🌀World's Greatest Psychic!

aspiring webcomic creator + horror enthusiast! 🦷

[psychicmeeks]

🌀 tyler • 21 • college student

currently working on crossbite, a horror comedy webcomic ! post wips, illustrations + media reviews here . always up for making other artist friends . tell me about your webcomic ! 🧠

🦷likes drawing: weird teeth, broken looking hands, bloody noses . cw for all of those in the future !

I'm on insta too 🧟‍♂️

[psychicmeeks]

Reading Roundup: Parasyte Volume 1

People can argue over what genre Parasyte 'truly' fits into– sci-fi, horror, thriller– until they're blue in the face. As an ecohorror enthusiast, I'd like to think in a way, Parasyte could be considered ecohorror.

Not in the 'nature / mutated life forms / environmental disasters turn on humanity' way, but in the 'exploration of humans relationships with animals and nature' way. This is NOT be projecting my favourite horror subgenre on this story (yes it is).

It's been a hot minute since I engaged with the story, and in some ways I don't remember it being so graphic (I will not be posting those pages ☝️) but I also don't remember it being so funny. I think the art style, which has that '90s charm, adds to the humour, but the silly moments and Shinichi's boyish behaviour reminds me that he's just that. A teenage boy. I do think the manga style overall makes Shinichi look older than his anime counterpart, but the reminder makes the story and its themes hit harder.

I'm definitely due to watch the anime again, but I will not mind the manga having a permanent space on my shelves. Do you prefer the original black and white, or the coloured edition? I don't think my bookcase could handle the weight of both...

[psychicmeeks]

Scribbles From the Sketchbook 🧟‍♂️

I haven't had much time (or energy) to get back on my tablet these last few days, but sketching traditionally is always nice– even with no back button. It's funny to see how differently I draw Ted's hair across this sketchbook (and his expressions. He progressively got grumpier). Consistency doesn't matter if it grows out over the course of the story ;]] 🦔

[sketchbookbats]

Kuon-chan

[sharkfinsandfrogs]

Interview with the epic Tyler (@psychicmeeks)

As Crossbite's number one fan, it was only right that I get to be the first to interview its author and creator - Tyler. So enjoy this highly serious and sophisticated interview. 

(And if it gave us an excuse to combine uni work with a hang out session, then that's no one else's business but ours.)

Sharkfin - what is crossbite? Tyler - crossbite is a horror comedy webcomic that's been brewing in my head for three years and that I'm finally getting to work on! it's about a very irritable nineteen year old, Teddy, who treks across the country to find an orthodontist to remove his braces during a zombie apocalypse, because his own orthodontist was killed just as they were due to be taken off. it's very bloody, and very silly, and I can't wait to start properly sharing it!

Sharkfin - How did you come up with the idea? Tyler - when I was about twelve, I bought the game Dying Light. I say bought and not played, because I wasn't very good at video games (I'm still not) and most the games I got myself, my brother would end up taking over and finishing for me while I watched. we decided to replay it together when I was 18, and there are a lot of missions in the game where you have to go to different places and retrieve medicine and other sorts of loot. this got my brother and I thinking and joking about how all the doctors in the game were focused on treating all these sick people with medicine and coming up with a cure for this zombie virus, which is fair, but what about other sorts of doctors and treatment? what if someone's hearing aid broke, or someone's glasses prescription needed updating? what if someone needed their braces tightening!? and it was funny to talk about, but I had braces for almost four years and I have very poor vision. if there was an outbreak, I would have been in trouble in those areas! so crossbite is kind of me thinking about that idea and what sort of kid would genuinely take that risk in a zombie apocalypse 

Sharkfin - when did teddy get his mullet? Tyler - I'd say 'in the early stages of his design' but technically it was the earliest. I had this scruffy kid in my head, and I didn't actually mean to draw his hair so long, it was just meant to be messy, but since I was drawing in pen, it's not like I could have rubbed it out. I tried drawing him with short hair soon after, but it looked off, so I went back and decided the mullet was canon, now. the shaved sides were always a thing, just for the record.

Sharkfin - favourite part of the story? Tyler - I'll try and keep this one vague, don't want to spoil anything (can you do that for something that isn't out yet?) but I lovingly refer to it as 'the ibuprofen scene'. ted and finn aren't exactly friends when they first meet, finn follows teddy around because he knows teddy can hold his own in a fight against zombies or other people, and he's scared of getting hurt himself. ted allows this because finn can guide him to the hospital he's been trying to reach, but he's pretty mean to him on their travels, and finn being quite unconfrontational kind of allows it. in the ibuprofen scene, they’re bickering away, but something happens during their fight that forces this dynamic of theirs to change. it's a big step for finn in a few ways and it makes teddy sort of reassess his behaviour towards this boy. it originally took place a lot later in the story, but I got frustrated at teddy– as much as I love him– and decided his behaviour needed to change much earlier! that might be annoyingly vague, actually, but I don’t think I want to give any more away just yet.

