#i gotta plot it out and plan a comic

[venbetta]

God I have Ven lore

I need to make a comic series about them- I know the angst comic strip I'm making does give a little hint about Ven's past but I gotta make a full fledged original story about them at some point

[lilybug-02]

Wow. That could not have turned out worse.

Part 23 || First || Previous || Next

--Full Series--

This comic will be on Holiday Hiatus this December and January! While on a cliffhanger? What a scam! >:/

[somerandomdudelmao]

Explaining this comic to people is WILD.

Because first you've got to explain the Rise show, the first five minutes of the Rise movie, the fandom's angsty reactions to the movie (devastating fanfics exploring how Raph and Donnie died, Leo's guilt, Mikey's powers, Casey's headcanoned relationships with all of them), and how out of all the fan comics, one rose to be renowned for it's wacky shenanigans and fluff despite being set in the Bad Future.

And THEN you need to go into detail about how it may be fluffy, but there were 'Little Things'TM that we all the sudden started to notice. So by that point the clueless person you are educating on this is invested, and ya hit em with the ol' "Donnie DIES" explanation.

AND THEN you've gotta talk about how 'everything is falling apart'TM, and then Casey going back in time, missing his family, etc etc.

But WHOOPS now you have to explain memory spells and Hamato Ghost Possession and Donnie's pre-existing plans to cheat death for him being brought back to make sense.

So THEN you've gotta explain how much Raph missed not being a robot as you tearfully talk about Hot Soup.

And if course you need to talk about the twin sense and Leo's ninpo and Mikey's magic and all that before finally taking a breath to say "and that's all we've got so far".

And now there is a person who COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT TURTLES who is now forcibly invested in Cass's Apocalyptic Series.

(oh yeah after that you've gotta show said person ALL of Tap's animatics)

Like I said, explaining this comic to people is WILD.

YOU'RE SO DAMN RIGHT HAHA

Not gonna lie, one of my favorite things is reading reblogs/replies from people who are like "I showed this comic to my friend/sibling/important person outside of the fandom and documented their step-by-step descent into desperate confusion diluted with laughs and tears."

Good food. Interesting plot. 100% rate on Rotten tomatoes👍

[thankskenpenders]

As I'm sure many of you are already aware, Did You Know Gaming (who have been doing some really great investigative work lately) recently put out a video on canceled Sonic games. The whole thing's worth a watch, but I have to bring it up here specifically because they talk about the plans for Sonic Chronicles 2 with a LOT of new info directly from the lead designer.

The section on how the story of Sonic Chronicles 2 would have went starts at 9:45. It's very interesting! He outlines the whole plot, including the fact that they were going to end with ANOTHER obvious plot hook for a sequel in the hopes that they or some other studio could keep the Sonic Chronicles series going indefinitely. Sonic Team even claimed they were interested in using Chronicles characters like Shade in other games. It's crazy to imagine a timeline where this might have become a pillar of the franchise.

I refuse to mourn the loss of the sequel, though, because y'all saw me stream the original. It was miserable. And with the original game selling and reviewing decently well, they would have had little reason to go back to the drawing board and overhaul that game's bizarrely hateful design.

Of course, DYKG also had to talk about the reason why the game was canceled. I was dreading this because of how often people tend to get the basic facts of the Penders cases wrong or downplay the obvious Archie Knuckles inspiration in Chronicles. But no, they did their homework! And they got the details right in part because, well... they asked Penders for comment directly. And he sent them back a MASSIVE wall of text about the whole ordeal, including some fascinating details that I don't believe I've heard before!

You can go to 15:19 in the video and scrub through to read the many, MANY screencaps of their emails from Ken, but here are the most interesting and/or hilarious tidbits to me:

#1: Perjury!

As we already knew, Ken claimed that the incomplete, photocopied contract Archie presented in court was a forgery, and that he had never signed a work for hire contract.

The judge obviously knew that one side had to be lying here, and thus was more than willing to present the case to a jury to let them decide the truth... and send whoever was deemed the liar to jail for perjury. (The judge apparently looked Ken directly in the eye when he said this, which... well, make of that what you will.)

Archie's lawyers knew that they didn't have a completely airtight case and obviously did not want to go to jail. So they decided to settle instead of going to trial in front of a jury.

(I will reiterate that Archie's arguments not working out is overall a GOOD thing, because we really do not want to set a legal precedent where corporations can "lose" a contract for a creator, make up a story about what was on the contract, and then have that hold up in court. They gotta get that shit in writing. And they didn't. They fucked up!)

#2: Sega was threatening to revoke the Sonic license!

