Hey, Bailey! I have a question about... ...the characters! ...the art! ...stuff in general! ...the weirdo who runs this thing! ...contact info! Characters Q.. Where did you get the idea for the cats? A. They're all based on the cats I had when I lived in Florida, including Beau. I lost him December 2, 2001, but he lives on in Catena, and in my heart. Ivy lives with me in Oklahoma, but the rest are still at my parents' house in The Sunshine State, and they're doing fine. Q. Is Bryony based on a real cat, too? A. Yes. Bear and Patches really did have a third sibling. She was a Manx like Bear, with a vibrant personality, but she didn't live very long. I've mourned her passing ever since, and I often wondered what sort of cat she might have been. Her character here is a sort of tribute to that bright little spirit who left us far too soon. Q.. What happened to the real Beau? A. I really don't like talking about it. Q. Why do they have such weird hair colors? A. Tipping my cap to anime. I love all the wacky colors and styles that anime characters often have. That's also why their eyes often show through their hair. I just like the look of it. Q. Where do they live? A. Southern California someplace. I don't live there, but I spent a lot of my childhood out West, and I loved it. Q. How do you pronounce "Treiss"? A. Like "Trace." Q. What about "Bryony"? A. Like "BRI-uh-nee." Q. Is Treiss supposed to be you? A. Years ago, I used her briefly as an online persona, but I got bored with that sort of role-playing, so I tossed her into the comic instead. She's kept her brown hair and green eyes, but beyond that, she's just another character. So no, she's not me. And please, don't call me "Treiss" or "snow leopard" or "spottykitty." Last I checked, I was still human, guys. :) Q. I don't get it...why are angels hanging around? A. Why not? Even though Catena takes place in an anthropomorphic version of the modern world, I like to keep an element of the extraordinary in it, blurring the lines between the known and the unknown, while having a bit of fun with it on the way. If you're confused, it might be because you're taking things a little too seriously. Sit back, turn off your brain, and enjoy the things with wings. Q. What about Hank? Is he based on anyone? A. Not on any real animal, no. I wanted to introduce a dog into the comic mostly to further irritate Belle. After a while, he started picking up a lot of my husband's personality, so much of what Hank says and does these days is rooted in my other half's antics. I expect one day, he'll have his revenge for that. Q. Was Reaper inspired by Discworld's Death? A. I know, those blue eyes would make anyone think so, huh? But I honestly had never read any of the Discworld novels until after I'd come up with Reaper. I only gave him blue eyes because red or orange made him look evil, and with yellow eyes he looked too much like Black Mage or Orko. Blue suited him best. Funny how that turned out. Q. How do you feel about people shipping your characters? A. So long as they provide plenty of breathing holes in the box and aren't planning to send them to Abudabi with Nermal...oh wait. You mean "ship" as in "relationship." Right. Well, I never thought this comic would get enough of a fanbase for me to ever think about that, but here goes. Fandom shipping? I don't mind it. I even post shippy fan art; it's cool with me. I've seen lots of different ships—most of them are pretty strange, but hey, it's just fans having fun; nothing wrong with that. While I don't know if any of the characters will ever hook up in canon, if you guys want to play around with ideas, knock yourselves out. As for slash? Slash used to shock me, but not anymore. Now my reaction tends to be "Uhh...what?"—usually followed by a hearty round of guffawing. To be offended by slash, I'd have to take it seriously, and frankly most slash I've seen is just too absurd for me to be anything but vastly amused. My husband and I even make up ridiculous out-of-left-field pairings when we're bored and caffeinated. So...yeah, whatever. I won't post slash on the site for the sake of my more conservative viewers, but personally, the mental images alone make me fall out of my chair laughing. Basically my stance on fanworks is this: have fun, draw pics, write fics; just don't be silly enough to try to make money off it, or get it in your head that your theories overrule the creator's work. They're my characters, remember. That's about it. Q. Will you put me (or my pet) in Catena as a character? A. I gotta admit, this is one question that makes me slam my head against the desk. I've thrown in friends' characters now and then as a