The Specialists

When I was young, I used to love crafting my own fantasy worlds for stories and games. I still have notes from my favorite creation, which I began working on in my early teens. Now that I’m in my twilight years, I still like the idea of building fictional realms, but it turns out that it’s a ton of work, and I’ve grown lazy. These days, my fantasies mostly consist of a nice nap.

But the spark of creation still burns in fellow Webcomic Pioneer Robin Dempsey. Her comic LeyLines is set in a lovingly-detailed world, with its own societies, religions, legends, and even languages. It’s a lavish backdrop to her story of three siblings investigating their mother’s death and the conspiracy surrounding it. It’s clear that a lot of work and thought has gone into the setting.

Robin has just released the first printed volume of LeyLines on her site’s store. Soft- and hard-cover versions are available (in addition to buttons and prints). These are high-quality books, printed in beautiful full color on nice paper. In addition to the first three chapters of the comic, the books include twenty pages’ worth of sketches and setting info. They are impressive tomes.

If you are a fan of fantasy fiction and deeply-detailed settings, give LeyLines a look. You may find a vast new world to sink your teeth into.