Panicversary

He was a staple of deviantART back a few years ago, but my character Panic had a bit of a renaissance this year, and today, the 20th of December, is the 5-year anniversary of when I first made him up! So I just had to draw a picture of Panic and some of the other important characters in his story (plus his "children" Newark and Ohare, up at the top) celebrating together.

Panic might not be the world's greatest character or the most original and his story is pretty wacky but he means a lot to me! As I've worked on revamping his story this year I've come to appreciate how far I've come in story-telling. When I was younger, I was really good at making up stories, but telling them so that other people could understand? Not so much. Now I can do both reliably well and that people are still interested in Panic as a character is a testament to that.

If it wasn't for Panic, I would also not have a bunch of my other stories (like Homestead Ghosts and Heroes of Thantopolis) since they take place in a universe impacted by the end of Panic's story, and I love that universe so much and I love having this nice little personal mythology to unpack and play with!

5 years is the longest I can remember working on a story. I hope I'll continue to work on it, plus the stories after it, and create even more stories in the next year!

Clockwise from top right: Ohare, Frenzy, Havoc, Mrs. Acorn, Veld, Panic, Cal, Sierra, The Phantom, Newark.