This section is essentially free of spoilers.
Basically, this is a comic I started back in 2006. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but it became a loved hobby of self-improvement. It’s a Furry + Human comic, because I like anthropomorphic, humanoid animal characters, and this gave varied option for characters and crossovers. It originally stared “myself”, but expanded into a cast of several. It’s very character driven, as the characters’ interactions have even changed some story points I originally wanted. The characters are basically set into the “world story” right now, though the main characters are technically self-aware.
Essentially, this comic is my constant joy of artistic expression and self-improvement as a cartoonist. I can talk on length on it and many other subjects.
About the Author
Yes, the author is a “Furry”, meaning “a fan of anthropomorphic animals”, and is sometimes shown in the comic as a bluish-furred Wolf-Dog. Occasionally conversing with the characters. The “Fes” character is actually more physically based off of the author, and is occasionally used as the author’s avatar. Though for purposes of THIS COMIC, “Fesworks” the Wolf-Dog is the author, and “Fes” is a character. Confusing? Yeah. I blame Fes.
About the Comic Itself
The comic was started in 2006, as a first attempt at doing a webcomic. It was designed to be both a Human and Furry comic from the start. Partly to have cameos and crossovers with either type, and partly because of the diversity of characters. The comic was intended to be written and drawn on the fly as a gag-a-day comic, emphasizing in character-driven direction. The comic was also originally just to be about depressing and insulting things, but that didn’t really last too long. Later the comic world became more developed (read related section below) along with the characters.
Eventually, things turned into a continuous story, with character development happening along the way. For example, the comic originally starred just Fes and Ernst as main characters. Later, a female element (Nemi) was planned… though with the long, impromtu writing, she didn’t show up for several months than planned. I feel that PSI should always have at least 3 main characters of focus. Before Nemi, it was an author inserted “fursona”. Getting Nemi involved was not only intentional for a female angle, but also to help break away from 4th wall interactions too much.
Needless to say it started with breaking many rules to starting a good webcomic, including breaking the 4th wall. However, the comic has heavily relied on 4th wall breaking, including crossovers and webcomic awareness of its main characters. While this comic fails in many aspects, it remains a “practice” or “experimental” comic for the most part. The comic is also striving to self-improve, both in story and art, as time goes by. However, the story-telling is more important than the art at this point (with reason).
About The Characters
The comic stars a small group of friends. Mainly Fes and Ernst, whom are roommates and friends. They went to college together, and equally have had fairly boring and non-eventful lives… even their college degrees suck. They are still roommate because things are cheaper that way, and they don’t have many other friends. Later Nemi comes along, and has her own, fairly secluded life. She ends up tagging along with Fes and Ernst… or is it vice versa?
Additional characters come into play. Some are 4th Wall breaking, some are story-based, some are from other worlds, etc… a wide variety. For more information, check out the cast page.
PSI – The World
The world of PSI, is basically an alternate Earth, rather than a Earth that parallels the real-world earth. Basically there are two main differences. (1) Most all animals co-evolved into humanoid forms (not just ancient apes); and (2) The existence of magick and a goddess.
The first one is fairly simple to grasp. Diversity and co-evolving and co-existing assists in tolerance and acceptance of different groups of people. This relates to the second: The Goddess and Magick. No, I’m not trying to dictate a belief structure to anyone, just trying to make something that helps makes the PSI world the way I want it, however, this is VERY LOOSELY based on Celtic and Dianic Paganism. Basically the Goddess Diana is… or WAS very involved with the people of the world…. like actually there with people, among people, and all that jazz. She wasn’t constantly there, but visted frequently.
There is Magick in the world as well. Things like Crystals and Metals with various magickal properties. Oh the world has Science too, but that was not fully realized until later. You see, the people had magick to begin with, some more than others. With training, one could control more of it. Eventually, some people started using magick in ways to over power others…. becoming corrupt. You essentially have your classic power/war scenerios. After a while things changed… without spoilers, magick because sparse and weak. Thus advancements in science came into play.
Part of the world today is also the creation of global government. In the past, small groups could easily work with little trouble. There was trade and services used in dealing with other groups. As population increased, so did the need for government…. To put things as simply as possible, the government in place is sort of an “open-government”. Perhaps a combination of democracy and dictatorship… perhaps closest related to ancient Rome. Anything the government does is public information. Basically give the USA a 4th branch of government, and it’s its people as the watchdog group. There is also the Military… but me trying to FULLY define and design a fuctionable type of government would be a bit insane, so you have to take this as “It basically works like this. Why? It just does.”
Part of PSI’s original intent, was not to go into religion or politics too much… these are not the emphasis of the comic.
Fun fact: PSI World Population is currently about only 3,500,000.
In some furry comics, there is taboo… things that are not really talked about, or explained… such as what food do people eat? In PSI, the food source is essentially insects and bugs, in place of animal meat. Insects and bugs have evolved into larger versions, basically. (Think of a Grasshopper, instead of a Rabbit). Of course you still have plants and stuff to eat as well.
What about predator/prey problems? Well, that boils down to basic prejudice. While it exists, being evolved into humanoid and advanced intelligent beings, the predatory/prey nature is equivalent to ancient neanderthal human behavior…. It has not place, or need, in modern society. Extreme prejudice does not exist, for the most part, because there is no need for it. Many times these prejudices stem from Religion.
Whoa. Whoa. What about religion? Yes, it’s true, much of WAR is from the basis of religion and power. In PSI, as stated above, there is basically only one religion… for a lack of a better word…. there is just the scale of how much (or little) people are involved with it. The only thing left is power and government to be of concern… which is stated above as well.
Wait, how can people all believe in one thing? Simple. The Goddess actually shows up… or at least used to. Also, history is well recorded in PSI. In the form of documents, or “crystal ball recordings”. Unlike real earth, much history was not destroyed by time or people.
PSI – The Webcomic
PSI was intended to only be a webcomic, as well as have as many cameos and crossovers as possible. While an underlying story is in place for PSI itself, the main characters (Nemi, Fes, and Ernst), have their own storyline that crosses with other webcomics. This namely took place during The Crossover Wars. The whole concept of this War is heavily engrained into the principles of the webcomic, and is not going away. However, there is more effort to keep to the main PSI story elements these days.
PSI – The Print Comic
PSI, as it exists, can never be printed. The original images are not big enough (or existent) to be printed; also the comic uses way too many of other people’s characters…. also it’s format does not lend to a print-friendly format. I will say that there ARE plans to eventually make a printed comic of PSI. HOWEVER, this means that PSI is essentially going to be redrawn AND rewritten. The basic timeline and most major events will be the same or similar. I have yet to decide how to go about all aspects, but I did decide that I’ll be making a print version that is an “abridged” version. I hope to get the webcomic to a certain point where it will be designed for print as well. The first book (if I ever get to it) will probably be an abridged version of the first 450 strips (at best guess… we’ll see).