#metalocalypse fancomic

[leshiyy]

Here is the second part of my mtl fancomic!

*after the gig*

The first part is here

[jadajdoodles]

Poor Toki :'((

I got all my pages loosely penciled, I just have to tighten things up, and then I can move to inks! I might add some color digitally! It'll be a lot easier than coloring traditionally.

[ferrethuman]

HELLURRR LADYKLOK NATION. Comic idea where these three play madlibs [where you write random words in the blanks of a story and read it]. Yay!

[chordsykat]

Joy of joys! It's the Where Can I Read the Dethkomic?! Master Post!

Hello and welcome to all the new and returning Metalocalypse fans here on Tumblr. Been quite a pile of excitement in the MTL fandom, lately, and I understand some of you have interest in reading my as-of-now 2 volume, ongoing, action/adventure/drama Metalocalypse fancomic. In order to make it easy on you all (and me, who has been providing links like crazy on an individual basis for more than a hot minute, hehe) I have compiled the following for ease-of reading!

What is Dethkomic? As it (kinda) says on @dethkomic's very own Tumblr page, this is a fancomic, written and drawn by yours truly, unassociated with anything official. As of this writing, there are two "Volumes", each consisting of 4 issues a piece. The story follows Dethklok and their all-girl-lady-centric counterparts, Baen-Shee, as they discover the magic of friendship... as they go on an epic quest to restore the kingdom of... as they deal with the highs and lows of superstardom, relationships, loss, bears, assassins, world domination, literal and emotional transformation, and the prophecy that ties them all together. I made it as a way to pass the time back when the movie was first announced and it continues to keep me entertained as we wait for the Army of the Doomstar's premiere (EDIT: We are no longer waiting and it was brutal!) Hope it does the same for you! Here's where you can read it:

Volume 1 (issues 1-4, complete):

On Tumblr: https://dethkomic.tumblr.com/komic

On AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2479018

Volume 2 (issues 5-8, complete):

On Tumblr: https://dethkomic.tumblr.com/komic2

On AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/series/3355594

And there's also a groovy entry on the whole thing over on the MTL Wiki, if you're interested. That said, hope you like it! Will there be a third Volume? Depending on how the movie goes, and whether or not interest tanks (happy to say I don't see that happening anytime soon - thank you, readers!) there just might be. :) (EDIT: There definitely WILL be a Dethkomic 3 - and here's the trailer: https://dethkomic.com/post/752759703412654080/a-wild-dethkomic-3-trailer-appears)

Happy reading! And remember: Dethkomic loves you!

[possibly-in-mordland]

anyways i would die for sparkles the bassist

[dethkomic]

Dethkomic II - Pg 105

Trouble seeing this? Visit https://archiveofourown.org/works/49502857/chapters/130885984 for full pages.

If you like this kind of stuff, troll my other account @chordsykat

[kinocomix]

untitled project devlog 8: themes, and pain

At first, when I said I wanted to discuss the themes of my project, I thought that maybe there would be some convenient article, book or philosophy deep dive I could reference, which does not seem to be much the case, seeing as how my approach to themes is very personal. so… here’s some thoughts.

In case it’s not abundantly obvious by now, the story features a band and music quite prominently. One of my original elevator pitches for the comic was “think metalocalypse meets bandslam, but with the scope of Ernest et Celestine and the presentation of a black and white Wes Anderson film” which is the vaguest shit ever and I’ll eventually get my head out of my ass long enough to stop worrying about spoiling the story. My point is: the act of being creative is at the forefront of the story. What drives it forward is something I won’t mention in this series, but a lot of ideas emerge when you decide to write something as personal as making art. Things like purpose, belonging, self worth, expression, communication, validation are things that every artist or musician deals with quite regularly and no story about creativity would be complete without them.

The first post ever made to this blog was a webcomic name fancomic that, looking back, isn’t bad but remembering the reason why I made it is what makes me cringe. I wanted attention. When I started making art I expected to be famous in 100 days. literally, I wish I was exaggerating. 

In every artist’s journey with art, they reach the point where they realize that the only things really worth pursuing are the things they’re passionate about. Sometimes this is drawing commissions, other times people do commissions to keep themselves alive. A lot of times, the art people are passionate about barely gets any attention at all. It's a fact that a lot of creatives secretly know that people who get successful doing something they love are very lucky. 

It takes maturity to be happy for people and proud of their hard work as opposed to being an envious child but that doesn’t mean we don’t secretly want success as well. If I could have enough dedicated readers to make my comics for a living but never be famous I’d do that in a heartbeat. Every big shiny thing is destined to accumulate dust, I don’t want to be a big shiny thing, I want to be a reliable hill you can trust to be there year after year. It took me a while to get to the mindset I work with today. 6 years might not feel like a lot when you consider the insane careers some artists had, but as far as people go 6 years is a lot. I graduated, finished a book, worked on 2 short film productions that have both won awards (one of which for my sound design!!), moved house, freelanced, started a stable job, been to therapy, gotten an operation, nearly lost people, been through an explosion, an economic collapse; and I think that’s just the stuff I’m remembering off the top of my head. 

Finding documentation and sources about this kind of stuff is pretty difficult because this is not what gets publicized about media. However, if you pay enough attention some similarities start to appear.

