Tue’s day: I just realized I forgot to do the “alarm” color overlays as I did last time. Eh.
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page 34 of Aw Beans: A Beet Street High Seas Adventure Starring Lorna Doone and Dinty Moore
This one features some of the worst inking I’ve ever done. I’m really not getting any better at it. However, I am getting very good at wasting time/ink adding needless black shadow-lines that I have to remove after I scan the deal because it makes everything look burnt once it is converted from gray to black-and-white and actual color gradations are added. Whoopth.
The dimensions of that room and its relationship with the hallway continue to change. I grow weary of its rebellious ways and will tolerate them not much longer.
My scanner needs to be fixed/replaced, but this sort of thing hardly seems worth the trouble.
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A muckraker sez:
Finally, the long-awaited return of Top Hat Snake! Alas, t’would seem that Nipfolm is most strict about their patient dress code indeed. Such is life.
For some reason, this page seems rather a bit shorter than the others. Perhaps this is merely the effect of the large amount of dialogue in the last few pages contrasting with the relatively scarcity thereof here, combined with the presence of two abnormally large (though action-packed) panels which reduce the total number of their ilk over all. Again, such a thing will probably be completely unnoticeable when one reads the chapter in its proper, completed form. That said, the revelation that the mysterious tentacled neighbor was in fact Ultros is a most shocking twist indeed.
Upon my initial reading, I must confess I found it rather odd that Elpse suddenly appeared outside toward the end. A second examination revealed that Nemitz can indeed be seen to push biv out the window shortly beforehand, though this is easy to overlook, and perhaps could have been made just a bit more obvious, lest it seem a bit of a jarring change to the reader. I also have no idea what’s going on in the last panel, but I assume that this will be immediately clarified by the following page.
Similarly (and you indeed hint at this yourself), considering Nemitz’s relative position to both Inchwelm and the curtain in the pushing panel, and both Nemitz and the curtain’s relative positions to the doorway in the corridor-panic scene, it seems somewhat odd that Inchwelm would grab the hat from the position portrayed. It could sort of work if we imagine biv to be very rapidly crawling along the floor in the previous panel, obscured from view by Ultros, but this seems a rather odd thing to do in the circumstances. In either case, at least some part of the bed Inchwelm was collapsed upon should probably be visible in the background.
Finally, I refuse to believe that anyone is, or ever was, named “Dinty”.
A calabash sez:
NOTE: A muckraker did not post the above. Any apparent evidence that seems to suggest a muckraker did so should be disregarded. That you for your cooperation.
Umpulurgit sez:
rake enthusiast:
In the initial plan phase there was only the doorway, and for whatever reason (possibly “it seemed like it would look good”) I imagined the hand (and only a hand) as coming from the other side of the door, with no regard at all given to what else is or was in the room or the hall space. As usual, I didn’t realize a thing I had already drawn, and thoughtlessly at that, messed with what I wanted to do. That is not a valid excuse, but I am not sure what to do about it. Possibly I would have been better off using the first version and writing “hey look! the hallway moved!” in the comic frame, or ignoring the inconsistency entirely, as would happen and go unnoticed in pretty much every cartoon ever made, but I always think I can fix everything and spend far, far too long not quite succeeding at that. Why compromise when no one is satisfied? The only sensible remedy now is to have Inchwelm blatantly appear in the center of the door, and that looks horrible. Or declare that the room has two doors, but I already have shown that the useless information desk thing is next to the one that is nearest to that bed. Or something. After I resolve the current matters hopefully somebody else can take over.
Ultros was a common character in my 1995 era comic series. As I’ve no doubt on previous occasions drawn more attention to than might be advisable, pog and the thing that would be kumquat were also blatantly gerked out of video games, but they were more easily covered up.
Elpse is surprised. I wanted to have that be clear but not so clear that… I don’t even know what I am or was thinking sometimes. I didn’t want to overdo the emotion in it because I eventually remembered that although it’s been a few years to me, to ELPFE, nemitz had last walked just a day-length-period ago.
inventor of hulu:
I declare that the thing being raked is once again muck.
Caliban sez:
I always find your preliminaries terribly entertaining, as everyone appears to be melting in them. Inchwelm in the second pre-panel looks especially amusing, like a rotting, fallen tomato who is not at all pleased about its situation. I also find it curious how Heatman and the jar of cotton balls seem to receive an inordinate amount of detail compared to the other thing depicted. The fact that the jar of cotton balls is specifically labeled “jar of cotton balls” is especialy interesting, as I did not actually recognize them as such at first, assuming them to be an economy-size jar of aspirin or something. The error is on my part, though, as now that I am aware of what they are supposed to be, I now wonder how I could have possibly come to any other conclusion.
The toitle is missing entirely.
I do remember the shocking Pog exposé, but I was not aware that Kumquat also had its origins in the world of video games. I’m rather curious as to what manner of game could spawn such a bizarre creature (or at least the inspiration therefor)…
Ah. That would be be a logical explanation for the final panel. I found myself concentrating more on the wagging feet and apparent tail balancing, wondering if perhaps Elpse’s appendages were intended to be moving in a strange and/or involuntary manner. A simple addition of a wee word bubble with the contents “Hmm…” or “Ehh…?” or some such would make the surprise angle a bit clearer, though, and not leave the reader poring over the details for some hidden meaning.
piGGbuSTaH sez:
Lettz bust some piggz!
