Reprinted from my This Mortal Coil blog.

I finished the first draft of the Rabbit and the Moon comic script -- the name for the first Mortal Coil story I'm going to illustrate. The story has its origin in the Chinese myth about, well, the rabbit on the moon. If you look at the moon there's a shape that looks like a rabbit with a mortar and pestle -- you may have to use your imagination a bit. The Chinese story says that the rabbit is pounding the ingredients for the elixir of immortality. If you adhere to the Japanese story the rabbit is just pounding mochi. Maybe eating mochi will make you immortal.

When I started this blog, I decided that I wanted to be fairly open about everything I do from creation the website, writing the stories, and ultimately illustrating them. You'll get to read about all the troubles and triumphs I go through, but that's all an aside to what this site is primarily about -- the comic itself.

Since there's no comic yet, you'll just have to settle for me.

This Mortal Coil: The Rabbit and the Moon isn't the Chinese myth but it uses elements of that legend. It's originally based off of a single drawing I did (image below). I wanted to flesh it out into a fully realized story.



In the story, a demonic wolf god, who's been sealed away, breaks fee and seeks the elixir of immortality to regain his strength and power so that he may use it to take vengeance against Houyi the archer who helped seal him away.

Houyi is another character from a parallel Chinese myth called the Woman on the Moon or the same myth depending on which version you read. In that story, Houyi and his wife Chang'e or Chang'o (I go with the former) were immortals. One day ten suns rose over the Earth and the emperor asked Houyi to do something about it. Houyi, being an archer, solved the problem with what he knew best: shooting things with arrows. So he shot nine out of ten of the suns. These suns were also the sons of the emperor, and that didn't make him happy. In retaliation, he made Houyi and his wife mortal. Chang'e wasn't pleased with this, and her husband sought to fix that by finding the pill of immortality. When he gets it, he hides the pill, and she finds it, and he finds her finding it, and this all leads to her popping it in her mouth. When she does, she turns immortal and floats away. Houyi, again, being an archer, decided the best way to handle this newfound problem was with an arrow to shoot his wife down, but his love for her keeps him from doing so, so she floats away and lands on the moon. She lives there with a rabbit named Jade and in some stories a lumberjack. In a variation, Houyi tosses his wife Jade to keep her company on the moon.

That's the brief summary and there are many variations, so pick and choose your favorite.

My story doesn't follow it, but grabs elements from it. Chang'e and Jade are definitely in the story -- Kamiko is on her way to meet them. I don't know what happens to Houyi after the Chinese story but there's a little tale I concocted for him in my story. Archery plays a role as well. What I've done is remix elements into a story with Kamiko. There are elements that are also purely mine but I'll keep those close to me for now.

The script exists as a first draft and there is still plenty or work to be done. Next up is a read through and rewrites. I don't think I've eeked out all of the potential storytelling I can, but I think it's a decent foundation to go from. I've also got to do a bit of research to draw various elements of the story. There's a giant wolf god, a rabbit, the woman on the moon, a god dressed as a Lolita, Shinto shrines, and a town that sits in the Japanese countryside. These are places I haven't been to before but seen in manga, anime, and jodramas set in those types of places. Can I really draw them? I've never really drawn animals either so that's another challenge, but I doesn't matter if I can draw them well, I just have to figure out an approach and start. Aside from revising the story I'll also be putting together a visual bible. I need to draw concept artwork for the characters too. There is a lot to be done.

There is another overarching question I keep asking myself: why this story and not another? There are times I have doubts that this should be the first story. Is it the best that I have? Is there another one that should be better? What should this first story try to accomplish? There are a lot of questions. I did think to continue with the origin story but honestly I'm not clear about Kamiko's origin. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this story if I don't know the origin but I want to start somewhere in middle and not be constrained by the origin of all things Mortal Coil. In the end, I shouldn't wait for the prefect story or I'll never get this venture off the ground. Since Janurary, I've batted the story around loosely in my mind. I tried a more gung-ho approach but decided to rein that back and give it more development time so this way when it comes time to draw the passion doesn't just flame out after page three. I think I've lived with the idea for the Rabbit and the Moon long enough that I want to make it work. It's a fun little stand-alone action adventure story. It's a step in allowing me to create my own comic and tell this story of Mortal Coil. I don't think it's perfect but it's a good place to start.

I hope when I start to deliver on this promise you'll enjoy the comic.