FAQ
- literally frequently asked questions.
Here you will find some of my practice and philosophy of "The
Challenges Of Zona."
I'll be adding to it as I get other ideas or questions.
What do you use to make these pictures?
I am currently using Daz Studio 4.21 for my primary rendering, and Photoshop 2023 for my postwork on the images.
Do you do this professionally?
As of February 2023, I will be doing this as my main avocation. We will be pushing forward into transitioning to an animated adventure, and I am excited as hell.
I have sunk a bunch of time and money into it. I love it, and the story that has grown in the telling.
Why are Zona’s breasts so big?
Because I like them that way.
But, they would get in the way! It’s totally unrealistic, and it turns me off.
I
can’t help what turns you on or off. I originally designed the
character this way as a bit of a satire on the swords and sorcery
genre, and I’ve come to like and appreciate her completely impossible
anatomy for its own sake, because it's
fun for me and as a given circumstance for her character to have to
deal with.
Frankly, it reminds you pretty strongly that this IS a
FANTASY. Zona
is an exceptional character, and lives in an unreal fantasy world
created by me out of the stuff of pulp novels, movies and comics I read
as a young wanker. What sometimes exasperates me is how many
impossible things happen in the strip, including magic powers,
levitation, dinosaur fights, giants and monster-men, but it’s Zona’s
jugs that get singled out as the thing that nobody could possibly
believe.
But why do all the women in the strip have such big breasts?
I like
it. It’s a common male fantasy, and since I'm a heterosexual male
and this strip is very much my fantasy, I feel no need to apologize for
it. Also, not all the women are
built like that. Other female
characters in the strip are not as amply
endowed, including Zona's sister Tula, who is a major character and
very popular.
Zona's boobs fall into the Uncanny Valley.
I have to nitpick a bit on that one. The "Uncanny Valley"
is a term coined by a roboticist named Masahiro
Mori
that related more to facial expression and overall human aspect than
merely one bit of anatomy. It basically happens when something is
close to a lifelike human, but aspects of appearance and behavior
provide an uncomfortable feeling as the viewer both consciously and
unconsciously recognizes that it is not human. If that
phrase/judgment were heavily
relevant to hyper-mammosity, then you would apply it to a great many
women in the real world with overlarge breasts relative to their body
size, both natural and artificially enhanced. Many beautiful
models
and individuals such as Candy Samples, Uschi Digard or Nadine Jensen
have extremely out of proportion breasts, but are quite definitely
human and do not fall into Masahiro's "uncanny valley." If you
feel
that the expression or pose of the CGI puppet doesn't adequately convey
human feeling or behavior, then I would be much more likely to take
your comment to heart. The fact is that these characters are
fantasies
as said above, and some - not all - of them are definitely going to
have impractical boobs. I suggest, respectfully, that you simply
accept it. BTW - if you want "uncanny valley" then you
should check
out any CGI art that replicates Anime and Manga. No human being
looks
like that, and the ginormous eyes with nostrelless pinprick noses and
chins you could punch holes in paper with look like space aliens - but
hey, that's their style, and it's oppressively popular.
This or that costume/ weapon / situation is totally unrealistic! I would never do it that way, and let me tell you in great detail how it couldn’t possibly work.
I
appreciate every one of your comments, and I do pay attention to every
single one of them. That doesn’t mean I’m going to change
things
simply to suit you. I am still the guy with the expensive
software
who does the comic, and I reserve the right to make my art and my
characters as I see them in the fantasy in my head, not how their
actions or equipment
would play out in reality. As such, I try to be a decent
storyteller
and not contradict things internally, at least not too badly, but if
this were a totally realistic comic, it would be closer to a
documentary, not a fantasy. Frankly, I love documentaries
about
history, and incorporate things I see and hear and will, doubtless,
incorporate or excise some of the things you’re talking about from time
to time.
But this is very much a fantastic tale on the order of the Barsoom
stories or other pulp fantasies rendered beautifully by Frazetta and
Boris and others who have warrior women with big boobs impossibly doing
impossible things all the impossible time. Honestly, if you want
to
start listing all the impossible things in “Princess Of Mars” or
“Conan” you will be counting for a long time. For that matter, Marvel
Comics and DC superheroes are completely and absurdly impossible on a
number of levels, and I wish you success in getting them to cater to
reality simply because you disagree with the aesthetics of Wonder
Woman's costume - which is, BTW, completely and utterly impractical.
Nonetheless, I love you all, and if, at times, I seem to lose my patience it is because I am, at heart, a narcissistic little wanker and this is my beloved project in which I have invested much.
You changed something I like! I hate it! The character designs are bad now!
The art is created in the computer using software that has evolved incredibly since I began this little contribution to the downfall of Western Civilization. All artists evolve, and as the software and models and computers gain more and more power and abilities, I am going to take advantage of it, all the while trying my best to stay true to my character design and craft more realism and scale into the artwork. I listen to all your comments, but none of these changes come out of nowhere, and I am the artist and storyteller. In fact. I am very careful to try out all the new stuff on my contributing patrons at Patreon, and the new designs for the main characters have been out there for a long time. I only recently decided to transition from Poser to Daz Studio because it's better supported and it's a more powerful tool with more resources that are more cutting edge.
NOTE:
Respectful criticism is always allowed, encouraged even. Friendly banter and exchanges of ideas are healthy.
But: Do not insult me or anyone else on my site. That is strictly not allowed. Don't imply that I have somehow lost all artistic integrity by changing something that you grew fond of, especially if it's done in some kind of snotty tone that makes me picture you in an unflattering way. I try very hard never to delete comments or unapprove commentors, but I can do it and, if you tick me off hard enough, I am liable to.
And please don't bring real world politics into Erogenia. This is fantasy happy horseshit. I might make some situation or character that has a similarity to the real world, but it's a coincidence.
I think you’re a genius!
You’re kidding, right? There’s nothing terribly original about Zona. In fact, as I’ve explained, it’s about as derivative as it gets, but I’m frankly okay with that. I am not a really clever, serious storyteller. I am just writing a wee fantasy about an impossibly endowed warrior babe who falls in love with a dude from our world and has these stereotypical adventures. At heart it’s truly become a love story, but with every new character I’ve been adding, the world gains a bit of depth and complexity, practically automatically. At this point I’m struggling just to keep up with the story that they’re making all by themselves.
I love the expressions! How you do that?
I look in the mirror, and I act, then I use the adjustments that are built into the model I’m working on to make a specific facial expression that looks like what I see or feel. What this is is not really art in the traditional comic sense, though the result should do the same job to tell a story. It’s more like puppeteering in that the models exist in the Poser environment and I morph and manipulate them to give an illusion of life and character.
Where do you get your models?
A lot of different places. DAZ 3D is the primary source. Renderosity.com also, plus other sources throughout the web. I have mined heavily for free items as well as bought ones. Some clothing and accessories I have made myself in Poser or Daz or other 3d app.
Do you have rules for Tuntach?
Very very vague ones, as yet. It isn’t a playable game, but I’d love to have the time to make it one, eventually. Essentially the object for the attacker is to capture the center circle of the board, called the Fortress. The object for the Defender is to repel all attacks and destroy the attacker’s ability to take the fortress. Once one game is completed, the players change places and the Attacker becomes the Defender. To be a complete win, the player needs to win both games. The details of the actual end game and some of the other rules vary from place to place, but the bottom line is that the attacker usually needs to have both a warrior and a tower in the center circle to count it as a win. If the defender manages to destroy all the towers or all the warriors it’s usually counted as a win for the defender.