As we knew, Sega wanted nothing to do with the comic copyright lawsuit. To them, it was Archie's job as licensee to deal with their freelancers. (Y'all watch Succession? You know how Logan loves lackeys who will eat shit for him without him having to even hear about the problem? Yeah.) And, in fact, according to Ken, Sega gave Archie an ultimatum: if they wanted their license to make Sonic comics renewed, they were gonna have to deal with Ken on their own, and cover all the costs.

Yeah, uh, this kinda makes me think that Sega being pissed about the ongoing Scott Fulop copyright case in 2016 may have been a bigger factor in Archie Sonic's cancellation than I previously thought. There was a lot going on at the time that could have contributed, but, y'know.

Anyway, Archie sued Ken for "damaging their business" largely because Sega was threatening to take away the Sonic IP. But because Archie couldn't ask Sega for help and they couldn't produce an original contract, they had to settle.

There's another detail I find funny here, though. Ken WANTED Sega to get involved in the comic copyright case, thinking that Sega would strongarm Archie into paying him the millions of dollars he wanted for "using his work without permission" so that they could be done with it. I mean, sure. I guess Sega wouldn't have cared about Archie's finances, but still. I'm not so sure that would've worked out for him.

#3: Shade!

Yes, Penders still claims he legally owns Shade, and under advice from his lawyer still intends to put out an NFT of her to put his claim to the test. Yes, it's incredible that he still hasn't put out the damn NFT. It only needs to be one image, which he already drew! The market has collapsed!

Anyway, building an argument off the legal concept of estoppel, he says that if Sega continues to not do anything about his claims that he owns Shade then, in the eyes of the court, they'll be forfeiting their claims to Shade altogether. But they aren't going to do anything because they never wanted any part in the copyright battles in the first place, and to them Chronicles is a long dead asset not worth fighting over. Why bother trying to use Shade again and giving Ken a reason to take them back to court when they can just move on? It's not like this franchise is short on characters. And so Ken can say that Shade and Julie-Su are literally the same character, and if he owns Julie-Su then therefore he also owns Shade.

Our copyright system is, indeed, a nightmare. Chronicles should have been halfway to the public domain by now.

#4: Sega's oversight on the Archie comics!

Ken says that in his first year on the series Sega only requested some dialogue changes here and there through the editor. They never requested huge script changes, and also never spoke to Ken directly. After that first year, they stopped asking for dialogue changes altogether, and Ken "had a free hand to do pretty much whatever he wanted." Yeah, no surprise there.

He does, however, say that Archie's original deal with Sega stated that they weren't allowed to create ANY new Sonic characters without informing Sega. They would've needed to make a contract every single time to get Sega's approval and make it absolutely crystal clear that Sega owned the whole cast. And then Archie just... didn't do that! And didn't tell any of the freelance creatives not to come up with new characters! Had Archie followed this rule, the trajectory of the comics would have been completely different, but there also never would've been a copyright battle in the first place.

What a shitshow. Truly.

[orange-artist]

Hello!!! I've gotta start this off by saying I love your demon slayer time travel au. It's such a fascinating idea that I would've never thought of it. SO CREATIVE AND JUST UGHHHH !! I love it.

On that note, I have so many questions! How old wasp the squad (Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, Inosuke, Genya, and Kanao) when they time traveled? What point in the storyline did they time travel too? In your latest post regarding the AU you say something about Nezuko's behavior like sticking out her tongue at Sanemi (which I think is funny). Which makes me think it might be around the time Tanjiro meets all of the Hashira for the first time... IDK THO YOUR AU IS SO INTERESTING!!

Hello hello welcome to my chaos! I love talking about my AUs hehehe so thank for the ask!

I was debating about this for a long while but I ultimately decided that the squad traveled to the moment the Final Selection started!

So they start changing event really quickly. I have a rough outline of all the plot point that happen (because I cannot turn off the AU generator in my brain) and I'm actually planning to make some mini comics of the events. :3

And they're from an ambiguous 5 years in the future. In their future, the final showdown went differently than in canon.

[ewingstan]

If you had a chance to recommend (real-world) superhero comics to the Undersiders, which comics would you recommend and why?

Oh, good question. Its been a minute since I was really into comics (I gotta figure out how to reactivate my Marvel Unlimited account), but I think I have enough background to come up with some good picks.

Lotta good options for Taylor. My first thought is to give her Ewing's X-Men Red (aka "the main reason I need to catch up on Marvel comics"), since a superhero story that focuses a lot on gaining and maintaining societal power and the work of governing as a leader in a super-community seems like it would appeal to the Warlord of the Boardwalk. Plus a lot of it is "kill the previous leader in a way that ensures you have a popular mandate," which I'm sure she'd be a fan of.

If we're talking Taylor at the start of the story or younger—well, I don't know if it makes sense to give her runs of the character she's most a pastiche of, but maybe something that fits the Spider-Man niche could still be appealing for a young down-on-her-luck aspiring hero? I could see her getting something out of the Simone or Ahmed Ms. Marvel runs, for instance.

