#val askbox

[valkwise]

just wanted to say how much i love your work. i know I Am of Two Hearts is about being a trans man but it really spoke to me as an aroace cis woman... please never stop making art!

thank you so much <333

[valkwise]

what are the little pointy hats the princess of all bloods attendants got on called... theyre so cute and remind me of a henin/escoffion

i didn’t design them off of one thing in particular, but they’re based on hennins, wimples, …and the night maiden twin crown in elden ring 😗👉👈

[valkwise]

I love the princess’ character! Is there any extra tidbits about her that you can share that didn’t make it into the comic?

it's not necessarily pointed out in the comic - she really hates wearing proper clothing...! she spends most of her time in nightgowns

she was also the first character to really materialize. the idea for this story first sparked when i was watching jacob geller's "dark souls 3 is thinking of ending things" video -- i'm bad at video games so i'd never seen the giant lady in the DLC until then *_*

[valkwise]

IFV was so unique... it took some digesting to wrap my head around, but at its core it's a horror story about empathy, and I'd never seen that before. I understand the princess of all blood maybe a little too well, trying to harden her heart to the horrors she's enacting (and deep down may not even want to, but she needs to, to be strong.) I'm better now but it all resonates beautifully.

<3 <3 <3

[valkwise]

Christ, that spread in IN FAIR VERONA... I audibly said, "goddamn" at it, then the last page hits and... 😱

I need to give it a few rereads before I fully comprehend it, but there was always something about how much IMPACT the page turns with your ShortBox Fair comics had, and you really outdid yourself this year. That spread is burned into my memory. 😨

hehehe thank you....! it's the first two page spread i've ever done, and it took a lot of fussing over to get it to line up correctly in the pdf (even more for print!!)

[valkwise]

I think In Fair Verona was my favorite purchase, it's so visceral and upsetting and I also wanted so much more context for the odd world that they're in, and the tenderness between the two and their history. How were they chosen?

take this with a grain of salt b/c it wasn't a thought i fully explored when i was making the comic -- i imagine they weren't chosen for any particular reason! the princess isn't picky, and she goes through her wives fast. but once two people are picked, they're sent to stay at the little building we see in the beginning until their predecessors die (the princess doesn't like to spend too long without company, so there always needs to be wives and fools in the queue!)

[valkwise]

Since it seems that Verona and the main character knew each other when they were younger what was their relationship like before they were sent to the princess?

it seems like a cop out answer but....that is up to you!! in all honesty i don't think too much about things like this beyond what i allude to in the comic, and those allusions were put there with the intention of being vague and interpreted in different ways.

[valkwise]

Sorry if this is a weird question, but i absolutely adored how squimish the horror and gore in verona made me feel, how did you find the balance in making sure that the torture and horror were effective, but not too much?

thank you!! i was inspired really heavily by the leg breaking scene in ken russell’s “the devils”. it’s a scene that had me near tears with how brutal it is, but no gore is ever really shown. it’s the reaction of the characters that makes the scene as effective as it is.

my goal was to play around with other elements outside of the blood and guts to get the point across :-)