Behind the comic, the story....

Before I was interested in anime, I had always been a fan of LEGO. I was introduced to Bionicle in 2000-2001 by a friend, who had given me Toa Tahu as my birthday present. I brought him home from school that day, and my family was impressed (and some were jealous), and I immediately went on building him.

At the time, I called him "toa" not knowing the correct pronunciation. I had started my collection of Bionicles with the fire village, then slowly edging my way onto water. I never went near the other elements because my brothers had claimed them before I had a chance to.

Once on a vacation, I had decided to try to draw the Toa human, hence where my fanstories came from. They had the original style of hair: Tahu had spiky red hair, Kopaka had sleek white hair, Onua had a buzz cut, Pohatu had curly hair, Gali had short hair, and Lewa had a mushroom cut. I had then created a few fan characters (who are still in effect today, but won't be mentioned for a while). I dropped the idea of attempting drawing them human (of course, this was waaay before I could draw manga).

A few years later, a friend of mine decided to introduce me into anime (or something like that); I started, but failed and went back to cartoon. Then, a year later, I started the human bionicle project once more! Of course, the original artwork looks nothing like it does now; they still had the original hair style I planted them with. But, I had the first weaponry down, clothes, etc.

It wasn't until recently that some fellow Bionicle fans questioned, "Why don't you try drawing them more robotic...ie?" So, I attempted to, and from that moment on, I started drawing the first forms of the Toa.

Then come last year that their official designs finally made the mark and this year, I decided to advance it just a bit... and the choice of making a manga was a big step.

I decided that instead of just making the story go along, let's start out with a script, buying the first few books, reading up on it again, and practice.

I've had a few questions asked of me, and I thought I would just clear things up a bit. The most frequently asked question is: Why do you draw the Toa/Bionicle characters human? My answer? --> I draw them human because... well... let's just say that's the only thing I'm good at. Technically, if I worked at it, I could probably draw some good mech, but it’s not my thing or style. The fact that I started a manga based off of Bionicle started back in 2003, when I was in 6th grade. I attempted drawing them human, where it evolved into a whole story about the Toa traveling to the US. The point was to design what they would look like if they came to our home (because at the time, I believe that Mata-Nui was an island on Earth XD). So, I drew them mortal. Then, a year or two later, I re-picked up the idea (because somewhere along the line, I dropped the idea) and built a new story (that I actually posted on BZP). As a part of the plot, the Toa were set as their original mechanical forms, but they received a stone necklace that allowed them to appear human. When trying to get their Toa power again when on human soil, their mechanical bodies fused with their human bodies, thus creating the drawings you see now (but they were VERY DIFFERENT then). After a while, I started to draw them as plain humans instead of attempting to draw their mechanical forms (after all, it was just a story at the time). And then, the manga was born (version 1.0). But… here lies another problem. I actually forced myself to learn how to draw. Prior to learning how to draw anime, I drew crap. When I started drawing, it was still bad, but I learned only how to draw guys. Soon after, girls followed, but had a masculine feel to them ... and now my males have a feminine look to them (how ironic). Anyways…

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So there you have it. The History of the Bionicle art.
But me? ugh...

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NAME: Nik (or Data)
SEX: Female (bwhaha?)
DATA: I won't reveal my age or anything like that for that matter. Nik isn't even my real name either... it's just a penname. You can beg and cry all you want, but I ain't given' it to you. I live in a very "laid back" type of town, and I am still in school. I spend most of my time reading, scripting, drawing, and all the other stuff humans need to keep themselves active. I like to draw anime as my main type of art, but I'm trying to draw realism as a side type of art so I can become a better artist. I do watch anime, but I only like 1/4 of it as a whole... most of it is just plain crap. I have been ashamed of my art for quite some time now, and you'll see improvement in my art as the comic goes along.

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