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NETHERWORLD is the second comic by Jen and Psychobob and its first pages were updated on Feb 20, 2004. Long before its pages were developed, the author had been planning the story, conceptual art and release of this webcomic for over a year.

There is no way to explain the whole of the webcomic in simple terms. The Webcomic explores the beliefs of the afterlife and how individuals view their ways of living. At the same time, the comic holds some deeper, simpler connections between the diverse characters involved, the histories they hold and the philosophies they share. Nevertheless, the webcomic may have many intricate ideas to ponder about, but the main purpose of this comic is to also entertain the reader.

Materials used: Photoshop 6, Tablet, Micron pens, Col-erase Red, Sumogrip pencil .5 and Manga paper.

Fonts used: The common fonts used are Letter O' matic (diologue), Spill Milk, Wimp-out and Mouth breather.

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How did Netherworld begin?

Netherworld used to be a project called "Australis" that was a sequel to a story called "polaris" I've been conjuring in my head in tenth grade. Polaris and Australis were two stories that sorta modeled the visual world of Phillip Pullman's "Dark Materials" trilogy. Over time, australis ceased to be part of the Polaris story and developed into a story of it's own: Netherworld.

What the hell kind of webcomic is this?

Netherworld is not a Christian comic, although there's a priest and a bible. It is also not a ghost/gothic story comic although it involves a haunted house. Its not a pirate adventure, although it has pirates. And it is certainly not a fantasy webcomic although its fantastic. Honestly, I can't fit it into a certain genre becuase it plays so much from different genres, and also has allusions to biblical passages, greco-roman mythology, catholic history, philosophical ideals, the illuminati, some cajun lifestyle, and yeah, voodoo.

Why make this webcomic?

One of the daunting things about making a webcomic is that 1) there's too many out there in the internet and 2) there isn't any pay in webcomicing. But as a storyteller, I feel that I need to display a plot worth telling where the webcomic expresses how I feel about religion and the supernatural through each of the characters. Also, I wanted to create an entirely different webcomic compared to the usual humorous or narratives out there: I want to make readers think about the religious, philosophical and supernatural world around them and have them learn something factual...all in good fun and thrill.

What's Jen and Psychobob's religious ideology? (In case you're wondering)

So whats my ideology? What do I beleive? I really don't know. It's the reason why I'm doing Netherworld.This is pretty personal comic to me, trying to balance the conflicting views of life and afterlife in my head and trying to grasp at something that might not be, but hope to be otherwise . I try to take no partiality and try not to go against anyone's beleifs, that is pretty much the problem with me; the avoidance of taking sides. And although I have the backbone of the story all planned out, anything can go. Overtime, this project will develop and grow.

What should the reader watch out for? (symbolisms and signs)

If you don't know what's going on in the story, don't worry; Its meant to be cryptic. Kudos if you have good knowledge of the bible: you'll be able to figure some common christian symbolisms throughout the comic: (Sheep, Water, Wood, etc.). Also, the main characters themselves are symbols as well. For example, Julius' life story symbolizes a general representation of church and its history. Also, his relations and interactions between him and Morgan makes a general summary of how atheism and religion are "living together in the same roof".

Also, be aware of some hidden messages as you read the pages, such as the messages that the household appliances foreshadow the events to comes

Ahh. I've said too much.

Do you really do research for this comic? And How much research do you do?

Beleive it or not, I do TONS of research, both fiction. The occult, exorcisms, demonology, catholic history, voodoo, Iluminati, witchcraft, ghosts and hauntings...anything that will fit in the realm of the Netherworld. I do a lot of research as a way of inspiration, and give a scholarly perspective into the story (Professor Katz). Also, beleive it or not, I do research so that the comic is somewhat factual with religion and occult. Reeling all of these fantastic topics seems farfetched, but I'm always trying to keep it real somehow. For a list of books and sites, see the links page.

Those are my photoshop brushes! Why didn't you credit me?

Indeed. I use photoshop brushes that other PS sites offer (Antibrush, Vered). In fact, I use way too many of them and customize my brush pallettes constantly that I can't keep track of who's brushes belongs to who. I do, however, place all the brush links on my screentonez page however. If you don't see your brush site there, just let me know. (Yes, I do know what it's like to have people use brushes without credit).

How do you put your comic together?

First, I sketch out everything on manga paper and divide the page into
boxes and sketch stick men 'thumbnails'. Then, I draw lines with my ruler, then keep
sketching to frustration until those stick men guides become defined (sometimes, I'll
use various templates if needed). I ink with a micron .005 pen, use a scanner
to scan it in (The larger, the better). Then, I clean up the scan in
photoshop using 'levels' and the "highlighting' tool. I Create layers and
use a marquee and Wand tool to create segments under the lineart that I
can shade. Finally, I flatten the image, resize it to a smaller image
size (which looks much better) add effects onto it (Sound effects, word
bubbles/dialogue, Color balance cyan and blue, other photoshop brushes,
etc), add 11 pixel black lines to seperate the panels, and save it as a
JPG

Hey! Didn't you do a webcomic called Terminal?

*runs away...*

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Name: jen and psychobob
Favorite color: Green
AIM: thatotherfishie

(if you want to argue with me
in terms of philosophy and theology...)

Random facts :

+ watches 4.5 hours of TV every week.
+ Fish's name is "Psychobob" out of Hitchconian (or Alfred hitchcock's) honor.
+ has her bedroom walls painted avacado green
+ like many webcomic people, she's taking film/art as a major.
+ likes art museums more than Disneyland
+ must have ketchup with her omlette
+ gets three times more E-mails from E-bay than other e-mails.
+ Can't swim.

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