Well, since Chu is shy, I’ve been roped into writing this part. Heh, lucky you.
Chu and I met as ryuugakusei or study-abroad students at Konan University in Kobe, Japan. I think my freakishly hyperactive nature scared her at first but we soon realized we had a common love of manga or Japanese comics. And a common knack for not paying attention in class by either drawing pretty pictures (her) or writing bizarre stories (me). This led to a slight sparking of an idea in our sub-consciousnesses. [She draws + I write + Love of Manga + a lot of caffeine = We should make a comic!]
But we needed an idea. There we were stuck, until one nice October day, after a Friday test, I inadvertently stole the teacher’s pen while filling out a survey. Then we had it: The Pen Stealer! THAT’s our comic!
By the end of the day we had our basic plot, (it pretty much planned itself in a way that made us realize it was indeed destiny). Nine months later, when we had to go home, we were finally done hammering out every inch of the plot. Now that we’re in separate countries, it’s a bit slower, but still going strong. Basically though, we’ve got everything to the end planned out, which we think you’ll enjoy.
Now, about us:
Chu (Julie Carraro) is an artist from Lyon, France. She does everything even remotely design related for the comic. All of the art, layouts, web page coding, even win-amp skins are all her work. Because she is an awesome genius. :-) All of the characters’ physical appearances, costumes (barring some input by me which amounted to “The Consortium people should wear suits!!!1!) and weapon designs come from her. So if you find yourself beset with a huge crush on any Pen Stealer characters, it’s probably her fault.
I (Kal - Melissa Krause), on the other hand, have the designing ability of a slightly hyperactive chimpanzee. So I do the writing. Mostly because my first language is English. I write the scripts (a few chapters ahead), and any and all side-stories, which will be available here when the comics have caught up. (No spoilers!). As Chu once described, with regards to the character creation process, she does the outside where I do the inside. She makes them pretty, I make them think, or something like that.
The overall story is fifty-fifty. We made it together, tossing ideas back and forth until we got stuff that actually worked. :-) Though I admit, most of the more f-ed up plot twists were probably my idea. Fortunately, she’s much saner than I am which is very, very valuable because she keeps me from getting carried away and making the story completely incomprehensible.
Anyway, you’ve wasted enough time here. Go back and read the comic!
-Kalinara