User:Eruhildo/9th Elsewhere

9th Elsewhere (abbreviated 9E) is an English-language webcomic written and illustrated by Caroline Curtis with some writing and editing done by Courtney Caryl. The first page was released on December 13, 2002. The artwork's style is like that of Japanese manga. 9th Elsewhere currently has 11 chapters with a total of 204 and a half pages released, plus art day and interlude pages. The entire series can be viewed on its official website. The manga has been on a six month haiatus with only occational updates; however, Curtis promises to return to updating twice a week soon.

Plot
The plot of 9th Elsewhere focuses on Carmen trying to find her way back home after becoming trapped in her own sub-consciousness. Carmen must come to understand herself and then overcome her inner darkness. Two muses aid her in her quest, but as time progresses, they find themselves being forced to face their own hidden problems. The story presents psychological concepts from the point of view of inside the mind.

Main Characters

 * Carmen Cinea - A 17 year old girl who was orphaned at a young age. As a result of repeated changes in foster families, she has difficulty getting close to people and becomes depressed easily. Her dream is to become an author, but she no confidence in her own writing. The majority of the story so far takes place in her sub-consciousness.
 * Eiji Miyake - A happy-go-lucky 5th rank Muse who is sent by O.R.M.Y! to help Carmen work out her emotional problems so she can be a more creative writer. One of his favorite foods is tuna casserole and he hates potatoes. His favorite color appears to be chartreuse as he mentions it several times throughout the series (usually describing hippos). It is later revealed that he is actually a half-demon. His birthday is on March 8th, but his age has not been revealed. He appears to be an only child.
 * Dorian Gray - A slightly conceited 1st rank Muse who becomes involved with Carmen's case at the end of chapter 6. While at first he appears to only care about getting his job done, over time he begins to show genuine concern in helping Carmen. He initially feels that Eiji is irritating, but becomes less cold to him as they work together to help Carmen. He may be named after Dorian Gray of The Picture of Dorian Gray, but Curtis has not confirmed this.

Minor Characters

 * Cirdan - Executive Director of O.R.M.Y! District 13. Is not fond of Eiji.
 * Elora - An intern at O.R.M.Y! District 13.
 * Eiji's Mother - A Chaos Demon and also an overprotective mother. She had to work a lot while Eiji was growing up because her husband left them. She nicknamed Eiji "Silly Beans", who in turn calls her "Crazy Beans".
 * Eiji's Father - Dubbed "Lazy Beans" by his family. He left them when Eiji was young, but occasionally comes for their "Monday Family Dinners".
 * Singha - Eiji's guardian. He is able to manipulate a person's dreamscape slightly after spending enough time in it.
 * Oz - Dorian's guardian. Oz is an Oezium Bird and can see the past of an object.
 * Betty I-IX - A series of young cows that appeared in Carmen's Rhythm layer. The first seven died with a short amount of time, but Betty VIII lived for a week. Betty IX appears in chapter 7 in the arms of Carmen's Farmer Figment.
 * Raphael - A baby rooster who is fond of Carmen. He followed her to the Audience layer where she entrusted him to the care Optimism. He is named after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle of the same name.

Figments
The Figments are parts of a person's personality concentrated into particular feelings. They are born from the most prevalent aspects of someone's past outlooks on life. They live in the city located in the Audience layer. Some of the figments are trapped within the buildings of the city of the city. Figments can normally travel between the Rhythm layer and the Audience layer. Carmen's figments all bear a resemblance to her namely that they all, like Carmen, have a mole under their left eye.


 * Optimism - A happy Figment who always looks on the bright side of things. She is fond of Carmen even though Carmen usually ignores her in the waking world. She is also fond of Eiji, perhaps more so than the other Figments, which reflects her nature.
 * Creativity - She does what she can to take care of and cheer up the other Figments in Tenderness' place. She often ends up acting as a peacemaker in the many recent arguments between the other Figments. Also goes by Crea'.
 * Tenderness - Once took care of the Figments, but was eaten by Dissent.
 * Cheer - A Figment that never appears in the series and is only mentioned on page 154.
 * Dissent - Carmen's "sense of extreme disagreement". She ate Tenderness and it is implied that she also ate Cheer. Unlike the other Figments, she is not fond of Eiji.
 * Passion - Carmen's drive, Passion gets along well with everyone.
 * Courage - Carmen's courageous spirit takes the form of an armored warrior.
 * Vanity - Carmen's vain side, Vanity takes the form of rather conceited and selfish showgirl.
 * Adventure - A male pirate with poor grammar, Adventure loves sailing the open seas. At one time, Creativity was Adventure's first mate, but the harbor dried up and Creativity became busy helping the other Figments.
 * Unnamed Figment - A frog shaped Figment. Not much is know about this Figment as she has never spoken nor have the other Figments spoken about her. It is possible that, being a frog, this Figment cannot speak.
 * Rationale - Carmen's sense of logic is a librarian.
 * Farmer - Takes care of the farm in the Rhythm layer.
 * The DMS - Not truly figments, the Defense Mechanisms (DMS) all look the same and exist to protect the Figments.

Archetypes
There are nine different Archetypes all of which were drawn from Jungian psychology. So far the Archetypes have not done much, but it appears they will have an important role later on in the series.
 * Mother - She pulled a garbage can out of the canal with a fishing pole - Carmen had a recurring dream that paralleled with that action.
 * Child - Causes mischief and built a memorial containing all the thing foster families had given Carmen. Her writings in the Stage Five backstage appear under the yellow paint stains and are about favorite animals and foods.
 * Animus - Nothing yet known.
 * Senex - Nothing yet known.
 * Trickster - Nothing yet known.
 * Persona - Nothing yet known.
 * Syzygy - Nothing yet known.
 * Shadow - "The embodiment and source of all [ of Carmen's ] negativity, sociopathic qualities and such." The Shadow has written nothing in the Stage Five backstage room.
 * Warrior - Wrote nothing in the Stage Five backstage room. It's his job to protect Carmen from the inner dangers she creates for herself.

Layers
Layers are an important aspect of 9E. Eiji describes the Dreamscape as having layers like an onion. Nothing has been revealed about the bottom two layers.
 * Persona
 * Rhythm
 * Audience
 * Unnamed Layer
 * Unnamed Layer

Authors
Around March, 2004 Caryl stopped working on 9E. This was officially announced on October 20, 2004. Jerry - usually referred to as "Sprite Monkey" - often appears in the interludes at the end of each chapter. He also did one guest strip and animated some of the Flash panels.

Awards
The comic was nominated for Outstanding Web Design, Outstanding Environment Design, Outstanding Layout, Outstanding Dramatic Comic, and Outstanding Story Concept in the 2004 Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards. In 2005 the comic was again nominated for Outstanding Story Concept.

Receiption
Joshua Pantalleresco of The ComicBloc rates 9E well, saying: "Simply put, this is a well told story as both the dialouge and the art have a nice, lucid style that seems to fit this story so well. Curtis excels at making you connect through that medium."