Lani, The Leopard Queen
Genre:
Fantasy, Action/Adventure
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5587
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Lani is trapped in a disturbing dream. Her pet monkey Ini wakes her up. She must face harsh reality again, as she has been alone for two months. Ini warns her of danger, and a young leopard is found injured behind her jungle house. He seems to be more intelligent than an ordinary cat. Lani finally has a lead to finds her parents , who had vanished suddenly.
On the trail of the cat, she finds deep in a sea cave a boy who does not belong here. And he is old, 500 years old, but still a boy. Her head whirling with disbelief, Lani follows him to an underground maze.
There she finds Kalla, and her 500-year-old pal, the rotten Tongo. More than that, Lani has stumbled upon a whole hidden world of large cats. The respondent queen, Vaspira, is a black leopard with spots like diamonds. She speaks to Lani in a raspy voice that a panther should not be able to do. She tells Lani of a secret to immortality. Lani is old enough now to be transformed and Vaspira offers her to join the others who have lived for centuries.
But what of her parents? And of the plans Vaspira has for poor Lani as the old witch weaves her deception?
I would enjoy more!
interesting story.. Love the art, wonderful. : )
maybe a nice graphic novel to see turn to movie.
Geof, just wanted to say this is an awesome start to the story..great visuals and a fun story.
I really hope this continues. It's fun and- like it was mentioned- good for getting more kids into comics.
my review here:
http://pigs-of-the-industry.blogspot.com/
Time's almost up this month, and over 3000 people have read the first installment of Lani. Super! She'll be back soon as we get into the meat of the story. Thanks for reading and for taking time to comment.
GREAT WORK Geof! Reminds me of Dreamworld :)
The art is great the story didnt have enough time to develop but the dream sequence had me going there for a minute.
I will totally agree with the comments that it is a shame this isn't ranked higher. Also, I totally agree with Jim Shelley's point, the iPhone or other New Media outlets would be great for this if it doesn't continue here. Again, best of luck this month (what's left of it)
Skarwood if these 8 pages were your comic, I got to tell you, it SUCKS!
But you know why I really like it, your synopsis has got to be the best of the comp, very good considering the low character count Zuda allows!
Dreams, leopards, 500 year old kids...strange mazes and a girl as the main character, who could ask for anything more, damn good work man!
After 8 pages, we know nothing about the story, except that the girl with the monkey has disturbing dreams. I know it's tough to rework a story that's not written for 8 page morsels. I'd like to read more of this
Wonderful art!
The art is beautiful.
The story was kind of confusing, though, and doesn't really give us an idea of what the actual story will be like.
Love the art on this one.
fantastic art man!
I threatened to do this. You all laughed at me. Here is this month's Zuda reviews, done under heavy medication:
http://leftyfilmsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/zudamarch-2009.html
I feel this comic reads alot better when you really admire the artwork, and this is some cool artwork.
Hey in comics the images do most of the storytelling anyway's, as far as I know!
This is for sure a book adults and kids can enjoy together, maybe something kindergarten teachers can read to students..once again very cool, hope to see it rank up there!
I really enjoyed the first installment of Lani so far! Geof, your art has always Amazed me and this is coming along Beautifully! I'm a fan of archeology so it caught my interest right away but then I was surprised when he snapped off the golden tooth and took off with it. Then I'm thinking, OK, If he is taking it for the gold, why only take one and not both? Dream sequence! Nice! It's also great to see a comic for kids but with this caliber of art. I know I'm looking forward to the next set of pages to see how this story unfolds. Childrens book or not, I love the art and so will continue to enjoy this comic!
Ha! I thought that title would conjure a new version of Sheena. FB is correct, though, and the dream sequence is a confirmation, portent and counterpoint to her real-life situation. When the next installment comes up the whole thing will start to make sense. Great to read you thoughtful comments, everyone, and I must say each POV has crossed my mind while I've been creating this story. Cheers!
I am going to admit the only reason I viewed this comic was because I wanted to read frequentcontributor's comments. That guy is hilarious! Anyway, beautiful artwork. Kinda had an old school comic strip style to it. Also reminds me of the old novel adaptation comics. Although, from the title I was expecting someone in a leopard g-string defending the jungle from poachers (or maybe loggers) with her pet tiger.
I don't know what that says about me, but there you go. Good luck.
P.S. Did I use enough commas?
I don't know, some stories have to be told a certain way, so I usually give the benefit of the doubt to the writers as far as their storytelling goes?
With comics I know you gotta cram alot into one book, but if you can put it all in 8 pages your stuff is really good or just plain bad.lol...ahhh but a 700 page comic with a complex story, that's always good!
I agree with everyone that the art is great, however - opening the story (with an 8 page limit to begin) with a dream sequence seems like the wrong choice. We think we are learning something about the characters and where the story might go, only to be told on the final page that this is not the case. We are left scratching our heads wondering where the actual story is gonna go. By the end of the dream sequence we basically know no more than we did at the comics outset. I think this shows promise but such a prologue is not well suited to the parameters of Zuda.
My fave comic so far, there was something I really liked about it from the start.
I personally like it when the story gradually develops over time as oppsed to a bang right from the top, I have seen a few other virtuous projects finish off their marks on Zuda, which just tells me it's not how you place here but the fact that your in the comp at all is a true honour..besides there are always 10 great books up every month!
