Kanna is the third member of the trinity that is the Ed’s R Us cast. She is power as opposed to fame or wealth; she represents nature as opposed to science or commerce. She is gut instincts compared to whimsical musings or crafty plotting.
Kanna is a fey. She is one of the forest spirits that inhabited the wilds and toys with the lives of men. Even though the Elves of Tolken and Dungeons and Dragons are based on the Fey, the fey are not Elves and take insult to being called such. They are more akin to the fairies of Shakespeare’s Midsummer night’s dream.
Kanna is unique among the fey, in that she has chosen to live among the mortals, in broad daylight. She doesn’t like them, and will often us her magic against them, if not brute physical force. Why she chose to do so is a mystery, but she seems to take refuge with Ed. And while she talks a good game, being aloof and morally devoid as her race often does, it appears that her proximity to the wide eyed innocence of Ed may be rubbing off on her.
Kanna has learned to adapt to this world, even if the world hasn’t adapted to her yet. She is extremely health conscious, exercising daily and eating organically. She is very opposed to the advances of males, and will often take someone coming on to her as them begging for a hard rap on the nose. She possesses the perfect position for commentary, since she is immersed in a society that she is above.
If you look at the Rider Tarot; Kanna is the embodiment of card 2, The High Priestess.
Example strips: Fitness junkie, Violence aficionado, Nature lover
Character design
The character design of Kanna had existed outside of Ed’s R Us for a long time. She appeared in fantasy short stories and Roll playing games since I began high school. In fact Kanna, appeared in a dream I had the day before I started High school; in which she proclaimed “I’m Back”
She originally made her way into Ed’s R Us in order to add a female character in the PEAK strip. She basically played the same role as Rocco, but was a little more sadistic.
Kanna always had white hair with blue stripes, and was always a little taller than Ed, in university her hair was wild and unkempt, and she always wore a stretched out blue turtleneck sweater, Cyan tights and white belt and boots. When I started the redesign for the strip, I gave her more curves, sexier clothes and ridiculously long ears. As well as a gem in the middle of her forehead.
Her clothing was confident and sexy without being too reviling, tank tops and jeans. When it came time to launch, the times had changed and everyone was wearing Lulu Lemmon, a trend that hopefully will find its way into the fad graveyard, but is the here and now of Vancouver.
Once the strip had launched, I eventually decided to make Kanna's nose much larger. This was a change in my style that I liked. It made her more unique and set her apart from other women like Georgia.
