Character Profile - Luca

I haven't forgotten about these character profiles I'm working on! I just had to wait for the right time to do THIS one in particular because it comes with a larger explanation-- a story I've told before but many of you who are newer fans probably have never heard. I'll try to keep this short, but if you're simple not interested in my past failures and the trauma of my house burning down, just click away lol. xD (and who am I kidding, I'm about to write a novel of text).

Periwinkle Blue is a comic I worked on for about 4 years, between the ages of 20-24, which may be the most drastic years of growth in my entire life. I look back at this comic and I see all the growing up I did in my early 20's and think to myself, it's a shame this comic couldn't have grown with me-- because in the end I think that's what killed my motivation for it. I was just changing faster than I could finish...

Even so, this comic was there for me through a LOT. It was there for me when I first moved out of my parents house and in with a roommate (a time of my life I really cherish). It was there for me through many stressful months of BARELY making enough money to survive, working 2 jobs and hoping my car wouldn't crap out on me. It was there was I got Faye (my cat), it was there when I decided to start traveling to conventions, when I really started to build my fanbase, when I published my first book, and when I got into a relationship. Really... just so many different things.

My biggest issue with Periwinkle Blue as a story, and the kind of creator I was back then, was that I was... arguably arrogant about the way I told that story. I fell in love with the new popularity that the comic brought me, but I was unprepared for the level of influence my fans had over me at that time. I feel like, looking back, I lost a lot of integrity trying to appease people. And the more I did that the further the comic got away from what it was originally meant to be. I mean... I would actively change things in the plot because I knew fans would think it was funny or whatever, but all it ended up doing was muddying the plot.

I also look back at this time of my life, and think maybe I just wasn't meant to be DOING comics at all. There was always a distraction with Periwinkle Blue-- whether it was writing The Maple Effect, attending conventions, working on Honorable Discharge, etc. I wonder how my life would have looked if I'd just taken a break from comics altogether and allowed myself to be a fumbling young adult without a care in the world. lol. Anyway...

I stopped working on Periwinkle Blue entirely in September 2020, after almost a year of slowly losing interest in it. I was working full time at the hospital in the height of the pandemic, I'd just had a relationship break up, and then my house burnt the fuck down in an enormous wildfire. I lost everything except for the clothes on my back and my cat (thank god), and after that I just... I had to call it quits. I had nothing left in me at the time. lol.

Nevertheless, Periwinkle Blue is a comic that MANY of you loved, and for that I'm very grateful. It was the foundation of a very turbulent, exciting, and humbling time of my life, but damn I'm glad it's over.

I'd say more about Luca as a character specifically, but really... his bio about sums it up (without getting into all the alien lore and stuff). And this post is getting too long. Drew and Commander Nova will get bio's next, but I promise I won't ramble for days.

Here's the song I most associate with Luca -- The Last of the Real Ones - Fall out Boy