Soaring through the skies in their flying ship, a girl and her companions must flee from a mad angel who is hellbent on resurrecting his dead god.

Crowns of Yan is an original graphic novel currently undergoing story and art reworking. The Crowns of Yan comic (above) is a pilot for what the actual story will be. The pilot comic tells of Yan and her friends (Kiara the Fire Elemental, Bibi the mermaid-crab, Jin the Swordsman and Ren the Gunswoman) flying on their ship away from the angel Abaddon.

Crowns of Yan is an Asian-inspired fantasy story. In the media today, there is a lack of fantasy set in the asian world and I wanted to create something that would fill that void.

Crowns of Yan tells the story of a girl named Yan who one day comes into possession of an ancient, magical crown. Unknown to her, however, many characters from her world are searching for the crown, most notably the Mad Angel Abaddon. A red, shape-shifting angel with a golden mask, Abaddon seeks the crown to resurrect his  long dead god so that creation may be corrected from its straying path. Along the way, Yan teams up with a variety of persons and together, they find out the crown is merely the tip of a millennia-long machination.

For this pilot, I first created a series of character illustration to better flesh out and understand the characters. Crowns of Yan has been a story I have been planning and thinking about for 3-4 years now and only recently have I devoted more time into creating it’s narrative and art. Fun Fact: In the early days, Yan was named Pandora! She has also gone through 5-6 iterations and edits!

After creating all the character and ship designs, I then moved on to writing the comic. Originally the comic was almost 60 pages long but due to the time frame and work load from other classes, I had to scale down the pages to 40 max in order to keep a constant outflow of pages and not fall behind.

In doing the comic, I first created a script that just generally told the happenings in the comic and laid out the scenes I wanted to show. I wanted each character to have something that they did that reflected on their main strengths. After the script I created thumbnails of each page, editing, cutting and adding pages. After the thumbnails was the long process of doing the roughs, lines and effects. We had a few critiques in our illustration class and from one of the main critiques, I got valuable feedback that led me to edit and rewrite entire sections for more clarity. Whether or not this worked it up to debate, for now the comic feels a bit more cramped and rushed. However I feel that it also gave each character more identity and a spotlight.

What I learned most from doing this project was time. With the constraint of having to finish 37 pages in 12 weeks, I had to skip some corners and in doing so, the quality and quantity that I wanted this comic to be was not achieved. Due to the time limit, I also felt that much of the comic has a rushed feel. I had to cut a few pages of character scenes and dialogue to create a complete story.

However, I learned that I could in fact create a longer comic of my own telling and that it is something I wish to pursue whole heartedly. I learned more about page layouts and dialogue sequences. I developed more skill in drawing the same character over and over again and drawing action and backgrounds.

Now that I have no time constraint, I am able to more fully focus and develop Crowns of Yan into the story I want it to be.

I was born and raised in Burnaby, BC and as the tale goes, drew from when I could first hold a pencil. Growing up, I have enjoyed many books and movies that inspired me to create my own. Originally wanting to be a writer, I felt that my words could not fully convey what I wanted the viewer to see and thus I began to merge my drawings with story telling.

Good stories have always captivated me and I want to tell my own stories that will captivate and entertain others. My own inspirations come from the fantastical “Avatar: The Last Airbender” to the epic struggle between good and evil in “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings”. Many books such as “Mortal Engines” and “Rail Sea” captivated my love of giant, hulking machinery and world building. Countless anime and Manga also influence my style and story telling; anything by Studio Ghibli to the mangas “Witch Hat Atelier” and “Magi: Labyrinth of Magic” give me great joy in drawing.

Many of these works inspired me to create Crowns of Yan. While I want to create more Asian inspired stories that deal with themes of belonging, family and humanity, my main goal is the entertainment of the reader. My biggest wish is that people will read what I create and be drawn into the worlds I write.

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Email: amoszwong@gmail.com