About

AWARDS:

2008 WCCA Nomination Finalist in OUTSTANDING DRAMATIC COMIC and OUTSTANDING BLACK AND WHITE ART

REVIEWS:

03-07-2008 Intelligence Cleaner Agency
11-27-2007 Webcomic Asylum
09-08-2007 The Webcomic Watchman
07-24-2007 Casual Notes
03-01-2007 Aarin's Blog
02-27-2006 Fleen

SUMMARY:

Genres: Western, Native American, Horror, Action, Supernatural, Drama, Historical, OEL Manga, Black and White, Shonnen (boy's manga).

Content: Violence, occassional strong language, nudity, references to subjects inappropriate for children. Recommended for mature audiences.

Crowfeathers is the coming of age story of the legendary 1880's Arizona Territory bounty hunter, Chase Corbeau. A jinku child (half human/half harukulkuun, or nature spirit), he has more than his fair share of challenges in life. Plagued by nightmares, spirits of all kinds, the unpredictability of his genetic inheritance, witches out to destroy him, and slightly more mundane hardships, he is forced into adulthood before his time. However, he is never completely alone on his journey, and finds himself in the company of good friends from both the human and spirit worlds.

In essence, this is an epic graphic novel similar to Full Metal Alchemist, Inuyasha, or Bleach. The themes revolve around human relationships (mainly male relationships), supernatural phenomena, dealing with life altering events, and American mythology.

There are several classes of beings that appear in the story, being:

Harulkojin: Includes Ascended or Living Humans, Angels, and Demons.

Harukulkun: Includes Nature Spirits, Living or Ascended Animals and Plants, and the natural world as a whole.

Jinku: The mixed race. Usually refers to the forbidden children of Living Humans and Nature Spirits.

The story begins in the present, where we find the main character, Chase Corbeau, has somehow been witched and must live as a common crow. He happens upon an old Native American man who turns out to be Thunderbird, Chase's father. Chase then proceeds to tell him his life story, and we are magically taken back to the year 1882, when Chase is a twelve year old boy.

Characters

Jinku:

		Chase Corbeau -The hero of the series. Son of Thunderbird and Marie Corbeau. Abandoned by his father before birth and orphaned by his mother at the age of twelve, he is unofficially adopted by Jimmy Tate and his sister Emily, the "school marm," and raised to be a lawman. At some point this goes amiss and he becomes a bounty hunter - quite a ferocious one, as his animal nature and past injuries drive him to become a brutal, possibly derranged, adult. His actions are checked, however, by a mysterious group of brujas that turn him into a crow. He spends the next century trapped in this form until the present, where the story begins.
		Neesha -A half-goat. Nothing is known of her past, except she appears to be foreign and calls Dr. Prescott "Master."

Harukulkun (Nature Spirit):

		Thunderbird - Chase's father. One of the more powerful sky gods, he was called away to fight in a mysterious civil war among the Harukulkun. Injured in battle, he accepted the gift of a young shaman - a human body. Now he walks the Earth as "Grampa Joe" as his little adopted family calls him.
		Coyote - Matthew's spirit guide. Little is known of this character except he seems to be fond of women. He watches over Chase to some extent, but is not entirely responsible for him. He expresses concern that Chase should have a spirit guide of his own.
		Wort - Apparently worked as a thug for Billy West, but may have only been doing it for a lark, so to speak. Interested in Chase for several worrisome reasons, he showed his true animal form and tried to devour Chase and a few others. Although consumed by Dr. Prescott, he still continues to be troublesome in the form of stomach aches and nightmares.
		Doctor Prescott - A rattlesnake in his true form, the doctor is a good medicine man in the human world and has a deep fondness for Emily Tate. Something appears to be keeping him from acting on his feelings, however. He spends a lot of time and effort concealing harukulkun and jinku activities from the townspeople, insisting Chase do everything possible to maintain the appearance that they are human.
		Mother Ayahuasca - A strange constrictor/vine spirit who keeps Wort as her pet. Apparently devoid of any empathy for other creaturs, she enjoys medical experimentation on unwilling subjects in the name of scientific discovery. Her cavernous home is full of bottles, vials, caged animals, and exotic plants.