Sharkfin - when did you decide it would be a comic rather than a novel? Tyler - I was writing away, and I was enjoying it, don't get me wrong, but there was something just missing, I think. I could picture the scenery and the characters and their interactions so perfectly in my head, but no matter how many times I wrote and rewrote it down, I couldn't get past the first chapter without thinking 'this is all so different in my head' which was something I hadn't experienced the same way with other stories I wrote. when I scribbled Teddy during a class break, I thought about what Crossbite could look like as a TV series. jumping the gun, I know! but there was a visual aspect that I then knew was missing from the format at the time. I knew the film industry would be very difficult to get into, and just having an illustrated novel wasn't satisfying enough to me. i wanted to see every scene! so i switched it up and tried actually drawing the first fight with Teddy and the zombie, and it clicked. I knew what was up, I was telling this story in completely the wrong format. it took three years to get the ball rolling with the actual comic making process, but we're getting somewhere!

Sharkfin - when can i get the first issue? Tyler - I'll bring it along as a surprise when we hang out some day, just hand it over signed with a doodle on the cover. dead serious, you won't even see it coming.

Sharkfin - Did you like my fan art?? Tyler - I started leaping round my room, of course I loved it! it was awful being sent it so late at night, though, because I had to try to be quiet since everyone else in the house was sleeping. you have the honour of creating the first fanart! and being the first fan. and, like, everything else.

Sharkfin - what's the plan going forward? Tyler - one page at a time! I can't spend an awful long time sitting in front of a screen, I have to break the drawing process down a lot. which kind of sucks, but it makes it manageable. the current plan is to upload one page a week. I'm building a bit of a 'buffer' before I start uploading, meaning that when I upload page one, I'll actually have five pages– just for example, not an exact number– ready, and be working on the sixth. this means if I fall behind at all, being sick, on holiday, whatever, I've got some back up. some day I'd like to be able to put the pages together in physical issues, too, so if i kept at that schedule, I'd have enough pages to be able to release two issues a year! which isn't a lot necessarily, but you know, it's just me working on it right now. if I managed to up it to two pages a week, I'd have enough for four issues a year, which is enough for a whole volume, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. yet.

Sharkfin - will ted and finn ever admit they love each other? Tyler - hey now, what do we mean by that? can I be loose with the 'love' definition? are we meaning platonic, romantic, what's going on here? teddy and finn grow to mean a lot to each other, they save each other's lives over and over, neither of them would have made it this far without each other. they're probably the most important person in each other's life by the end of the story. l think in some way or another, yes, they'll show that, but I'm not sure it'll be as direct as straight up 'admitting it'. whatever that means. wink wink.

Sharkfin - will ted ever wash his hair? Tyler - no. kidding! teddy struggles with self care, but he has a friend to tell him when to take a bath now. and wash his hair for him, if he's really struggling. I do like drawing it both ways, when it's clean and when it's greasy. it has volume when it has been washed, and I like drawing the fluff, but when it sticks up in every direction and looks extra spiky, I quite like that too. he's a very fun guy to draw.

[psychicmeeks]

Thank you for hanging ou💥I MEAN interviewing me, boss! Always a pleasure to talk comics with you :] 🧟‍♂️🦷

[psychicmeeks]

💚🤍🩶🖤 💚🤍🩵💙

I originally had a bloody background for this, but no matter what I did it wasn't working I fear. Oh well, can't win everything. Happy pride, go slay zombies or something 🧟‍♂️

[psychicmeeks]

Reading Roundup: Something is Killing the Children – #0 + A Monster Hunter Walks Into a Bar

I cannot stress how much I LOVE this series. A gory, messy, colourful gem of a comic, I'm almost sad I couldn't follow it from the first issue– but since I started reading in December 2024, I had plenty to catch up with!

The Slaughterverse was something I grew very fond of very quickly, and the art in SIKTC has both inspired me and allowed me to be kinder to myself about my creative process when it comes to drawing.

Sketching, lining, colouring, and shading and highlighting takes immense amounts of time. The digital pieces I create take around seven hours minimum, and that's across several days! I've always been a bit of a perfectionist, which has never helped, redrawing the same line over and over and re-shading the same area until it looks just right– often things others will not even pick up on.

SIKTC utilises a sketchy, scribbly style, with colouring going outside the lines and chicken scratch pencilling on each page. It thrives on that almost unfinished look, but everything about it is so deliberate. Seeing a comic with such a style grow so beloved allowed me to take a step back and go 'Oh. I CAN get a little loose with it!'

I grew up reading superhero comics and manga, and I wish I had the words to describe WHY I love the panelling in SIKTC (might need to reread some comic theory) but seeing the 'simplicity' of it, for want of a better word, is what made me fall in love with it. And I knew this is what I wanted Crossbite* to look like.

(*Hi, if you're new here, this is my webcomic I'm working on). It feels a little cheap to say, considering the medium of comics is so unique and special in its visual storytelling, but the panelling feels cinematic in a way to me. Despite the messiness IN each panel, there's a cutting edge to it all. Each transition is smooth, easy for the eyes to follow, and honestly just gorgeous. And just one last time– the colours!!!

