What is God Animal?

In an alternate post-apocalyptic 2003, two foxy friends, Cat and Dog, are on the run from a mysterious and troubling eusocial parasitic presence known as the Monarch Swarm, erasing beings from existence and leaving an eerily silent world in its wake. It is then that on one fateful day, when seemingly all hope of survival has been extinguished for Cat and Dog, the duo encounter a peculiar but friendly being in the crumbling remains of an old human dwelling...Rebirth Horse. With the adamant ambition of finding a place to escape from the horrors of the Post-Silence World, can Cat, Dog and Rebirth Horse find an elusive place, an anywhere in which they can exist in peace?

God Animal is a very personal labour-of-love project of mine, written and drawn by a queer autistic bugfox critter who is in a very frequent state of wanting only to sit amongst dense leaf litter in the deep reaches of a forest and think about foxes, bugs and little else. The comic draws heavily from my deep adoration for and fascination with natural history, entomology, foxes (and canids in general), symbiosis of all types, xenofiction, pet-monster media and vintage horror manga from the 1960s-1970s. It is likewise a product of my own reflections on and experiences of existing, with themes such as the torment of trauma (and healing from it), the journey of finding a meaningful belonging, identity, aromanticism, seeing the world from non-human perspectives and the importance of resilience, especially during the most bleak of hardships.

Sound good? Click here to start from the beginning!

The webcomic site template used for God Animal is known as Rarebit, created by Diana and based on a concept by Dannarchy. Take a look here if you are interested in using it for your own self-hosted comics!

Questions and maybe some answers!

Who makes this comic?

God Animal is written and drawn by me, a queer autistic buggy-foxy critter who goes by the pen name Fox-Fleas. I'm a rather shy critter who does not always find it easy to talk about themself at length, but I have an about page on the main section of FoxBugForest; read that if you would like to know more about me!

What do you use to draw the comic?

The comic is drawn traditionally with ink on paper. I use India ink (Winsor & Newton brand black India ink is my go-to) with dip pens and brushes. In terms of specific dip pen nibs, I often use Zebra and Gillott brand nibs, namely G and Maru/mapping nibs for the former and 303 nibs for the latter. As for brushes, I use very fine-tipped brushes, often sized 00-0000. The comic pages themselves are drawn on heavier cartridge paper (to be more precise, I use cartridge paper with a minimum weight of 180-200 g/m²), specifically on individual A4 sheets. I usually sketch the pages with softer grade graphite pencils, usually ranging from 6B-8B, as sketching pages with such softer grades allows any stray sketch lines to be erased with ease after inking.

In terms of editing in post, I use Medibang Paint (mainly as it is a free to use program and I find it simple to utilise) for clean-ups and adjustments after scanning each page. I also utilise the program to add the mixed media elements, which are all comprised of photographs I have taken and applied dither filters to using the Dither Me This tool on DOODAD.dev.

Does this comic follow an upload schedule?

Not currently, no. Episodes of the comic will be uploaded in their entirety as and when they are completed, though this could potentially change in future. I'd much rather post new episodes in one batch rather than the more typical webcomic format of page by page, though this may change in future. Due to life, work and health commitments on my end, I cannot usually give a very specific ETA of episodes being produced and uploaded. When it is time to do so, I am intending to post announcements of imminently upcoming updates to God Animal on the blog linked above, as well as the main homepage of FoxBugForest!

Why do you refer to instalments of the story as "episodes" and not "chapters"?

Aside from the fact that a number of webcomic artists will also use the term episodes instead of chapters (sometimes depending on the format, albeit), on a more personal note it also pertains somewhat to the aspiration I had back in the day of making an animated webseries with an overarching story. As a younger bugfox, I was an aspiring animator and for a period experimented with making short cartoons using Adobe Flash, as well with as traditional pencil and paper animation and claymation techniques. However, I later realised that I had neither the patience, resilience or indeed the resources to produce an animated series in the longer term.

Nonetheless, still very much imbued with the strong desire to tell a longer form story in visual form, I found producing webcomics has been a befitting alternative. In other words, even if it is not animated, I do nonetheless like framing the instalments of God Animal as episodes in some capacity as a result! You can refer to the instalments as chapters though if you wish, I'm really not concerned at all.

Can I draw any of the characters?

Yes, of course! Whilst I am happy for others to draw my characters, if you do so, I ask that you adhere to the following:

• Do not draw anything NSFW or suggestive with any of the characters from God Animal; I feel this should really go without saying (I mean that), but to avoid any chance of ambiguity: please do not do that at all, I'm being completely serious about this.
• Please do not draw any of the characters in humanised or gijinka forms. I really don't enjoy such depictions of characters that are unambiguously non-human as a personal preference (I'm a critter myself, after all!), so please avoid that if you do draw them. If you want to draw any of the characters in anthro-furry forms however, that on the other hand is fine. As above, nothing suggestive or sexual, please.
• Lastly, I also ask that you please avoid shipping any of the characters. The majority of the characters in the story are aro-ace in some capacity, including Cat, Dog and Rebirth Horse. I'm of course aro-ace myself and would feel extremely uncomfortable with that, so please do not.

If you do draw any art of the cast, do feel free to let me know through my Tumblr or my SheezyArt page, I'd love to see it!

Do you ever host guest comics/guest pages?

No. God Animal is a very personal project of mine and I would therefore much rather it is comprised entirely of my own work.