The Minimizer's SW Site

Welcome to the Minimizer's site, where the ladies seem to just keep getting smaller and smaller! Here you'll find stories, comics, collages, and anything else I can think of related to SW. Enjoy!

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The Official Semi-Regular Occasional Minimizer Blog
(updated whenever I feel like it)

3 May 2010
Time for another comic! This time around, thanks to some suggestions by Fantelon, I'm presenting another chapter of the Three Wishes series, featuring the adventures of Kyra the miniature thief. At the end of Chapter Four, our tiny heroine was captured by her hated rival Tremain, who once tried to molest her and got a nice scar across his face for his troubles. Once he learned she could change sizes using her magic ring, he captured her and destroyed it, trapping her permanently at just a few inches high. Of course, Kyra isn't about to put up with imprisonment for long...and as Chapter Five opens, an escape is already in progress!

This comic will be updated regularly. Check back every couple of days for new pages. (Update: It's done now. Click here to read the entire thing!)

Also, in other news, I updated the comics page, reorganizing it by title, and adding a chronological description and artist's comments on each comic at the end of the page. If you ever wondered where I came up with some of this stuff, have a look. The extra stuff is at the bottom of the page.

29 January 2010
I've started to post a new novella called Stage Three, which is set in a world where something is causing the population to shrink, but not all at once or at any kind of regular speed. Instead, it happens in stages, and without warning, so you might wake up one morning and find yourself about one-third your previous size. This has been going on for several years now, and about half the population is now smaller by one stage or more, with more changing every day. There have been stories written (or drawn, in the case of the young adult comic In the Small) in settings where everyone is instantly miniaturized, or where it happens randomly to only a few select individuals, but in this case it seems to be affecting everybody. It's basically the end of the world as we know it. The story is told in the first person, by a woman experiencing society's gradual transition from normal to miniature status, and of course you just know it's going to happen to her, too...sooner or later. That's just the beginning of her adventures, though. Check back here daily for new chapters, and I'll post updates here as they become available.
---Latest Update: 11 March, Chapter 40 (Finished!) Click here to jump to this chapter.

In addition to this, I also recently posted a new (and much shorter) story entitled Legacy, which originally appeared only on the forums, so I've added it on the site in its entirety. Click on the link above to read the whole thing, and by the way, if you only saw it on the forums, I've added an alternate ending to the version posted on the story page. If you haven't seen this story before, here's a quick description: Tessara has always been curious about the mysterious race of Giants that built the great Dome under which her people live in peace and harmony, their every need provided for. When the caretaker of the museum offers to show her more, she can't resist the opportunity, but will the truth about herself and her place in the world be a welcome revelation, or will it destroy her in the end?

6 August 2009
I finished the latest Fire & Ice comic (see below) a few weeks ago, but I wasn't quite comfortable with the ending, so I added one more page by way of an epilogue. (If you've read anything at all on these pages, you know I love a good epilogue.) So if you've already read the entire comic and just want to jump to the last page, and see what happened to the microscopic villainess, click here!

31 May 2009
A couple of years ago I used to do occasional commissioned work (never for very much, mind you). This was back when I had tons of free time and was perfectly happy to blow an afternoon (or several afternoons) watching TV and drawing. Ah, those were the days! Anyway, I was asked to do a drawing, and was given very simple instructions: it had to involve superheroines getting shrunk, and at some point during the comic, one particular thing had to happen. (I won't specify what that is, but you can feel free to guess. Suffice to say it had never been done in any of my comics before.) Now, as I recall, all I really needed to do was draw one picture, but I hadn't drawn a superheroine comic yet, and as I mulled over how I wanted the picture to look, a story came to me. The result, of course, was "Fire and Ice: The Trouble With Mad Scientists."

Initially I thought of taking some existing characters from established comics, and drawing them as "fan art" in the same way you can read fan fiction and the like on the web (which I could probably get away with by using something called Fair Use). I would need a normal-sized heroine duo, dressed nicely (heh), and with powers that would be reduced as much as they were going to be (so no mental abilities, for example). After some searching, I couldn't find an appropriate pair, and decided to create my own. The contrast of hot and cold seemed appropriate, and costumes suggested themselves. Little did I know that there were already DC comics characters named Fire and Ice, and their Ice dressed similarly to mine, too! I didn't find out about this until months later, though, when someone let me in on this little fact. Rather than change my characters' names, though, I decided to just leave them as they are, with this explanation, and a note on the comics page that they aren't really the same characters.