(While Watchmen might seem like the natural pick, I'm pretty sure she'd lose a lot of enjoyment just from picking out all the ways Veidt's plan was obviously gonna fail for x y z reasons. Also dark deconstructions of superhero worlds would probably seem too familiar to her world for her to enjoy it.)

If Taylor would be interested in comics statecraft, Lisa would probably be more interested in comics spycraft and intrigue. Ewing's S.W.O.R.D. would probably scratch the same itch for her that X-Men Red would for Taylor (and Storm dramatically blowing off Doom would probably satisfy her after all the ulcer-inducing negotiations with Accord.) I might also give her Ewings New Avengers and USAvengers runs (look this is gonna include a lot of Al Ewing recs, get used to it early) if only because I feel like she'd enjoy how Roberto gets characterized in those comics. Magnificent bastard solidarity.

If we're giving comics to Brian, we already need to work past his defensive avoidance of anything that seems too childish, so I don't think we're getting anything pre-dark ages. That said, he famously thinks "looking mature" means "sick-ass skulls and leather jackets," so his idea of maturity might skew a bit into McFarlane territory. Ultimately though I think he'd be most comfortable with something where he could plausibly say "this isn't just a comic, it's actually a well-respected piece of literature." I'd want that to mean Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing, but it'd probably actually mean The Dark Knight Returns.

As a dark horse pick, I'd give Brian some early New Warriors or Ewing's Contest of Champions, if only because Night Thrasher feels so close to what he wants his vibe to be (dramatic black leather ensemble with a very 90's idea of cool, unflappable expert strategist who pulls his weight despite a powerset with limited applicability, died horribly and came back much later for weirdly impersonal reasons) while also being just ridiculous enough to make me want to see his reaction.

Given Iota's commentary on Alec's pizza habits, I'd think Alec would most be a fan of something intense and bombastic and not mind if its often repetitive. I'd almost say Berserk would be a good match for him, but parts of that that might actually be triggering for him. Maybe some other ultra-violent longrunning work; I haven't read Fist of the North Star but it seems like a safe recommendation; various X-Force runs could work if we're sticking with Western comics.

Rachel really doesn't seem like someone who'd have much appreciation for any aspect of comics. The best bet would be something visually spectacular in a way that could be appreciated on its own, and a plot that's interesting taking issues on their own and not just as part of ongoing runs. I could see Ewing's Immortal Hulk as fitting those criteria; her power gives her an artist's appreciation for Bennett's horrific depictions of the Hulk's transformations (even if praising Bennett for anything feels in poor taste).

Ewing's scripts for each issue of Hulk are clever in a way that I feel Rachel could find entertaining; they don't require an attention she couldn't keep up, but also aren't simple to the point of being condescending. Plus, the thematic focus on "what can and can't be solved through unspeakable acts of destruction" would feel familiar in a way that's less frustrating than normal comic tut-tutting about how obviously we can't attack these guys (plus the greater willingness to say "oh yeah unspeakable destruction definitely is the best way forwards here" would be pretty satisfying).

I feel like Aisha would have more patience for comic tropes than a lot of the other undersiders, (I could see her enjoying the original Fantastic Four run), but at the same time she'd probably enjoy something a bit more complicated and out-there. Ewing's Rocket might be appealing as heist-focused mini, and I feel like the mix of melancholy and absurdity would appeal to her. Rosenberg's Hawkeye: Freefall would work for similar reasons, though replace "melancholy" with "simmering rage."

Morrison's Doom Patrol and The Invisibles both have characters Aisha might relate to for the whole "society largely ignoring or wanting to go away" thing. Plus they both have big weird ideas she'd appreciate, Richard Case's art works well with her aesthetics, and they're both seen as "respectable" series to the point that she might like peppering in references to them in alongside Jules Verne jokes.

Huh, I just realized that Aisha and Brian both ended up chasing an appearance of being mature and somewhat surface-level and off-putting ways. Brian "trust me I'm a normal adult man" and Aisha "I've compiled spider-man quips for every work in the Western Canon and will get frustrated when you don't get them" Laborn, the "something ain't right about that kid" siblings.

(I will say that Morrison's Doom Patrol has some weird black stereotypes so if anyone wants to pitch me on a similar work without Morrison's occasional racism I'd be curious).

I'd give Rowell's run on Runaways to Sabah, if only because "somewhat antivillanous found family group of teens that mostly don't have to worry about anything besides relationship drama" sounds like a nice escape for her. Closer to what she wants the Undersiders to be like. Also, I feel she'd enjoy Kris Anka's focus on fashion in his art.