This artwork is absolutely stunning. I can't believe you aren't higher in the ranks-- you've definitely got my vote. :D
Yes, well, I was wondering why an archiologist would destroy an exquisite specimen of a mythical creature so willy-nilly... DREAM SEQUENCE!!! Pretty art reminds me of a less sexy Milo Manara, but the story didn't really go anywhere very fast, perhaps because you're just adapting/editing from an already existing work-in-progress... I would have taken crappier art for a more cohesive story; something meaty to actually get me interested in 8 pages. Furthermore, Zuda has quite a few all-ages titles, so I wasn't really impressed with the "Finally, a comic you can read with your kids!" aspect of the sell, here. Anyway, I don't have kids, so I am just fine with sex and violence.
It reminds me of an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, it also has some metaphysical elements that really grab me, but as others have said its pacing is a little odd. Beautiful artwork and I like what I'm seeing, but I'm more interested in Lani's present, probably because there's a monkey in it. Overall exquisite and worth the read, the things I've listed are nit picky and could just be a result of a backwards educational system.
Nice work, somewhere between storybook and graphic novel. Some of the best art so far this competition.
congratulations, amazing art, I love it :D i´m not sure about the flow of the history, specially the last page, :D waiting for more from you :D
Hi, Infernal. Yes, I started Lani a few years back to be told as a GN, without a definite page count. I adapted the first part into this wide format, and will be submitting the next part as well. I will be presenting that as a "condensed" version, and expand the final version back to full size later. I've got a lot of film work right now, so won't be able to submit again until next month some time.
It is a crime against the very nature of art that this is not ranked higher.
That said I adore the art, the characters are beautiful and I'd love to watch this story unfold. So although I can't vote for it here I'd gladly slap down the cash for a print version. :)
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(rant alert)
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Oh, and Zuda-people? The new 1000 character limit on comments is FRICKIN annoying and discourages comments more thoughtful than "I luv it!!!!" God bless lone sentences of support but when I post my story on here the feedback I'm really looking forward to is more than that, so fer godsake EXTEND THE BLOODY LIMIT by 500 characters or so! Please. ;)
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(rant finished)
Your art is amazing, I'd love to see more of this regardless of whether the story is targeted at younger viewers. However I think it's fair to say that it hasn't made the most of the Zuda 8-page-only format, which is perfectly understandable given your experience and obvious desire to do more than simply showcase this online. To me your story's appeal relies upon amazing art and the promise of things to come, as opposed to a story that hooks us here and now. Your synopsis spelling out what seemed like the next 30 pages-worth of story makes this particularly apparent.
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I wish that Zuda had the odd competition with 15 pages to allow the stories that begin at a less frenetic pace to shine. But we've only got 8 pages and part of success here is making the most of that limited space, whereas your story seems planned and paced towards formats with different requirements.
This should be way way way way way way...way higher! This had everything, great art, great writing...monkeys...WHAT GIVES?!
I like the art/coloring style a lot. Like the heroine.
Thanks, Mr. Isherwood, I appreciate it. If I win, it really will be a dream come true. I'm really thankful for the opportunity Zuda has given folks that normally wouldn't get this chance.
Hey, if you're ever Arkansas way, I'd love to have a game...And yes, I'm pretty horrible. :)
Hey, Chris, If we were are the bowling alley I'm sure it would be a different story! Anyway, this is all about comparing apples and oranges, and I'm thankful to Zuda for showcasing Lani. I think the audience for this is outside the usual comics-reading audience, so it will take more time to reach them. Congrats so far, you are doing great.
I'm shocked this isn't higher in the rankings. When I first clicked on the comic and the beginning of the competition I thought to myself, "Uh oh!" Still the nicest looking work here.
I have more pages drawn, just have to re-arrange them to fit this format. And the story is roughed out to the end. So it'll all get posted eventually!
What a beautiful comic! I am anxious to see more of this. This has such a strong sense of history to the style. It really does feel like a classic all ages adventure story. I can't wait to see where this goes.
Fantastic art. Great package with SFX and lettering too. Good Luck!
Hi, Jim, That's exactly the idea I've had for Lani. To get young readers interested in comics, and this is one conduit. Thanks for those ideas. We'll see if the Zuda editors like my next installment. For the sake of you all I'm going to get as much story into the next 8 pages as I can reasonably manage.
skarwood, If you don't win Zuda, please consider taking your comic to someone like iVerse or comiXology - they are publishing comics to the iphone, and I can see something like your comic being the type of thing that actually reignites a new generation of kids to reading comics - especially young girls! I showed to my daughter and she loved it!
Beautiful artwork, Geof. Very captivating. Good luck this month! -- Sean
The painted artwork is great but i'm not so into the story atm.
stunning artwork, you've really captured the dreamlike mood. The solid color narrative boxes and the SKREEE lettering were detracting a great deal from the last 2 pages for me. That red comic text really clashed with the color palette. Can't really tell where the story is going just yet, but would definitely be happy to read more...the imagery of Golden Tusks on the giant boar skeleton was absolutely captivating.
I like your art very much, I think is the best of this mount
GOOD LUCK
Thanks ponyteeth! I'm hoping to post more Lani on Zuda soon...
Geoffry T., Your artwork is great. The evolution from your first Conan horse to the cat is wonderful! I am your longest lived fan from your first rough sketch to present. Can't wait to read the twists and turns of the saga as well as enjoy more of your artwork.
I can believe...Geof Isherwood!!
Still I keeps his comics of "King Conan" as a treasure.
Congratulations on this great work