Anyway, at the end of "The Trouble With Mad Scientists," poor Fire and Ice are left small, and in the hands of an unknown someone (obviously a woman, and not a nice one at that). I have left them sit there in limbo way too long, so now it's time to continue the story. Click here to begin reading Part II!

3 April 2009
Back in 2002 (has it been that long already?), when I had way too much time on my hands and was writing something new every week, I posted a novella called "Glass Ceiling." The story started out simply enough, as most of them do...man shrinks woman, keeps her as a pet, you know the drill. The difference this time was that she had no idea what had happened to her. She was kept in a basement, under glass, surrounded by miniaturized furniture and such, while her captor could watch her from above.

Initially I intended for this story to be a one-shot, but the way it ended fairly demanded a sequel. So, a few months later, "Glass Walls" was the result. This story picked up the action some months later, with our heroine now basically enslaved by another man, who'd tortured her to the point where she fled into the depths of her own mind. When her new owner adds a new pet to his collection, she has to find the strength to escape at last. In the end, everything seemed to work out, as the tiny ladies were rescued and the bad guy got what he deserved.

Except it wasn't over. There were still a lot of unanswered questions, and the matter of a promise still unkept. I left these characters in limbo for far too long, I think, and so, it's time to put it all to rest. The third and final chapter, "Glass Houses," is finally ready. Sorry it took so long, but now I can conclude this story at last. So enjoy the conclusion of the "Glass" trilogy, which will be posted as usual, approximately one chapter a day until it's finished.

Click here for the latest installment (epilogue, posted 25 April). Or you can read the whole thing starting here.

17 December 2008
Okay, I finally have something new to share, a new story called Just Ask Nicely. It's about a princess in a futuristic sci-fi kingdom who's sent out into the galaxy on a quest, only to discover that lofty titles and noble birthrights don't mean much when your galactic neighbors are ten times your size! This is an idea I've had cooking on the back burner for some time, and I finally figured out how I wanted to word the ending. I have a lot of stories percolating around that lack good beginnings, middles, and/or ends. Usually ends. I also have a really great idea for a fairly short comic, and the whole thing is fleshed out in my mind, so now if maybe I can find time to put it on paper I can post it. Stay tuned.

The only interesting SW news this time around is regarding a planned television show based on the Vertigo comic called "Fables." If you don't know what Fables is, click on this link. (An announcement of the TV pilot can be found here.) In brief, the comic is set in a universe where fairy-tale characters have been exiled to New York City and the surrounding area, and live alongside ordinary people. Of interest to SW fans, Lilliputians and other small folk can be found among these storybook characters. In at least one of the comics, a tiny young woman visits the great big world (go here to see some sample pages from issue #6), so we can hope for something similar on TV. There are also giants, and there's an entire comic where the normal-sized Cinderella visits them and is approximately the size of a mouse in comparison. Keep your fingers crossed, folks!

27 May 2008
Time for another update, and this time I have a new story for your enjoyment. It's called Snipe Hunt, and it's about a college geek who discovers a tiny woman while camping out in the forest. Naturally he tries to keep her as a pet (who wouldn't?). However, as usual, things don't really work out as planned. This is actually an expansion of a one-shot story I wrote back in August of 2002. Some time after penning the original, I added a couple chapters as an afterthought, then forgot all about it. Recently I came across the expanded version, thought about it for a while, figured out how to end it, and finished it off. I'll post the chapters at a rate of approximately one per day. Click here for the newest installment!

Alert reader graven_au discovered a nice, if very brief, SW sequence in the movie "Overnight Delivery." The main character discovers that his girlfriend, played by the lovely Christine Taylor, is cheating on him. In the scene, he lifts up a photo of her and imagines she is crawling out of the picture towards him. Click here for a couple of pics, which pretty much encompass the entire sequence. There is a very nice shot of the very small Christine looking up at her giant boyfriend, but that's about all there is to the scene, and there isn't any other SW material in the film.

In more potential SW news, there's a new Eddie Murphy film coming out soon called "Meet Dave," in which a crew of tiny aliens visits Earth in a human-shaped vehicle. Laughter is sure to ensue. In some of the trailers (like this one), which you can find in various places throughout the Internet, a couple of the little people exit Murphy's "body" and meander about in New York, and in at least one shot there's a tiny woman in peril. I'm not sure if we should be looking forward to this movie or not, but at least it's something.