Something I also love– something my phone refuses to photograph well– is the double page spreads, usually on the first set of pages after the title page. Unfortunately I don't think they work as well in trades, as some of the detail can get a little lost so close to the spine, but the flow of the pages is something I find impressive, and I hope I can somehow replicate it when working on Crossbite.

I think the full page panels pictured further up in this post are just as effective, and I love drawing them myself. Whenever I'm feeling a little down with art block, this series picks me right back up. I think I should start keeping a volume nearby while I draw!

[psychicmeeks]

Meet the boys 🦆🧸

While there is a third member of the Protag Gang (👀) she doesn't come into the story for a little while– so here's a bit about this duo of fools surviving the apocalypse. with some design notes under the cut, too!

Theodore 'Teddy' Robins – A young man whose orthodontist was killed at the start of the outbreak, and who is growing increasingly annoyed at the inconvenience of his braces not being removed. Though his journey to find a new orthodontist may seem silly to some, his determination (and a healthy amount of spite) has kept him alive. So far.

Finnley Hart – Another young man whose father is a doctor. Before the zombie outbreak, his dad was transferred to another hospital and Finn was sent to temporarily stay with his mother and her partner in the countryside. After losing contact with his dad, Finn decides to leave 'home' and go looking for him.

Teddy design notes – Ted did not always have a mullet! It was an accidental addition and one I could not remove since I was scribbling in pen, but it fit his scrappy, unkempt nature so well that I almost immediately decided to keep it. Canonically, his hair grows out as the story goes on, so while he starts with shaved sides, he ends up looking like he's been dragged backwards through a bush. Or like a hedgehog 🦔 His face patch is something I sort of forgot about, but it was in early designs for good reason– Ted has a terrible skin picking habit! His acne was something I added a bit later on, so maybe I got rid of the patch to show the scarring a bit more. I think his jacket is my favourite part of his design, though it was much fluffier when I first drew it. I don't think I thought about how quickly it would get dirty... oops.

Finn design notes – Finn's face never really changed. His features, height, body type, hair, almost all of it has stayed the same. What tripped me up was I really, REALLY couldn't decide what he'd wear! In this sketch, he wears a hoodie, like all characters do when you don't know what they'd wear (also, they're stupidly easy to draw) but man, figuring out his fashion took some thinking. He had to be neat, because I wanted him to be a total design opposite to whatever Teddy had going on, but it's not like anyone is wearing designer brands while fighting for their lives, right? So I tried to strike a balance between 'smart' and 'practical'. A jumper and jeans seemed like the right choice, smart-casual. The raincoat eventually came in not just as a practical thing, but because I also wanted Finn to have a similar sort of signature coat that Ted does. Ironic, because I barely draw the boy wearing it. Oops again!

🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️

Teddy is tall, Finn is short. Teddy has a greasy, badly shaved mullet, Finn has a well kept afro. Ted dresses in worn out clothes and scuffed boots, Finn dresses in nice cotton jumpers and big sneakers. Even the colours and layers come into play a bit! Ted has a dark, heavy jacket and a light t-shirt, Finn has a bright, light jacket and a dark, heavy jumper. Ted's design came to me right away, Finn's took LITERAL MONTHS. They're a duo designed to be opposites, and they're best friends! (Though Ted won't admit that).

[psychicmeeks]

What is Crossbite? 🧟‍♂️

(background of this piece by my good friend @sharkfinsandfrogs 🦈🐸 :])

'When his orthodontist is killed during a zombie outbreak, angsty teenager Teddy Robins begins a journey across a post-apocalyptic country to find another orthodontist– alive and preferably uninfected– to remove his overdue braces.'

Crossbite as a story has been brewing in my brain for a few years now– it actually started off as a novel in my second year of college. But I realised soon enough that I wasn't telling the story in the right format. Several scribbles of Ted in my college notebook later, the idea of making the story a comic dawned on me.

While the idea of some grouchy kid trekking the land and risking his life against the undead over some metal in his face was funny to me, though, the concept was still just that. A Concept.

Enter Finn! Ted's best friend annoying acquaintance who he would die without let's tag along for the journey. Finn is introduced searching for medication (and hiding from zombies) in a now destroyed pharmacy, and informs Ted that he's also looking for a doctor. Not an orthodontist, but his own father, who he lost contact with after an emergency hospital transfer at the start of the apocalypse. Realising they have similar goals and the same desitnations, Ted agrees to travel with this stranger, and black eyes, broken limbs, new friends, and several attempted zombie bites follow them on their travels!

Finn was exactly who and what I needed to really kick the story off. Having Ted meet someone with a common goal right at the beginning meant the story got rolling much quicker and had direction now. And Ted now had company, which we all need at the end of the world!

Crossbite is a young adult horror comedy story about friendship, surviving in a world that wasn't made for you ... and smashing zombie skulls in with the nearest heavy object.

I'll be posting plenty of illustrations and works in progress here, but I'm on insta too! Check it out, I don't bite 🧟‍♂️