The Origins of Ben
Added 2015-03-02 19:12:49 +0000 UTCSo, uh, once upon a time in high school, I had this webcomic, called Tar and Feathers. It was an experiment in what would happen if I never planned anything beyond the next page. (Turns out it makes a giant illogical mess, especially if you're an inexperienced teenager making it!) In any case, I had a cat named Ben in it, who was a bit of a go-fer. (And he, in turn, was based off of Ursula Vernon's recountings of her own cat Ben.) Any time I mention my comic around my husband or my friends who have known me since way back when, they lament that Ben never got more screen time, and I kinda feel the same way.And so, I decided Ben would come back! And he became a girl, because I have a special place in my heart for characters who take whatever name they want and screw the cultural implications; and then she became a dragon! And then it turns out that Ben as a Dragon didn't spark anything interesting to me, and her character design was so hard to nail down.Then I saw a Belgian Heavy Horse. Everything sort of fell into place then: a big-ass draft unicorn who is fabulous and testy. That would be Ben.The other thing that precipitated the change is that some of my favorite lore from this world (inspired by the Diadem series by John Peel) is that unicorns are aggressive, territorial, and all-around assholes. And the way the story is shaping up, if Ben weren't a unicorn, I wouldn't be able to showcase that aspect nearly as much as I want to.And so, Ben is a big fabulous asshole. Hope you enjoy her!(If you want to read my high school webcomic, it's here: http://tarandfeathers.smackjeeves.com/)