12 February 2008
The forums are running again, and while they may still see a few more tweaks here and there, they should be good to go as they are. I've put the old provider behind me at this point. To celebrate, I've posted another chapter of my new story The Taming of the Succubus and will continue to do so for the rest of this week until it's finished. Enjoy!
...Updated 15 February: Chapter 4 is up.
...Updated 20 February: Chapter 5 (the conclusion) is up.

5 February 2008
Well, the site is back up after some extended downtime. At present, the forums are unavailable while we determine if they can be restored (not likely) or are rebuilt from scratch again (more likely). Many apologies for all the delays and problems, but I think they've been resolved now, hopefully for good.

Here's what happened: Sometime about two weeks ago, just as I posted chapter 2 of my new story (see the 22 January entry below), someone reported to my provider that my site contained copyright violations. I don't know who this was or what they were reporting as I was never able to get this information out of my provider. Rather than respond to these complaints by notifying me or explaining the problem so I could fix it, their response was to simply suspend my site without warning and then blow me off for over a week while I repeatedly called and emailed trying to get more information and find out what I had to do to correct the problem.

While I was doing all of this, a number of you readers emailed me asking questions and offering support. One, who is remaining comfortably anonymous, went further and volunteered some space, as long as I could get the domain transferred. Thus began another week of waiting while I attempted to complete the transfer, which if you are reading this now has finally happened at last.

Without naming my old provider I would just like to say that my experience with them was terrible. In addition to repeatedly "upgrading" hardware and software (inevitably leading to unexpected downtime, lost data, and irrecoverably trashed forums that had to be rebuilt from scratch), their recent actions were the final straw. What kind of message does it send when you don't even bother to contact your customer to notify them before you suspend their site, put the entire burden of fixing it on the customer, refuse to discuss the issue on the phone and then don't respond to emails other than automated responses? Well, I'll tell you the message. It says: "We don't want you as a customer anymore, go somewhere else." So that's what I did.

Now, for the idle speculation part, I believe what actually happened was that someone complained about the subject matter on my site. This wasn't a copyright issue, this was my provider not liking what they saw when they looked at the material presented here. So rather than even talk to me about it they simply shut me out until I had no choice but to go elsewhere. Even if this is true, the professional and proper thing to do would've been to just send me some kind of response, anything...anything except total silence. I'll never use that company again. Ever.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded explanation, but that's what happened. In the meantime, I'll finish up posting "The Taming of the Succubus" over the coming week and then perhaps have more for you. I find it rather ironic that I finally got around to writing a new story and then got 2 chapters into it, only to have this happen. (sigh)

22 January 2008
Welcome to the new year! Like everybody else I've made a few resolutions, and one of those is to try to write more...so I've completed one of several short stories that's been bouncing around in my head for a while now. Seeing as how I produced exactly zero new stories in 2007, I've already technically completed my resolution and it's not even February yet! Even so, I have several other ideas cooking on the back burner, so you should see those fairly soon.

The new story is titled The Taming of the Succubus. It's about a warlock trainee who needs to complete a demonic binding spell in order to advance to the next step of his studies. None of the common types of demons will do, though. He needs something special, so he decides to try succubus, but she proves to be a bit more than he can handle. Click on the link to check it out! New pages will be posted as soon as they are available, and if I get some free time, maybe a sketch or two...

And speaking of writing, sometimes your best ideas get undercut by somebody else before they get started. You see, some time ago I started working on the concept of some sort of global accident that reduces everyone to tiny size. The exact nature of the accident would remain a mystery, and action would take place in a small town in Texas. (It was originally to be the prequel to "A Little Apocalypse," although I wasn't sure if I would keep the exact scale.) In any event, there was one man in this town who was unaffected by the event, as he was inside a fallout shelter at the time. Sounds like a good idea, right? In fact, I was going to make it a novel at some point.

Well, turns out there's going to be a graphic novel called "In the Small" with almost this exact same plot (except perhaps for the normal-sized survivor). In addition, someone has already snapped up the movie rights for it. You can read all about it here. While I'm eagerly anticipating the possible appearance of SW in an actual film, it annoys me that someone used my idea, however unintentionally. I guess I should consider myself lucky I didn't already write most of it or something, but still, it sounds like a lost opportunity. At least, perhaps, if the movie is a success (assuming it ever happens at all), maybe we'll see more size changing on film in the future.

