Crimson Dark is a Sci-Fi webcomic created by David C. Simon, updated with a new page every Monday. Though work began on the strip in May 2006, it wasn't published until the 1st of June of that year (the archives were backdated, so that new readers would have more than one page to look at). The comic is a serialised story set during a massive inter-stellar war in the 27th century, but focuses primarily on a handful of individuals caught up in the middle of the war rather than the broader details of the conflict.
I'm a writer and an artist, so it seems inevitible that I would end up making a webcomic. I have studied Theatre Theory & Practice at University, and Visual Art at TAFE. Most of my training has been in theatre, particularly acting, directing and writing - I think all of these skills are playing a big role in my work on Crimson Dark.
How did Crimson Dark begin?
Crimson Dark, began back in High School where i would frequently doodle starships when I should have been taking notes. This might explain my performance in exams.
It was in 1997 when I was studying Theatre Theory and Practice at University that I started to create the universe of Crimson Dark. I daydreamed about a story set in the future featuring a great war between Earth and a mysterious alien race. Not particularly original, I know. I played with the idea, imagined a number of different stories, but most of my time was spent working on ideas and themes rather than actual characters. In the end, this version of Crimson Dark came to nought.
The idea resurfaced in May 2006 when someone, while browsing my gallery at DeviantArt, said that one of my images would make “great panel in a graphic comic mag”. Encouraged by this comment, and the fact that one of my submissions to DA had been selected and featured as a ‘Daily Deviation’, I decided it was time to revisit Crimson Dark. The setting is vastly different, but some of the key concept remain – and this time I actually have some characters, huzzah!
Why is it called ‘Crimson Dark’?
This is plot-related, and should be explained if you read through Chapter 2.
Have you made any other webcomics?
Nope, this is my first webcomic. Ok, that’s not entirely true – I’ve tried to make webcomics a few times over the years, but in each case the results were so embarrassingly terrible that I never even showed them to my friends, let alone the public. Crimson Dark is the first webcomic project I’ve done where I’ve actually been satisfied with the results.
