The Ring of Saturn~ Our very first Novae universe comic (Patreon)

Download the PDF below or download from the dropbox. 

Hello Starlights,

We've been avoiding posting this for a long time because it contained heavy spoilers for the time jump. But now that we've reached the big twist, we're happy to share this story with you all.

This was our very first Novae universe comic. It came about because we had submitted a proposal for Novae to this small publisher called Chromatic press. They liked the idea, but they thought it was very ambitious and wanted to try something shorter. So we all decided to do a short story within the universe. Jen and I quickly brainstormed the story and they approved.

The story takes place in WW1 era England and follows a student of Holst (The Planets) who is struggling with her musical endeavors. While trying to understand the piece she's learning, she runs into Rasim (Raziol) and they quickly become friends.

If the pages look weird because of the tones, try adjusting the size. The dang moiré effect is one reason I'll never work in tones again haha...

Thoughts and spoilers ahead, read after the comic:

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It's been 11 years since this was released.

You'll notice the art is very different from our current style. This was my first comic longer that 15 pages so I learned a whole lot. But I'm still very proud of it. ❤ If I could go back though, I'd make the ending more drawn out. (And maybe make some of the messages more clear.)

Raziol's reaction may be a bit of a shock at the end, and yeah, he was definitely a jerk. But, since we only see Miriam's POV it's hard to know what Raz was thinking. This was a point in his life when he was pretty jaded about his long life and Miriam bringing up the death of her friend only made Raziol realize that his friendship with Miriam wouldn't last. So in a way, he's saying those words to himself. "What did you expect." 😣 Raz you dumb butt.

Miriam's thoughts at the end are also a little vague. The piece she was struggling with was "Saturn: The bringer of old age". It's a slow and contemplative piece, and lacks the optimism and vigor that Jupiter has (Jupiter was also a patriotic song at the time). In the beginning Miriam is very much like Jupiter but after experiencing the loss of her friend, starts to understand what it means to live without really knowing where the future will lead. This helps her understand the piece because she herself has felt that she has aged due to the events in her life involving the war.

Though we've both grown a lot as artists and storytellers this story still has one of  my favorite double page spreads we've ever done: