Final Fantasy (all series)
I mean, duh.  You've got a doofy bard, a village made of seashells, a magic-using race, an entity sealed for many years, and a protagonist with a weather-based name.  I'm still surprised I wasn't sued!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Replace Ira with Ford Prefect, Cirrus with Arthur Dent, and the shockrod with a towel, and there you have it....!

The Chronicles of Narnia 
I would have used the Wood Between the Worlds if I could.  But I invented the Mists instead.  And look, Ira's a human, just like the Pevensies!  Lookit again!  Cirrus looks human, but isn't, like the White Witch!

Advanced Dungeon & Dragons
I mean, barmy!  You've got a fantasy monster, a wizard, a bard, and a fantasy-based setting!  Reading TSR's sourcebooks and novels is what got me into fantasy in the first place. 

Note: The Mists were NOT inspired by the Mists of Ravenloft fame.  I conjured the Mists on my own.  It's the mental equivlent of convergent evolution at work, isn't it?

And not a fantasy manga title among them....isn't that the strangest thing? 

I conceptualized Ira first; Cirrus came much later.  Right from the start I had his name and personality down pat, but everything else about the intrepid human had to go through two to three revisions.  Oy.

Ira was kickin' around in my brain long before Between Realities was conceived.  He was supposed to be a minor supporting character (of the "scrappy sidekick kid" variety) in a massive crossover fanfic I never got around to writing (Synopsis: Hank Scorpio tries to conqure the world.  Ramza, Cloud, and the MiB kick his ass.  What a lame plot.).  The fanfic I scrapped, but the fanfic's more interesting aspects - Ira among them - I kept.

Then Cirrus and Between Realities arrived, and the rest was history....

In his original fanfic incarnation, Ira was a middle school student.  That version proved too difficult to handle, so I matured Ira so I won't have to deal with complications that involves "education," "twelve year old kid," and "Hey, shouldn't the kid be in school?!"

In his second, non-fanfic incarnation, Ira looked 20 years old, but was actually 32 years old.  The reason for this age discrepancy?  I won't say it right now, but it was lame, extraneous, and had a magic potion in it.  I dropped it quick. 

So...I don't think I'll ever give out Ira's true age.  Let's leave it at "early twenties" in the great American tradition of not giving characters definite ages (or birth years), m'kay?  And no potions this time.

Ira's original profession was ranger.  Rangers live alone in the wilderness and possess knowledge about nature I don't have.  Arugh, I hate the outdoors.  Bards travel from town and town, sing a lot, and can justify the dreaded "talking head syndrome" you find in my comics.  Bard trumped ranger.  Sing, yeh spoony bard! 

I got the name Ira off Ann Martin's novel Ten Kids, No Pets.  Ira was such a unique name, I had to use it somewhere!  *Hopes to use the names Bainbridge, Yvette, and Zsa Zsa someday*

Ira's last name was Johnson from the very beginning, but for some reason I keep mixing it up with Harding.  "Ira Harding" sounded too good for my subconscious to drop, I guess.  The final compromise: Ira Harding Johnson.  Why Johnson?  I wanted the most mundane surname available in English, that wasn't Smith, (my apologies to all readers named Johnson, or Smith, or both) to emphasize Ira's humanity.  Did you know that Johnson is the second most common surname in America (after Smith)?  Just how many guys were named John in the Middle Ages?! 

Ira's design was a doozy to work on.  The clothing was the worst part; I'm still not satisfied with it today.  Goddamn medieval-fantasy clothing styles and their tucked-in pants!  I shoulda stuck with cowboy gear... 

I based Ira's hairstyle off a popular anime character's...guess!  But you probably can't, as I tweaked it later on. 

Ah, Cirrus...sweet, lovable Cirrus.  It's been around five years since I created you...we were the same age.  You've haven't aged a bit...damnit, that's not fair!  I don't wanna be twenty! Lemme be fifteen again!

Cirrus was supposed to be the main character of the sequel to the massive fanfic crossover I never got around to writing (see above).  The story was scrapped, as it was even lamer than the original fanfic.  But Cirrus I kept in my head until the webcomic bug hit and Between Realities begged to be created.

Cirrus was a red-headed staff-welding mage with mad magic skillz from the very beginning.  Yay. 

Anyway...Cirrus was originally sixteen, not fifteen, but I added an extra year of milage to his youth.  I thought I was being original in having a fifteen year old protagonist instead of a sixteen year old protagonist; boy was I wrong. Slayers, Spider-Girl, Full Metal Alchemist...turns out everyone was doing it.  Sigh.  I chalk it up to human archetypes.....that, or America and Japan's unhealthy fascination with youth culture.

Cirrus's hairstyle took some time and creativity to improvise-er, create; my intial ideal turned horrible on paper.  Then one day I drew him with a competely different hairstyle, and VOILA!  I mixed the two ideas together to get what you see today.

Cirrus's original personality was more hyperactive and perky. I have no idea how he mellowed out, but that some of that energy must have been transferred to Ira, heh.

I always meant for Cirrus to have Liana as an older sister.  Her original age was 19.  Why does Liana have spiky hair?  Why not?  If guys in video games can have spiky hair, why not girls?  Or is the gene for spiky hair limited to the Y-chromosome?

I got the name Liana from a Sailormoon fanfic whose author I can't recall.  Liana was the name of a fan character.  Liana was such a cute name, I had to use it somewhere!

Fayne, Nellius, and Old Man Wizard were meant to be one-panel cameos.  For some reason they got more screen time than I ever imagined.  Old Man Wizard, especially...if I knew, I would have named him.

Maxil wasn't meant to be in the manga; I introduced him on a whim, but he was hangin' in my head for a while.