I don't have a lot to go off for Lily. I could see some of the more recent Captain Marvel runs appealing to her sense of true-blue militant heroism. Ayala's New Mutants or Ahmed's Black Bolt might help combat her whole "villains are ontologically evil" thing, at least to a certain extent.

[jess-the-vampire]

Question about the AROFAM Au. How does the Day Of Unity and S3 special's plot line work given. . .well, everything.

Simple! I had to change basically everything.

obviously due to the nature of the au, and trying to keep everyone mostly still in character, the day of unity would make no sense at all to exist, so it...doesn't.

instead, in order to create a plot similar to the show to hit a lot of similar beats, i took the titan trappers and make them into more prominent characters/villains

so instead of a day of unity, it's their ritual to sacrifice king to free the collector, after years of earning their way to power and finding a new disk (The disk Philip was hiding in his basement)

and instead of the plan to be to stop the draining spell, it's a plan to save king's life and prevent the collector from being released (Collector has been convinced alongside Lilith they're going to save them, have no idea king would die for it)

also also, Philip, due to breaking his deal with collector and making him mad, is just...terrified of him, so everyone is under the impression freeing him will cause massive consequences

day of unity instead involved infiltrating the ritual space and getting both king and the disk out from under the trapper's noses, philip and caleb are going after the disk, kiki and steve were in charge of going for king.

Everyone else was there to make the escape and heist easy

(Yes this became a heist episode, which i think is funny payoff for the raiding these guys do in this au, truly the ultimate raid)

Also, philip and caleb get to be dressed up like this:

and yes, that does change other episodes like Edge of the World, tho they do still find out king is a titan in that so that plot point sticks.

you still have king releasing collector, but the context is slightly different and there are plenty unique heartbreaking elements to this au's version of KT.

Like Philip and Caleb getting into a fight right before being separated in different dimensions due to philip sacrificing himself to stay on the isles to face his punishment (Which obviously leads to different dynamics in s3 where king is hanging out alongside philip and Lilith whilst eda and luz are stuck on earth)

s3 has the unique thing of having caleb be stuck with all the kids on earth after being gone so long, seeing how things have changed and coping with the regret of his brother being gone after he promised they'd never seperate like that again.

darius and eber are there of course so they all gotta manage the kids and get to all catch up, while eda is out there in beast form.

all the stuff with camilia seeing luz, which is a pile of angst in itself, especially since she and caleb become grief friends and he appears to be harboring her missing daughter.

the whole rescue mission to get philip back in FTF, reuniting with kiki whose now the rebel leader actually, eda and lilith uniting after so many dang years, and the finale that's more about talking down the collector and befriending him rather then a big old fight.

and that's just me summarizing stuff, there's a lot i'm just skimming over

but as you can tell, i changed stuff, added new and unique stuff, and put a lot of thought into still making it a swap au whilst making things still unique.

if that all sounds interesting, check out my au at @areverseoffeathersandmud-archive , there is a LOT, and you can see these plots with some comics and art there

[aychama]

So... Asking because maybe it's totally plot relevant so the people wannna know: considering that nari and lamb in this AU are very close fisicaly... do they, y'know? 👉👌 at any point? sorry for the dirty ask but i know how this comunnity works now.

Hiii and I gotta say this ask caught me off guard dhjdkfö

There wont be anything explicit in the comic but yes, they will sleep with eachother around after Heket's defeat. Of course it wont solve anything between them because I love complicating things in a story ❤️

And as for this dıfıpfktğf I will leave it to your imagination, it can go many ways tbh although I do hint towards a certain way.

But if you have seen my patreon you would know xD

I dont plan on posting any of my nsfw art publicly as I am not comfortable with it but it can also make other people uncomfortable as well. So they are locked behind patreon doors.

As I am an adult and I would say my story is 16 or 17+ Imma say to be prepared but also dont expect anything too explicit. I will only go as far as jokingly hinting towards it or drawing them making out 🫰

[moon-buggg]

(waves) Hello. Hope you're having a lovely time of the year.

Now about your haunted house au. What are Sun and Moon's opinion about Y/N and vice versa?

What did they think of each other when they first met?

What do they think of each other once they got to know each other a bit better?

What do they think of their friendship with each other?

And what do you think they will think of each other after any major disasters happen with the virus?

Hope you have a nice day.

Going to be just a little vague for some of these because I want to explore them deeper in like, a comic or drabble or something lol. I do have a plot line in mind for this au, even if I'm not planning on making a multichapter fic about it lol

-YN is the boys favourite human! Their feelings could be called a crush, but I think they're both still kind of stuck in 'we're just animatronics we can't really have feelings' mindset. Moon is closer to figuring it out than Sun, whose very good at denial.

YN also really likes the boys. They spend enough time around each other that YN definitely has realized they aren't regular animatronics, but their feelings haven't turned romantic Just Yet.

