Count Spades :: About

ť About Antares

about ANTARES//

Real Name// Roxanne (Marie) Gray
Online Names// Antares, Cordlessbungee, Lunahan
Birthday// March 29th, 1988
Religion// Agnostic
Pets// Pringles (family cat), Persia (siamese cat), Pico (mother's bearded dragon), Mojo (chihuahua)
Favourite Flowers// Alstroemeria, Lotus
Favourite Color// Navy Blue, White, Silver, Rose Red, and PURPLE!!
Least Favourite Color// Mustard Yellow
Favourite Food// Mexican and Chinese
Least Favourite Food// Pot Pies, Spinache
Weakness// Chocolate, Sweets
Fear// Heights, Lightning, Spiders

Favourite Artists// Takashi Takeuchi, Carnelian, Azuma Mayumi, CLAMP, Hyung-tae Kim, Katsura Hoshino

Favourite Bands/Singers//
(Japan)// Hyde, Orange Range, Asian Kung-fu Generation, L'Arc~en~Ciel, BUCK-TICK, Nightmare, High and Mighty Color, Itou Kanako (Non-Japan)// Linkin Park, Alien Ant Farm, Hoobastank, Breaking Banjamin, Goo Goo Dolls, Hello Goodbye, Frou Frou, Seal

Favorite Manga// Fullmetal Alchemist (WAY better than the anime FULL STOP.), D.Gray-Man, Star Ocean Second Story, Erementar Gerad, Death Note (Oh gawd PLEASE don't go all annoying DN fangirl on me.), Black Cat, Ouran High School Host Club, Tsubasa Reservior Chronicles, X/1999, XXXHolic, Neon Genesis Evangelion

Favorite Games// Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil 4, Melty Blood (Kohaku pwns ALL!!), Soul Calibur (2-3), Devil May Cry (1 and 3. 2 sucked.), Skies of Arcadia, Wild Arms (1, 3, AC:F, and 5.), Dirge of Cerberus, Zelda (Ocarina of Time & Twilight Princess)

<3 Loves// Cats, rabbits, yaoi, shounen-ai, shoujo-ai, sleeping, rain, manga, drawing (duh..), humor, well-written stories with loveable characters, roleplaying, pepsi, sweets.
<\3 Do Not Loves// Homophobes (We're living in the present, so get over it, you turds!), horror movies, mornings, thunder and lightning, hospitals, spiders and cockroaches, heights, hot weather, people with no sense of humor, PWP stories.

about COUNT SPADES//
Frequently and not-so-frequently asked questions.

Why did you name it Count Spades?
...cause.. it's the name of the main character? D: No, actually, I was just going to name it Spades. But that name was already taken. So I just went to Count Spades. Though I think in the end I really ended up loving it. Given the opportunity to go back and change it, I wouldn't. XD

How long do you plan Count Spades to last?
Quite a while. There's ALOT of story to it, and there's ALOT of characters. And in between chapters I'll be having filler chapters which are basically nothing that speeds up the plot. Just good ol' CS stupidness. Each chapter will be at least 17-20 pages.

What is your process for making comic pages? Okay, okay.. I'll tell you my secret. *SHOT*.. no.. there's no secrets.. I'm pretty lame. =__=; But eh.. the process? Basically, I just sketch it all out on printer paper. Because.. you know.. I can't afford that expensive manga-paper shit. XDDD *high fives the little guys* I ink it all over with Sakura Micron pens.. and bigger lines with Faber-Castell pens. Erase all the pencil.
To clean it up now. I have a bright screen, so I put another layer on my scanned page and multiply it after filling it with gray so I can see the faint pencil marks. After I erase it all, I adjust the curves to get rid of the rest of the pencil crap. XD And then I just tone.
..
I get the feeling that wasn't useful. XD At all.

How often to you update? OHGOD. @__@;; When.. I finish a page?? *cough* Actually.. it depends.. I always have crap going on.. so I don't have a schedule or anything yet. I hope as soon as I get my chaotic world under control, I can update at least 2 or 3 days a week. That's my goal. But eh. XD;

[Insert character's name here] looks alot like ____ from that ___ anime/manga! I know.. I get that ALOT. I'm not exactly sure you guys know this, but not alot of artists take that as a compliment. Anyway.. I've gotten all kinda of comparisons. XD;; *goes down list* Lots of them D.Gray Man characters. Also.. Spades has has lots of character comparisons too.. like Neuro. @A@;; Ahaha, they do look alot alike indeed, but only in black and white. Otherwise they're completely different. By the way, thanks for telling me about him! XD Now I have a new favorite manga. *cough* I get alot of really.. silly comparisons too.. like Spades being like Tamaki from Ouran.. and even comparing MY twins with the Ouran twins which I.. just don't get.. at all. XD;;; Oh well.. it's kind of fun. But please don't try to look at it all seriously. That's just plain dumb. *shakes head*

You're taking in characters?? Can I submit a character? No.. I'm sorry.. ;__; That's all done with. I've already recieved quite alot of them and it helped me build up the plot big time. So thankyou to all of the people who helped me out with that. And I'm sorry to those who want to submit. @-@ *bows*

The following questions were asked by fans.

