About Stuff

About Little Tales....

Little Tales began years ago as an idea in my head. I usually draw silly pinups and such, but for some reason my medium would creep back to comics. I never printed any of them and they languished in my sketchbooks for years. But slowly, ever so slowly, they started demanding more attention. At the beginning of 2008 I had this brain explosion where I was cranking out pencil images for over three comics a day, ending up with over thirty at one point. I sat and looked at the results and decided it was time to finally get my tail in gear if I ever wanted to be more than a pin-up artist.

So, I hammered out my gameplan. After some thought I decided on a three day a week format because I felt it was a schedule I could actually keep up with. The idea of a two part gag/story format came to me via Jay Naylor, who at the time was running Better Days and New Worlds on a similar schedule.

During Hurricane Charlie I had nothing but audiobooks for company as my power blew out, and one of those books was a BBC radio production of The Man Who Was Thursday. I was utterly enchanted by the story, and was doubly pleased to find that my husband had a copy of the book! As the months had gone by I'd sketched a few images from the story and came up with animal designs for all the major cast. I used my first Thursday comic page to practice using MangaStudio. I remember that first page taking me two weeks to finish, and now I can bang out something similar in a few hours. After some thought I decided to use this story as my Wednesday tale (although I was tempted to publish it on Thursday, I didn't want a wacky schedule). I've always done one page gag comics and never anything serious, so for my first graphic tale I felt it would be better if I did someone else's story and focused my effort on the artwork. The Man Who Was Thursday is a classic story, public domain, but not very well known outside of people who have taken heavy classic literature classes in college. It aged well in my opinion (It's 100 years old!) and it was something I wanted to share with people. So, here it is. When I conclude it I might try one of my own stories, but I have plenty of time to think that over.

When someone offered me webspace I found myself pressed to come up with a domain name. I rolled around a few ideas, but then tried little-tales and poof, the domain wasn't taken. So... Yoink. I think my subconscious spat it out, and I couldn't be happier with the title. Initially we used a wordpress theme as our base code, but then it was found to have some security flaws and we were hacked. Thankfully Ryan "Tet" Dewalt came to my aid and offered me a barebone codebase that he uses for his wife's strip as well as Jack. It works like a charm and I'm extremely pleased with it.

This is my first webcomic, but I've had a lot of people who have taught me lessons about how to run one properly. The biggest one is to stay on schedule. So, barring horrible accidents, I do my best to update at midnight EST on update days. You can get live updates via the Little Tales Livejournal Community.

About Me...

Considering the personal aspect of the comic, it seems silly to write about myself. You probably know a lot about me simply by reading my day to day slice of life stories that I print here. But I'll try and share some stuff you might not know, or assemble what you do know a bit more coherently.

My name is Genesis, yes, really. It isn't a fan name. It isn't an online handle. It's my real name. No, I so not have a sister named Exodus, I was not the first child, my parents were not Star Trek or Phil Collins fans, and yes I know there was a woman on The Real World with the name Genesis too. My friends all call me Gen for short, and I'm fine with that. You can call me Gen too.

I joined furry fandom many many many (gaaaaaasp) many years ago. I want to say 1993 but I'm not quite sure. This was before the internet was more than a college network and the web didn't exist. I learned about it because someone handed me a photocopied hand stapled fanzine about a bobcat biker. I wrote the author a letter and sent him some artwork, and he invited me to join a fanzine he ran. From there, my connections grew. I have always loved drawing kitty people and such. Animals are such expressive and fun creatures, and it made me happy to find that there was an actual following for the art out there.

For a few years though my involvement in the fandom dropped. The rumor mill went crazy and people started saying that I left because of the explicit artwork found in the fandom (I don't draw it myself. It's a personal choice and is not meant to condemn the people who do draw it). But the truth of the matter is that I'd just gotten married, gotten a bunch of new bills, and didn't have time to attend three conventions a year and keep up with six fanzines anymore. My life has only now calmed down to the point that I can focus on artwork again, but still not to the extent I once participated.

Yes, Gen used to be a cat. In 2006 I changed her from a cat to a fox. I just didn't relate to the cat personality anymore, and at the time most women in the fandom drew themselves as cats. But I also was still fond of Gen's basic design and didn't want to deviate from it, so she became an arctic fox.

I am self taught and it shows I think, unfortunately. I hope to get some life drawing in locally but that time will come when finances better allow. In the meantime, drawing comics on a daily basis has been the best means of improvement I've ever had for my work. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their artwork as it forces you to do more than draw static characters just standing around. I mean, you could draw static characters just standing around, but eventually that gets boring.

I was born in Florida, raised in Oklahoma, and moved back to Florida after a ten month stint in New Jersey. My husband was born out of state but has been living here longer than me, and yet I am the native! I never let him forget this fact, which causes much scowling and growling and grumbling and "I will devour your head in your sleep, Gen!"

My husband is studying for the priesthood and is an ordained Deacon as of this writing. No, we're not Roman Catholic. Some priests are actually allowed to have wives. Since this comic is derived from my life, my religion and my husband's calling will make their way into these pages sometimes. If the mere mention of Christianity bothers you, you probably shouldn't be reading my comic. I won't get in your face with it here, but I also won't hide it either.

I actually do spend a portion of the year with my hair dyed bright red with a blonde streak in it. Unfortunately it's hell to maintain, so after my convention and traveling season is over, I dye it back to plain boring easier to manage don't get stared at brown. Usually my depiction of Gen in the comic reflects my current hair state.

Currently the main convention you will find me at is PawPet Megaplex in Florida. I'm the main security and watchdog person for the dealer's room there.