-YN was nerding out about how cool their new job was. The boys were surprised by how brave YN was

-Sun became enamored with YN pretty quickly. There's just something about acting as scary and mean to someone as possible and then them not being scared of you after it's over. It took a bit longer for Moon's teasing to turn more playful, but YN being willing to bite back was very endearing. It takes YN a little while to properly get used to the boys more unsettling habits (results of their new scare based programming), but once they Do, YN realizes they're just weird little guys. And weird little guys gotta stick together!

-Its very, very precious to the boys. Their starlight means quite a bit to them. YN considers the boys their besties, but I don't think they realize just how much they mean to Sun and Moon.

-Well, that depends on if YN ever learns who the culprit is, doesn't it? ;3

[genericpuff]

I dont think snailords is literally going to end the series in 20 episodes. I think he is plotting the rest of the season and has the option to extend it 10 or 20 episodes.

That's not what he implies in his post, though, at all. The wording is very clear:

He's not saying "I have the ending for Death : Rescheduled planned out but I have this one mini arc I want to do before it", he's literally saying "the comic is ending whether you like it or not, but if you give me $1k I'll make sure it's 20 weeks from now instead of 10." He doesn't say he's plotting out the end which is however far from now, he just goes straight into "I'm gonna end the comic in either 10 episodes or 20". And then of course even goes to say "decide whether you want 20 more weeks with Kissae and Kreyul, or 10 more weeks to say goodbye". If he didn't want to give his readers the impression that that meant it was ending within that time range... then why phrase it like that? It doesn't help either that his phrasing is supported by his updates, where he says shit like:

(Also I couldn't find them but there are other screenshots out there of him saying shit like "thanks for showing you love the series" in a way that's frankly rude af because it's basically like he's asking for money for his readers to 'prove' they love him and his work, and that wouldn't be the first time he's done that either.)

If he is saying what you're suggesting, then he's not being clear about it at all because the language is very seriously implying that it's going to be ending when it returns. Which I'd hope it isn't considering what other readers are pointing out that the story has basically just gotten going and I'd hate for this to turn into another Freaking Romance situation, but I don't know how else we're supposed to read "

And, as I mentioned in my post about it, why on earth even contemplate putting in this mini arc that he's asking for $1k as a deciding factor over if he doesn't even have it written? He says he's way more confident just writing the finale arc as is, so why drag it out with an arc he's not completely confident in?

And of course, there's the urgency. If Death : Rescheduled isn't entering its ending arc after it returns from midseason hiatus - if it still has potentially years of storytelling left - then why now? Why suddenly ask your readers to buy $1k worth of merch in 24 hours or less to help you make a decision... if the actual consequences of that decision won't be made apparent for ages?

And at the end of the day, even if it's a possibility he meant what you're suggesting, that doesn't make it any less scammy to hold the comic's potential ending for ransom? Speaking as a comic writer myself of the last 10+ years, getting money from the audience in this kind of way has never ever been a deciding factor in how I write my work. Sure, things like stretch goals and Patreon milestone rewards are a thing, offering bonus chapters or NSFW art or just additional goodies if you hit a financial goal or if people sign into a certain tier, all that makes sense, but if what you're offering is worded specifically to make your audience panic - not saying "hey , you guys get an extra bonus 10 episodes if I hit this goal by this date" but rather "hey, you guys won't get AS MANY episodes if you don't pay me $1k in 24 hours or less" - and ultimately gets your readers an extra 10-15 episodes of an arc you're not even confident in writing ... the fuck is that, even? Just write the story you want to write, why do you gotta make your audience freak over not getting as much comic as they might want only to twist it into "surprise, it was for charity!" in the end?

The whole thing is silly and yeah, I'm calling it for what it is - a scam - because it's not the first time Snailords has taken advantage of his audience and played on their emotions and need for short-term gratification all for his own financial benefit. It's not even the first time he's tanked his own comic from rushing the ending simply because he was done playing with it. So at this point I wouldn't be surprised if the comic does come back and proceeds to spend 10-15 episodes waffling on a directionless mini arc before rushing into a 10 episode finale.

That said, that's all my two cents on it, you don't have to agree with me. I really don't feel like I'm misinterpreting his words but maybe someone else could enlighten me if there's something I'm missing here; that said, considering even his own readers were calling him out on this and that he never actually made efforts to clarify what could be poor language, I don't think I'm an outlier and I don't think there's even any misinterpretation happening. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I've yet to see this guy do anything to prove that he's capable of doing the right thing. And frankly, even if what you suggested turns out to be true and the comic goes on for a long while before actually hitting that $1k-funded mini arc (and again, I kinda hope it does just so we don't end up with a repeat of what happened with Freaking Romance) it doesn't make any of this feel less gross IMO.