Human:

		Marie Corbeau - Chase's human mother. A singer and hostess at her grandfather's inn, some people say she was also an expensive whore. The truth of this is unknown. She is summarily raped and executed before Chase's eyes by Billy West.
		Jacques Corbeau - Marie's grandfather, an important businessman and proprietor of Le Chateau Corbeau.
		Jimmy Tate - The sheriff of Copper Pit. Reminded of his own deceased son, the sheriff takes Chase in as if he were a true blood relation.
		Emily Tate - Jimmy's sister and the school teacher for the town's children. Although hopelessly in love with Dr. Prescott, she insists she has no desire to marry, mostly because of her deep concern for her brother's psychological well being.
		Margaret Tate - Jimmy's deceased wife. She committed suicide shortly after the death of their son, Timothy.
		Timothy Tate - Jimmy's deceased son. Killed during an Indian raid. His spirit lives on and has asked Chase to tell his father that he loves him and holds him blameless. Timothy's spirit is restless, and he seems to make a habit of annoying the angel of death (whom he fears) by slipping back and forth between the spirit and living worlds.
		Billy West - The man that ruined Chase's life by murdering his mother and great grandfather, the only family he knows. Little is known of his past. Chase killed him and his men with Billy's own Colt revolver.
		Matt and David - Chase's best friends. The three of them are bound as blood brothers from a ritual performed by Matt after Chase saved his life. Matt and David had to move to California with their parents after their mother insisted they wouldn't be accepted where they were.
		Ashley Lacey - The reason Matt and David moved. Ashamed of his feminine name, this boy became a bully and started fights with the two Indian boys and Chase, who appears to be half Indian.
		The Brujas - Little is known about this mysterious band of witches.

Angel:

		Arkaine (Arkainus) - An angel of death. "Captain" of a group, perhaps a sqadron? He seems like a jerk, but surely an angel can't be all bad, can he?
		Zathriel "Lieutenant" under Arkainus. Appears to be romantically involved with him.

About the Author

My name is Amy Watson, or "SageBrush" for most things I do online. I'm a native Texan, and my background is in architecture and engineering (BSCE), though I also went through AIT for military intelligence in Arizona. My first passion, however, was in writing and illustration, and now I'm going back and developing and refining the talents I had and enjoyed as a kid.

I live in Texas, where I work as a report editor and a comic and commercial artist.

I'm interested in mythology, the supernatural, and alternative medicine, which is likely apparent from the material presented in Crowfeathers. If you are interested in such things, you might want to join my forum.

If you want to use my work or ideas, my policy is fairly simple -- if it's for something fan-related or personal use, it's okay. If it's for something you're going to make money on, it's probably not okay, though if you ask first I may give my permission or work something out with you.

My galleries:

Buffalofeathers
Deviant Art

I can be contacted by email or in my forum.

[Illustrations] [Projects]

FAQ

Special Site Features:

The next update day's page is available on The Webcomic List as a vote incentive. You can read it by clicking on the blue TWC button near the top of the index page.

If you forgot where you left off months ago, or want Cliff's notes, there are chapter summaries available on the Archives Page.

Fair Use:

You may use Crowfeathers comics pages, related art, characters, concepts, etc. for the following pre-approved uses:

fan art
doujinshi (fan comics)
icons
signatures
derivative works
educational, review, or parody works
advertising for Crowfeathers

AS LONG AS you DO NOT claim ownership of the original art, characters, or story, and do not falsely claim association/affiliation with me or Crowfeathers, or make false claims about me or my work which would be damaging to my reputation. i.e. Making a parody is fine as long as you don't falsely lead others to believe that I made the parody. Obviously I don't want credit for something I haven't seen, especially since it might be completely off base from what I would find humorous or agreeable.

If asked, you MUST tell others where the originals came from. Wherever possible, if the work is posted or published somewhere other than this site, you must visibly indicate one or more of the following on or near the derivative work: the name of the original comic (Crowfeathers), the creator's name (SageBrush), and the URL of the comic site (http://www.crowfeathers.net). You must make it clear that you drew it/made the derivative work, but the original character(s) concept(s) is/are mine.

If you SELL Crowfeathers fan art or derivative works to a third party, (I doubt this will come up much for a few years, at least, but just in case) the work MUST somehow indicate all three items (based on the comic Crowfeathers, by SageBrush, http://www.crowfeathers.net), AND it must be made obvious that it is fan art.

All the above restrictions are common courtesy for derivative works, and should be followed for any fan work, except in cases where the creator has strictly forbidden any derivative works.

Art FAQ:

Q: What program are you using/how do you do this stuff???

A: The pages are hand drawn with pencil and inked with Faber Castel brush pens and whatever drafting pens I have at the moment. Then I scan them into Photoshop. I use a parchment texture that I scanned in from a piece of paper to replicate watercolor... though in the early pages I was actually using watercolor toning.

