(Or, my bumbling attempt to explain my own insanity.)
Are you confused? Yes? Good. You should be, if you're in this page. If you know exactly what's going on, then get the heck outta here, ya darn know-it-all!!! *ahem*Anyway...
Welcome, all new and old visitors to Randomity! The site of wackiness, of comic hoo-has, and of stuff!
Quite simply, Randomity is three comics rolled into one. I have two epic, ongoing comics which I have sworn to uphold until I die or accidentally forget about them, and then one third "comic" which consists of a series of one-shot, typically farce and spoof mini-comics. For more in-depth explanations of each comic, just click on thier spiffy logos that I created:
Band of Four
This is the original comic; Band of Four. Hence why the URL has it in the title. It began way back in 2002, after I learned that my friend, LKM, had an on-line webcomic. I went to it, perused, became insanely jealous, and decided to start my own. The first issue of Band of Four was posted on Comicgenesis back in September 2002. It should have continued, but due to wacky server problems at Comicgenesis, it was shut down for several months; I had absolutely no access to the files or anything until its triumphant return in May of 2003. Band of Four has been going strong since.
The Story Thus Far
It is the 16th century in merry old England. Octavian is a young Franciscan monk at St. Matthew's abbey. His hobbies include reading (especially ancient texts), whiling away the time with his mentor, Julian, and translating a battered book written in Elvish called "The Aversion". Unfortunately, he's not the only one with an eye on the Elvish book. A mysterious Dominican monk known only as Brother Thackery arrives at Saint Matthew's abbey seemingly from nowhere, and the next thing Octavian knows, his book has been stolen!
But wait--there's a catch. It turns out that Thackery is really a demon (like, from Hell) called Daemos. He and another demon, Pip, have
stolen the book because The Aversion contains an incantation required to avert the Apocalypse--which is already well underway, according to Daemos.
Unfortunately, the page with the incantation on it had been being translated by Octavian, and is back at St. Matthew's abbey.
Which is up in flames.
Being the
only one to not have been present when the abbey started burning (from fire from the sky, no less), Octavian came under harsh suspicion
from his fellow monks, and was excommunicated. Disconsolate, he wandered into a seedy pub, the Cloak and Dagger, where he stumbled upon a friendly face:
Raoul Pengirth. A childhood friend, Raoul happily lends an ear to Octavian's woes. Unfortunately, just as the two are making real headway in their catching up,
Daemos and Pip crash the pub. Raoul and Octavian flee, but before Daemos can give chase the elvish warrior who had been hunting a "raven-haired thief"--Raoul--
runs him through with her really big sword.
The cranky elf (known as The Falconer) overtakes Octavian and Raoul, and proceeds to beat the snot out of them both. But between blows, it is learned that, firstly,
The Falconer had been looking for the Aversion, and secondly, that not only was Raoul responsible for the Aversion landing in Octavian's hands
(he thought it would make a good birthday present), but the thief first got it from The Falconer's village.
Which had also gone up in flames.
Just as The Falconer is about to skewer Raoul, Octavian bravely redirects her anger towards himself, admitting that he had owned the Aversion for the
past several years. Deciding she might as well kill both humans for her trouble, as the elf prepares to slit Octavian's throat Daemos appears, whole and wholly
pissed at being run through. The demon strikes a "bargain"
with The Falconer, holding hostage both her falcon and The Aversion in exchange for her putting away her sword.
In the end, and uneasy truce is made between all parties. Raoul departs for other adventures, and Octavian is left with the surliest of companions to try and
stop the Apocalypse. They are currently on their way to the elvish city of Wynn.
Oh, and did we mention there are copies of The Aversion? Yeah.
Wranglers
My second epic comic, "Wranglers" runs in a bit of a different thread than Band of Four. Yes, it's an epic comic (meaning that the entire comic is one long story). Yes, it's also got a group of mismatched folk working (unwillingly) together, and yes, there are demons in this too. And yet, it is the differences that make Wranglers unique: First, the demons are not from Hell. They belong to a wider theatre of other "mythological" creatures, and have no connection to the Dark One in any way (unless, of course, they play with Ouija boards or something). Wranglers is also drawn differently than Band of Four; inked and drawn in manga style. And, while Wranglers is an epic story, at this point I'm fairly elastic about how it will proceed--even I'm not sure when something will take a massive directional turn. Finally, when I began Wranglers, I originally wanted a purely spoof comic; something that would fundamentally be a big joke of an archetypal fantasy/adventure comic, or would contain spoofs within it. It has since morphed into something more serious, but I still like to have fun with it. Therefore, if you do a double-take, don't worry--it's probably supposed to be in there. ^_^
The Story Thus Far
Vallerjo is a man of high class and even higher taste. He enjoys his fine, sprawling home, his privacy, and sitting in front of a huge fire congratulating himself on a good life aquired. He also owns an imp named Martini. Yes, I said imp. Unfortunately for Vallerjo, it seems his prosperity has come at a bit too high a price for the Bureau he works for, and they've set him up with a partner to ensure nothing else really big gets blown up. Too bad for the Bureau Vallerjo has absolutely no interest in a partner, but being recently saddled with his wayward young cousin Marvista, he doesn't have much time to argue.
The Mini-Fief
The Mini-Fief (short for "fiefdom") has no storyline. Instead, it's a more classic "comic strip"; each installment will be its own, self-contained story/gag/joke. I may have several installments of a spoof I particularly enjoy (such as the popular "Der Wiener Junger Chorale"), but that has yet to be determined. These strips have no real rhyme or reason--they're just funny. These are where the really obvious spoofs will be, and I even make sure to put it on each strip what it's a spoof of. Isn't that handy?! In the dropdown, to find any one particular Mini-fief strip, it'll be listed thus: MF [number of strip]: Adventures of Butterfly Man.
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