Twilight Lady – a Supernatural Fantasy webcomic by Blake JK Chen

When writing dialogue, I often find it useful to try to imagine not only the sound of a character’s voice, but their speech mannerisms, down to every idiosyncratic detail and nuance.

These are not always set in stone, and tend to evolve. When it comes to the Lady, whenever I find myself wondering, imagining what she may sound like delivering a given line, I can’t help but think of “Mysteries” by Beth Gibbons. Inevitably, this song pops up in my mind whenever I try to “hear” the Lady, whether I want it to or not.

… I realize that I’ve been going about promoting Twilight Lady the wrong way.

After the first 5-10 minutes, Inception is basically a fun caper movie cum psychological thriller with a fairly straightforward plot and POV. But all the hype surrounding the film seemed to be about how difficult it is to follow. (“You’ll have to see this movie 5 times to really get it. 5 TIMES!”) Sheer marketing genius.

Now, if you’ve ever tried describing Twilight Lady to anyone, I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a bit of a challenge. I usually keep it simple, so as not to scare people off by making it sound totally convoluted. “She’s kind of like Nikita but with supernatural abilities. Oh, and she’s a ghost. Sometimes…”

Like I said, maybe I’ve been approaching this the wrong way.

Next time you tell someone about this comic, I suggest using one or more of the following lines to entice ’em:

“It’s 1000 times more confusing than Inception, believe me!”

“Only starts to make sense after you read it for the 50th time. Backwards.”

“You’ll never figure out what this comic is about. Not until the day you die. Maybe not even then. PROMISE!”

“You thought Inception was incomprehensible? Wait’ll you read Twilight Lady!”

And so on, and so forth… (Feel free to make up your own.)

Lately, this comic has probably had more scene changes, flashbacks, references to past events, and shifts in point of view than usual. I suspect this is why some readers are having trouble keeping up (at least, that’s the impression I’m getting).

So I figured, what better time to hold the very first Twilight Lady Q & A?

Feel free to ask any question. (Doesn’t have to be related to story or continuity.)

And don’t feel limited to questions either… jump in anytime with an answer or comment if you have one.

As you might have noticed (if you’ve taken a gander at the archive section lately), I’ve distilled this series so far into 3 main volumes.

Volume One, Demon Down the Corridor, features Rona’s first encounter with the “Cass Killer” (aka the Lady in the Hood), followed by her maiden voyage to Subrealm, and reunion (of sorts) with her father.

Volume Two, Sympathy in the Key of Oblivion, begins with the tale of Patrice and Helen, young lovers separated by the ultimate divide, and ends with the Lady’s final confrontation with the soul-snatching demon troll Belahm.

In between these first two volumes are the short stories Peace Time and The Disappeared.

(And where, you may ask, does Twilight Lady Sings the Blues fit into all this? That’s a question that will be answered in the very near future…)

Which brings us to Angel of Death… Nemesis of Decay, the third volume in the series. What’s in store? Well, a couple of long-running story threads (What is Eleanor’s plan? Will Rona get her body back?) are being brought to the fore. Jen will begin to feel the impact of events in the astral plane on her reality and life (you didn’t think she was gonna remain oblivious forever, didja?). The big question will be addressed: how, and why, did the Lady end up trapped in a Senserealm body?

Oh, and as always… demons. Of numerous shapes and guises. Some you’ll find familiar, others not so obvious…

Nothing against wallpapers, pins, and all those other goodies typically offered to webcomic readers as donation incentives, but purist that I am, I figured… what could beat a brand-new, original comic story?

Thus, for a limited time only, readers donating $2 or more to Twilight Lady will get a digital (PDF) copy of Twilight Lady Sings the Blues, an ALL-NEW 10-page tale in which Jennifer Moon meets a blind bluesman haunted by the ghost of murder ballads past. A tale written by myself, and illustrated by Federico Zumel and James Taylor.

Click here to preview Twilight Lady Sings the Blues.