Lint is the unabashedly cliche story of Sangwine Schloeffel, an elven prince who has suffered the misfortune of having been exiled from his homeland and lost his father to an evil usurper. Along the way he learns things, the people around him learn things, they get on each other’s nerves a lot, and overcome that which they must.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE STORY

(may contain spoilers as some of these are lifted from questions from the comic comments section)

Q. Elves… ?

A: They’re a mixed race! One day, a human and a fairy had babies and an elf popped out. So I guess that means “elf” is just another name for “not really human” and “not really fairy”. Anyway, they still think they’re better than everyone else, being the pinnacle of civilization for thousands of years among mortals. They’re pacifists to their bones, and never intervene. They only fight in cases of defense and self-preservation. All of them except Fang, who is totally crazy.

Q: I want such-and-such and what’s-his-face to get together!!!

A: Well, I guess you’ll have to write some fanfiction.

Q: I want yaoi!!!

A: Um… if you write that particular fanfiction you can leave me out of the loop.

Q: If Geeves knew (of the coup) why the heck did he not inform the king to defend himself? Now things are worse with the army gone and Fang already in power. Logically shouldn’t he have tried to prevent this?

A: You’d think Geeves would tell the King, wouldn’t you? But, Fang “would come and destroy whatever he had to” and I think Geeves motivation was preserving what he could as he was hopeless he could stop it entirely or even mostly. And besides, just because this is what Geeves chose to do doesn’t mean it was the best plan. Then again, it might have been. Schloeffelonia might have been brought to ruins otherwise, and the entire royal family dead. As it is, it’s merely occupied, and Prince Sangwine is alive. I guess Geeves had to make an executive decision; the kind nobody ever wants to have to make.

Q: (Regarding the acceptance of or aversion to affection between men among the elves)

A: Elves (in Lint, anyway) are definitely more physically affectionate than the general American caucasian male. They stand closer, maintain more eye contact, touch each other more, and hug often. Even so, homosexuality is rather rare among them. They are generally very confident in their masculinity and their femininity, seeing each attribute as beneficial to create a whole.

Q: Is it just me, or are Xylic’s ears getting longer and more elf-like? I think I liked it better when they were merely pointed, so he actually looked *half* elf.

A: The length of Xylic’s ears go along with the gradual stylistic change of how I draw elf ears in general. His ears, from the beginning, have been about the same size as Sangwine’s. As Gaffer explained earlier, all elves are part human and part fairy; so there really aren’t any true “half-elves”. Xylic is just another elf, because he has fairy blood, and probably has more fairy blood in him than many elves in Schloeffelonia.

My tendency to drastically change how I draw things over the course of the comic doesn’t help much, does it?

Q: Why can’t Bactine marry Sangwine? Apart from the fact that she’ll die pretty soon, who cares, she’s alive now!

A: The biggest reason why is outlined in this three-page conversation between Gaffer and Bactine: http://www.purnicellin.com/lint/?p=792

In it he explains to her the origin of elves (how they are actually a mixed race), how the elves are gradually fading, and how the Schloeffel line is the most pure-blooded and preserved line. Hm… inbreeding. Anyway, if Sangwine were to marry Bactine, basically the purity of his line would be cut in half, and nobody wants that, right?

Plus there’s the whole issue of her only living for one tenth of his lifespan, which is kind of a downer. But mostly it’s the previous blood issue. Elven royalty marrying plain ‘ol humans is always tres taboo.

Q: Hmmm…is it just me, or do Xylic’s eyes keep changing colour? I mean, in previous comics they’ve been greener than green, in others marsh green, and in others grey or dull blue. Atually, its probably only my browser, but hey, a girl can plot…

A: Xylic’s eye color has actually always been pretty much set in stone, and especially for the last several chapters, since I use the same color swatch every time I color his eyes. He’s one of those people whose eyes are a color that “changes” when they’re wearing different colors. It’s in between blue, green, and gray, so depending on what is around him (and a lot of different factors like the lineart or size) it’ll look different. Xylic, who is such a variegated character, deserves a complex eye color.

Q: I really have to wonder why people haven’t been yelling “yaoi” at Fang and Zedwig like they were doing at Sanguine and Geeves, or Sanguine and Xylic, as happened on occasion.

A: Broadly put, Zedwig is a one-person representation of Schloeffelonia itself, and Fang’s abuse of it. Zedwig is powerful, beautiful, with a gentle nature and a kind heart, like his country. Fang loves his country but he hates it, admires its great power but resents its pacifism and wants to use it and see it pushed it to its destructive potential. I can see how this could be misconstrued as yaoi-ish, because that’s the easiest way to understand it, but it isn’t.

Now taking them to a personal level, Zedwig is not a romantic, but he has an unusually kind nature. He has never fully trusted Fangline, but they had a very close relationship in the past (not romantic, yo) due to the fact that Fangline actually has a rare certain type of gift which is called being a magnifier, which, in very general terms, means he can magnify the abilities of a mage near him, and he can almost read minds, as in he can generally tell what people are going to do in any situation, which consequently led to the destructive boredom of his youth. Zedwig is an exceptionally brilliant mage, they were drawn to each other magically in better days, and they have a vaguely telepathic mental connection. During that time, as Zedwig was basically Fang’s mentor, Fang coerced Zedwig into experimenting with destructive magic, and learned of Zedwig’s ability to order the other mages. It wasn’t until years later that he used it against him.

The earring itself is a relic Fang found while sojourning among the humans which can only be wielded properly by a rare magnifier. So, as soon as he got it, he knew just what to do with it.