3 November 2007
Issues remain with the web site and forums...I apologize for the occasional downtime and slow posts occuring here and there. My provider is presently upgrading hardware, or so I'm told. In the process they've made it rather difficult to update Sandi's Trials 4, but things seem to be smoothing out now. I'll keep updating it every couple of days if I can. As I write this, I'm posting page 8. Check the 1 Oct blog entry (below) to see when I add new pages.

Also, a couple of people have expressed interest in how I draw stuff, so I put together a how-to guide that shows, step by step, how I get from a blank piece of paper to a completed sketch. Click here to find out how it's done!

1 October 2007
It's been a while since I updated, as usual. Sorry about that, but at least I've got something new to contribute to our "little" community. I've started posting a new comic, Sandi's Trials 4, the next chapter in the Sandi series! As you may recall, at the end of chapter 3, Sandi and Dawn were stuck doing housework (while small, naturally) as punishment for fooling around with magic. The latest installment takes place well after their indentured servitude is over, so everyone's back to normal. Sandi is getting ready to start rehearsal for the magician's next big show, and a couple of her co-workers ask her to help them settle a football bet, with the aid of our favorite sort of magic. Will she help? Well, of course, or there wouldn't be much of a comic, now would there...?

Current Page: 15. (Done!)

Over on the Media Page, I've added an article from Starlog magazine way back in July 1989. Alert reader Aztec pointed out this particular bit of text, which does a pretty good job of discussing shrinking in movies and television, and the scientific (and not-so-scientific) methods used to alter someone's size. The author cites various examples and then proceeds to describe the difficulties involved in actually making such a thing happen. For example, how does one eat or breathe, or what happens to a tiny person if they fall off a table? Anyway, for such an old article, it's a pretty good read.

All this talking about television has started me thinking about whether or not we'll see any shrinking episodes on network or cable TV this season. There's a decent crop of new shows on the air these days and any of several of them might potentially have a SW moment. Here are a few possibilities you might keep your eye on:

I wouldn't mind seeing the two geniuses on The Big Bang Theory figure out a way to shrink their lovely neighbor, but that's probably only going to happen in their imagination...darn it!

Anybody know of any other shows likely to produce a SW episode? If so, post them on the forum. And I don't mean animated shows (that's too easy). Live action only!

24 June 2007
Well, some of the difficulties with the website have been corrected. You can send me email again, and I can post updates now that the FTP login issue has been resolved. Presently, only the Forum is still unavailable. All the data is still there, you just can't access it for reasons that remain hazy. Rest assure, key personnel are even now working on this problem.

There are two potential results, basically...either the Forum will be fixed and opened again for business, or it will have to be erased and started over from scratch. I think all the regular readers would prefer the former, so I'm willing to wait a bit longer to fix the issues, if they can possibly be fixed, in order to avoid a forum wipe.

Also, I've done a slight redesign of the home page, which was getting rather cluttered. Honestly, I should really redesign the entire site, but that's like doing spring cleaning. You know you need to do it, but getting around to it is something else again. In any event, the main change will be a blog-style entry section (which you're reading now) in which I give a bit better description of what's going on with updates and changes, as well as anything new or interesting in the SW community.

30 May 2007
Recently my ISP decided to upgrade their hardware, and apparently my forums and email are down. We're working on fixing these if at all possible and I'll post a note here when they're back up and running. Sorry for the trouble! 

Also, sorry for the lack of new content lately. I'll post more when I can.

23 March 2007
Well, the last page of the original comic Keeper is up. I hadn't done a comic, or any real drawing at all, for quite some time before completing this one. The concept was relatively simple: Attempting to get to practice on time, a cheerleader tries using a teleport device that goes awry and leaves her tiny.

The use of the transporter malfunction to alter sizes isn't new; in fact there are very few original means of shrinking left to the writer/artist these days. As with most of this stuff, the trick isn't so much in shrinking my unfortunate main character, it's giving her something to do, and then winding up the story with some sort of resolution/ending. Often I'll leave endings open to sequels, but in this particular case I really didn't. You can probably imagine for yourself what will happen at this point and I'll just leave it at that.

I did a decent job on most of the art but I still find myself plagued with the usual issues...scale issues, difficulty drawing hands, and troubles drawing male subjects. I do a lot better when I have a picture or something to go by, but they aren't always available, and you can usually tell the difference. I also changed pencils partway through (usually this happens because one gets lost or runs out of lead) and you can see the difference in line thickness and sketch quality.

Ah well, I'll keep working on this stuff. I have another comic idea, again involving scantily clad ladies dwindling in size (of course), which I'll hopefully get around to finishing one of these days.

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