previously superemeralds

talaka ✦ tiliqi

I'm Talaka and I create stylized comics, concepts and illustrations!
to me, art is all about creating problems that can only be solved creatively.I'm the director of several creative sonic community projects
and the lead environment concept artist for The Uzujigoku Massacre.

current projects

sci-fi-fantasy worldbuilding project

Heavy ⚠ Force

Arch wakes up in a strange land of floating islands. Is this still earth? Zenox tells him that he's in heaven, a sanctuary above the scorched planet, but if a divine heaven was truly real, Arch should be in hell.
The past cannot be repeated. He needs to get a grip and figure out what really happened to the world, and himself.

sonic fan comic

The Heart of a monster

fanmade sonic webcomic since 2018, weekly page updates
this comic is a retelling of sonic unleashed; but with a major twist: sonic doesn't just absorb and use dark gaia's powers - he is seemingly turning into one of those creatures himself. racing time and his stubborn selflessness he fights to put the planet back together and stop doctor eggman's plans before it is too late.

queer western webcomic

humonstrous

Rob is a nocturnal cowboy in a quaint Montanna town. Lately, there's been trouble with missing cows, and the word is spreading.Perry is a young dogboy who just joined the local pack and wants to prove himself to his new leader.

⚠ WARNING ⚠ WARNING ⚠ WARNING ⚠ WARNING ⚠

Heavy ⚠ Force

Heavy force is about the fear of change, primarily. A lot of our fears can be reduced to change. We are in denial about it, reject it, prevent it, crave it, regret it. As comfortable as stagnation is, there comes a day when things regress. Things change, whether we like it or not.
Chaos is infinite.

You cannot exist unaffected by the heavy force.

⚠ content warning for body horror, religious imagery, abuse of all kinds, rape, nudity, unethical experimentation ⚠

the setting

Heaven is a place off earth

The place high up in the clouds... is real. At least, if Arch's eyes aren't playing tricks on him.Heaven is divided into 3 main aereas:
-Heaven's harbour (the biggest island, housing the main city at the center)
-Eden (the outskirts with farm land on bigger islands)
-Elysium (a belt of small islands and dense forests)

the apocalypse was here

Little is known about the earth's state after Judgement Day. The day when a mesoamerican God drowned the world in black flame. The planet is scorched and poisoned with radiation. An uninhabitable wasteland, in which some rumor that the dragon still roams in case they missed to punish any sinners.

the timeline

Hubris of the past

The year is 2038, we focus on El Salvador. Jesús Ícaro got an offfer he can't refuse. For one because it's a childhood friend who offered the opportunity on a silver platter, and also he really needs the money. It's a new opportunity to turn his life around. Unfortunately it involves working for the gringo privatized state, called Futura Fortuna, that's spreading in his home like a cancer.

HEADS IN FUTURISTIC SANDY CLOUDS

666 years after the great catastrophe, survivors call it Judgement Day, civilization has recovered and thrives in Heaven, a group of floating islands. People here live in harmony with each other and nature.
This is where Zenox finds a man encased in crystal. He awakes with no memory of his name or why he's here. All he knows is that it's wrong. Zenox gives him the name Arch, as homage to the symbol that litters the place he was trapped in (and adorns the collar around his neck).
The two make a unconventional pair that sets out to find out what happened to Arch, to Zenox's father and, later, the world at large.

the characters

⚠ (ark) ⚠

arch

Arch is an oxymoron personified. He yearns for control, yet he has none. None at all. He's always been like this, even before omega corrupted his core.

✖ [ziɴɔks] ✖

zenox

Zenox is your typical undecided youth. He will say he knows exactly what he wants, and he genuinely seems like it, but don't let his exterior fool you. This man is one bad thing away from a breakdown.

[sera]

sera

Curious and adventorous, this youth spends their days trapped in paradise. They're a skilled tinker and they coach Zenox on his racing skills. They're always connected. Though, In the end, the screens are their only real friends.

𓆰[luːsɪfə]𓆰

luzifer

A man that has been doomed from the start. Yet he won't let his misfortunate fate crush him. His philosophy is that if you embrace your suffering, it will aid you in crushing its source.

𓆰[angel]𓆰

angel

Zenox's mother; a priestress that holds an unimaginable amount of love in her heart. Fulfilling the mission of erradicating evil through love is her everything.

☣[jesús ícaro]☣

Jessee

Posing as a thug most of the time, he's actually a promising scientist. Too bad he's riddled with toxic masculinity and an unsatiable hunger for affirmation. Will he ever be enough?Probably not - unless he ends up nailed to a cross, perhaps?

α[α]α

alpha

An asset. An afterthought. Annoyance. An accumulation of nothing anything, undeserving of affection.

𓆩♡𓆪[alma murillo]𓆩♡𓆪

alma

She's worked her ass off to be here. She deserves it. It's humiliating she has to rely on a man again. He's a childhood friend, but still.At least she doesn't have to sleep with him.

characters, creatures, environments, &more

portfolio

Translating complicated ideas into simple designs that ooze of essence is the most fulfilling challenge to me.

character design; various projects

character designs for an array of projects I'm working on currently;
and some just for fun. I love translating concepts into visual designs.

have you heard of ZYX?

Zyx is an inter-galactic nuisance. Never up to any good, they sell various trinkets to unsuspecting voyagers. Their existence is haunted by explosive misfortune, and that's just the way they like it. Don't they?

BOSS design; sonic project horizon

Here are the Titans of the Starfall-Islands in Sonic Frontiers redesigned!
I was disappointed at the lack of greek myth inspired content, when a lot of the place names are directly taken from the mythology (and it would've fit so well, thematically!), so I took it into my own hands. You can view the full project here.

PROJECT HORIZON: ENVIRONMENTS

As part of my project of imagining a different direction for the 2022 game SONIC FRONTIERS here are my concepts for improved environment designs. What bothered me most in the game was the unpersonalized environments that invite to explore but offer absolutely no rewards whatsoever.

In preperation to this project I did a survey in the sonic fandom to figure out what players wanted. This was helpful in realizing that players have no idea of how imposible their expectations are (6 playable characters and multiple stories for a spin-off game? really?).
Though, it was useful for taking inspirations and making compromises that still would be in favour of the target audience, despite the result being something completely different.

absolution; a silver the hedgehog game pitch

This is the art school graduating project I did, where I made a fake pitch for a sonic game.
You can view the full project here.

BW, colour, web-format

comics

strong line art + heavy action + saturated characters = cool-ass comicsclick covers to read full comics

short comcis

blue tide

23 page BW action short comic featuring sonic and shadow.read it on comicfury or download the PDF!

magic finds you everywhere

8 page BW slice of life short comic featuring original furry characters. the exercise of this story was doing world building from scratch.

don't mess with the king

8 page original short comic project done over the course of 4 weeks with 2 work days every week.
see more progress and background info in the artstation post!

long form comcis

the heart of a monster

fan!webcomic about sonic the hedgehog that has been ongiong since 2018.
(not affiliated with sega or the official idw comics)Here I show some selected pages (it is impossible to show all pages, as there are over 300 by now)

thoam issue 10 pages 1-8

ending with a bang

IIllustrations