[intheconflux]

EPISODE 1 is now over! Thank you to everyone who's read & interacted with the comic so far, this story I'm telling means a lot to me and I'm so glad other folks love it too.

EPISODE 2: The Sorry Tale of Maxwell Jägerman will begin on Sunday, July 21. As much as I love drawing this comic, I gotta take a break!

However, that doesn't mean the blog will go quiet! Here's some stuff you can expect during the break:

You can send asks to the entire gang to be answered. Since the episode ended on such a cliffhanger, any asks will take place as they're all hanging out on the stage (AKA, before Max was glitched)

You can also, as always, send asks to me! Of course I won't be spoiling any future plot points, but if you want to hear about how I plan the comic, or why I made a specific choice, or anything along those lines, ask away!

Are you bursting with curiosity to know what Max or Steph would have done at the Reese confrontation? I'll be posting sketches of what would have happened if other choices were made. Except whether to use the pocket watch, because we'll be returning to that choice some other time...

Sometime before Episode 2 begins, I will finish up the Conflux section of my website! It will have an archive of Ep 1 & the prologue for easy reading, as well as information on the timelines & characters we've seen so far.

[randomthefox]

About Movie Tails with a jetpack, at first I thought the movie would just rehash a plot beat from the first one by "incapacitating" Tails somehow so he can't use his namesakes to actually fly, leading him to make a jetpack for the time being. Granted I've only seen the still shot but it still looks like his tails are spinning there, so I'm most likely wrong.

Either way, can I just point out that this jetpack looks pathetic af? I know Tails isn't exactly a heavyweight but that thing looks so dinky I doubt it would be enough to lift him off the ground, let alone propel him fast enough to keep up with Sonic (which he apparently has to do now despite having no issue in the second movie??).

Or, alternatively, we can just go with the simplest explanation: it's a glorified accessory for a planned toy/figurine.

It's complete bullshit no matter how you slice it.

It's completely redundant because Tails can ALREADY FLY and is indeed USING HIS TAILS TO FLY in that scene, so what the fuck is the jetpack even DOING? Tails also has magic glowy colors super powers just like Sonic and Knuckles do as established by the second movie which he used to fly through Green Hills at super speed, so what the fuck function is the jetpack even providing?

It's also entirely antithetical to the characterization from the video games. The ENTIRE FOUNDATION of Sonic and Tails friendship is that Tails could actually keep up with Sonic. Tails isn't as fast as Sonic at full speed of sound blast, but Tails is fast enough to keep pace. There is really nothing in the games nor the movie to imply that Knuckles is as fast as Sonic, nor faster than Tails.

The set up of the movie that Sonic and Knuckles are racing is absolutely ridiculous because SINCE WHEN WAS KNUCKLES SPEED AN ESTABLISHED PART OF HIS ABILITIES? In what fucking UNIVERSE does it even make sense to imply that Knuckles could even remotely stand a snowballs chance in hell against Sonic in a race, let alone in the movies where Knuckles has NEVER been portrayed as ever doing anything involving speed and has entirely been depicted as being a strength based character.

Oh but all of a sudden Knuckles and Sonic are really going bar for bar in a foot race, but poor inkly widdle babby booboo Tails he couldn't POSSIBLY keep up with either of them while they're taking it seriously and going as fast as they can (except Sonic since he can CASUALLY FREEZE TIME AT WILL in the movies but shhhh don't use your brain and remember that), so naturally Tails the character who can keep up with Sonic in the video games needs assisted mobility to be able to keep pace with Sonic and Knuckles, a character who has never been established to have super speed before, because he is babby uwu

Infantilizing Tails. It's not just for the comics anymore. The movies gotta get on the train of treating Tails LIKE SHIT too -_-

You're right the only rational explanation for the jetpack is they want to sell a toy featuring it

[moons-of-dewclan]

you know, i never thought of making my own comic to my clangen cats.

i do have my own little clangen story that i keep track of and draw for, but never thought to do a comic for it. im debating whether or not to do one for the one i already have (which is already a solid 50+ moons in, already have character designs and such) or to start a new one (arguably, more flexible in terms of story)

either way your art had <333 inspired me a lot abt this

i shall dub myself....hero anon. for funsies. just in case i continue sending in asks.

