… or Werwoll for the German folks

Stories of big hairy creatures who attack humans during full moon have been popular for centuries. There are plenty of books, movies, games and even a role-playing game system about werewolves. Some also feature other wereanimals like cats, rats or even sharks. But why should the predators have all the fun? Why don't we let other animals go wild, sheeps for example?

Melody
Somewhere on a farm in Germany a little lamb was born. Innocent, fragile-looking, sheepish (obviously). After a while though she became quite curious about the world she lived in. While curiosity kills cats, the lamb didn't die when her nosiness brought her in contact with the world outside of the fence. A close encounter with a very aggressive and special mouflon changed her life in a very drastic way. Whether for the worse or the better – that's something she still has to figure out. Turning into a werecreature once in a while is already challenging for grown-ups. How is a lamb supposed to deal with that?

Story
How did all of this happen? Will she ever manage to walk on two legs? And what about the myth that the grass might be greener on the other side of the fence? That are just some questions she tries to answer in her every-day life as lamb – or werelamb. The changes of her body, her instincts and new cravings she can't explain often cause troubles. And then there is still this strange "normal" world she gets to know from a very different perspective. How she handles her situation and what she discovers is what this story is about. Although it has its serious and scary moments the overall mood will be rather cheerful.

Origin
The project started during a course about making comics at an adult education centre ("Volkshochschule") in 2014. At first I planned a way more complex plot, just to find out soon how much work it already is to just tell the reader about Melody's first steps towards her new destiny. During my time at the Mediadesign Hochschule we developed many storyboards but drawing an actual comic was new to me. A lot of things have changed since my first concept regarding both the characters and the plot in that course and I really fell in love with the concept.

Implementation 
There are many considerations I have to make after learning more about comics and character design over the years. However, it will be published as a comic, preferably a webcomic, with both story arcs and short panels. Before I can actually do the first image I still have to make a decision about the visual style, other characters and panel arrangements. Therefore I can't say when this project is going live. It might be this year, it might be in five years. But I will show you the progress I make right here on deviantArt and I definitely won't discard the whole project for good.
I haven't decided yet if I'll start the project in German or English first. That's why it has two working titles. In the long run I hope I can do both.

Art Examples
Melody's Character Design process

Storyboard of a comic page from 2014


That was the last of the three personal projects I am working on. My focus so far is on Werewool but you might see pictures from the other ones as well. The demon project needs a lot more consideration though because of its serious background and the larger number of main characters, so I don't want to squeeze it into my timetable just for the sake of working on it. It needs to be handled properly and not in a rush.


See you!
Susanne