Five years ago, I had the pleasure of spotlighting Elaine Tipping’s queer fantasy epic Pathways: Chronicles of Tuvana for The Beat‘s “A Year of Free Comics” feature, and now the story is hitting print for the first time from Dark Horse Comics.
Pathways explores the fallout of an archaeological dig that reveals hundreds of ancient people sustained deep below the ground in pods. The tentative truce formed by the four countries of Tuvana to back the dig is rocked by the discovery, which leads to chaos on the surface. The climate changes abruptly, the land shifts, family members disappear, and communications fall apart.
To save Tuvana, an unlikely group of reluctant heroes will have to solve the puzzle of the past to create a sustainable future for their world.
Pathways: Chronicles of Tuvana Volume 1 is slated to hit shelves in September, offering the comic to a whole new audience even as Tipping continues to post regular updates to the series on Tapas. Ahead of the print book’s release, I chatted with Tipping via e-mail about how the series has grown, whether they know the ending of the story, and how the Dark Horse edition differs from the webcomic.
The Beat: How has Pathways evolved since you conceived of the idea for the story?
Elaine Tipping: The foundation of the story has pretty much stayed the same since I started formulating the story. Probably what has changed the most was in fleshing out the characters and their designs more, and the spots between the main points of the story with all the little details and other smaller moments. Otherwise, the original conception and framework is pretty much what ended up in the comic.
What are your biggest fantasy inspirations? How do they impact your comics, especially Pathways?
Tipping: I’ve always been a pretty big fan of fantasy, but my core origin point was probably The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede. That series was foundational for my love of dragons who weren’t just the big bad guys. Tamora Pierce had a huge influence on me as well, and then when The Lord of the Rings movies came out, I fell hard and fast into creating fantasy worlds and stories.
These in particular impacted Pathways the most out of all the series I enjoy, given the role of dragons in the series, the personal relationships between the characters, and that I love a good fantasy epic where the characters traverse a whole world and see all sorts of beautiful places and meet different people.
I would say Ghibli movies also made an impact on my works as well, especially Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, and Laputa. Also, an anime that has stuck with me over the years called Last Exile, oddly enough (HIGHLY recommend it, if you haven’t seen it).
More recently, post-planning Pathways, my absolutely favorite is probably the Dragon Age game series, Critical Role shows and comics, and the Dungeon Meshi manga. They’ve given me a new view on fantasy worlds, opened up what kind of storytelling you can do in the genre for me, and have helped me find even more of what I love about fantasy. Another comic, Tongari Boushi no Atelier, along with Dungeon Meshi, was really inspirational for paneling, art techniques, and inking for my work.
Art-wise, I spent so much time doing fan art and fan comics for all the series I love that it really pushed me to draw things I wasn’t as confident in which absolutely impacted my work by allowing me to draw anything I might need to tell the story I wanted to tell. It really let me break out of my comfort zone!
Do you have the series end mapped out?
Tipping: I do! When I first came up with the story, I had all the framework worked out, so I knew exactly how it would end.
What has been your biggest challenge in this series?
Tipping: Oh man, drawing all eight main characters in the same scenes together.
No, but seriously, Probably script-writing since I tend to see the visuals in my head when I’m writing the words, so I have to do the chapter storyboard at the same time as I build the script and that takes a long time and a lot of concentration to do together.
Can you speak to the process of translating a serialized webcomic to print?
Tipping: Thankfully it wasn’t too difficult as I always plan my comics out to be printed when the series wraps. I do have to pick a size that works well online and that I can also print to look good too. This is actually why I went with grays instead of dot tones because when I was doing my Peter Pan adaptation, I found some printers had a really hard time printing the dot tones, and also you can’t shrink the pages to fit a random online size without some moiré (an effect where the dots pick up some strange patterns, which is a common issue with digital tones).
I really miss dot tones, so I’m thinking of going back to them for some future comics though.
What can readers who follow Pathways online expect from the print edition?
Tipping: For the pages they’ve already read (all of Volume 1 and much of Volume 2) they’ll be getting a lot of updated art! I was able to fix my old art to be able to tell parts of the story better and fixed up some paneling I wasn’t 100 percent happy with. (And some rough art from years ago Elaine who wasn’t as good as current Elaine.)
Also, the first chapters of the book I didn’t have an editor, so there will be a lot fewer commas this time around for those first nine chapters. I like commas a little too much.
Do you have a favorite moment or scene in the first volume?
Tipping: Oh gosh, I like so much of this comic, it’s hard to choose! Aside from the spoilery big reveals in the last two chapters, I think I really have a soft spot for chapter one. In particular, I really love when Taria and the twins meet up before heading into the festival. I’ve done that scene a few similar ways a few times when I was planning out the series, and since they’re my core three and the first in the cast I created, it’s really a warm, lovely moment that has a special place in my heart.
Is there a character you relate to most?
Tipping: Oh gosh, what a fun question, given how I went about finding the voices and characterization of these characters when I first started the series. I actually went through and tried to find what I have in common with each of the characters as a starting point.
As I’ve told the story, though, I think Taria is a character I related more to when I first planned the story and was younger and didn’t really understand the world as well as I do now, but I think as I’m ending the story I really connect with Netis in a way I didn’t quite expect that I would. It probably stems a lot from the fact that my relationship with my wife inspired a lot of Netis and Zanae wife moments.
What do you hope readers take away from the story?
Tipping: Honestly, I just hope they have fun reading it! If they are able to take some time out of their days to escape to this little world and adventure I’ve created and they have fun while they’re there, that’s all I can hope for.
Aside from that, I do hope that I’m able to be part of another creative’s path on their way to making their own worlds and stories. It’s so important that many types of stories are given the space and inspiration to bloom.
What does your scripting/illustrating schedule look like?
Tipping: I usually script a month in advance before I start on a chapter, so my editor has time to look them over and not feel rushed before I need to start drawing them. I also work a month ahead of the posting date so that I don’t need to worry about finishing a page in time. Once the script is done, I do larger thumbnails to settle on the panel composition and page layout, which I then scan into my computer and use as the roughs for the page.
Next, I set the panels, the text, and the location of the speech bubbles so I know how much art space I have to work with. I move onto the pencils, then all the inking, and then all the toning and shading. And then the next month, I start the process all over again.
Aside from Pathways, can you tell us what you’re working on?
Tipping: Absolutely! I’m currently working on a webcomic called Fates Errant about a Knight Errant who just wants to do his work, help out now and again and not be noticed much. But then he accidentally rescues (adopts) a child and picks up a mage companion (husband) and gets pulled into a dangerous and unexpected adventure. It’s another fantasy story, but with a dash of horror.
Once I wrap Pathways I’ll be increasing updates for Fates Errant, and will start prepping my next webcomics: a shorter one dealing with a monster and (cursed) monster hunter, and my next longform comic, a genre-blended, sci-fi/fantasy adventure.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
Tipping: I really hope everyone likes my comic! Pathways is really special to me as it’s my first long-form (aka more than one volume long) original series. Everything before was either done in a team, was an adaptation or a fan comic, or was a one-volume story, so this is a first for me. Not to mention, having grown up on Dark Horse Comics’ stuff, it’s really very cool to be working with them to get Pathways out there.20
Please give it a read, and I really hope you all enjoy it! And keep an eye out for more stories to come, I have so many I’m excited to share with you all!
Pathways: Chronicles of Tuvana Volume 1 will be available everywhere books are sold on September 3 and at your local comic shop on September 4. The 344-page paperback retails for $24.99 and pre-orders are available now.
