Okay…So… you clicked on the button and have found this page - How the comic, Warped Reality, came into being. Now, to be interesting, I could go on about the story of my life..y'know… messed up childhood, searches for happiness, the drinking binges, the drugs...but then it wouldn't be a true story. So, I, Nicole, also known as Gypsy, will tell you how this comic strip was born.

      It was a dark and stormy night…errr….no…wait… It was a regular summer day. I had only lived in Schaumburg, Illinois for 3 months and I was still wondering when a job would fall into my lap. Rob, my boyfriend, was working all day and I was left at home to tend to the daily chores of the apartment with only Dante, our kitten, to keep me company. Frequently, I would pop online and talk to my friend, Sheila, while she was at her computer at her workplace. Always a supporter of my anime-style drawing, she wondered if I had to ability to draw a comic strip - a funny one. She promised that if I could do it, she would help me post it on the internet for anyone to see. So… with that… I set to work thinking of characters and funny situations.

      I prayed to the comic gods and goddesses (Jack Kirby, Rumiko Takahashi, etc.) to send me a sign. Suddenly, as I was doodling at my desk, Dante swatted at my pencil. It was as if he was telling me, "Hey, ya thickheaded human… draw me!" So I drew the first comic strip with Dante being his usual bratty self, but with no title attached. Rob came home and saw it, but told me that it wasn't very funny. Rob then said, "Do a comic about your anime stuff and my gaming!" I thought, "But there are so many anime and gaming-based comics that are so good! How can I compete?" Then, I wondered… "Where are the women cartoonists in this realm? There are so many great gaming and anime webcomics… and they are all done by men! There must be a place for women to fit in that world! I want my comic to have women who like anime and men who are the gamers. They can duke it out in a gender-geek-hobby battle royale!"

      Then, Rob calmed me down and I got back to drawing some more.

      After creating some characters to fill my comic's world, I needed a title. Sheila said it looked like my life, only weirder. We came up with Warped Reality - the lives of a group of people (and cats) who are into different hobbies, but it all overlaps and blends because they are seen as 'outsiders' or 'freaks' to regular society because of their non-mainstream hobbies. In their apartment building, it is a different space from the world outside where different rules apply and nothing is 'normal'. Truly, it is a Warped Reality.