Expected Content
☞ What kind of webcomic is Surreal’s Archive?
Surreal’s Archive is a dark fantasy story with boys love mixed it. As a dark fantasy, there will be elements of horror and unsettling situations. The boys love part isn’t really the focus of Surreal’s Archive; as in, the story does not revolve around forming a relationship or relationship issues/resolutions (er, kind of). There will be a lot of male-centric fanservice throughout the webcomic.
☞ What is Surreal’s Archive Content Rating?
Surreal’s Archive is rated R-16+. There is no planned explicit sexual content or extreme gore. There maybe sexual scenes and shocking imagery of body horror, but there will be no explicit scenes that would warrant an R-18 rating (at least in the main webcomic). This is not going to be a porno (like a lot of BL comics on WT/Tapas), so don’t be disappointed when you don’t get to see character X and Y have a spicy scene.
☞ Is this webcomic safe for work? Is there any nsfw scenes later?
The comic will be slightly nsfw at times, but there isn’t any explicit scenes (as per mentioned in the content rating section). What does this mean exactly? If there is a sexual scene, no genitalia are shown (hence, the R-16 rating). There will be a lot of male fanservice throughout the webcomic, but I don’t feel comfortable drawing nsfw as part of the main webcomic. There are a lot of reasons why I chose this, but plan to have some nsfw-ish content as side content (gallery, short stories, etc).
☞ Can you go more into the type of content that may turn me away?
There are a lot of needles (the characters get their nutrition from injections via needle as it’s most convenient for them), body horror (no visceral images or blood; their bodies are brittle like glass/stone), depression and sutures on skin. The webcomic is dark/horror based, but I hope the content isn’t enough to turn people away (i.e being gross or too much to look at).
Site and Updates
☞ What is your update schedule?
I always try to get at least 1 page out a week on the official site (first place I always update). Focus is official site > WebToon > Tapas. I will always announce updates on my Twitter when I update on individual sites.
Site updates
[official site] As soon as I’m done the page
[WebToon] When I have 10-20 panels that form an episode
[Tapas] When I have 10-20 panels that form an episode
☞ Can you update more often?
I update as often as I can. Art/comics is my hobby (I work a 9-5 job); I work on my webcomic in my spare time. I try to focus my free time on webcomic related stuff, but I also like to work on other stuff as well such as illustrations and playing games (to prevent burn-out).
☞ Can I comment anywhere on this site?
No. I have disabled all commenting. It’s more to keep the WordPress spambots flooding up my site. I may enable comments on this site in the future I tried plugins, but since I modified the code heavily to remove comment areas, may not be possible. For now, you can on leave comments on Tapas or WebToon.
☞ Is there any nsfw stuff available?
I got you.
☞ Is the nsfw-ish stuff going to behind a paywall? (ie. Patreon).
No. All my work will be available for free. If you want to support my work, check here.
☞ How long is Surreal’s Archive?
It will be long (I have a tentative breakdown here). The story is already planned, has a clear direction and ending. I just have to draw it.
☞ The webcomic sounds super long. Are you sure you will finish it?
I am going to fucking try.
Story Related
☞ Is this actually a boys-love (BL) comic? There really isn’t any BL within the first or second part.
Yes, this is actually a boys-love comic. This is one of those rare BL webcomics that doesn’t have porn in the first few pages. I maybe the only one, but I find it a little more interesting when characters actually fall in love with each other instead of immediately having sex when they first meet. I also have a lot of male fanservice and there are BL scenes later that may turn people off who are not into the genre, so I label it as a BL.
The BL will happen, I promise. In the mean time, you can satisfy your BL needs with the extras I make (short comics, gallery, etc).
☞ Ok. But when does the nsfw-ish BL stuff happen?
Part 5 (probably).
☞ When do the Eldritch gods appear?
Intermission 1 (just a preview), Part 3 (in more detail).
☞ Wait, THE WHAT?
Did I not mention that part anywhere?
☞ Does this story take place on Earth?
No. The planet doesn’t even have a name. It is simply referred to the Scio as ‘<redacted>’ that is inhabited by ‘sentient biological humanoids’. But to keep the world simple, you can consider it as an alternate Earth with similar events/rules.
☞ Is Cyril (Surreal) actually human?
You will have to read an find out. It will become clear in Part 4.
☞ Who gets with who?
Some of the relationships will be obvious from the side artwork I draw *cough*Grimsby*cough*Odeza*cough*. I ship my main main 2 OCs pretty hard so, I hope that doesn’t spoil it too much (unfortunately). Or maybe it makes it more exciting when they are finally introduced in the webcomic and how they get together. Surreal’s relationship is the only one that is kind of ‘secret’ (until I start posting him with his partner when I, uh, finishing designing him).
☞ The summary (used to) mentions time travel. How does that play in the webcomic?
I had something written here, but I have changed how ‘time travel’ works in the webcomic. Since the ‘time travel’ part ties to the ending, I am going to omit explaining its importance to the story in the FAQ. Just know it’s not a plot device to fill any plot holes. It has to do with the sequel.
☞ After this huge ass webcomic, there is going to be a sequel??
There are two sequels actually: [redacted]’s [redacted] and [redacted]’s [redacted]. And a spinoff called [redacted]’s [redacted].
Miscellaneous
☞ Why is the webcomic so dark (like, colour wise)?
I picture the setting to be very dark. Lore wise, the characters do not require light to see objects clearly. But obviously I need to lighten up the backgrounds/objects so we can see things. You will notice there are no light fixtures in the webcomic, this is intentional. I know some of my earlier pages were dark and people had trouble differentiating the characters from the background (especially on Tapas where the website background is white). I have been fixing up the earlier pages to be a little more light. The webcomic is best viewed on this site with the dark background.
☞ Why are the characters so skinny?
A combo of my style and my love of slender, effeminate male characters. Yes, I know they look abnormally skinny and very girly, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
☞ How old are the characters?
All main characters in my story are adults (over the age of 18). Since the main characters are ‘ageless’, I can give my canon ages: Surreal (33), Grima (25), Grimsby (28), Odeza (33), Siv (28), Sentience (27). Real ages: Surreal (10,000+), Grima (2), Grimsby (1000+), Odeza (10,000+), Siv (1000+), Sentience (4000+). Yes, Grima is 2.
☞ When is the webcomic’s anniversary?
May 26th. I will try to prepare something special for this date.
☞ What happened to (the real) Part 1 (Insomnia)?
I deleted it. I wasn’t happy with it and the quality was all over the place. Instead of completely re-redoing it (I already redid Part 1 twice), I am bringing it back as a short flashback. To be honest, it wasn’t really relevant to the rest of the story to warrant 50 pages of webcomic.