Q: What fonts do you use?

A: Frank the Architect for the main text, Markerman for title pages, Radioactive Granny for the website navigation stuff and comic title. I also like Helldorado. I use a few others here and there. For screams and FX I prefer to just write them with a Sharpie.

Music Info:

> Alouette is a French children's song of unknown origin (though it was around prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition). The verses refer to plucking a lark before cooking it.

> The written lyrics to The Twelve Days of Christmas first appeared in Mirth without Mischief, a children's song book, in the early 1780s in England. The tune is much older and is purported to have originated in France. The twelve days of Christmas are the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany (January 6th), which is when the three wise men supposedly arrived on the scene.

> All Through the Night is a traditional Welsh folk song whose lyrics were first printed in 1784. The rather different English lyrics were written by Harold Boulton, but I changed them around a bit. Technically his version was written in 1884, but fudging a few years won't kill anyone.

> Flee As a Bird. (1857) (diff ed) w., Mrs. Mary S. B. Dana. m., arr. by George Frederick Root. Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., cop. 1857.

Mythological/Supernatural Info:

> There are stories of giant birds that live in rural, often mountainous areas in the US, that are large enough to carry off children and livestock. Some of these stories are recent, though the thunderbird myth goes back for centuries. Some Native Americans claim the birds lay round eggs of stone (likely geodes) in enormous nests on the mountain ledges. The African Crested Eagle is a known species of bird which routinely consumes small primates and may be guilty of preying on human children. Whether or not there truly exists an American species capable of carrying larger prey (over ten pounds) is debated. Some Natives claim "thunderbirds" nest mainly in mountainous regions in South and Central America, but come up as far as Alaska. Bird experts believe the sightings are actually known species of condores, eagles, or vultures, and the extreme sizes claimed are based on human inability to judge dimensions and distances in the sky. This was shown by launching a 14" bird kite over a lake and asking onlookers to judge how large it was. Most wildly overestimated it, with some guessing as much as 100"; the closest estimate given was 27".

> The healing cocoon is a literal interpretation of a concept put forward by "world renowned psychic" Sylvia Brown -- those that committed suicide, were mentally ill before death, or who died horribly tragic deaths may need to go through a process called "cocooning," in which the spirit is enshrouded in God's love and left alone for a while until they can become whole again. After this process they can go on normally with their lives on the other side.

Languages

Q: Are the non English/French/Spanish/etc. words real, or did you make them up?
A: Early on I was just making them up, so Harulkojin, Harukulkuun, Jinku, Saija Dakaruum, and chacoste are all made up, though Jinku means various appropriate things in Japanese depending on how it's spelled. Now I have an assortment of dictionaries and glossaries for Hopi, Navajo, and Western Apache, so any words that are not obviously English/French/Spanish/Chinese/German/etc. will probably be from one of those three Native languages.

Religion

Q: Is this some kind of story to promote Christianity? What's all this religious stuff? Aghhh!
A: No. This is a story to make you think about your faith, or lack of faith, differently.

Q: Are you Indian/can you tell me what my totem animal is/how do I go on a vision quest/etc...
A: I am not affiliated officially with any tribe and am not certified or qualified to perform the role of Shaman. All I can recommend is meditation.

Q: What do you believe in?
A: According to Belief-O-Matic:

1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. New Age (98%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (95%)
4. New Thought (93%)
5. Mahayana Buddhism (88%)
6. Taoism (86%)
7. Liberal Quakers (84%)
8. Scientology (76%)
9. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (75%)
10. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (73%)

Defining what I believe in is hard, because it changes from day to day. Basically I study a lot of New Age ideas. I read about or listen to the stories of psychics, near death experiencers, past life researchers, psychic healers, remote viewers, quantum physics researchers, etc. I've been reading Native books, such as The Book of the Hopi, which I still need to finish... I'm familiar with the bible but by no means a bible scholar. However, I'm of the opinion that the explanations given by churches as to what many bible passages mean are either totally wrong or very superficial. I listen to Coast to Coast AM, which is a radio show that runs overnight and covers mainly paranormal subject matter. I am not affiliated with any religion, therefore it is not my purpose to recruit anyone into any particular faith. However, I would like to encourage people to look inward more often, and reconsider the true nature of reality. Anyone who believes he has it all figured out, is most likely quite wrong, and should go off and think on humility for a bit.