Comic news for Tigress, Freya Crescent, and Loona/Bee

WiP cover by Honi_Do

Hello there,
Before talking about the tiger in the room, I'd like to simply give some quick news about Freya and Loona/Bee.

Freya: Because Honi Do was working on 3 comics at the same time this month (Krystal, Freya and Tigress. We were trying to finish The Bond, and to launch the Tigress comic for today) , Freya is more late than we thought.  Page 10 has started only this week actually. It's not cancelled or anything, it's just late and we know how to catch up. Nothing to worry about.

Loona/Bee: As mentioned in the previous news, the artist got big life issues and needed to be replaced. A replacement has been found. We're just waiting a bit to see if the former artist can still return (as she said she'd still want to do it, but she just can'tright now ) or not.
In any case, assuming nothing similar happen to her replacement, that comic should get back to progress at the end of the month.

Tigress:
Don't worry! The project is absolutely not cancelled, far from it.
The story is written, the story board was ready enough, the cover was about to be finished, and the advertisement to find funders was even planned for today!

But we want to rewrite it. Allow me to explain:

When I write a comic about a specific female character, I always have to ask myself "who will be the character she will be paired with?" For the majority of characters, the answer is obvious, as there are often already existing pairing.
- Diane x Wolf
- Marian x Robin
- Freya x Fratley
- Krystal x Dinosaurs

For Tigress, the obvious choice is Po. Many people, including myself, ship him with Tigress. After all, don't they look cute together? Especially in the second movie.
Then why is it Tai Lung on the cover?

The issue is entirely about sex appeal. Po may be funny, clumsy, overpowered at time, but he's also not really porn material. And it's not even because he's fat. The issue is that he is too passive. Even in fancomics about that particular pairing, it's mainly Tigress leading the charge in a way or another. Nothing wrong with a lady leading, but Po is just... there. Doing his stuff, but not bringing much in the table narratively speaking. Sex wise, he's not interesting.

He is WAY too innocent.

And neither Honi Do or myself felt like drawing him doing porn stuff anyway.

Then, who could be paired with Tigress? Tai Lung was the second obvious choice. Not only because of his more pleasing aesthetic, in addition of being a feline, like Tigress, but also because they both share lore together.
But I always try to be as accurate and respectful as possible to the source material, and those two have no particular chemistry together, so how to pair them? And better, how could I pair them without contradicting the possible ship with Po?

I won't go into details, but it was going with lot of spiritual stuff. Astral projection, karmic stuff, ... I did quite a lot of research in order of using those tools accurately.
In all honesty, I think the story could work. It was like a journey, you see. Lot of obstacles, travels and such. It could have been satisfying...
If it wouldn't have taken most likely a year, with 1 page per month, to just reach Tigress x Tai Lung. So much time... didn't seem right.

A second version put Tigress directly into "the action", but it felt so brutal that it just didn't fit with the usual happy vibe of my comics.

The third version, the one we were going with, seemed fitting. 14 pages of comic with 10 of sex only (or almost), with lot of lore. Yet, I couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right. It felt... too fanficy, like I still had to explain my point just so the fans could accept that pairing.
To the point where I thought: "I think the story works, but is it as satisfying as seeing Diane x Wolf, Krystal x Fox, Freya x Fratley, or Marian x Robin?"
And while the answer was obviously no, and while I knew that people would prefer Tigress x Po, I felt like I didn't have a choice but to use Tai Lung.

Even the tone was darker than what I'm used to make.

Until days ago, by accident while talking about the project to a friend, I found a totally new angle.

What if Po was simply more mature, a bit older, wiser, while still keeping some of his humor? What if he was the true spiritual leader that he's supposed to be?

It absolutely changed everything. The story just needed to take place few years later. Suddenly, not only he felt way more appealing, but Tigress x Po also became way sexier, as well as the concept of the story became simpler, shorter, more natural. Better.
Even Honi Do became excited of the idea of drawing him. So much that Tigress x Tai Lung became way less appealing for both of us.

So here we go. It was supposed to be a Tigress x Tai Lung today, but now I'm gonna rewrite it to become a Tigress x Po, which, I believe, will feel better for both Honi Do and myself, but also for the fans.
For that reason, we have to delay this comic for a bit. In the meantime, it'll also help Honi Do to catch up with Freya pages, so they get back on schedule.

Hope you'll enjoy that new version!