gag, sure, and I did a tribute to a close friend's cat once, but I don't do it on request. I'd never get any of my own ideas done if I started that. Sorry. Q. [insert question or comment about Bear's changing look here] A. Okay, it was mildly amusing the first few dozen e-mails I got about Bear's new look with his big chin and all, but let's move on, okay? It's not as if he's the only cartoon character to change drastically over time. And if you liked the old look better, well, sorry. The new look's here to stay, and other characters may well undergo more alterations in the future. It's all a part of their development. Bear has a gigantic chin, dudes. Get over it. Q. Is Ivy named after the blind girl in The Village? A. It's more like she's named after the real-life cat, who's named after the girl in The Village. So...yes. Art Q. Where did you learn to draw? A. Nowhere. I'm a self-taught bottom-feeder. That's probably pretty obvious, but I'd like to think I'm slowly getting better. Q. What do you use to make the comics? A. From start to finish, everything's done in Adobe Photoshop CS2 with my beloved Wacom tablet. Q. How long does drawing a strip take you? A. I'm lazy and I usually have a lot of other projects going on at once, so I generally work on one strip over the course of several days. I only work on it a little at a time, though, so all together, it probably takes me about 6-8 hours. Plenty of time to do one in a day, but I'd be particularly bitey by the end of it all, and other people have to live with me, so for their sakes I usually don't attempt that. Q. Can I use some of your pictures? A. It depends. You may... Save these images to your computer to look at without having to go online. Print any artwork or comic strips here for your viewing pleasure. Make journal or forum icons from them, so long as you credit the comic somewhere in the keywords. Use an image for a picture in one of those forum signatures, but again, crediting is the polite thing to do. You may NOT... Steal anything from this site and claim it as your work. Sell prints or any other sort of merchandise made from my drawings. Alter any images (i.e., hair color/style, clothing) and then say the characters are new creations of yours. Link directly to any images. Upload things to your own server. Stealing is bad, m'kay? Q. Draw me something! A. In the immortal words of Dr. Evil, "How 'bout NO!" Q. Do you take paid commissions? A. I used to, but not anymore. I don't do art trades, either. Sorry. Q. Do you have a DeviantArt page, or Elfwood or anything? A. No, I'm not on any of those art sites. I used to have an Elfwood page years ago, but my gallery days are long over. I'm just not into it. Q. I drew some fanart; how do I send it? A. E-mail it as an attachment to the address given below (under Contact Info), or send me a link if you have it uploaded somewhere. Please make sure it's in either JPEG or GIF format, or if you can't save it as anything other than a bitmap, I'll convert it to JPEG or GIF. I also reserve the right to shrink it down if it's very large, but I won't do anything to compromise the image quality, no worries. In addition, I reserve the right to remove any art for any reason. Sometimes it's nothing more than to clean things up a little. I'm sure that'll upset people, but guys? My page isn't your personal gallery. Get yourself one of those on DeviantArt or Fur Affinity or something; there are a lot of them out there. Then you can have whatever you want up, 'kay? Do not come whining to me about it; it won't get you anywhere. Sorry. Q. Any kinds of art you don't accept? A. For starters, no sex. I'm no prude (ask anyone who knows me in real life), but I'm not posting anything that depicts any sexual acts, even if "nothing's showing." Kids visit this site, after all. Pinups are a gray area; usually I'm okay with them so long as no naughty bits are visible, but in the end it's my choice what I do and don't post in the Fan Art section. Also, no gore. Showing some blood is okay (no doubt you've noticed it in the comic a couple of times), but I'm talking about extreme Fangoria-type stuff. It's not something that bothers me personally, but think of the kids, foo'! "No swearing" should go without saying, but I'd better say it anyway: no swearing. The only other thing I can think of is that I can't accept art that's not your own. Photomanipulations? Ehhh. They're okay, and I'll post them so long as no one else's copyrighted work is involved (in other words, you use only stuff from the Catena strip and don't throw other people's or companies' cartoon characters into the mix), but really, I'd prefer that fan art be something you drew. It's