HERO. i love anon-names LASKDN AS FOR YOUR QUESTIONS- ok the first isn't a question but your thought- I THINKKKKK if i were you i'd start anew bc it's refreshing and funkyfresh and flexible. FOR ME, it's easier on my brain to just dive into something like this running on adrenaline and excitement (bc clangen already has 'script' you'll follow to some degree.. unlike most comics u gotta plan and work the plot out for in a lot larger of a scope). but do what feels right bc ultimately that's the Right thing to do creatively AND THEN YOUR QUESTION- i keep my moons in a google doc! i have a big header 'MOON 5' (and.. all the others) and then i have screenshots of the important text pasted below it. be it little cat thoughts when you click their sprites, or 'relationships', or events. THAT SAIIID you should definitely write notes about major things out, bc.. you can't ctrl-f and find specific things without scrolling through a buncha moons and reading it all over again. and after a while that's so hard if there's a lotta moons in that doc so put like.. 'CATSTAR LOSES 1ST LIFE'. 'Kittenpaw is killed' in and under those moons. ALSO DON'T FORGET TO KEEP TRACK OF THE SEASONS. you go to draw it and realize u don't even know what time of year it took place. enraging Annndddd.. i also save images of the sprites at every life stage. but i just keep those in the directory they go to automatically. and there's probably a better way to do that lastly, i love southern Lyrestar HC. LaiyhrStarh..

[dukestewart]

I actually have a question, I'm wanting to start a webcomic at some point in the future myself, do you have any recommendations or advice for me?

Okay, I have a million things to say on the subject but to save you a lot of scrolling I’ll cut it down to the main things I wish I knew when starting my webcomic.

Don’t overprepare

It’s easy to fall into the trap of perfecting your art style or developing your character arcs before you actually, like, make the thing. The truth is you get diminishing returns on the pre-production phase, and too much planning will just waste your time. I once wrote an entire script and sketched out 200 pages for a graphic novel version of my webcomic Roundhouse, 90% of which is now redundant or contradictory. Probably took me hundreds of hours. Whoops. Make a basic plot line and some concept pictures by all means, you gotta start with something, but you’ll be much more motivated to make the comic when you’re already making it.

Collect references

This might sound kind of contradictory to my previous advice but bear with me. It’s important to prioritise creation over planning but gathering a compendium of your favourite artworks and writing techniques will save you time in the long run. If I’m ever stuck on how to draw a certain expression for example I know I have a folder full of expertly drawn faces to remind me how nostrils work. Personally I keep separate reference folders for colour, anatomy and character designs. Fantastic cure for artist’s block, swear by it.

Get someone to proofread

You have no idea how important it is to get a second opinion. No one in the history of media has ever been better off without a different pair of eyes to catch a mistake. They’ll see the obvious things you missed, a typo, a pacing issue, a joke that makes no sense… if you’re embarrassed to show it to anyone in your life then get an internet friend to have a look. Hell, I’ll have a look. Send me a message, I’m easy.

Even the most talented creators struggle to be seen

A good comic will always have a better chance of success than a crap one but that’s only a part of the equation. We’re forgetting our two troublesome neighbours, Monsieur Marketing and Lady Luck. It stinks, but we operate in an algorithm-based economy, and getting things out there takes a lot of hard research. I hate the marketing side of things, personally. I’d much rather make a page every week and not care whether it’s seen or not but such is the nature of capitalism that I have to try and monetise my work any way I can. Knowing someone in the business can’t hurt either.

Look, I’ll never be able to condense everything I know about webcomics in a single post so consider this my declaration to give advice to anyone who asks for it. Got a specific question about comics? Message me.

[friday-answers]

HI first of all the last excerpt???? EXCUSE ME THIS WHOLE PLOT IS SO FUNNNN I absolutely love Solus already!!!! Can’t wait to know more about the agency and the sinkholes… Lots of love and thank you again for sharing this beautiful piece of your mind with us 🫶🫶

Secondly I’m here to discuss s3! Spoilers incoming:

What are your thoughts on Imogen and Sahar? I am actually really happy with the whole thing (even if my soft romantic heart is still kind of hoping they end up together haha, I am full of contradictions okay?)

And Tori and Micheal? I literally cried every time they appeared on screen I love them SO much, I was just a little disappointed Tori did´t get to say she’s asexual like she does in the comic… hoping it will be there if there’s a fourth season

And Isaac? My baby was going through it this season, that whole journey was so beautiful and refreshing imo

ALSO Darcy this season!!!! Aaahh I love them so much, as a lesbian who’s only recently started to question my own gender seeing them discover themself like that was so so lovely

I also really loved how Charlie’s relationship to his parents was showed, I thought it was done really well! And Nick starting to realise he needs to figure out who he is without his boyfriend 🥺

Anyway I’ve yapped enough haha, feel free to answer this with as short or long of an answer as you want, and just give general comments on what you thought of the season, I just enjoyed getting to scream about this hehehehe 🥰🤓

omg first of all thank you for the hype 🤭... i'm also very excited about it too... while i have a plan for the most part, i pretty much have no clue about how i'm going to get to each point either so... y'know makes it fun and mysterious for me too!

