So in the past few weeks, I’ve been redeveloping the past between Danyil and Ingrid in response to a very logical observation on behalf of an editor. Basically, I needed to recreate Ingrid’s descent from human to vampire because her original story didn’t fly with my handmade vampire logic. A baby turned into a vampire would remain a baby. A baby born a vampire will age to decrepitude. As it stood, Ingrid was a baby turned into a vampire. Now I don’t think she’d have quite the power she does as an infant with an undeveloped neuronal crest (thus, no periphery nervous system, thus, no feelings).
Anyway, I needed Ingrid’s past to fit into the RE time frame with as little disruption to her relationship with the cast as possible. Since that meant turning her into a vampire somewhere in her teens between Lacy’s (13) and Micah’s (17) age, I made a very deliberate decision. I would NOT make Ingrid a victim. That would have been the easiest way to totally annihilate the integrity of her infatuation with Danyil and his reciprocated affection. It would also blow up my idea of vampires completely.
So, I decided what she did to force Danyil to turn her into a vampire in order to keep her from dying. I’m not going to say it here because I want to say it in conjunction with something else later on, and besides I’ve already gotten pretty far off-track from what I meant to write about.
I started working on a short manga that takes place right after Danyil turned Ingrid into a vampire. It felt so good to get back into manga frames and speech bubbles. And Danyil is and always has been my absolute easiest character to draw successfully.
That led me down a very nostalgic path through the pages of Nikkei. It’s partly because of how much amusement I find in looking also at where Ingrid (“Mikara”) started off. She was sort of a flake in Nikkei (her and every other girl in the story). But she was definitely close to Danyil (“Eripmav”) and Alexander (“Alucard”), and that much hasn’t changed.
Anyway, I drew this macho picture of Danyil in his old (creepy) kimono top thing that was his “uniform” in Nikkei, and it made me realize how fundamentally unchanged Danyil’s image has stayed — yet also it made me realize how much better he looks now.
I mean, yes, Micah and Andrew grew visually, but they also changed. I messed with their hair. Their hair colors. Etc.
Danyil’s still rocking the long black ponytail and only in one of his many appearances did I even alter it (I’m not counting “Lannen.” Just no.), and that was because he, as Erik in “Rebels”, took on a significantly different vibe than usual.
Anyway, my ranting can be done now. I’m just going to post a few pictures of Danyil for my own amusement. There’s also a ton about him here.
I think the interesting thing about Danyil especially being so constant is that…he’s sort of the villain. He’s the one that rarely copes with his emotions properly. Maybe that’s one way, then, that I don’t feel like I’ve improved as I’ve matured. No, I don’t throw fits like I used to, but I don’t think that my responses to periods of high emotional stress are healthy. So maybe in that way, I stay with Danyil because he stays with me.
That, and I mean, he’s the only male character of mine whose muscles are so damn ripped.