Umpulurgit sez:
I know, when plotting sequences, what most of the things look like and how much space they fill (or merely imagine that I do), and at any rate I will know what they are supposed to be later. A character appearing but one time without relevance or a small detail that I might forget the purpose of needs more specific setting up. All this is often meaningless when I decide to put so many words in a frame as to affect the objects originally intended to occupy the space, which may require me stealing more space from areas which seem like they can spare it but in fact cannot. I COULD just draw stuff smaller sometimes, but I have noticed that I usually don’t.
Kumquat started existence as a white, hornless kirby ripoff I denied was a ripoff at the time when I drew it. You’ve possibly seen that thing around, you just didn’t realize it drank a magic concoction to become kunquatty, and that I later considered it may be better off looking that way full time.
Elpse is trying to walk as well but hasn’t yet realized that has ceased to be effective. It is hard to illustrate this when a creature already walks weirdly.
How do you think the actual pig-busting fellow would respond if he discovered that you were secretly an impoverished, destitute, space shuttle launching tube?
Mamitasuclivy sez:
????????, ? ???-???? ????? Chrome ?? ????? ???-???? ?????????
bimshwel.com – ??????????? ??? ? ???????? )
Umpulurgit sez:
I think I understood some of that.
oxitaexak sez:
Its really something straight from heart…..and this book is the best way to share ur feeling for khushi and to remember her…
Umpulurgit sez:
If you don’t mind, I would like to forget Khushi as soon as I am capable.
Pigbuster sez:
Hoo HUH??? Who is this imposter? Where did he come from? How does he know my deepest secrets? You must understand, he is not me! …and yet we talk the same, walk the same… I suppose to be safe, you must shoot us both.
Moving on…
The emotions expressed by Elpse in both the first and last panels seem a little odd. Looking at the halloween-coloured sketches implies that Elpse is having a hearty guffaw at Inchwelm’s expense, but in the actual comic his expression is one more of pain or of yawning than anything else. His upper lip needs a more upwards inflection, or something. I realized that my suggestions might be more effective were I to apply them myself, so here’s what I did (my changes are at the bottom):
He looks a little creepy, but I think it’s the only time we’ve ever seen Elpse laugh, so that probably works just fine.
In the final panel, I think its confusing because his expression is one of “deep thought”, rather than “Wot’s all this, then?”, the latter being more appropriate for Elpse’s sudden realization of Nemitz’s lack of handicapability. Both of these expressions consist of a contemplative hand to the chin, but “Deep thought” has “angry eyes”, while “sudden realization” has wide-open eyes. Another of my unauthorized modifications of your work follows:
Finally, on the subject of Inchwelm’s outstretched arm. I think the moment would be significantly more effective and/or dramatic if all we saw was his arm. Whether or not it makes sense that inchwelm would crawl over to that side of the doorway and grab Hat like that or whether he would go to the middle of the doorway in full-view instead doesn’t really matter, I think. Inchwelm is the closest thing this comic has had to a traditional antagonist; Kumquat and Treco are both more obnoxious/confusing than anything (though I might just be biased because they’re my favorite characters, but hrmm). I mean, I doubt Inchwelm’s wearing of Hat will make him go supa’ sayan, but I think it’s a rather dramatic moment.
Here I have the original, one with only Inchwelm’s arm, and one with a darkened outline on Inchwelm’s arm to see if it would make it stick out more:
I’m not sure if the thicker lines work, partly because they get too close to the green thing’s pom-pom, so it seems to stick out too much, but hrrmm.
Unt there ve go.
Umpulurgit sez:
I like just the hand better, too, but… oh, fiddlesticks.
Realizing the curtains had to move messed me up and I compensated as best I knew how. The bubble beside the boot was to make less apparent the additional details I added to better work with the amended situation. Note also the switch from a right hand to a left.
With regard to Inchwelm wearing that hat, I suspect you will be disappointed, but I also suspect you are used to disappointment by this [disap]point.
I think the laughing elpse looks creepy because it has teeth, and I haven’t figured out where teeth are supposed to go yet because I almost never draw them because I dislike open mouths. Or the issue might merely be that elpse always looks and is creepy.
Thank you for trying to help, but some things are impervious to improvement!
Pigbuster sez:
It seems your image in your comment right above mine caught a nasty case of the 404s, on my end, at least. It’s much like how the last image in my big post caught a nasty case of “forgetting to change the ‘title’ comment from the image tag I copied”. It is a sad fact that these terrible diseases claim the lives of many young images at the prime of their lives. How unfortunate.
Umpulurgit sez:
That’s curious. Imageshack has never taken such initiative on one of my pictures before. The spot on the image shack page for it is still there, but there’s nothing in it, and clicking it redirects to the shack’s front page. That’s not the sort of security and reliability I have come to expect from shacks.
I considered it possible that you just find bubbles in general scary things to think about. I’m glad that you took the time to use title tags, anyway, and thoughtfully took into consideration that I don’t get proper ALT reception round these parts.