i love yapping about season 3 i'm HYPED

imogen and sahar, obviously not a surprise. lesbian imogen also i fear we knew from season 1 but having that comphet representation is HUGE!!! i'm really excited about that.

i keep joking that imogen and sahar are finally the situationship representation in heartstopper but it is just not a joke anymore. 'better off as friends' my ass SAHAR U WROTE A SONG ABOUT HER

i fell to my knees every time michael holden appeared on screen. his appearance at the nye party GAGGED. ON THE FLOOR. they were so insane for that it was GORGEOUS.

i was genuinely so confused when tori didn't correct charlie on calling them a straight couple. i think i shouted at the screen for them to stay on the wheel because they weren't done LMAO... BUT BUT it totally means a more fleshed out sprolden sexuality arc which i am HYPED about. their relationship is so important to me im so excited for that representation to be more blatant.

everything with isaac happened so fast i got WHIPLASH him coming out to everyone at the zoo i was sobbing that representation is so important to me and just so so nice to see..... argrhfhf. though i almost just blanked out the whole tao isaac thing omg WHAT HAPPENED TO JAMES THEN??? INSANE. that was insane. glad they got past that one quickly god

no because mullet darcy HELLO kizzy looked amazing... non-binary lesbian representation ALSO huge like. GOD THIS SEASON WAS HUGE

no because episode 4 was DEVASTATING. but it was one of my fave episode of television i've ever watched. nick at the halloween party like. oh my god i feel like i still haven't digested it all yet.... charlie's talk with his parents too since they cut away in the comic me and my friend were SCREAMING through tears to cut away like my GOD. but joe did it beautifully and u could tell he really cared :,]

i also yapped incredibly hard. i could really do this for hours, honestly... i'm just so so excited fr. the way the cast was like this season is HOT its STEAMY its SEXY even though. like i've been a comic reader since about 2019. guys i fucken know we gotta get through volume 4 first SIT DOWWWNNN

so funny honestly imagine going into s3 with just THAT info then being hit with the emotional devastation which was eps 1-5. 6-8 were lit though

ok shutting up now. thank u for letting me yap you are the realest mf ever

thank u for all the love once again!!!!!

[velnna]

This might sound like an odd question but I’m planning on making my own comic at some point and I was wondering if you had any advice? Specifically in making the plot, deciding what each character does and maybe panel/page composition and how to make harmonious colour palettes?

Also one more question but when you were at the beginning of developing Stray Souls did you post little lore/plot snippets and character doodles/info or did you mainly wait until the comic was out?

(Sorry I know this is a lot but I was just wondering sort of what your process is because everything seems so seamless and well-put-together :> )

Ehh first of all the seamless and put-togetherness is an illusion 🫠

A lot of my work is built organically (fancy way of saying I just sorta wing it) and very dependent on what makes me excited at each given point. Generally, I come up with an idea for a character or a plot point and from there start branching out.

Say, I create character A. A needs a story so I create some beats for them, a beginning-middle-end type thing. While thinking of this, characters B, C, etc pop up as placeholders/devices for A's story, and the world gets shaped around it as well. Then suddenly something in the world gets decided that in turn changes A's story a little, and so on. Then I go into B, C, etc and do the same thing (build a story, let it bleed into the world and let the world bleed into it).

There's pros and cons to this sort of thing of course. Most of the time I over-develop characters or world bits that are completely unnecessary and clutter the narrative (especially when it's something like a comic, where things need to be explained visually and economically), and because of this sort of chaotic process I also tend to get entangled in my own concepts and lose track of my main threads. I don't dislike it entirely so it's just a matter of figuring out what works best for your own goals and processes.

Some general advice for comics that I've learned from trial and error: try stripping your story down to its bare bones and see what you absolutely need VS what's there for flavour or added context. Only add flavour once you're sure you can tackle the minimum, both in writing and artwise. Keep your character designs simple if you value your hands lol. It's fun to design complicated details but you WILL get tired of drawing them after a while. Sometimes it's ok to tell and not show 🤷‍♂️ if you're a one-man team sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet. Bear in mind that long stories will take YEARS to complete in comic format. Not an end all be all, but you do need to think about that. Also just go for it once you've got a structure you feel good about. I personally don't like over planning and don't even script things, so I don't think you need to have everything on paper before getting some chapters rolling. Most of what I've learned about comics has been making them, not thinking about making them. Oh, and readers tend to be more lenient than we give them credit for - if you're passionate enough about your world or characters, chances are at least some people will be interested regardless of whether you think art or writing are up to par

As for the other question, I spoiled the shit out of stray souls before launching it and still kinda do it for fun LMAO. Nothing too serious ofc but I've always loved giving people an insight into characters and world outside of the comic since the comic itself is a little peek into the whole thing. It also kinda serves to keep people interested imo

And I just can't keep my mouth shut about my stories lol