Voila, violent coup.

Fang has an extremely vulnerable soft spot for Zedwig, mirroring what he feels for his own country, which will become more evident as this flashback continues, and which he fights and tries to neutralize with cruelty. Zedwig, on the other hand, has to struggle against his loathing for Fangline, because he doesn’t desire the burden of harboring hatred for anyone, as he believes hate for Fangline would rot him worse than the destructive magic ever could.

None of this between them is yaoi or shounen ai, but there is love and hate and everything in between going on here.

Q: Do fireballs classify as destructive magic? They are elemental, really, although I must admit that they can be classified as being “destructive”. Even normally passive things like water and ice can be used to destroy if manipulated right. Which brings us to the question: Is it the magic itself or what is being done with it that makes it “destructive magic”?

A: Oh boy, I get to go into (some) detail on Lint magic!

Qualifying magic in the Lint-verse has as much to do with what is created as what the intent is. A person can’t just create a fireball and then do whatever they want with it with no consequences. Elemental magic is neutral and is sort of like an ingredient in a recipe; it can be used defensively, constructively, or destructively, but where the use of magic gets qualified is through what the wizard intends to do with it. The presiding force from which magic is drawn in the world is a creative force, and so anytime a wizard imposes his will on magic to make it destroy or become destructive, the initial (unseen) decision is a violent act against creation.

In Zedwig’s case, he is an especially talented wizard with an especially high talent in elemental manipulation, so fireballs and lightning are his most effective weapons. The process of where he draws the magic from and the difference in how he manipulates that force to make it destructive is described in exhaustive detail in my book (I might finish it if I ever get over my writer’s block), but suffice it to say in the world of Lint, every action has consequences, and nobody gets away with creating huge forces of destruction without paying for it in the backlash.

Destructive magic is a nasty, nasty business, and this is not Dungeons and Dragons.

Q: I have a question about the effects of using bad magic. If it is a kind of Karmic issue, then wouldn’t the bad mojo be more aimed to Fang. Since Zedwig doesn’t seem to be acting of his own free will shouldn’t he be spared from the adverse effects?

A: Well, it’s not really like karma. It’s more like an adverse physical affect, and Zedwig is the one physically performing the magic, after all.

Maybe I can explain it a little better this way:

From “Fromage”, the first time Zedwig tried to use destructive magic:

“He closed his eyes again and slowed his breathing, focusing on the forces again, feeling Fangline’s beside him like a dragon in the midst of a garden, and then, drew from it. When using defensive or constructive magic, he would draw the force and coax it gently into another form. Now, however, according to the theory, he had to take an entirely different route. He inhaled and drew a large amount of life force from everywhere around him, through the ground, through the air, into his hands, legs, arms, and coursed it through himself into the center of his body, centering it and forming it into a ball, and then, at the last moment, he tore it, ripping it forcibly from those lives he drew it from and making it his own. He could hear Fangline gasp audibly beside him and the shreds of life he stole, desperate for belonging, melded into a whole. He made it glow, burn, become infernal and torturous, and finally, upon opening his eyes, fired it like a missile across the riding meadow.”

Q: Does Zedwig’s white hair mean he’s old? Or was he born like that? How DID he end up with such odd coloring, anyway?

A: Zedwig is just unusual that way

Although anything other than brown hair isn’t incredibly odd… it’s just sort of that most elves have brown hair because of all the human blood in them and its a dominant gene. For the record, his hair is actually silver.

Q: Is this an Elvish city they are destroying on page 332?

A: No. It’s a human city. The only real elven city/country is Schloeffelonia. They kinda keep to themselves…. usually.

Q: Does it psychically hurt healers to heal? In the first half of (comic #338) Bactine says “this is going to hurt” which made me think it was going to hurt Al’bert but instead she was the one that doubled over. Also all the healers that come by to heal Zedwig seem to drop dead afterwards.

A: Healers in Lint heal people by taking their wounds onto their own bodies, then using healing magic to heal themselves. In the case of Zedwig (and the other mages), the disease is too nasty for any of them to heal it themselves, so they die.

Q: What about <insert inconsistency here>?

A: Well, as this is a serial work, and something I started on a lark, there are a few inconsistencies. Just enjoy what you can and soldier on.

Q: Elves seem pretty obsessed with hair.

A: It’s the elf way! Actually, hair represents an elf’s dignity, which works on all levels. However, Fang is a progressive, rebel-against-the-establishment sort. The rest of them are very traditional, though.

Q: Make Character A do such-and-such!

A: I can’t. They run the show. Like, fer real.

Q: Hope is annoying.

A: Yeah, well… she’s got reasons for being so happy all the time.

BIO OF THE ARTIST/AUTHOR

Colby Purcell is a musician, a wife, and a mother of four currently residing near Salt Lake City, Utah Dallas, Texas. She received a Bachelor of Music cum laude from the University of Tennessee in 1998, and presently teaches piano as well as performs on a regular basis, both solo and accompaniment.

Likes: painting details, the way clocks tick, gloves that fit well, squishing malleable erasers, playing the piano, key lime pie, opera, wearing pink, contemplating the universe, the noise the wind makes when it moves through trees, classic literature, mountains, linguistics esp. Latin, snow, and aspen groves.

Dislikes: tsunamis, big ocean waves, being near big ocean waves, phobias about ocean waves, loud cacophanous noises, poor quality, Wal-Mart, Doritos, the love of money, disorganized bedding, watching people play music and not being able to join in, droughts, interruptions when in deep thought, traffic, the fantasy genre in general, and cars.