The Setting of Gaia; Location! Location! Location!

 

Hello everyone. Tom's here, creator of Gaia. Last week I taught you all about my primary protagonist, Tori Jacobs/Gaia. This week I want to go into some details on why I chose Kansas City, Kansas/Wyandotte County as the main location for my comic book series. Like the banner says welcome to Kansas City.

One of the things I've noticed since digesting different stories throughout my lifetime is the fact that few of them take place in the state of Kansas, let alone Kansas City. And when things usually happen in Kansas City it's the Missouri side, not the Kansas side. Even the Chiefs and Royals' stadiums are technically in the state of Missouri, not Kansas.

There are a few exceptions to this. Like the fact that Clark Kent/Superman comes from Smallville Kansas. The Winchesters came from Kansas and of course Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz also came from Kansas, and those are the only examples I can think of. The show Smallville and the newest show Superman & Lois both take place in the state of Kansas in the fictional city of Smallville. So that's something.

But few stories have taken place in my hometown of Wyandotte County. So I thought why not have my story take place in KCK? They say to write what you know, and while I haven't been everywhere in Wyandotte County, and I'm terrible at directions, I still know enough about my hometown to feature it in my comic book. The Wyandotte Plaza is even used in the first issue of my current WIP Gaia #1.

Tori, Shinta, June, Lily, Nex, Mary, and Lauren Cooper all grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. Tori even goes to Wyandotte High School which is one of two main high schools in the city. There's Wyandotte and Washington High School. I just decided to use Wyandotte High School because that was the first thing to come to mind. I can always go to Washington High later.

Of course I had to explain why Wyandotte County is the center focus of the story. Since it's the hometowns of most of the characters moving forward it makes sense to have it located there. Lauren is from Kansas City and pulls some strings to make sure her discovery is sent back to the Wyandotte County area for sake of tourism. This sets the stage for everything else to happen in Wyandotte County. It's probably more than my hometown deserves, but it's how I wanted to proceed moving forward.

Now I'm still debating if I want to do a shared universe with different comic book series being made. Right now I'm the driving force behind my Gaia project. Meeting different artists and such to do the work I can't do by myself. I don't have the funds or the resources to work on more than one comic book series at a time. I debated alternating between my four core story ideas, but a friend of mine said it's easier to give 100% on one thing than on several, so for the time being I'm focusing on Gaia in my past time. It already cost me over $500 dollars to get as far as I am now, and it will cost me several more hundreds moving forward. I'll have to promote like I've been promoting as there's a chance I won't even break even, but that's the risk you take when you get into the comic book business. You never know what's going to sell.

For that shared universe idea I was thinking about making Kansas City, Kansas the New York City to my Marvel Universe. Being the main focus point of heroes, villains, and supernatural entities like demons and the likes. Nothing is written in stone yet and I'm still brainstorming, but Kansas City could end up being remembered as the place that Gaia dwells.

And that is something that's worth pursuing.

Introducing: Tori Jacobs, AKA Gaia!

 

Hello everyone. Tom's here. The creator of Gaia. And I'm here today to introduce you to someone who is very near and dear to my heart. I'm of course talking about the primary protagonist of my WIP comic book series, Tori Jacobs! AKA Gaia!

Tori Jacobs is a sixteen year old girl in her second year of high school at Wyandotte High School. Born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, otherwise known as Wyandotte County and lives on Walker Avenue. Her parents are Terry and Tina Jacobs and she has one older brother named Toby. Her friends include people she met when she was just a toddler such as Shinta, June, Lily, Nex, and Mary. They all attend Wyandotte High School together with the exception of June who is two years younger than the rest of them and is still in Middle School.

Tori has long red hair, emerald green eyes, white skin, and stands at five feet, seven inches and weighs one-hundred and thirty-six pounds with a thin build. Her favorite color is green, with her secondary favorite color being red. Her favorite movie is the 2018 Tomb Raider reboot, her favorite game is Rise of the Tomb Raider, and her favorite console is Xbox. Her interests include swimming, video games, anime, movies, and television. It's a secret, but she's also...

 

Gaia! Champion of Kansas City. Her costume includes basic clothing she found in her basement. A red bicycle helmet, black goggles, red gloves, black elbow pads, a red backpack, red running shoes, a short sleeved green shirt, blue jeans, and a black bulletproof vest underneath the shirt. Her powers include Earth and Plant Manipulation and they are limited only by her imagination.

Now when I created Tori I actually created her back in 2008. Back then I had very low self esteem. I didn't like the way I looked or the way I sounded. So I thought of making someone who I wanted to be more like. Someone who was smart, funny, outgoing, and charismatic. For some reason I decided to make that somebody a woman and thus Tori Jacobs was made.

I based her appearance off my mom who has reddish blond hair and green eyes. Tori hair is more naturally red than her, though. Her parents are largely based off of my parents and her home is based off of my home, but for reasons unknown to me I decided to make her dad 6'10 and her brother 7'0 making the men in her family giants. Meaning that she and her mom are the short ones, even though 5'7 is still considered tall for the average lady.

Tori was originally an adult when I first made her. Born on March 1st. It was only recently that I made her a sixteen year old high school student, though at the beginning of the story she's actually fifteen as the story begins just one day before her sixteenth birthday.

I came up with her superhero identity by scrolling through the Superpowered Wiki online. I came across an article called Earth Manipulation and liked what I saw so I took the whole page of powers and moves and made a superhero out of it. Adding Plant Manipulation to that power set. Coming up with the name 'Gaia' from Greek Mythology because of the powers that were being used and I came up with the idea to include figures from Greek Mythology as villains and characters in the comic book universe I'm creating, but that is another story, and shall be told at another time.

After all that was decided I needed a reason for her to choose to fight crime and become a superhero. I decided as for an origin story to make her come into her powers at the Wyandotte Plaza and cause a vicious earthquake to hit the plaza. This is where the story gets kind of dark as the earthquake kills ten people and injures countless others. Because of this fact Tori is struck with guilt over the lives lost at the plaza. She then decides to do something about it. Thus becoming a crime fighting superhero in the Kansas City, Kansas area. The first crime she busts is a Seven-Eleven robbery with two ordinary thugs who can't believe their eyes.

Of course another thing I did which I think is unique, at least to an extent, is that the first thing Tori does when her powers appear is go to her parents for help. This is something I noticed another teenage superhero didn't do. Peter Parker didn't go to Uncle Ben and Aunt May after he got bitten by a radioactive spider and other heroes kept a lot of their loved ones out of the loop. Clark Kent was really the only one who parents knew about his powers and that was only because they appeared at birth. I also made sure that they were supportive and willing to help her control her powers.

The second thing I did was have Tori tell her good personal friends about her powers and the fact she was now a crime fighter. They are also supportive and that's the main inner circle for Tori. Her immediate family and her close circle of friends. Anyone else was kept out of the loop.

Basically it starts with petty thugs and evolves to super powered characters looking to take Gaia down. Even pitting Gaia against the likes of Thanatos, the Greek god of death, and Medusa from Greek Mythology. Tori has a lot of obstacles facing her. Juggling her social life, school life, and career as a crime fighting superhero all at the simple age of sixteen. Meaning she has to grow up fast. With her family and friends behind her, yet worried at the same time, what perils will await our hero as she ventures into a new adventure with crime, thugs, dangers, and supernatural disaster?

Only time will tell.