Zak and Kal
- June 13, 2023
Lucas —
Kal and Zak, everybody. What a couple-a jerks!
The Windnets are one of my favourite locations in the comic (so far!). They basically started out as a windmill crossed with a fishing boat. The folks in Jea’s village get not only food, but also textiles and other materials they need to survive, from the sky. The Windnets are basically a factory for creating the things the villagers need to survive. Even the structure itself is a mix of scavenged and manufactured materials.
The design started with me doodling just about every fantastical windmill-like structure I could find pictures of, both real and imagined. When I started, I honestly thought I was going to end up with something that looked like a traditional Dutch windmill (but — you know — teetering precariously over the vast expanse of the sky).
But… I found myself really gravitating towards the exaggerated pastiche of Tiki architecture. The high, hipped roofs cantilevered out over raised piers almost look like upside-down canoe hulls. It really resonated with the found-materials aesthetic I was trying to nail down, and the fungus-growing-on-a-tree-trunk inspiration of the rest of the village.
The interior of the Windnets, though, is just straight-up cribbed from a Viking longhouse … except instead of a cooking fire in the middle of the room, we have a yawning chasm in space. Maybe not very OSHA-compliant, but it makes for a great visual!