What's with Spades' memory/sleeping problem? Is he some kind of idiot? I know.. he can seem pretty.. ...uh.. well.. stupid at times. But believe me when I say he's not an idiot. He's pretty childish, but in reality, he's actually very smart. He's just.. well.. you know. XD;
Anyway, speaking of Spades' memory and sleeping problem, I'll just put it out and say that they are two completely different problems. I've hear people say that Spades has alzheimers. XD That's a pretty good way to look at it considering how old he is. *cough* And for the whole sleeping thing.. well.. I can't explain that yet. D: All I can say it that he didn't gain that naturally. I don't want to spoil anything.

What was Spades' father like? Will we get to meet him? In flashbacks, yes, you will most certainly be able to get a glimpse of Millénaire. For now, I think you can already easily imagine what kind of character he may be if Spades freaks out and becomes traumatized everytime he's reminded of him. XD

What's Lala's real name? Aaaahhh.. the famous question. I can't tell you!! XD;;; That'd like.. completely ruined everything about the series! Please wait patiently~

Is that a hand in the massive test tube I see in the 4th panel? .....what exactly is Rutile researching?? (Chapter 02 Page 10) He's researching several things. Chimeras and homunculi and one of many. That hand you see in the page actually belongs to an important character later on in the series.

What's a "Negatyw"?

It's the race of Spades, Smiley, Hearts, Rutile Quartz, and most of the characters in the series. Literally means "negative". XD; I designed them to be like vampires, hence, the sharp teeth. Here are some interesting facts abotu Negatyw which make them WAY different from humans:
-Their skin is very sensitive to sunlight. That's because their world has no sun. But there are a few number (VERY FEW. XD) of Negatyw who can actually stay out in the sun without getting hurt.
-They used to be bloodsuckers. Keyword: used to. As time went on, they realized that drinking human blood was barbaric and they stopped and developed new kinds of food to give them nutrients.
-They're ten times stronger than the average human, which is basically why Spades was able to lift a ceiling over his head without breaking his back or Smiley breaking through walls with his fist.
-There are two kinds of Negatyw: Nobles and Commoners. You can tell this by their eyes. Nobles' sclera are white; because they are mainly inside and their eyes are protected from from the fumes that are in the air outside in their world. Commoners' sclera are black (like Smiley's) because of how much their outside. There are Negatyw who are not nobles but because of how much their inside, they aren't effected as much.

Are Lala and Spades going to be a couple? Eeeehhhhhhhhh.... D:
Okay.. I'm just going to put this out in the open. I am just plain HORRIBLE at romances. That's why I never have any romance comics. No, I don't plan to make any real couples in this series, but then again, I have gone through changes before. Count Spades is more an action/adventure/humor comic.. because there's more of than than there is romance. But I guess that's up for the readers to say for sure. XD

Is there going to be yaoi? This isn't a yaoi/shounen-ai comic.. x_X There's plenty of really nice BL comics out there on Smackjeeves, so I think if you go look around, you'll find some great ones.

Riot and Uru are BOYS?? Yes and no. They're homunculi and they were created without a specific gender. So they're called boys by default.

When is [Insert character's name here] going to make an appearance?? I get ALOT of questions like this. PLEASE be patient. Count Spades isn't the series that overfloods the first few chapters with characters nonstop. It drives me nuts when comics do that, because it becomes confusion and frustrating for me. So I take it nice and slow when introducing characters. Afterall, Count Spades is meant to be a long series. Where's going to be the fun in the rest of the chapters if there aren't new characters to use because I already introduced them all?

More Q&As to be added later on!

note from ANTARES//

In about two more months, it will have been almost a full year since Count Spades has started, and to be completely honest, I am quite shocked. When I first started it, I was expecting it to go downhill like my first comic; I'd eventually lose motivation to work on it or get really lazy. to my complete surprise, it got lots of hits by the time I posted it's first promition picture.

Since then, I have been trying my best to improve the comic with each page that's completed. Count Spades has really helped me become a creative writer and teach he to be creative. But even with it's help, the true and only thing that has really made Spades such a success was the fans. People stuck with the series and kept by my side through the entire time whether I was in a great mood or when I just felt so down that sometimes I didn't even want to work on it anymore.

Because of you, Count Spades has over 1000 fans and I've gotten lots of lovely comments, constructive critiques, and gorgeous artwork. So thankyou for all of your support everyone! With each fan, I will promise to make Count Spades as enjoyable, fun, and silly for everyone! <3

~Antares