep community back in 2007, as usual I took the name of the primary character of my stories as my pen name. I had done this with past projects before, but never really felt a personal connection to the character.
However, people very quickly (albeit jokingly) associated me with "the grumpy one", which is very much not me, so I pushed that author and character were not the same more and more, building my online image in my head long before I was able to draw. Pretending to be a cartoon animal in a chatroom was incredibly relaxing and fun, and thus the toony Virmir was able to express himself for the first time.
5) Lucian Urocyon - Crimson Flag (2008)
People who have been following my comic for a while know that I did not always draw it by myself. Tod Wills sketched the first big chunk of it, while I inked and colored his sketches. Way back when we were working out character designs, I showed him an old crappy picture of MK Virmir I drew and said "kind of like this". And that's why Lucian looks the way he does today.
I do regret this a bit. Lucian is very different from MK Virmir, and I should have been a bit more original with his design. But on the other hand... MK Virmir was just a character from an unrelated story! It's not like I'm suddenly going to get good at art and start drawing him myself constantly years from now or anything!
*facepaws*
6) Lucile (2008)
One day I noticed that a *lot* of people have an opposite gender version of their online selves. "Ha ha!" I thought, "Those people are weird. I'm gonna try and draw a girl Virmir just for kicks!"
And, well, I kept drawing her.
I honestly really like her design, especially with the hat/sword additions I made recently. Her robe is kind of similar to what I imagined on my personal fursona waaaaay back in the beginning before I got the idea for the cape and pantslessness. The basic idea behind Lucile is I, as a male, do not have very many stereotypical male traits (HATE sports, HATE cars), and a few downright girly ones (YAY! Cute foxes!!). So as an inverse-- a female version of me would likewise not have many stereotypical female traits and also a few male ones. I.e. she and I would be exactly the same.
If the main Virmir were taken out of this batch and I had to choose a new primary out of the remaining 9, I would choose Lucile.
7) Lucile - Metamor Keep (2008)
Lucile from Metamor Keep has nothing to do with the above mentioned Lucile, and is really included here just so I can say that. I have a *terrible* habit of recycling names. Back in 2008 when I first conceived the character, I did not know I'd be drawing girl-Virmir Lucile so much in a few years. Phooey, happend again.
On the flip side, the Virmir/Lucile combo does provide some sort of consistency throughout my works that I'll probably revisit.
8) Virumiru (2009)
"Three tails is a good number, I think. Much more than that and it becomes difficult to do basic things like sit down.
"
That is... really all there is to Virumiru. He's just a kitsune parody. I'm not a terribly huge fan of kitsune or multiple tails, but he's fun as heck to draw. I'm not sure if I'll ever think of a story for him though. He's just out there doin' oriental stuff!
9) VirBot (2009)
When I set up the chat room for Crimson Flag, I changed the generic sounding "ChatBot" which announces system messages to "VirBot" because the world revolves around me, pretty much. Also I added some basic AI when chatters mention his name, and of course, I had to draw what he looked like.
The glowing red eyes are inspired by the ex-animal bots in that one Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon.
10) Lucile - Crimson Flag (2010)
Did I mention I really love Lucile's design? I did intend for Lucian to have family apart from his father and sister in the comic from the beginning, but the more I drew the original Lucile above, the more I wanted to use some variant of the design in Crimson Flag. CF Lucile has only been in one short scene so far. You can probably guess she'll be back.