more fun and creative that way. Q. Ew, someone's posting porn of your characters on some forum! A. It's sort of funny the way people think I'm going to be all shocked about this. No, I'm not thrilled about it, but I'm not doing the Outraged Anne Rice Dance of Doom, either. Mostly I just roll my eyes and get on with things. I guess I've been in fandoms so long that I'm a little jaded, but anyway, leave 'em alone. Don't go playing Crusader for my sake, and please don't tell me about it every time you see something. I know it's out there. As long as they're not making money off it, it doesn't keep me awake at night. Q. OMG, now someone's asking other people for Catena porn! You should stop them! A. This poor deceased horse has really been beaten enough, don't you think? See my answer above. Q. I drew some art, but I don't have a scanner. Can I send it to you through snail mail? A. I'm not comfortable giving out my address to people I don't know. You shouldn't be, either. It's very sweet of you to draw something for me, but scanners aren't expensive, and if you still can't get one, there are lots of office supply places that will scan it for you. General Q. Why is this comic called "Catena"? A. According to Webster, a catena (pronounced ka-TEE-nah) is "a connected series of related things." That's a pretty fair description of a comic strip, and it happens to have the word "cat" in it. I'm a sucker for bad puns. Q. Wait, is it "Catena" or "Catena Manor"? A. "Catena." I only have "Catena Manor" in the domain name because "Catena" was already taken. Q. This takes place in modern times, right? A. Yup. Some people have been a little confused because of how Treiss is dressed, but remember that Treiss is a little off her rocker. Q. Where do you come up with ideas for strips? A. Believe it or not, most of this stuff is based on things that happen to me in everyday life, or conversations I have with my husband. We're terrible influences on each other and often get strange looks in public. So hey, when your life's a sitcom, run with it. Q. Have you considered a message board for Catena? A. Eh, I used to have one a long time ago, but frankly even the best-maintained message boards turn into breeding grounds for Internet drama. I don't want to deal with that. Q. Are these comics ever going to be in a book? A. Maybe someday, when my drawing has improved and I have more material. Q. I don't like the link banners you have; can I make my own? A. Sure. And if you make one that you really dig and think I'll dig it, too, feel free to send it to me. I might just add it to the 'Link to Us' page. Q. I have an idea for a strip... A. Generally I don't accept suggestions. Sorry. I've got plenty of my own ideas going. You're more than welcome to draw your idea yourself, though, or write it out if it's a story or something. Q. So does that mean you'll put my fanfic on the site? A. No, I've got to draw the line at hosting fanfiction. That's one door I won't open; it can lead to loads of trouble. Write it all you want—it's cool and flattering that someone would want to spend time writing about something I created—but there are plenty of places out there where you can upload fanfiction on your own space. The Weirdo Q. So...what about you? A. Not much to tell. I'm a housewife who does this stuff in her spare time. Born November 11, 1976, a very strange Christian, living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Likes "guy" movies, Taco Bell, geek stuff, bellydancing, Hot Topic, techno, the 80's, and cartoons; hates the Lifetime Network with a passion. Q. Hey, aren't you a little old for some of that stuff? A. Absolutely, but that hasn't stopped me so far. Q. Are you a Furry? A. No. I'd never even heard of Furry until a few years ago, and I'd been drawing silly talking animals since I was little, having grown up watching the likes of Looney Toons and Gummi Bears and TaleSpin. It seemed like good geeky fun at first, and I tried going to a couple of conventions, but it's not my bag. I just don't take any fandom that seriously. If you're a Furry, good on ya. I've got several friends who're into it, but personally, I just want to draw silly talking animals. Contact Info Q. What's your e-mail address? A. It's catenamanor AT gmail DOT com, but fair warning, I am very slow to respond, and frankly sometimes I just forget. I do appreciate the fan mail I get, but I'm often busy; plus I'm easily distracted by stuff going on in life. Q. Are you on AIM or MSN? A. I have AIM, but I use it very rarely. I'm just not much for talking online. Nothing personal. I'm a hermit. Home "Catena" and all characters and images are © 2003-2007 Tracy Bailey.