''Ava's Demon'' is a

science fantasy Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scientif ...

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

written and drawn by Michelle Czajkowski Fus and colored by a number of colorists. The comic, which has been ongoing since 2012, is known for its painted art style and animations. The first physical publication of ''Ava's Demon'' was released in 2013 after a successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

project, and another Kickstarter in 2020 became the most-backed webcomic Kickstarter at the time.

Premise

''Ava's Demon'' is set in the year 3031 AD, in a universe of

interplanetary travel Interplanetary spaceflight or interplanetary travel is the crewed or uncrewed travel between stars and planets, usually within a single planetary system. In practice, spaceflights of this type are confined to travel between the planets of the ...

and advanced

medical science Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...

, where some people have obtained god-like powers through science. The comic follows Ava Ire, a teenager that has a personal

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...

that has tormented her since her birth. The demon, Wrathia, can briefly possess her and make her scream violent insanities, and has urged her to commit

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. After Ava comes close to death, Wraitha reveals what she truly is – the ghost of an alien queen – and offers Ava a pact. The pact requires Ava to bind more closely to Wrathia, and to help Wrathia defeat a being with numerous followers. Wrathia seeks revenge on Titan, a god-like figure who destroyed Wrathia's empire. Ava also learns that other people have demons as well.

Development

Inspiration

Fus said that they wanted to create comics since childhood, but to make money went into

3D animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

and worked for both

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...

and

DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...

. While interning at Pixar, they were taught the process of creating successful stories. Fus started working on ''Ava's Demon'' during their spare time while working at Dreamworks – at the time, they did not expect it to make a sustainable career. Fus described the original idea for ''Ava's Demon'' as "a collage of stuff I’ve absorbed that I really like, like ''

The Fifth Element ''The Fifth Element'' is a 1997 English-language French science fiction action film conceived and directed by Luc Besson, as well as co-written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Chris Tucker, and Milla Jov ...

'' and ''

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

'' and

Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

films."

Production and format

According to its website, the art of ''Ava's Demon'', Fus' illustrations are colored by Fus and five "official colorists", two of whom also run their own webcomics. The webcomic includes some pages which are a single panel, advanced by a button, which

io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...

said "give

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

comic a rhythmic, almost animated quality." In addition, occasional panels are animated, and some key scenes have more elaborate animations, played over music on

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

videos.

Physical printing

In 2013, Fus started a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

project through

to self-publish the first volume of ''Ava's Demon''. Besides a full-color book, Fus offered downloads for the animated comics. The webcomic successfully raised $217,036

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

by June 2013. In 2015, another Kickstarter campaign was launched to publish the second volume of ''Ava's Demon'', as well as to re-print the first volume. Along with donation perks, an animated chapter video would be created by Studio Yotta, known for their animated videos for internet comedy group

Starbomb Starbomb was an American musical-comedy group composed of Dan Avidan and Brian Wecht of musical-comedy duo Ninja Sex Party together with Flash animator and Internet personality Arin Hanson and "space rock masters" TWRP, a Canadian music group ...

. The campaign was successfully funded. Fus has opened up a shop for ''Ava's Demon'' where the first two books can be purchased, alongside a variety of printed art and novelty items. Fus is active on a variety of social platforms including

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

, and

Discord Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging social platform. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".The developer documenta ...

. On their Twitter, Fus posts update announcements as well as any notices about hiatuses the comic will take. In 2020, it was announced the comic would be republished by

Skybound Entertainment Skybound Entertainment is an American multiplatform entertainment company founded by Robert Kirkman and David Alpert. History Skybound Entertainment is the company behind the long-running comic, '' The Walking Dead'', created by Robert Kirkman ...

. A

campaign was held for a new hardcover edition of the first volume. It became the most-funded webcomic Kickstarter, later beaten by ''Check, Please!''

Reception

In a 2013 review, Lauren Davis of ''

'' said that the comic "promises to be a funny and gorgeous epic", saying that the multimedia experience complements Fus' sense of humor and that she enjoyed the surreal aspects of Fus' storytelling. Davis described the comic as "gorgeous," but specified that ''Ava's Demon'' is "more than just a pretty face." ''

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication fro ...

'' rated ''Ava's Demon'' among the best webcomics of 2014 for the way it combined "gorgeous panels with an intriguing story," and in 2015, Juliet Kahn of ''

Comics Alliance ComicsAlliance was an American website dedicated to covering the comic book industry as well as comic-related media, and is owned by Townsquare Media. The site has been nominated for multiple awards including a 2015 Eisner Award win in the catego ...

'' described ''Ava's Demon'' as "one of the most luminously lovely comics currently produced."

Kris Straub The kris, or ''keris'' in the Indonesian language, is an asymmetrical dagger with distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). Of Javanese origin, the kris is famous for its disti ...

, creator of various webcomics, praised ''Ava's Demon'' for its animation and its painted look. By 2015, ''Ava's Demon'' had raised over half a million dollars over two Kickstarter campaigns.

References

{{reflist 2010s webcomics 2012 webcomic debuts American webcomics Kickstarter-funded publications Long-form webcomics Science fantasy webcomics Demons in comics Webcomics in print Comics set in the 31st century LGBT-related webcomics Skybound Entertainment titles