The manga Berserk is pretty famous for its elaborate artwork and story. It doesn’t really need an intro and I’ve been told I need to read it which I plan on, but that’s not the point right now. As you may know, Kentaro Miura, the author and illustrator of the manga passed away in 2021. For fans of the series, while very tragic, this wasn’t all that surprising. The dude doesn’t fill in black. he crosshatches everything. An admirable feat, which makes you thankful that a friend of his, Kouji Mori, decided to finish making the manga after he passed away. 

Many other manga share this. Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue, has been known to frequently go on hiatus. So has Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi. A lot of times, an artist’s undying faith to their work is because of how passionate they are about it, the people involved in making it or even the audience. I forget the exact interview this is from, but Linkin park has gone on record for saying that sometimes they need to consider the audience. you see them always excited to talk about how experimental their music is, which is great, but when you know someone’s on the receiving end of what you’re making, it’s bound to make you think a bit differently. 

This video of George RR Martin and Stephen King chatting kind of outlines the different approaches they have to writing. One of the most iconic quotes is “how do you write so fast?” Spoken by Martin. Now I’m not here to talk about Game of Thrones, trust me I couldn't care less but it does bring up one point worth talking about which is inspiration, discipline and what that has to do about your malleability as an artist.

This is the trailer for H.E.R.A., one of the short movies I worked on as a sound designer and general handyman. It was written and animated by my friend Alaa Fleifel with the help of some wonderful fellow artists and animators for some of the scenes. Alaa and his studio Phat Chik are an example of what I’m talking about.

pictured: Alaa. 

When I talk about being malleable, I don’t mean that in the X-men mystique “I chameleon my way around the world” school of art though that can work in some cases, sure. What I refer to is one’s ability to keep making their art. During the production of H.E.R.A., there were at many points obstacles that would have shot down most movie productions. The sound designer had to prioritize staying alive so he had to unfortunately quit the project midway. Alaa had to juggle a fulltime job, commissions and a rapidly decaying economic system that meant most clients didn’t want to pay well anymore so he had to outsource some of the background art and scenes to friends and animators that he paid out of pocket. The production timeline lasted a year and 8 months, most of that time was spent patching up the team in the background. Working on H.E.R.A. taught me that there is no project in existence that is the result of one human being. Everyone has at least one person to give them advice, someone who goes “hey, I know a guy” and very often that is not just one person. When band line ups change, it’s sometimes treated with an air of disregard.

“oh, it’s just the drummer”

“it’s the rhythm guitarist, their job is pretty easy anyway”

Had Alaa waited around for inspiration or permission to make his film, it would have never happened. Sure, a lot of why we get to watch the absurdist sci-fi acid trip that is H.E.R.A. is due to some luck and connections, but a lot of it is also due to a rejection of the notion that inspiration is what primarily fuels creativity. 

So what does that say about the story? usually I find it helpful to present my themes in the form of questions, so here’s what i’ve been able to come up with:

Who does art/music belong to?

How much of the soul of art and music gets lost in translation? 

How do you balance making stuff for yourself and an audience once you have one?

How much does inspiration really matter?

I need to be honest with you about something. 

I’ve been kind of avoiding talking about the more… personal themes at play here.

it’s not because I don’t know what they are, really. They just come from a place of deep discomfort and humiliation for me. I’ve obviously become a much different human being over the course of my 27 years on the rapidly traveling rock in space but it’s never not weird for me remembering the dumb things I did or said growing up or while I was finding my footing as a writer. There are entire projects and dozens of pages of things that I threw out the window before I felt confident enough in something to be able to share it. there’s a lot of fucking up you do while growing up and not surprisingly, I feel more comfortable seeing my weird feelings in fiction than I do laid out in bullet points in a devlog. So I promise you this:

the people in the story are going to be human. Faults, warts and all. The only thing I ask of you is to know that while those warts are real, they are not mine anymore. Every day that passes, I grow a little bit more, and maybe at some point I’ll grow tall enough that the light trickling through the trees will feel safe enough to fly.

Merry Christmas, and may every year bring a little bit more sun.

Devlog updates on tuesdays. 

[goopycloudeyes]

Just felt like drawing some Metalocalypse for no particular reason 😌✨

[staresdown]

it’s my day off today so if anyone has mtl-related drawing requests!!

[chordsykat]

OMFG. I knew it was coming but that last panel still hit me by surprise. I cannot. XD

Pages 14-15 of Dethmancer Cove First <--Prev

I am.. immensely pleased with this one, just so you know

[leshiyy]

So, here is my first try to create my own comic.. and it's about how I see Toki before Dethklok

(all dialogues are in Norwegian)

CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST

[jadajdoodles]

Stinkin' inkin'

(Is it really angst if you don't scream my poor baby every time you see the big emotional page??) 😢

[rideintoobsession]

Chapter 1: Affliction is now available on Issuu

[chordsykat]

Join me for (what I hope to be) a five-week Dethkomic event! Starting TOMORROW!

Follow @dethkomic or stalk me on AO3, friendos :D

[jadajdoodles]

Really loving these thumbnailed Nathans hehe

[jadajdoodles]

That moment when you and your bandmate open up to each other 🥹💕

(Please ignore my crappy handwriting, lol. I needed to figure out textbubble placement)